Chili's Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers

This is something my son loves to order at Chili's and I haven't made it for a while.  I got the recipe from food.com and it is A-Mazing!!!  It is the perfect combination of sweet and heat in that yummy chipotle sort of way...

Here is what you will need... I took separate pictures of the ingredients for the wet and dry parts of the recipe

For the...

Honey-Chipotle Sauce

2/3 cup of honey

1/4 cup of water

1/4 cup of ketchup

1 tablespoon of white vinegar

2 teaspoons group chipotle chile pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

Batter:

1 egg

1/2 cup of whole milk or heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or garlic salt

3/4 cup flour

Breading:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon black papper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or garlic salt

Chicken tenders

6 cups of vegetable shortening or oil for frying

Don't get overwhelmed by the ingredients, this is very easy.  I just separated the different parts into different pictures.  Okay, let's get started.

Start by heating your oil in the deep fryer to 350 degrees.  If you don't have a deep fryer you can cook them in a deep pan with the oil on the stove top.

Next, we will get the batter together

Crack your egg into a large bowl.

Add 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream (or milk).

Then add 1/2 cup of chicken broth.

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or garlic salt

Whisk for about 30 seconds

Then whisk in 3/4 cup of flour. 

Set aside.

Now for the Breading...

In a large shallow dish that you will use to bread the chicken breast...

Add 1 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon black papper

And then 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt and whisk ingredients together.

When you are ready to fry the chicken, dip each piece of chicken into the wet batter.  

Lift the chicken out of the batter and let the excess drip off.  Place tenderloin in dry breading mixture.

Flip tenderloin over to coat completely.

Now carefully place tenderloin into the 350 degree oil. Repeat these steps with each tenderloin cooking only as many that will fit in your pot having chicken covered with oil.

Cook/Fry for 4 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove chicken from the oil and allow to drain on paper towels.

Now we can make the sauce.

In a sauce pan, pour 2/3 to 1 cup of honey

Add 1/4 cup of water.

1/4 cup of ketchup

1 tablespoon of white vinegar

2 teaspoons ground chipotle chile pepper

Then 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Whisk the ingredients together and and bring to a boil on medium high heat. Once it begins to boil reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes.

Put all of the fried chicken pieces into a large bowl and pour honey chipotle sauce over it.  Toss in the sauce to get it evenly distributed onto all of the pieces.

And Wah-la

Serve with ranch dressing.  Sooooo yummy!!!

The Perfect Steak

This picture does not do this steak justice!!!  I love a steak every now and again but I always have used A-1 sauce to inhance the flavor...that was until I learned how to cook a steak properly from the pioneer woman.  This steak basically melts in your mouth and no steak sauce is needed.
The best part (other than how scrumptious it tastes) is how easy it is to cook, so let's give it a try...

All you will need is:

steak (my favorite is a ribeye)

Lawry's Seasoned Salt

Lemon Pepper

butter/mararine

Yep, that's it :)

I purchased this new cast iron grill recently and this is my 1st time using it.  Previously I have used a George Forman grill which worked out great.  

Here it is.  Now I like a steak grilled on the bbq but this is not the time, it doesn't work with this technique.  I placed it over 2 of the gas burners and turned it on high to get it good and hot.

Next, sprinkle a generous amount of Lawry's on one side.

Then the lemon pepper.

Coat the grill with butter.

Let the butter get a little brown and then turn your burners down to medium heat.  (The blur is from the steam coming from the grill)

Place the steak on the grill like the picture shows.  Cook for about 3 minutes.

Then rotate each steak 90 degrees in order to get the criss cross affect.  Cook for another 2 minutes. The time may vary depending on the thickness of your steak and the temperature of your stove.

Flip them.  I forgot to turn my stove top to medium (it still turned out awesome tho)  Cook for 2-5 minutes

Rotate them once again and cook for another 2 minutes.

I can usually tell if they are done by looking at the side (not top or bottom...the side heehe)

I suggest you let them rest for a couple minutes before you cut into them.  

I like my steak medium to medium rare.  A little pink on the inside.  No steak sauce needed here!!!

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Panera's Frontega Chicken Panini

I don't remember the first time I ate at Panera but I can never forget the Frontega Chicken Panini sandwich they sell.  This was the first thing I tried and the only thing I order because it is so delicious!!!  It is kind of pricey so I've always wanted to figure out how to make it.  This is my 1st attempt and if I do say so, it turned out awesome!!!  The only thing I will try different is a less "bready" bread (umm does that even make sense? lol well it did in my head)  I don't own a panini maker but I am tempted to get one.

Ok let's get started...I will walk you through this step by step.  Sorry if that's annoying :)

Here is what you will need...

skinless boneless chicken breast

mayo

chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

rosemary

basil

tomato

red onion

mozzarella cheese

bread (I used artisan ciabatta)

First we can prepare the spread.

In a small bowl I put 2 dolllops of mayo

Dice some of your basil and add to mayo

Chop some of the fresh rosemary and add to the spread.

Then add about 2 tsp. of adobo sauce from the chipotle peppers.

Add a pinch or so of salt and mix together.  Place in the fridge until needed

We will start cooking the chicken.  

In a skillet pour about 1-2 tbs of olive oil and heat on medium high.

While our skillet gets nice and hot we will use a meat tenderizer (I think that is what this hammer thingy is called :) ) to get a thinner piece of chicken breast to pan sear.  When ever I cook my chicken breast in a pan without cutting it up, I prefer to flatten it so that it cooks more evenly.  When I don't it tends to burn on the outside and remains pink in the middle.

Flattened 

Our pan should be nice and hot by now so we can place our chicken breast in it. 

While it is cooking let's season it with some salt and pepper.  Cook for about 5 min on one side until golden brown.

Flip and cook for another 5 min.  Sprinkle salt and pepper on this side as well.

Now we will put the chicken on a sheet of aluminum foil to finish the cooking process.

Fold one side of the foil as seen in this picture.

Fold the sides and then the top to create a steaming purse (?)  Yeah that's what I'm going to call it :).

Let it sit and continue to cook in the foil purse for about 20 more minutes.

While we wait we can cut our red onion into thin slices.

Then slice our tomatoe.

Since I don't have a panini maker I am going to toast my bread in the toaster oven.

After the chicken has sat in the foil purse we can pull it apart.  This way of cooking it makes it sooo moist and juicy!!!  Now we can assemble the sanwich...

Spread some of the spread onto each side of the bread.

Add some of the chicken on one side.

Place onions on the other side.

Place tomatoe slices over the onions.

Sprinkle a generous amount of cheese over the chicken.

Place basil leaves over the tomatoes.

This is a new cast iron pan I purchased.  I attempted to create a panini affect with it with no luck.  I'm thinking about getting a panini maker.  

It is still scrumptious though soooooo it's all good :)

Enjoy!!!