Food Matters Project #16: Chicken in Green Salsa

Another wonderful dinner idea from the Food Matters Project!  We had a busy weekend and didn’t get a chance to make this until tonight, so it was a little improvisation of what we had in the fridge.

This weeks recipe was chosen by Sarah of Food and Frederick.  We’ve been following each other on Twitter (@foodandfred), I think there is a bit of a bond since Frederick, MD is not too far from Washington D.C.  I enjoy seeing Sarah’s pictures, and stories about travel, food and running!  Sarah chose the Mexican-style fruit salad with grilled or broiled fish from Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook.  To check out what everyone else from The Food Matters Project did, look here and find the link that looks delicious!

How did the fruit salad with grilled fish turn into a chicken with green salsa?  We didn’t have fish, but I did buy chicken breasts from the Penn Quarter Farmer’s Market this past week.  Evensong Farm has been selling eggs at the farmers market, and recently started having chicken- so I bought a couple of breasts to try.  We didn’t have any fruit to make a salsa, but we did have some green veggies that could make a salsa.  With a little inspiration from Pinterest (check out Fifth Floor Kitchen’s page), we figured out dinner!

Chicken in Green Salsa
Inspired by: Sunset

We ate this dish with roasted potatoes (with salt, pepper and olive oil), but you can also do this over rice.  This wasn’t very spicy, but you can always take out the seeds from the jalapeños, or just omit them (a green bell pepper would give it extra flavor). 

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion, roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
4 tomatillos, quartered (skins taken off)
2 poblano chiles, roughly chopped
1 cup cilantro leaves
2 jalapeños, halved (optional- or can take out seeds before adding)
1 tbsp cream cheese
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 large chicken breasts

Melt butter in a saucepan.  Once it’s melted, add the onion.  Sauté on lower heat until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes.  Then add the garlic and leave over the heat for another 3 minutes.

Add everything into a food processor (or blender): the onion-garlic mixture, tomatillos, poblano chiles, cilantro, jalapeños, cream cheese, chicken broth, salt and pepper.  Process all of the ingredients until they are pureed.

In a baking dish, place the chicken breasts, and then cover them with the pureed salsa.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.  When the oven is heated, bake the chicken for about 45 minutes.  Check to make sure to chicken has cooked through before serving.

St. Patty’s Day Vegetable Pastries

Happy St. Patty’s Day everyone!  I hope all of you will be indulging in some green beer, corned beef and cabbage or yummy Guinness cupcakes!

This is an exciting weekend for us, we have friends visiting- so it’ll be a full house.  Also, a group of us are running the Rock ‘n Roll USA Half Marathon!  The weather couldn’t be any better for this race.  It’s unbelievable how warm it is, especially since it’s only March.

If you still need a recipe for a fun Irish dish, these pastries are delicious- especially for all of your vegetarian friends.  Today, locals in Ireland tend to gather in pubs for a pint (or two) and some simple home-cooked food.

St. Patty’s Day Vegetable Pastries
Adapted from: Vegetarian Times (March 2011)

I came across this recipe in last year’s magazine.  Although I didn’t make them then, I tried out this recipe this year.  You could change it up and add meat (ground beef or turkey) to these, swapping for the rutabaga or just making more dough since there will be more filling.  They are great appetizers, or just a side treat with a bowl of soup.  This made about 15 pastries, but it depends on how thick your dough will be.

 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
8 tbsp cold butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion (or 1/2 big one), chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 rutabaga, peeled & chopped
4 small potatoes, peeled & chopped
2 carrots, peeled & chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1 egg
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

In a stand mixer, mix together flour and salt.  Then add in butter, 1 tbsp at a time.  Meanwhile, stir in the ice water.  Keep mixing until the mixture holds together.  Shape the dough into a ball or disk, and wrap it in parchment paper or plastic wrap.  Chill for 1 hour in the fridge.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Stir in onion, celery and garlic, cook for about 5 minutes.  Then add in the rutabaga, potato, carrots and thyme.  Cook the ingredients for another 10-15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.  Once they are cooked, pour the mixture into a food processor.  Process the veggies so they are smaller pieces, but not until they are pureed.  I held it down for about 3 seconds.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and mustard.  Then, add the mustard dressing, Gruyere cheese, salt and pepper to the vegetable mixture.  Stir all of the ingredients until the cheese has melted.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.  Coat the baking sheet with cooking spray.

Take a portion of the dough and roll it out on a flour surface (also remember to flour the rolling pin).  The dough should be between 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick.  Cut out 5-inch disks from the dough.  I had used a bowl, but you can use a pastry cutter or anything else you have on hand.  Continue to cut out the pastries until you are done with the dough.  Remember that you can use the remaining dough to add it to the bigger piece, so all of it used.

Place about 1-2 tbsp of filling onto one side of each dough.  Fold the other half of the dough to make a moon shape.  Press the edges of the dough together, you can crimp the edges with a fork.  Repeat with the remaining circles and filling.

Bake the pastries for about 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.  I did flip them over about halfway through, so both sides would have similar color.