I should mention by "bread crumbs" I mean a variety of options. The most common is simple "pan molido," which is ground up white bread toast. But there are others, like ground corn flakes, ground bran flakes and even, my favorite, ground wheat bran.
While I came up with this recipe by myself, I don't claim it as my own. Why not? because I'm trying to replicate and adapt someone else's recipe, someone I know and whom I miss very much.
This recipe is a bit more complex than my usual preparations. You have to cook the milanesas, make the salsa, then combine them and bake the result. But it's worth it.
Chipote chilies come either dried or canned. The canned version is "en adobo," meaning it's pickled in a thick, red juice. BTW there's no such thing as a fresh or natural chipotle. Chipotles are actually smoked jalapeños
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| Fresh out of the oven! |
Ingredients:
4 Boneless flattened chicken breasts
2 Egg whites
About 2 Cups of bread crumbs (see above for details)
2.5 Teaspoons vegetable oil of your choice, preferably one without much flavor like canola or soy.
3 Red tomatoes
3-5 chipotle chilies and some juice from the can (if you're using smoked chipotles, take note they'll be much bigger)
1/2 onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic, quartered
Cilantro to taste (about 3-5 branches, stems and all)
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 Teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon oregano (optional)
1/4 cup water.
40 gr. grated white cheese suitable for melting
2 Tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream (optional)
To make the milanesas:
Take a large, preferably rectangular, serving plate and cover with bread crumbs. Put the egg whites in a bowl. Soak the chicken breasts individually in the egg whites and put it on the bread crumbs, turning it over to cover both sides. If needed, pour additional bread crumbs on top.
In a skillet or frying pan pour one (1) teaspoon of oil, and put it on high heat. When it's hot, cook the chicken breasts. Due to the size, you may have to cook them one by one. You should cook each until you see the top under the crumbs turning white, then flip it over to brown the other side. After cooking two, add another teaspoon of oil if needed, and cook the other two.
Put them on a paper kitchen towel over a large serving plate so the excess oil will be absorbed. In regular cooking, milanesas are nearly deep fried. But this is a low-fat cooking blog, after all. You can press them with paper towels, too, to drain more oil. The cut them into bite-sized pieces or strips.
To make the salsa:
Peel and seed the tomatoes and toss them in the blender with the onion, garlic, cilantro, cumin, oregano, vinegar water and chipotles. Liquefy the mixture. as always, this is the time to taste and adjust for spiciness.
Get one onion slice, tending toward thick, and saute it with 1/2 a teaspoon of oil in a saucepan until it's as flexible as cooked spaghetti, or you can do it on the skillet where you made the milanesas. Quarter the bigger rings and leave the smaller ones whole. Either way, pour the salsa from the blender in saucepan. Turn the heat on to low and let the salsa come to a slow boil. Once it boils, let it simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
Now, in an oven-safe baking dish lay out a layer of mialnesas in bits and cover them with a layer of salsa. then sprinkle a little cheese and sour cream. Add a second layer of milanesas and, you guessed it, top it off with more salsa. Again sprinkle cheese and sour cream on top.
Put the dish in an oven preheated to 330 F for 30 minutes. All the cheese should melt. Let it cool and serve.
I suggest serving it along with Mexican rice, or any other sort of subtly-flavored rice you like.
Enjoy
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