Chicken cutlets with chipotle and morita sauce

Sorry for the delay. I've been doing 12-to-14-hour work days for two weeks, and even working some weekends. I've been too tired to post.

But I did cook (I have to eat, don't I?) So here's what I've been up to:

Ingredients:

10-12 Roma tomatoes (these are the oblong type; I prefer round tomatoes, but they are scarce right now)
1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 dried Chipotles
3-4 dried Morita chiles
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 Chicken bouillon cube, lo-fat and low-sodium
9-10 cilantro branches
220 gr. (about two scoops) cottage cheese
3/4 cup non-fat or low-fat milk
3-4 chicken cutlets (these are skinless, boneless chicken breasts pounded flat) about 800 gr.
Black pepper to taste
Shredded cheese to taste
Low-fat sour cream to taste

First peel and seed the tomatoes. Make sure to place the removed seeds in a colander over a bowl to catch the substantial juice they hold. You'll need it later in the recipe. Next chop the tomatoes into large pieces.

Preheat oven to 200 C (about 390-400 F)

In a big, deep saucepan, heat the oil, then saute the garlic and onion for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and reduce heat to medium. Add black pepper if you want to. As the tomatoes cook, they'll release some juices. Keep cooking, stirring on occasion, until the tomatoes are soft and they easily break apart. Add the juice you reserved from the seeds. Reduce heat to minimum and keep cooking, again with occasional stirring, until the whole thing bubbles and boils.

While all this goes on, you need to prepare the chiles. First set water to boil in a small pot, then add the dried chiles. Let them boil for five minutes or so. You want them to soften and hydrate them. Some won't soften much, others will soften too much. Either way is ok. Next cut off the tails and discard them. Sit the chiles length-wise and open them, then remove all the seeds (lots of seeds to remove in this recipe, I know). Cut or shred the chiles into smaller pieces.

Now let the  tomato mix cool down a bit, then place it in a blender along with the cottage cheese, milk, cilantro, cumin, bouillon cube and chiles. Liquefy well. If you need to do it in batches, make sure you put a bit of everything in each batch. The result should be thick and creamy.

Batches or not, you may want to add the chiles in parts, lest the sauce wind up too hot. If it does, add a little tomato sauce and a bit more cottage cheese (this is a guess).

Ok, next pour some sauce on a baking dish and add half the chicken. Sprinkle some cheese, if you want, pour in more sauce, then the rest of the chicken, then the rest of the sauce. Top with some shredded cheese and low-fat sour cream.

Now place the baking dish in the oven, preheated to 200 C or 390-400 F, for about an hour or until the chicken is cooked through. You may want to check after 40 minutes or so. Serve with plain white rice, if you like mixing it in with the chicken, or with Mexican Rice.

I found the sauce delicious, and there was some left when I was done eating the chicken alter in the week. I saved it to use in omelets. It could also be used to make huevos rancheros (hm, I should try that next week!)

A little side note. Chiles are a bit complicated, especially in Mexico. There are many varieties, and some processed varieties have different names. So for example a Chipotle is a smoke-dried big Jalapeño variety, while the Morita is a dried "sweet" Jalapeño variety. Really. So don't try to find "natural" Chipotles or Moritas. they don't exist!

Chicken Milanesas with Chipotle Sauce

A little explanation is in order. A milanesa, before cooking, is any kind of meat steak that has been pounded flat. But cooked, it refers mostly to a thin veal steak covered in bread crumbs and fried in oil. In Spanish this kind of preparation is called "empanizado," which roughly translates as "breaded," if that's even a word. Anyway, a milanesa can also be made with flattened chicken breast, which is what I did.

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

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

Textured Soy Chili

Here's my take on vegetarian chili, or as I call it, chile sin carne.

And yes, it's another textured soy recipe. I've a few of them. Textured soy is low-fat and a good source of protein, but lacks flavor. So I tend to drown it in sauces, or mix it with ground beef.

Textured soy needs to be hydrated. So soak about 1/3 of the weight you want in water for a few minutes, then drain it. after you drain it, you need to squeeze it to remove excess water. And then it's ready to be used.


Ingredients:

300 Gr. prepared textured soy
1/2 Onion, chopped
2 Cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Cilantro twig, with stem, chopped
1 Teaspoon powdered turmeric
1/2 Teaspoon cumin
1 Tablespoon oregano
1/2 Teaspoon fine herbs
840 Gr. Tomato puree
2 Chicken bullion cubes (low fat, low sodium)
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 Chipotle chilies, chopped
1 Carrot in cubes
1 Cup snow peas
2 Cans baked beans (560 gr. each)
1 Teaspoon olive oil

In a large pot heat the olive oil. Saute the onion and garlic until the onion turns translucent, then add the cilantro and saute for another minute. Add the textured soy, carrot and snow peas and stir fry until the vegetable soften a little.

Reduce heat to minimum and add the tomato puree, the spices, canned beans, Worcestershire sauce, chipotles and chicken bullion cubes. Stir well, making sure the bullion cubes dissolve (if you can, crumble them first so they'll dissolve easier). Bring to a slow boil, stirring occasionally. When it boils, let it simmer for a few minutes, then let it cool and serve.

This dish goes very well with unflavored boiled rice.

Textured Soy in Chipotle Sauce

Time for something a little off-beat (do you suppose "off-beat" might be a shortened version of "Off the beaten path"? Not that it matters).

Soy is a good source of protein and has about zero fat content. This gets it touted as a meat substitute. As far as nutrition goes, this may be so. But as far as texture and taste goes, it mostly doesn't work. Here and there you find pre-made dishes using soy which claim to taste just like beef or chicken, but all too often they're loaded with beef or chicken fat (a great deal of beef's flavor comes from fat, after all).

Just the same, I thought it was a reasonable ingredient to try in my diet. It took some doing, but I found ways to make it rather tasty. The problem lies in the fact that textured soy is almost devoid of flavor. The remedy lies in the fact that it absorbs flavors of things it's mixed with.

Please let me know if you try this recipe and like it, as I have a few other all-textured soy recipes, as well as some consisting of textured soy mixed with ground beef.

To begin with, textured soy (or textured soy protein, as it's often called) requires some preparation. First you need to hydrate it by soaking it in water for a few minutes. Then you drain it, and finally you squeeze the excess water out of it. You're left with a spongy stuff that looks and feel a little like cooked ground beef (but it doesn't taste like ground beef).

How to squeeze it best is a matter of some contention. I drain it into a large colander and squeeze it by hand. Some people put it in a clean rag and squeeze that. I suggest you look up the means online and choose whichever works for you.

However, in all my textured soy recipes, I assume the soy has been hydrated, drained and squeezed beforehand. if you sue it dry, the results will be disastrous.

Well, then.

Ingredients:

300 gr. of prepared textured soy (its about 125-150 gr. dry, give or take)
2 red tomatoes, peeled (you can remove the seeds, too, though I opt to leave them in)
2 cloves of garlic, quartered
1/5 onion, quartered
A handful of cilantro leaves, stems and all, chopped
1 cube chicken bullion cube, low fat and low sodium
1 or 2 whole chipotle chiles in adobo and some of the thick juice from the can (these are common in Mexico, naturally, and I think they are not too hard to come by in the US).
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 bell pepper (whichever color you like), chopped
1 or 2 stalks of celery, sliced.


Peel the tomatoes by whatever means you prefer (I blanch them, which makes the skin just peel off easily), remove the core, quarter them and put the in a blender. Add the onion, garlic, cilantro, chicken bullion cube and chipotles with their juice, along with a  trickle of water. Liquefy in the blender. The mix will be a little chunky, especially if you do not seed the tomatoes. Set it aside.

In a deep saucepan or a pot, heat the olive oil and then saute the bell pepper and celery. If you like, you can add some chopped onion and/or garlic as well.When done to your taste, add the textured soy and cook for about five minutes, stirring constantly so it won't burn.

Reduce the heat and add the sauce you prepared in the blender.Mix very well, and let it come to a slow boil. Then simmer for a few minutes, all uncovered.

Ideally, it should look like this:

Now, I must warn you I use even more chipotles and don't find it very hot. But I was raised on hot, spicy food and snacks. If you can't take hot, spicy food, use a single chipotle, or even half of one. However, be advised chipotles have a subtle, smoky flavor, so the less you use, the less savory the end result will be.

Finally let me leave you with some trivia:

Chipotles don't exist in a "natural" state. They a re actually dried, smoked Jalapeño peppers. The canned variety are coked at a processing plant with some tomato paste and spices to produce the adobo juice you'll see in the can.

Just a little tidbit  picked up working in the food distribution business...

PS this dish goes rather well with Mexican rice. I'll post the recipe for that shortly.