Have you heard?
Welcome to OuR KrAzy kItChEn has a new weekly bit on Thursday’s called Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. Well, I say weekly. It kind of depends on how well or crappy I do with this post. If I tank, I might take the whole series down with me. Wow….the pressure!
So my name is Chris and I run a little blog called Nibble Me This that I started this year. I focus mainly on live fire cooking which means smoking, bbq, grilling, fire roasting, fire baking, and yes, even cold smoking. My weapon of choice is the Big Green Egg but don’t fret, most of my dishes can easily be recreated on a grill or even your stove top. This dish is a good example of that.
Chickamauga Chicken
Chickamauga is the name of a
tribe of Native Americans, a creek, a city, and a
Civil War battle that occurred near Chattanooga, TN. I’d love to tell you a fascinating story that explains how this recipe comes from any of those. But to be honest, my son Trevor named this dish in March 2007 when we first made it. He just liked the sound of it and it stuck.
Chickamauga Chicken
Ingredients
4 each Tortillas corn, sliced as described (2 yellow, 2 blue if possible)
3 ounce Ranch dressing
1 ounce Bbq sauce
4 slices lemon
1/4 teaspoon Black pepper ground
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Red pepper ground
1 teaspoon smoked Paprika
1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1/4 teaspoon Onion powder
4 ea Chicken breast halves, boneless, skinless pounded to 1/4 inch thin
1/2 cup Cheese shredded, (do a blend, sharp cheddar, pepper jack, colby, etc)
2 ounce Black olives sliced
2 each Green onion julienne sliced
InstructionsCut a tortilla in half and place halves on top of each other. Then slice into 1/4″ slices sideways into strips (your final pieces should be 1/4″ thick by 2-3″).
Heat vegetable oil over medium high heat in a skillet so that the oil is about 1/4″ deep. Fry the tortilla pieces in batches until all are golden brown. Set aside on a paper towel on a plate. Season each batch with a little salt or some of the chicken rub.
Mix ranch dressing & bbq sauce together to make the ‘Mauga Sauce (Trevor’s name for it) and set aside, preferably in a squirt bottle.
Rub both sides of chicken breasts with a lemon slice and then season with dry spices.
NOTE: Follow EITHER the live fire instructions OR range/oven instructions. If you do BOTH, I promise you won’t be happy with the dish.
Live Fire Instructions: Grill over DIRECT heat for 4-5 minutes per side over a medium hot grill (350f).
Range Top Instructions: Dredge in flour. Saute about 4-5 minutes per side in 1.5 tablespoons of butter and 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil until golden brown. You want the chicken to be cooked through and ready to eat at this point.
Top with cooked tortilla strips, green onion, black olives, and cheese.
Live Fire Instructions: Place back in cooker at 350-400f over INDIRECT heat for 10-15 minutes until breasts hit 160f internal temp.
Oven Instructions: Place under broiler for about a minute until cheese melts.
Drizzle with the ‘Mauga Sauce (bbq sauce/ranch) and serve.
So here’s how it went tonight.
TIP: Get a bunch of squirt bottles from your dollar store. They’re great for stuff like the ‘Mauga sauce and make your sauces look better than just spooning the sauce on.
TIP: Use a raised rack over newspaper to let your tortilla strips drain instead of letting them sit in soggy paper towels on a plate. They’ll be crisper.
TIP: If you’re a little squeamish about touching the raw chicken when applying the rub, use food gloves. They help reduce the squeaminicity of raw chicken.
Here’s one of the advantages of live fire cooking, try to get chicken looking like THIS in a saute pan.
Building the stacks, layer by layer…
Oooey gooey mega goodness.
Topped with ‘mauga sauce and served with Spanish Rice (recipe over at my blog) and avocado slices.
Ahhhh yeah. Someone pass me a Dos Equis.
