Chicken-Tequila Tailgate Sandwiches & Zucchini Fries
So happy to be back on my blog. And sooo sorry for taking so long to update the blog, but I have been gone, gone rafting down the Great Colorado River in the Grand Canyon with family friends. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Top 3. Top 2? Maybe Top 1... I'm not sure. I have never felt the connection I felt with the surrounding environment I had on that trip ever in my life.
Not only am I struggling to get back into the groove of my normal life (and cities and cars and people and buildings), but I am also having trouble deciding what I want to make. As Riley pointed out to me, during the whole trip our entire day was planned out for us, starting from breakfast, and ending with dinner (including all our day's plans). Which basically left me no room to have any concern, for anything.
Having such amazing food on the rafting trip inspired me to step up my game. Out of a group of 27, only 4 of those people were river guides. They supplied breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 27 people, for 8 days straight. That was a feat in and of itself. Pretty incredible! BUT, what got me the most, on top of that, was that the food was AMAZING. The last night we had steak and mashed potatoes, but my favorite meal was the pork chops, cheddar polenta, salad, and yellow squash.
It was pretty mind blowing to know that they had the room in the boats and the skill to cook for 27 people, and actually have the food be warm and taste good. I always love having friends over for dinner, so I do know how to make dinner for around 8 people. Tonight was one of those nights. I wasn't planning on having such a big dinner tonight, as I had a pretty eventful weekend and am pretty exhausted. One of my friends from college is taking off for the Peace Corps for 2 years, and it has been a bitter sweet celebration of not only her as a person, but this new chapter she is about to embark on in life. I knew I couldn't say no to the dinner party when the friends started rolling in to my apartment.
I'd like to think that's a small testament to my passion for cooking. When I know that I desperately need sleep, but would rather cook, it's pretty obvious to me what is higher on my priorities.
I had seen these Guy Fieri tailgate sandwiches in a recent FoodNetwork magazine, but have never gotten around to making them. I think I was having a cooking lull at the time, so I just put it in the back of my mind. At work today, though, it seemed to pop into my memory, and I decided on them immediately. They were pretty easy to make, and didn't take too much time either. Which makes it a good recipe for night in which you are in a bit of a time crunch- which, in my case, is a bunch of hungry twenty something year old friends with big appetites.
As a side dish, I decided on zucchini fries. I've been eying some zucchini brownies recently that are flour-less for a while now, and kind of absolutely love zucchini, so I decided some baked zucchini fries would be good.
Chicken-Tequila Tailgate Sandwiches
Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup julienned red onion (which is basically sliced lengthwise, thinly. To have a vegetable officially julienned, you need a julienne culinary knife that cuts things into long strips)
1 tablespoons minced jalapeño pepper
1/2 cup julienned roasted red bell pepper
1 rotisserie chicken, skin removed and meat shredded (I just use my hands to do this)
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for topping (if you so choose, which I do not)
4 ounces cream cheese (I accidentally skipped this step, even though I purchased cream cheese today, and used cheddar cheese instead because I had bought the wrong kind of mozzarella (AMATEUR move!) Instead of buying the grated-which is usually available at most grocery stores- I had bought the firm kind instead. BLAST!
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
1 1/4 grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
3 ounces tequila (I got Jose Cuervo and it tasted fine)
1/4 cup diced tomatoes, for topping
6 sourdough rolls, warmed and toasted
Directions:
1. Layer two 15 inch sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil and fold them together around the edges to create one sheet. Repeat to make a second double layered sheet of foil. Bend the edges of one of the sheets up to 2 inches and crimp the corners so it can hold liquid
Place the second double layered foil sheet on top of the ingredients and fold the top and bottom sheets together on all sides. Make sure the package is not leaking, then refrigerate until ready to cook (I skipped this step because I was making dinner right then)
3. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees
4. Place the foil packet in the oven
5. Cook 10 minutes; flip and cook 10 more minutes
6. Slice the bag open and top with the tomatoes, cilantro, and Parmesan
7. Serve on the warmed rolls
Baked Zucchini Fries (that were found on Pinterest) Original recipe here
Ingredients:
2 zucchini
1 egg
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan
A few dashes of olive oil
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Whisk the egg in a small bowl, adding olive oil as you please
3. Combine the Parmesan cheese and the panko bread crumbs in a separate bowl
4. Slice the zucchini up in long, thin slices
(The original recipe calls for flour, and some even call for butter instead of flour and egg, but I omitted the flour and butter, by using a tiny bit of olive oil and the egg solo
5. Dip the zucchini into the egg and drag it in the bread crumb mixture
6. Spread on a long baking sheet, and cook 10 minutes per side
7. Serve hot
There are hyper links on the original recipes in the earlier part of this blog, but I tend to try to write my own recipes down on my own blog page.
I hope you all enjoy these recipes! Just a side note, the Guy Fieri sandwiches can also be made on a grill. If you were cooking for a smaller number of people, it would be way easier to put all the ingredients into the foil pocket and maneuver it around.
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