One of my colleagues recently told me about something he was watching someone next to him eat at one of his go to Mexican restaurants. As you may be aware, my go to at any Mexican restaurant is tacos or a torta, hands down. But what he was describing was intriguing to say the least. Chicken smothered in cheese and loaded with thinly sliced onions and poblano peppers. What was I supposed to do when I could not shake that thought off my mind? You got it, I went to this place (Casa de Alberto), ordered this dish and was so blown away that I had to recreate it, and I nailed it. This dish is not only way too easy to make, but my wife actually sent me a text as she has been eating the leftovers, that it is one of her new favorites. It’s not only about the cheese, or simplicity, but the combination of all of the ingredients.
5 medium sized poblano peppers, seeds removed, thinly sliced
3 cups Chihuahua cheese
2 whole yellow onions, thinly sliced
Mexican rice, cooked
1 can refried beans, cooked
corn tortillas, warmed, optional
2 tbsp canola oil
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Heating a large skillet on medium to high heat. Add in one tablespoon of the canola oil and swirl that around. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook for a few minutes on each side.
To another skillet, add the remaining canola oil on medium heat. Add in the onions and poblano peppers and cook just until slightly tender. You still want a bit of a crunch to them. Remove from the heat and top them to the top of the chicken.
Add the cheese, covering the chicken and peppers and place into the oven.
Chicken Poblano Ingredients
Cook for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted.
Remove the skillet from the oven (make sure you have your oven mitt), and get ready to plate.
Using a spatula or large spoon, dig out some chicken, peppers and onions, and serve with the cooked refried beans, rice, and tortillas.
This dish is a stunner. That cheese alone will rock your world, but all together, this is one fantastic dish. Hope you enjoy!
It has been awhile since we have had beef, so I figured since the weather has finally been improving that I would fire up the grill, splurge on some steaks and get to town. This time instead of just salt and peppering the steak, I decided to go with a Thai steak. It was a great decision on my part. This marinade would be fantastic with any protein, but it goes really well with beef.
If you want to use leftovers, try making my Thai steak McMuffin sandwich, that is if you have any leftovers (I’m surprised I did).
Grilled Thai Steak
Ingredients:
2-3 New York strip steaks, or t-bone steaks
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp dark sesame oil
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tbsp sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced or roughly chopped
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 pinch of salt, to taste
1 shallot, minced
Combine all of the ingredients, excluding the meat, in a large bowl.
Grilled Thai Steak
Add in the steak, mixing to coat all of the beef. Let this marinate for 1-4 hours. When you are ready to cook, heat up your grill and grill to your liking. We go medium for the most part on the steaks. Serve with rice and vegetables. Enjoy!
The weather was so nice this past weekend in the Milwaukee area. When I say nice, let’s just say it around 60 degrees. You don’t know what that did to us. It lifted us up, we opened windows, we were smiling, and I could probably keep going on and on. It’s funny what a change in weather can do for you to lift the spirits. With that said, my first instinct, instead of going (or making) a Friday night fish fry was to fire up the grill, and with beef being on sale, I decided to splurge and buy some steaks for the family. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it, and that was to make some Thai beef.
I was surprised to say the least that we had leftover beef after dinner, but that actually drew some excitement within me because I knew that was going nowhere to waste. So the following morning I figured I would make a Thai steak mcmuffin. I know that mcmuffin is trademarked and all, but anything I put on a n English muffin becomes a ‘mc’ something!
Thai Steak McMuffin Recipe
You can make this easy breakfast sandwich without going Thai style, and that recipe will be coming shortly, but the combination of tender steak with creamy eggs and cheese really makes a great weekend morning.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
2 whole eggs, beaten until frothy
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
steak, cooked medium, thinly sliced
1 slice cheddar cheese
English muffin, sliced and toasted
1 tbsp unsalted butter
Start by heating a skillet on medium-low heat. Add the butter and let it come to a bubble. Swirl that butter around. Season your eggs with salt, pepper, and water. Mix that up.
Add the sliced steak to warm it up (or warm it through via a microwave). Remove the steak from the skillet and set it aside.
Add the eggs to the skillet, and using a spatula, move it around. Swirling if you will.
Thai Steak McMuffin Ingredients
Once the eggs are nice and fluffy, add the steak back into the skillet and top it with a slice of cheddar cheese.
Toast your English muffin, and once toasted, slide the egg, steak and cheese onto the base of the English muffin. Top with the remaining muffin, push down a bit (get excited) and dig in.
The result is a great, and subtle punch of the Thai steak along with the creaminess of the egg and cheese as well as the crunch from that toasted muffin. I could probably eat one of these every day (or week), and is something that should be made by all of you. Yes, it’s that good. Enjoy, and have an amazing week!
Hands down one of my favorite soups is probably Khao Poon. It is a Norther Thai or Lao soup that is not only super easy to make, but it makes a bunch and screams comfort. It is not a spicy soup, however you can make this as spicy as you want, not only with the broth, but accompanying it with Thai chili peppers. I wanted to make this one for my wife this past weekend because it reminded me when I was laid up with cancer over the summer and my friend Matt stopped by with a batch of Khao Poon that his wife had made. Not only talk about a great friend, but a really comforting bowl of soup during a not so comforting time.
Now my wife is hooked on this awesome soup as well. It’s an easy sell, trust me.
Khao Poon Recipe
The cool thing about making this batch is when I was shopping for some ingredients at a local grocery store, is the owner had asked me what I was cooking. I said ‘Khao Poon’, and he was a bit startled and said ‘You know how to make that?’. He asked me about what ingredients I was using and suggested a couple of different things, one being banana blossom. I was intrigued to say the least as it is something I have never used before. So while walking out of the Asian grocery store, I was on my way to making a great batch of Khao Poon.
1 cup of banana blossom, very thinly sliced, optional
4 tbsp fish sauce
3 cups bamboo shoots, roughly chopped
1 whole lime
Thai chilies, optional
Shredded green cabbage
1 cup bean sprouts, per serving
1 bunch fresh cilantro
Khao Poon rice noodles, cooked al dente
Start by adding your chicken to a stock pot and cover entirely with cold water. Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium. Skim off any scum that floats to the top and discard. Continue cooking for about 45 minutes. This will not only be the chicken that we let cool, shred, and pound a bit, but what is left will be the stock that we use for our soup. Win, win.
Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the stock, and let it completely cool. Once cooled, remove and discard the skin, and then start shredding the chicken. Once the chicken is shredded, take about half of it and add it to your mortar. Take your pestle and begin pounding the chicken. A few good moments of pounding is all you should need.
Ok, now onto the next step.
Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add in the oil and let it come to temperature. Next toss in the shallots, garlic, and thinly sliced galangal. Let this cook for a minute or so, then add in both of the curry pastes. Give this a good stir, and don’t be alarmed if this stuff starts popping at you.
Cook the paste, stirring along the way, for about 2-3 minutes, then add in all of the chicken. Give this another good stir, incorporating all of the paste into the chicken. Next add in the coconut milk. Give another good stir, and then pour all of this into the chicken stock. Stir well, bring the stock back onto medium heat, and let it come to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat by half, and then add in the banana blossom, bamboo shoots, and fish sauce. Give another good stir and cook for about 45 minutes.
Khao Poon Ingredients
During this time, make your noodles. Cook them for about 8 minutes, then strain them and rinse them in cold water. Once the water is strained, and the noodles are cooled, take a handful and wind them up into bundles. Repeat until all noodles are in nice bundles.
Have your cabbage, limes, chilies, and herbs ready. Raise the heat on the soup and bring back to a boil. Take a couple of bundles of noodles, or just one, and place in the bottom of a large soup bowl.
Add some bean sprouts, and cabbage, and give a good squeeze of lime. Ladle in a generous amount of khao poon, and top with come bird eye chili. Get your spoon and chop sticks ready! Face down, grab some noodles, slurp, and repeat. It’s all about texture (and flavor) in this bite. You get the crunch of the cabbage and sprouts, the tenderness of the chicken, and my gosh that coconut curry flavor! If you are looking for a flavor bomb, and a comforting soup year round, then this is the one. Hope you enjoy!
