Recipe Chicken Jalepeno Poppers

[flyinglentris]

This is part two of a three part meal using Chicken and forming a single entry in the CookingBites Recipe Challenge for February 2018.

Ingredients:

Procedure:

This is a lot of fun as it can be messy and if you have a child who is old enough and they can keep their fingers out of their eyes when handling Jalapenos, this is the project. The extra help will be of value.

1) Pan Fry about 3 to 4 Chicken Breast Fritters in Light Oil

2) Shred the Chicken

3) Mix equal amounts of Shredded Chicken and Cream Cheese
4) Mix in Cilantro

5) Repeat these steps for each popper
i) Lay a Jalapeno Pepper on its side and Slit from top to bottom on one side only.
ii) Using a butter knife or spoon, open up at the slit without breaking the pepper
iii) Use a teaspoon to remove the seeds and ribbing.
iv) First insert some shredded Cheddar Cheese
v) Next insert enough chicken/cream cheese mix to fill.
vi) Close up the slit as best you can.

Note: Leave the stems on the peppers. These will aid in handling when batter dipping and when consuming.

6) In a bowl, mix corn flour with just enough water or milk to forma rather thick sludgey batter.
7) Preheat a pot of cooking oil to 475 degrees, enough to submerge each popper placed in it.
8) Dip each stuffed Jalapeno Pepper in the batter and coat
9) Drop the poppers in the heated oil and deep fry till browned.
10) Remove to a drying towel
11) Then move to a plate and serve.

Yum.

 

[Morning Glory]

Great photos! I've only recently discovered the joy of jalapenos (they didn't used to be easily available in the UK). I'm liking this and there is still part 3 to come!

 

[CraigC]

I'll keep that filling in mind for a batch of ABTs.

 

[detroitdad]

These look awesome I have a baked version of stuffed jalapenos that I've made in the past these look a ton better though

 

[flyinglentris]

These look awesome I have a baked version of stuffed jalapenos that I've made in the past these look a ton better though

My only lament about them is that the batter didn't stick as well as I wanted. Maybe I should have added an egg?

The really unusual thing is that the Jalapeno Peppers remained very crisp, even after deep frying. I pictured that they would soften up, but did not. After deep frying, they were crunchy and did not have that Jalapeno sting as much. I'm pretty happy with the results and have 5 left over for snacking in the fridge.

 

[Morning Glory]

y only lament about them is that the batter didn't stick as well as I wanted. Maybe I should have added an egg?

Having never tried to fry battered jalapenos I can't really answer this but I imagine you need a really thick batter... it might possibly help if you dust the jalapenos with flour before dipping in batter.

 

[flyinglentris]

Having never tried to fry battered jalapenos I can't really answer this but I imagine you need a really thick batter... it might possibly help if you dust the jalapenos with flour before dipping in batter.

A Jalapeno's outer skin is very smooth.

 

[Morning Glory]

A Jalapeno's outer skin is very smooth.

Yes - I thought that. What about dipping the in slightly whipped egg white then flour then batter? I'm shooting in the dark here BTW! I will have to get some jalapenos and experiment.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

This is terrific. Pepper stuffed with cheese is a great appetizer. Peppers stuffed with chicken and cheese is a meal!

A Jalapeno's outer skin is very smooth.

Corn flour is grainier than all purpose flour, so it will have a harder time sticking on its own. But, I happen to love corn flour, so here are ways to work around that:

• Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes. The dry ingredients aren't fully incorporated into the wet ingredients right after you mix them, meaning there will be pockets that are dry (and thus likely to make bits of the batter fall off). I usually throw the batter in the refrigerator for half an hour, but 15 minutes is about the minimum.
• Always run whatever you want to fry through AP flour first to dry out the surface. Normally, I'm concerned about a wet item (like fish or chicken) making the batter fall off, but I think that would help here, too.
• Double-batter! I learned after having the most absurdly crunchy shrimp in New Orleans.This means:
  1. Run what you want to fry through flour
  2. Dip it in the batter.
  3. Dip it again in the flour.
  4. Dip it again in the batter.
• Mix the corn flour with AP flour in the batter. You might want to experiment with proportions, but the AP flour will help with cohesion in the batter. But, I'd advise only doing this if all the above steps aren't achieving what you want: you're changing the composition of the batter, which I don't think you want to do.

Here are two additional suggestions that have little or nothing to do with the batter sticking, but are related to frying things:

• Lower your oil temperature (350° - 375°). I don't know if this has an effect on the batter sticking, but 475° is pretty hot, meaning things will cook (and burn) faster. If you had to cook the interior, a lower temp would be a necessity, but here it's more of a suggestion.
• Add baking powder to the batter. This has nothing to do with sticking, but I like the puff that I get from the batter when there's baking powder in it.

If the batter doesn't stick after all this, then...well, I'm at a loss. I will have to get some jalapeno peppers and give this a try myself. I like how you got the awesome fried chicken flavor with the pan fry, but I think I'll dust the chicken in flour first to make it crispier. Thanks for sharing!

 

[flyinglentris]

I'll keep that filling in mind for a batch of ABTs.

ABTs?

 

[flyinglentris]

Corn flour is grainier than all purpose flour, so it will have a harder time sticking on its own. But, I happen to love corn flour, so here are ways to work around that:

Thanks for the input. I'll experiment next time.

 

[CraigC]

ABTs?

Atomic Buffalo Turds. Stuffed japs, wrapped in bacon and smoked. Quite popular as a side for BBQ. I'll be making some to go with my next entry to the chicken challenge.

 

[flyinglentris]

Atomic Buffalo Turds. Stuffed japs, wrapped in bacon and smoked. Quite popular as a side for BBQ. I'll be making some to go with my next entry to the chicken challenge.

Bring 'em on! I like J Poppers, whatever you might want to call them.

 

[ElizabethB]

Jalapeno poppers are a popular snack. I have never fried them. An interesting idea. Our poppers are usually stuffed with cream cheese or a shrimp/cheese mix, wrapped in bacon and grilled or broiled. I am not a "pepper head". I can not tolerate really hot peppers. I do enjoy the flavor of Jalapenos if they are cored. I use Jalapenos almost as often as I use onions and garlic - in small quantities.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I decided to give this recipe a try, using Fresno peppers instead of jalapeño peppers.

For the filling, I used the last of my cilantro buffing up a pesto I made yesterday with the leftover basil from the tomato soup I made. So, I stirred in a chopped Brussels sprout. That's some of the chicken sausage that I used to make the chicken sausage rolls earlier.

I didn't have enough cream cheese, so I used garlic paste. Oh...and there was a bit of sharp cheddar added, too.

I was very interested to see how the batter would work out. I now understand the trouble you had getting this to stick. Masa Harina wants to turn itself into a dough, which it does so well when you’re making corn tortillas.

But, it seems that no matter how much liquid I put in – I used Negra Modelo dark beer – it would never bind together particularly well. So, I followed my own advice. I added AP flour, which helped bind it together. I let it rest for a while before using it. And, I settled on a scheme where I would put each pepper in the flour to dry the surface of the pepper, dip it in the batter, then put it back in the flour to firm up the surface of the batter a little bit. I had to practically sculpt the batter onto the surface, but it worked.

I had to fry one at a time because the "sculpting" process with the batter was time-consuming. But, they looked pretty. As for the taste? These Fresno peppers are every bit of the top end of their potential heat, at 10,000 on the Scoville scale...2-4 times hotter than a jalapeño. But, with ranch dressing as a dip...they're still hot enough to make my scalp sweat, but they're tasty.