Sunday, January 18, 2009

Southwestern Egg Rolls


I found this recipe on allrecipes.com
and they taste pretty good!!
(I added my two cents in bold)

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half
  • 2 tablespoons minced green onion
  • 2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
  • 1/3 cup frozen corn kernels
  • 1/4 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 2 tablespoons frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
  • 2 tablespoons diced jalapeno peppers (they come in a can too)
  • 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley (I used oregano instead)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/3 teaspoon salt
  • 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
  • 3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
  • 5 (6 inch) flour tortillas (I used egg roll wrappers, and think that these would come out a lot better than the torillas...less soggy, thinner, and more crunchy...they tasted great)
  • 1 quart oil for deep frying

DIRECTIONS

  1. Rub 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over chicken breast. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook chicken approximately 5 minutes per side, until meat is no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove from heat and set aside. (Obviously cut chicken open, if you're unsure...mine took a lot longer than that)
  2. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in green onion and red pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until tender.
  3. Dice chicken and mix into the pan with onion and red pepper. Mix in corn, black beans, spinach, jalapeno peppers, parsley, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until well blended and tender. Remove from heat and stir in Monterey Jack cheese so that it melts.
  4. Wrap tortillas with a clean, lightly moist cloth. Microwave on high approximately 1 minute, or until hot and pliable.
  5. Spoon even amounts of the mixture into each tortilla. Fold ends of tortillas, then roll tightly around mixture. Secure with toothpicks. Arrange in a medium dish, cover with plastic, and place in the freezer. Freeze at least 4 hours.
  6. In a large, deep skillet, heat oil for deep frying to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Deep fry frozen, stuffed tortillas 10 minutes each, or until dark golden brown. Drain on paper towels before serving.
SERVINGS: 5

(If you're using egg roll wrappers, you can forget about Direction #4. And as far as Direction #5, we just spooned the mixture in, folded in the bottom, then sides, put water on the remaining wrapper, and rolled it up. We didn't need toothpicks, as it stuck just fine with water, and we didn't freeze them before frying. (Though, maybe the freezing would help with the reheating. I don't know why they ask you to freeze them beforehand. Anybody know?)

They're pretty big so quadrupling the 5 serving recipe was a bad idea because I can only eat one for a meal. (What was I thinking?!?) If you feel like making the recipe bigger than what the original recipe makes, I wouldn't cook them all in one night. If you decide to make a bunch at once, just store them in the fridge or freezer until you're ready to fry them because they don't taste as good reheated. At least not in the microwave...maybe they will in the oven.
Oh and you have to have them with the sauce! I think it makes the dish. The sauce I used was some chili lime ranch sauce I had from Arby's, but I'm going to find a recipe to make a similar sauce in the next few days, so I'll let you know what I find...
Anybody have a good kinda spicy ranch sauce recipe?