Salsa Chicken Shortcakes

I like this dish because it can be prepared and served in less than 30 minutes, plus it's a very different way to serve chicken.  Also, on a warm day, the oven isn't on long enough to heat the kitchen to the point of being unbearable.

I found this recipe years ago in the Pillsbury 38th BAKE-OFF Contest Cookbook at the market.  I don't make these tasty sandwiches often, but when I do, they are gobbled down as quickly as I can get them to the table.  This recipe gets 8's and 9's on the Melnarik rating scale, plus some more 9's from some of my boy's friends.

As you can see, I almost forgot to take a picture of the first step, which is baking the biscuits according to the package directions.  I always buy the Pillsbury Grands! biscuits so they are large enough to make a decent size sandwich.

For the filling, I began by placing the chicken with the garlic in a large skillet in which I had heated some oil over medium heat.  In this case, I used some already cooked chicken breasts, which I cubed.  The recipe calls for raw chicken breasts that are to be cubed and cooked over high heat with the garlic.  I've done it both ways in the past.  The reason I added the previously cooked chicken to the skillet with the garlic is to allow the chicken to heat as the garlic cooks, which will help meld the flavors.

Once the garlic was cooked and the chicken was heated through, I added the cumin and stirred until the chicken was coated.  The heat of the pan helped sear the seasoning to the chicken.

Then, I added the frozen corn (no need to defrost) and the salsa, mixing thoroughly.  I continued to cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the mixture thickened slightly and the corn was heated through.

To assemble, I cut each biscuit in half crosswise.  I put some of the chicken mixture over the bottom halves, topped them with the top half and added a bit more of the chicken mixture.  I cut each slice of Pepper Jack cheese into 4 strips and criss-crossed 2 of them over the top of each sandwich.  The heat of the sandwich melted the cheese a bit over the top.  The easiest way to eat these tasty sandwiches is with a knife and fork.   These are so tasty, it's next to impossible to eat just one!  Enjoy!

Salsa Chicken Shortcakes

1 can (10.8 oz.) Pillsbury Grands Refrigerated Flaky Biscuits

1 tablespoon oil

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound) cut into ¾-inch pieces

1 garlic clove, minced

1 ¾ cups thick and chunky salsa

1 cup frozen corn

1 teaspoon cumin

4 oz. sliced Pepper Jack cheese, cut into 1-inch strips

Heat oven to 350°F.  Prepare and bake biscuits as directed on can.  Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until hot.  Add chicken and garlic; cook and stir 5 to 7 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.  Add salsa, corn, and cumin; mix well.  Reduce heat to medium; cook 10 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly.

To serve, split each warm biscuit.  Place bottom halves on individual serving plates.  Spoon half of chicken mixture over biscuits.  Cover with biscuit tops, remaining chicken mixture; top with cheese.

Nutty Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwiches

I love hosting tea parties for the women in my life and I enjoy trying new recipes to serve at these gatherings.  The most recent one being a fall-themed tea, I thought I'd try this new recipe for a tea sandwich in the shape of an acorn.  These little sandwiches were different from most tea sandwiches in that there is no spread on the bread, plus the the nutty mix added to the top end of the sandwich.  Their uniqueness is what made them special enough to share on my blog!

I cut this recipe out of my September/October 2010 issue of Tea Time magazine and have only recently had the opportunity to make them.  These sandwiches are made using pumpernickel bread, which I've found is not readily available year round.  Because I was unable to find Pumpernickel in August, I had expected to have to order the bread ahead of time, but was surprised to find a couple of loaves in the bakery section of my market.  Also, assembling these little treats is a breeze, but the nutty topping needs to be made ahead, in fact, I started the process the day before.

To begin, the recipe calls for toasted pecans.  There are two ways to do this; one way is in the oven with the nuts spread in one layer on a cookie sheet and the other is in a frying or saucepan over medium heat.  I find with this method I have more control.  I place the nuts in a cool saucepan and turn the heat on medium.  I stir the nuts constantly, so they don't burn.  I also get close to the pan and take a good whiff every 15 seconds or so.  Before the pan heats, the pecans don't give off much aroma, but as they toast, the nutty smell gets stronger.  It's easier to use this method with almonds because you can see as the nuts toast and get browned.  With the pecans, I took them off the heat when they had a toasted and nutty aroma.  It's better to under toast them than have them burn even a little bit as they would have to be thrown away.

When I removed the nuts from the pan, I spread them on a paper towel to let them cool.  Because I wasn't using them right away, once cooled, I stored them in a zip-lock bag.

I cleaned out the remnants of the nuts in the pan and put the butter in to melt.  Because the pan was already hot, the butter began to melt immediately.

I melted the butter over medium heat until it began to brown and had a nutty aroma, which was about 7 minutes.

I removed it from the heat and poured it through a strainer to remove the foam and any solids, which I discarded.

A little foam snuck through, but I just scooped it out of the bowl with a spoon.  The result was a nice amber colored melted butter.  This butter needed to sit at room temperature until set, which would be at least an hour, so I chose to do this the day before.

The day of the tea, after slicing the bread (I didn't realize it hadn't been pre-sliced!) I used an acorn-shaped cookie cutter to get two acorns out of each slice.

Using the same cookie cutter, I cut acorns out of black forest ham and fontina cheese slices, placing the ham down first and topping it with the cheese.  As you can see, there was no spread on the bread before placing the filling on top.  The spread was on top of the sandwiches!

I'm sorry I missed getting a picture of how I made the spread.  I added the toasted pecans to the browned butter and added a little bit of honey, stirring the ingredients together to mix thoroughly.  This mixture was then spread at the top of the sandwich to resemble the acorn cap.  Aren't these little sandwiches cute?  I think so!

As I was reading through the recipe before typing it here, I realized I didn't follow it exactly!  I was wondering why I ended up with so much extra pecan/butter spread and now I know it's because I was supposed to spread the bottom slice of bread with this mixture before topping it with the ham!  I guess I was working so quickly to get everything assembled, I didn't read the recipe correctly.  I will type the recipe as it should have been made and will make it that way the next time!  I imagine it will only be that much better with the nutty spread in each bite!  Enjoy!

Nutty Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwiches

1 recipe Pecan Brown Butter (recipe follows)

12 slices pumpernickel bread, cut into 2 acorn shapes each*

12 slices black forrest ham, cut into acorn shapes*

12 slices deli-sliced fontina cheese, cut into acorn shapes*

Spread approximately 2 teaspoons Pecan Brown Butter onto 1 slice bread.  Layer 1 slice of black forrest ham and 1 slice fontina cheese.  Top with 1 slice bread.  Spread approximately 1 teaspoon Pecan Brown Butter onto top one-third of sandwich (to resemble an acorn cap).  Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 12 sandwiches.  Serve immediately.

* I used a 2 1/2- x 3 1/2-inch acorn-shaped cookie cutter

Pecan Brown Butter

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

1 teaspoons honey

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Continue to cook until butter begins to brown and has a nutty aroma, 6 to 8 minutes.  Remove from heat, and strain, discarding solids.  Let sit at room temperature until set, approximately 1 hour.  Add pecans and honey, stirring to combine.  Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Smoked turkey and Cranberry Cream Sandwiches

I hosted a Fall Tea today and thought this would be a perfect choice for one of the sandwiches, given that Thanksgiving is less than a week away.  

To me, this was like Thanksgiving in a tea sandwich!  It had turkey as part of the filling, the spread contained cranberries, and I put it all together on potato bread!  All of the ladies in attendance said they really enjoyed this new sandwich.

I began by chopping the dried cranberries very finely.

I put that in a small bowl and added half (4 oz.) of a tub of spreadable cream cheese.  I used the spreadable version because I assembled this spread the day before and then stored it in the refrigerator and I wanted it to be easily spread as soon as I removed it from the refrigerator the next day.

It resembles a dip at this point.  It could be used immediately or stored in the refrigerator until ready to use.

One rule with tea sandwiches is that the crusts must always be removed.  Looking at the shape of the bread, I determined that I would get three rectangular sandwiches out of each one and tried to cut off the crusts to keep parallel sides so the final product would be prettier.  I always cut two slices of bread at the same time, so they will match perfectly when assembled into sandwiches.

Once the crusts were removed, I laid out the pieces like I was opening the sandwiches.  Again, this is so they match perfectly when fully assembled.  Using a spatula, I spread each slice of bread with the cranberry and cream cheese mixture.

I then topped each "bottom" half with fresh baby spinach leaves.

The spinach was then topped with smoked turkey.

I then placed the "top" piece of bread on top, spread side down and cut each sandwich into 3 pieces.

I suppose these sandwiches could also be served at a Christmas tea as they look festive with the green spinach leaves and red cranberries in the spread.  Enjoy!

Smoked Turkey and Cranberry Cream Sandwiches

1/4 cup finely chopped dried cranberries

4 oz. spreadable cream cheese

8 slices potato bread

1/4 pound thinly sliced smoked turkey

1 cup baby spinach

In a small bowl, combine dried cranberries and cream cheese.  Remove crusts from bread.  Lay bread on work surface and spread with cranberry mixture.  Top half of the bread slices with baby spinach, then smoked turkey.  Place top piece of bread over turkey, spread side down.  Cut each sandwich into 3 rectangular sandwiches.

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wraps

It's still summer and quite hot outside, so I pulled out another recipe we love from my recipe file labeled sandwiches.  I consider a wrap a sandwich because the filling is enclosed in a tortilla (which is sort of like bread) and it is held while eating it.  For those of you who don't like spicy foods, this is not super spicy.  The heat doesn't come from the salsa, but from the cayenne pepper, so you can adjust the amount you use to suit your taste.

This sweet and spicy wrap gets 8's and 9's on the Melnarik rating scale.  It comes under the healthy food category as it has fresh spinach leaves and cucumber and the chicken is a lean meat.  I found this recipe in a Pillsbury recipe book at the check out stand in the market in 2010.  The recipe indicated that Shreya Sasaki of San Diego, was the author.

The sweet component in this wrap comes from the spread.  In a small bowl, I mixed together mayonnaise, honey and finely diced cucumber.

I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator until I was ready to build the wraps.  It's always a good idea to keep any food items containing mayonnaise in the refrigerator for as long as possible and discard any leftovers that have been at room temperature for a long time.

To prepare the chicken, which is the spicy component, the recipe called for 1.25 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts to be cut into 1/4-inch strips and cooked in a frying pan in olive oil.  The evening I made this, I didn't have much time to put dinner together, so I used the already cooked chicken strips that can be found in most markets, plus Costco.  I still put the chicken in a skillet to heat  and to make sure the seasoning and salsa got cooked into the meat.

Once the chicken was heated through, I added the salsa and cayenne pepper, stirring until everything was completely combined.  I then turned off the heat and let this mixture cool a little while moving on to the next step.

I heated my flour tortillas in the microwave so they wouldn't break when folding the wraps.  I took the spread from the refrigerator and spread about 2 tablespoons of this mixture down the middle of the tortilla.

Using the baby spinach that comes washed and ready to use straight from the bag, I placed a small handful on top of the spread.

On top of the spinach, I placed some of the chicken.

Instead of rolling it, I chose to fold it into an open burrito.  I begin by folding up the bottom.

Then I fold in the left side.

Finally, I fold in the right side and secure it with a toothpick.  I have found that this recipe makes more of the spread than we need for one meal, so I usually make up another batch of the chicken later in the week and we have it again.  I also like to keep some of the spread, chicken and spinach leaves in the refrigerator for a quick wrap that can be put together in no time.  Enjoy!

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wraps

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup finely chopped seeded cucumber

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon olive oil

1.25 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/4-inch thick strips

2/3 cup mild salsa

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)

8 soft taco size flour tortillas

4 cups loosely packed fresh baby spinach leaves (about 4 oz.)

In a small bowl, mix mayonnaise, cucumber and honey.  Cover; refrigerate until needed.  In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until hot.  Add chicken; cook, stirring frequently, 6 to 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center.  Stir in salsa and cayenne pepper.  Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until flavors are blended.  Microwave 4 tortillas at a time on High for 20 to 30 seconds or until warm and pliable.  Spread each tortilla with 1 to 2 tablespoons of the mayonnaise mixture; layer with 1/2 cup loosely packed spinach leaves and 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture.  Fold or roll; serve.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Blueberry Jam

I've been collecting recipes for foods to serve at teas for several years now, and I must say this in one of my all-time favorite sandwiches to serve.  I found the original recipe for Blueberry Chicken Salad in the July/August issue of Tea Time magazine.  When I decided to try the recipe, fresh blueberries were not in season, and therefore unavailable at my local market.  A couple of years prior, my friend, Gina Madden, had made a chicken salad sandwich for a tea at the church and had used a fruit jam on the bread as a spread before adding the chicken salad.  I had loved the flavor of those sandwiches, so I decided to see if I could find a blueberry jam in lieu of the fresh blueberries.  I found one and, because the sandwiches made this way were such a hit, I've never tried making them the way the original recipe was written!

One reason that this chicken salad is so tasty is that both the light and dark meats of a rotisserie chicken are used.  This makes it more moist, and I think, more flavorful.  I frequently buy one of these chickens when I go to Costco and leave it on the counter to cool for about an hour.  I then remove all the meat, breaking it into small pieces, and put it in a freezer bag in the freezer if I'm not using it immediately.  At any given time, I usually have a bag of this chicken in the freezer.  This cuts down on the preparation time when I want to make these sandwiches.

To make a fine texture, I pulse the fresh or thawed chicken meat in my food processor for about 15 seconds and remove it to a large bowl.  The next step is the most tedious.  I wash the grape tomatoes and then cut each one in half across and then cut each half in quarters.  They have to be cut this way so the pieces are not too large in the chicken salad.  I add the tomatoes to the chicken, cut the green onions; add them and toss all the ingredients together to combine.  Then I add the mayonnaise, salt and pepper and mix until well combined.

Tea sandwiches never have crusts, so I stack two slices together to cut off the crusts.  This way they match perfectly when the sandwich is put together.  I then lay the two pieces on a cutting board as if I've just opened the sandwich.  I spread a thin layer of the blueberry jam each slice.  If I'm making these sandwiches ahead of time, first I spread each slice of bread with a very thin layer of butter to keep the blueberry jam from soaking into the bread.  Then I top one side with the chicken salad mixture, spreading to the edges of the bread, and put the other piece of bread on top, jam side down.  For a tea, the sandwich gets cut into four pieces, whether squares or triangles.  If making several types of sandwiches for a tea, I usually mix up the shapes as well as the types of breads I use.

This in one of the most tasty tea sandwiches I make.  Enjoy!

Chicken Salad with Blueberry Jam

1 (2 ½-pound) rotisserie chicken

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved and quartered

1 cup thinly sliced green onions

1 cup mayonnaise

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

Blueberry preserves

1 loaf of sandwich bread

Remove meat from chicken; discard skin and bones.  Place meat in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until coarsely chopped, about 15 seconds.

In large mixing bowl, combine the chopped chicken, tomatoes, and green onion.  Add the mayonnaise, oil, salt, and pepper, and mix until well combined. 

To assemble sandwiches, spread each bread slice (I use 100% whole wheat bread) with a thin layer of blueberry preserves.  Place a generous portion of chicken salad on one side of sandwich, spreading to the edges.  Place the other side on top and cut into desired size and shape.  (The blueberry preserves should be on the “inside” of the sandwich).

For tea sandwiches, I cut off the crusts before assembling and once assembled, cut each sandwich into four triangles.

Pear and Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches

These little sandwiches were such a surprise the first time I tasted them, and they've become one of my all time favorite tea sandwiches.  This recipe was one of my first choices when asked to cater a garden party.  My friend, Joann Roach, who is a member of the Royal Ladies Tea Society to which I belong, said she combined a couple of other recipes to come up with this one.  I'm so pleased she was willing to share it with me.

I've always loved raisin bread, but had never heard of or thought to make a sandwich using fruit, much less pears.  Some people are turned off by the thought of the combination, but once they've tried these tiny sandwiches, they're hooked!

I've altered Joann's recipe a little bit as it called for toasted walnuts and I just don't care for walnuts, so I omit them.  Also, I use the spreadable cream cheese in the tub, so I don't have to wait for it to soften.

There are few ingredients and putting them together is quite simple.   The first step is to cut the crusts off the bread.  I make sure I do this two slices stacked together at a time to make sure they match perfectly so the sandwiches look their best. Then I lay them out on a bread board as if I've "opened" the sandwich.  Then I mix a little bit of cinnamon sugar in with some cream cheese and spread it on each slice of bread.  Next, I peel the pears, cut them in quarters and laying each piece on a long side, remove the core.  Then I thinly slice each quartered pear and place the slices on one of the slices of bread from each sandwich, overlapping them as I go.  I put the other slice on top, cream cheese side down.  Then I cut each sandwich twice, once vertically and once horizontally, to make four small square sandwiches.

I'm pretty sure you've never tasted anything like these bite-size sandwiches, but once you do, you'll want more!  Enjoy!

Pear and Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches

1 pkg. Sun-Maid Raisin Bread (discard ends or save for another use)

1 (8 oz.) tub spreadable cream cheese

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 very ripe yellow Bartlett pears

Remove bread from package, discard ends, and place on a cutting board with 2 slices stacked together. Cut off crusts and separate slices as if you were opening a sandwich.  In a tiny bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon together.  Spread cream cheese mixture on each slice of bread.  Save any extra for another use.  Wash and peel pears; cut into quarters.  Laying each piece on a long side, cut out core.  Cut into thin slices.  Layer one side of each sandwich with pear slices overlapping as you apply them.  Place the other slice of bread from each sandwich on top of the pears, cream cheese side down.  Cut vertically and horizontally to create four tiny sandwich out of each full-size sandwich.