chicken chimichangas
When my roommate phil said he was going to be making mexican food this week I felt I needed to make something to go with it. The last two times our house had people over for food, I felt like I wasn’t pulling my weight. My friend lisa suggested I make chimichangas, and at first I thought it would be too much work to deep fry some burritos, but I remembered a few weeks ago I made fried chicken, and then it didn’t seem so difficult. I found this recipe on cooks.com, filled in a few blanks and made a few modifications, and here’s what I did:
1 large potato (peeled, boiled until barely done, diced. set aside for later)
2 pieces of bacon
(cook bacon slowly in cast iron skillet, eat or discard when done)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1 serrano chili, 2 jalapeno chilies (seeded and diced)
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon of table salt)
(cook on medium low in bacon grease until onions are soft)
1 lb chicken thigh meat (cut into 3/4″ cubes, removing fatty bits)
(add to vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally until chicken is no longer pink)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chopped green chilies
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp chili powder
(stir all of this into the skillet. bring up to a simmer, fold in potatoes, cook down any excess liquid)
2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
(fold in cilantro, remove from heat)
medium flour tortillas
shortening
To make chimichangas: In my electric skillet I melted enough shortening to come up about 1/4-1/2″ in the pan. I set it for 350 degrees. any higher than that and Alton Brown says the shortening starts to break down and fill your house with a greasy smell. I heated up flour tortillas by wrapping them in foil and putting them in the oven, until they’re just soft.
Put a bit of the meat mixture into the tortilla, it was always less than I thought. I folded the sides in and rolled it up. then I carefully laid it in the hot shortening, with the seam side down. I let it fry until I could see the bottom edges nice and golden brown. then I turned it until all sides were brown and golden. I set them on a cooling rack while I made more. to rewarm them, I put the cooling rack in the oven.
These went great with beans and rice that Pat and Ana brought over, and the amazing verde soup that phil made, or the cauliflour with guacamole topping. But, if you don’t have all of that spectacular food, you may want to try just salsa or sour cream or guacamole. I’ll try to post pictures soon.
I’m excited to make them again. I’ve got a ton of filling left.