Peruvian-style Chicken

4 Comments October 10, 2025 terrie gura

There are only a few days left of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Recognizing and celebrating cultures other than my own is important to me, especially with the recent happenings in this U.S., and the government trying to wipe out diversity of any kind. I feel helpless in the face of it, but know I can still shine a light on the other cultures. And the best way I know how to do that is to explore and share their cuisine.

At our house, we observe the heritage of Hispanic cultures regularly— not only on months that “officially” mark the occasion— and that usually happens through food, and typically Mexican food. A few of my formative years were spent with my mother in Southern Colorado and New Mexico, so those flavors taste like home to me. But Mexico isn’t the only country with Hispanic culture; there are 21 countries and territories to celebrate, with most of them being in the Americas, some in the Caribbean (such as Cuba and the D.R.) and even an itty bitty country in Africa. What puts them in the “Hispanic” category is that Spanish is the predominant language and their cultures have been significantly influenced by Spain (which is, itself, an Hispanic nation).

Today, my attention is on Peru, for no other reason than I freaking love this chicken! My first-ever experience of Peruvian roast chicken was underwhelming— it was a rotisserie bird from Whole Foods that barely tasted different from a plain one. But when I first had pollo a la brasa for real—fire-roasted chicken with paprika, cumin, vinegar and garlic—I was blown away by the intensely warm and smoky spices and the flavor explosion at the first bite. And it’s not just the spices on the chicken— it’s this insanely good jalapeño-based sauce that I would happily devour with a spoon.

I’ll bet you can smell it through the screen.

We’ve made this a few times at home now— first, with the rotisserie spit accessory on our Napoleon gas grill and later by spatchcocking the bird and grilling it flat— and I have a few thoughts to share for the best success.

Thought #1: Trust Kenji’s recipe!

It didn’t take long to find the recipe I would trust when I decided to make this at home. If you know me at all, you know that Kenji López-Alt has my utmost respect for his culinary approach and techniques. He’s the reason I dry-brine my turkey at Thanksgiving and salt steaks overnight before grilling. If anyone knows the right way to cook Peruvian-style chicken, it’s Kenji. The only deviation I made from Kenji’s recipe on the Serious Eats website is that we used our gas grill (we don’t have a charcoal one, darn it). Literally everything else about my method is the same. For this reason, I’m tagging his recipe below so that I don’t have to type it out myself. Be sure to read through Kenji’s narrative, too, for more tips and expert insight.

The rub includes spices, garlic, oil and white vinegar.
I did this part in the late morning and let the chicken hang out in the fridge all day.

Thought #2: Consider roasting parts rather than a whole chicken

Our rotisserie effort felt authentic and fancy, but the whole, flat-roasted chicken was just as good. Next time we make this recipe, I’ll probably buy packages of the chicken parts we like best— the thighs! It can be tricky to get the thighs and breast of a whole chicken done at the same time, especially on the grill, so why not buy the parts separately and give each the attention they need? Bone-in, skin-on is the way to go for maximum flavor.

The chicken starts on the cool side of the grill, and finishes directly on the heat.
It was on the grill for about an hour.

Thought #3: Make extra green sauce (trust me!)

I don’t know how such simple ingredients can become so delicious. It’s kind of ridiculous how good this sauce is, and the secret ingredient is a product called aji amarillo chile paste. Look for it in a Hispanic specialty market or online if your supermarket doesn’t carry it.

The aji amarillo paste is the star of this sauce show!

Aji amarillo has a uniquely earthy yet tropical, almost sweet flavor, and when combined with jalapeños, cilantro, garlic, lime and mayonnaise— well, it’s almost magical, with an addictive quality that will make you wish you had grilled a second chicken. But don’t worry, you’ll find plenty of other things to dunk into this sauce. It’s that good!

Make the sauce ahead of time, if you wish, so the flavors have plenty of time to meld in the fridge. If you have a charcoal grill, use it! But we had zero complaints with the outcome of our grilled Peruvian chicken. My mouth is watering again just looking at it!

Want to make this incredible dish?

This might be a first, that I followed a recipe to the letter! Get the recipe and complete technique and instructions: https://www.seriouseats.com/peruvian-style-grilled-chicken-with-green-sauce-recipe

Jalapeño Popper Mac & Cheese Bites

15 Comments January 26, 2024 terrie gura

We are fast approaching a foodie trifecta— Super Bowl, Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day will all happen in the same week this year, and I’m in a bit of a tizzy about it. My schedule has been so busy lately that I’m struggling to put up even one post a week, let alone three, and with delicious recipes standing by for all of these occasions, I’m feeling the pressure.

So I’m getting a jump on things with this recipe for mac and cheese bites, which will be every bit as enjoyable for this weekend’s conference championships as it will for the big game on Feb. 11. Heck, you might enjoy them so much, you’ll make them twice!

One of my great joys for Comfort du Jour is twisting favorite foods together, and these little handheld bites might be one of my tastiest mashups ever. My husband and I love the spicy, cheesy bite of jalapeño popper appetizers, and who doesn’t love mac and cheese? This was a no brainer. And though my initial plan was to simply make mac and cheese with the popper flavors, I pivoted to my muffin tin to keep the snack in handheld form. For any game day watch party, the less you have to mess with utensils, the better.

This recipe begins with crisped up bacon, which is reserved for the top. I drained off the excess bacon grease and then tossed panko crumbs into the skillet to soak up the smoky bacon flavor. This would be a topper for my mac and cheese bites, because every game day snack is better with a little crunch.

Of course there’s a lot of fat in these. It’s a game day snack!

The drained-off bacon grease becomes the backdrop of the jalapeño-studded cheese sauce for the mac and cheese. I followed my usual formula for the sauce: first the roux, then milk for the base, followed by American cheese and shredded cheese (I opted for pepper jack). More fresh jalapeños went into the sauce, and then the cooked elbows.

Of course, this would also be delish baked in a casserole.

To capture all the components of poppers, I buried a nugget of cream cheese inside layers of the mac and cheese, then topped the “muffin” bites with the crispy bacon, more shredded cheddar and those bacon-scented panko crumbs. The recipe can be made ahead to this point and refrigerated, then baked on game day right before kickoff, but I would recommend adding the toppings just before baking so the bacon and crumbs remain crispy.

Let them cool a few minutes, so the cheese firms up for easy, non-messy removal.

Half an hour at 350° F, and these are ready for the big game or any other snacking occasion coming our way. Next up, Mardi Gras! ⚜️

Jalepeño Popper Mac & Cheese Bites

Servings: 12 muffin sized bites
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Average
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What better time than Super Bowl for a snack that marries the spicy flavors of a favorite appetizer and the down home comfort of mac and cheese?

Ingredients

4 thin slices uncured smoked bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1/2 sweet or yellow onion, rough chopped
3 jalapeno peppers, divided (dice one, slice the other two)
Salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
5 oz. American cheese, cubed (I usually purchase a chunk from the supermarket deli)
4 oz. pepper jack or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (fresh is better than the pre-shredded stuff in a bag)
1/2 lb. cooked elbow macaroni
2 oz. cream cheese, divided among cups
2 oz. sharp cheddar, shredded and divided among cups

Note: This game day snack can be made in advance and refrigerated overnight. For best results, add bacon pieces and panko just before baking. Oven time may be extended if the bites are baked cold from the fridge.

Directions

Cook bacon pieces in a cast iron skillet until lightly crispy; reserve 3 tablespoons of bacon fat for making the cheese sauce.
Add the panko crumbs to the warm skillet and toss to soak up the residual bacon grease. Set the crumbs aside for topping the mac and cheese bites.
Heat the reserved bacon fat over medium heat in a good sized pot. Add the onions and diced jalapeño and season with salt and pepper. Sauté the vegetables until softened.
Sprinkle in flour and cook a few minutes until the mixture is bubbly and begins to brown. Add milk all at once and cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens into a sauce. Add American cheese cubes and then pepper jack shreds, melting completely after each addition.
Add the cooked elbow macaroni and remaining jalapeño slices and stir to coat completely. Allow this to cool several minutes.
Spray the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin with oil to prevent sticking. Divide half of the mac and cheese among the cups, then place a bit of cream cheese in the center of each cup and cover with the rest of the mac and cheese. Divide the bacon pieces over the top of the cups, and then top each with the shredded cheddar and bacon-moistened panko crumbs.
Bake at 350° F for about 30 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and crumbs are crispy.
Let the mac and cheese bites cool a few minutes to firm up the cheese, then run a knife around the outside of each muffin cup to release the bites from the pan. Transfer to a serving dish and enjoy watching them fly off the plate.

Jalapeño-Honey Cornbread

16 Comments October 5, 2023 terrie gura

A shrug. That’s pretty much all I get from my husband when I mention that I might whip up a batch of cornbread. As a born-and-raised New York City guy, he’s more into bagels and dinner rolls than grainy, dense cornbread.

But that was before I decided to put jalapeño and honey into it. 😉

We are counting the days until we tear out what’s left of our “well, we tried” summer garden, and the jalapeños are making a valiant effort to compensate for the disappointment of everything else I attempted to grow this year. With four jalapeño plants, and plenty of post-summer full sun, I’m pretty much sneaking these spicy peppers into everything I can. That works out great for my heat-loving husband, and I found it easy to substitute honey for the usual sugar in my favorite cornbread recipe.

And that brings me to an important point— you don’t have to use my recipe to enjoy jalapeño-honey cornbread. If you have a favorite recipe already, a few simple adjustments might just make this a favorite at your house, too.

This was so good with leftover autumn minestrone!
Imagine it with a bowl of chili or black bean soup. Mmm.

A couple of quick notes— jalapeño can range in Scoville units (the heat factor), but you can take charge of the overall intensity with a simple decision of keeping or removing the seeds and membranes. The other note is about the honey. I used a local wildflower honey, and because honey is sweeter than cane sugar, you can get away with using a little less than the amount of sugar called for in the recipe.

If you’d like to bake your cornbread in a cast-iron skillet, I recommend melting a tablespoon or so of butter in the skillet over medium heat before adding the batter and moving it to the oven. This extra butter will ensure clean, even wedges straight from the pan and almost no cleanup!

My inspiration recipe, as expected, comes from my favorite flour company, King Arthur Baking. I made a few modifications, including swapping honey for sugar and subbing in a portion of white whole wheat for nutrition and flavor. Plus, of course, the jalapeños! I also whipped up a small batch of honey butter for drizzling at serving time. 😋

Jalapeño-Honey Cornbread

Servings: About 8
Prep Time: 7 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: So easy!
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Just two ingredient swaps are throwing a big flavor twist onto a classic cornbread. This will be great with almost any rustic soup you make this fall and winter!

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1 large jalapeño, diced (seeds or no seeds, depending on your heat tolerance)
1 1/4 cups milk, warmed (I used whole milk, but 2%, skim or plant milk would be fine)
3 Tbsp. local wildflower honey
1 large egg, room temperature
1/4 cup expeller-pressed canola oil
1/2 stick butter, melted (plant butter would be fine)
1 additional tablespoon butter for melting in the skillet (or buttering a baking dish)

This is delicious drizzled with honey butter. To make some, stir honey into softened, salted butter until smooth. At room temperature, it will drizzle nicely over the warm cornbread. If chilled, it will be more firm but still spreadable. Store leftover cornbread wrapped tightly in foil, or freeze for later.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F, with rack in center position. Place a cast iron skillet over medium heat and melt the extra tablespoon of butter into it.
Measure out and whisk together the dry ingredients in a large batter bowl. Toss the jalapeños into that mixture as well.
Combine the wet ingredients, blending well to completely mix in the honey.
Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and fold gently several times until dry ingredients are fully incorporated.
Pour the batter into the hot, buttered skillet and slide the pan into the oven to bake for about 20 minutes. Cool for a few minutes, then cut into wedges and enjoy!

Homemade Salsa Fresca (& 4 Fun Ways to Use It)

10 Comments August 17, 2023 terrie gura

Sometimes the best way to cheer yourself up when things aren’t going well is to remember happier times. That’s what I’ve decided to do in the wake of my decision to call it quits on our home garden, which seems to have been doomed from the get-go this year. In some ways, it may seem like a fluke that we couldn’t get it going after the success we saw last summer, but to me, it feels more like we are back to normal with the struggling. Last year was the exception, not the rule, and I’m finding solace in the glorious haul of fresh garden vegetables we enjoyed a year ago.

The tomato harvest in particular was fast and furious last summer, and in addition to so many yellow, heirloom and Roma tomatoes, we had jalapeño peppers just about coming out our ears. I found the simplest and most flavorful way to enjoy them all was with a weekly batch of pico de gallo, a.k.a. “salsa fresca.” Those shiny green jalapeños found themselves right at home with the sweet tomatoes. Add to that some chopped red onion, a little minced garlic and the juice of a lime, and you are pretty much looking at a late-summer fiesta in a bowl.

Yellow tomatoes are less acidic than red, and I just love the color they add to salsa fresca!

These bright flavors (and colors) make me so happy, and the great thing about making your own salsa fresca is that you control the heat factor. If you love it spicy (as we do), you might leave in some of the jalapeño seeds, or maybe use two of them. If sodium is an issue for you, simply cut back a bit or use a salt substitute. For a subtle smokiness, I’ve been adding a few shakes of ground cumin, and it’s delicious that way. I’ve peeled the tomatoes in some batches, and skipped that step in others, so follow your own instinct (either way works fine).

The freshest, ripest tomatoes will serve you best here, so stick with homegrown or farmers’ market varieties. Obviously, different types of tomato will result in varying amounts of juicy liquid. Our vine-ripened heirloom and yellow tomatoes were super juicy and that worked out great for me, as you’ll see in a moment. At the bottom of today’s post, you’ll find a click-to-print recipe for salsa fresca, but first, a glimpse at four ways we enjoyed it all last summer at our house.

Shrimp Tacos

If the mention of Mexican cuisine conjures memories of feeling bloated and uncomfortable, let this one reboot your thinking. For this simple summer meal, I made a batch of handmade corn tortillas (it’s easier than you might think and they are so much better than store bought), tossed shredded cabbage with a slight amount of poblano ranch dressing we found at the grocery store (any ranch dressing would work just fine), and grilled up some wild-caught shrimp. We divvied those ingredients up onto our tortillas with fresh cubes of avocado and a few cilantro leaves, plus the salsa fresca. The meal was light, flavorful and very satisfying on hot summer evenings.

Lightened-up Nachos for Dinner

Nachos is one of my husband’s favorite go-to weeknight dinners, and he has taught me to love them, too. This is a dish that has been unfairly maligned because of many over-the-top, outrageously calorie-heavy, so-called appetizers found on chain restaurant menus. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are many protein options for nachos, and this time around, I browned up a half-pound of lean ground chicken with chopped onions, seasoned it with chili powder, salt and pepper, and layered it onto store-bought tortilla chips with drained black beans and a reasonable amount of grated, reduced-fat Monterey Jack-cheddar blend cheese. Nachos only take a few quick minutes in the oven, and with a scatter of cilantro, avocado cubes and salsa fresca on top, they were just right.

Grilled Swordfish with Salsa Fresca

We love seafood on the grill, and swordfish is well-suited for this method of cooking because it is firm enough to place directly on the grill grates without worry that it will fall apart. My seasoning was very simple for this one—I blotted the fish dry with a paper towel, spritzed it with olive oil spray and kissed it with sea salt and a few twists of black pepper. Just for fun, I sprinkled some Trader Joe’s “Everything But the Elote” seasoning onto it before my husband took it to the grill. I used the same seasoning on the fresh, local corn we served that night, and a scoop of salsa fresca brightened up every bite.

Salsa Fresca “Mexican Martini”

You knew I would go there, right? After the delightful surprise I experienced with last summer’s tomato water martini, there was no doubt in my mind that the juice lingering in the bowl after we depleted a batch of salsa fresca was destined for a chilled cocktail glass. Think of it as a mashup of a martini and a Bloody Mary, but with blanco tequila. It’s so cool and so hot at the same time. Perfect!

Here’s the ratio I like best for the cocktail, and I served it in a chilled martini glass, rimmed with a touch of pink sea salt.

2 oz. blanco tequila (I used 1800), 1/2 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin brand is my fave), 1/2 oz. salsa fresca juice (or more for a big, savory punch), squeeze of lime wedge. Stir with ice, then strain into chilled glass. Garnish with a jalapeño slice and pimento-stuffed Spanish olive.

Homemade Salsa Fresca

Servings: About 8
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy!
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This is a terrific way to use some of the bounty of a late-summer garden. Use the freshest, ripest tomatoes possible and enjoy your salsa with everything from grilled seafood to cocktails to tortilla chips!

Ingredients

4 medium garden-ripe tomatoes, peeled or not
1 or 2 fresh jalapeños, seeds or not
1/2 large red onion
1 medium clove garlic
Juice of 1 small lime
Kosher salt and black pepper
A few shakes of ground cumin
Small handful of cleaned cilantro, optional (I usually add this just before serving)

The instructions offered here are purely subjective; use as much or as little heat, salt and spice as you desire. Remember that chopping fresh jalapeños is risky business. Wear a disposable kitchen glove when touching the peppers, or rub Dawn dish liquid onto your hands for a couple of minutes just before washing them. The Dawn helps break down and remove the oils from your skin.

Directions

Chop the tomatoes into small dice. If they are especially juicy, you may opt to drain the seeds. Mince the jalapenos. Dice the onion. Mince the garlic.
Combine all of the above in a medium bowl. Season with salt, pepper and cumin. Squeeze in lime juice and stir to combine.
If serving right away, add chopped cilantro. Otherwise, refrigerate to meld flavors and add the cilantro just before serving.

The Big Kahuna

5 Comments July 7, 2023 les gura

Retailers thrive on the impulse purchase. Heck, whole displays are set up with the purpose of getting folks to buy things they hadn’t had on their shopping list. Come to think of it, who even still uses a shopping list? My rule as I approach 64 is this: three items or less commit to memory, four or more write on the iPhone notes app, 10 or more make a printout. But I digress.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, while Terrie was doing some pre-cooking, pre-prep for the amazing strawberry daiquiri cake to come the next day, she realized she really didn’t have enough granulated sugar. I was dispatched to the local Food Lion—a hop, skip and jump from our house—to fetch some, and, because Terrie also had a fresh loaf of bread in the works, some of this new cracked pepper turkey we’ve discovered at “The Lion,” a market we’ve been hearing good things about. Which is an inside joke about something my late mother used to say that is a much longer story. Oops, I digress again.

Now, getting a bag of sugar for Terrie isn’t easy. It’s not going to be Domino’s or Dixie Crystals or even the Food Lion brand, no matter how many good things we’ve been hearing. Got to be fair trade and organic, third-party labels and all. I eventually found a container of her preferred sugar squirreled away on the top shelf, hidden from the big 5-pound bags. As for the cold cuts, the man at the deli found the cracked pepper turkey. He couldn’t find the cracked pepper ham I wanted, so I switched gears after seeing a nice looking hunk of roast beef in the drawer. Now, this was, no doubt, a nitrite-injected slab of roast beef, but every once in a while, I try to sneak one past the queen of Comfort du Jour. More important, in the part of the deli where they pre-package their own stuff, I saw some sliced American cheese, another product we rarely get unless we are planning some melty cheese thing, say, queso fundido.

If you’d been watching me that afternoon as I waited for the deli dude to figure out how to bag the roast beef (it truly took him an inordinate amount of time to do this seemingly simple task), you might have seen an old-school incandescent light bulb (40 watts, it was only a dim bulb idea, not one of those brilliant, three-way 150-watters) going off over my head.

Terrie is always trying to reproduce some of the favorite things we discover in restaurants. And, of course, her versions inevitably turn out way better than the original. I’m talking spinach Maria from Ke’e Grille, I’m talking PF Chang-style lettuce wraps, I’m talking hot Italian sausage and cherry pepper pizza from Modern Apizza (OK, this one isn’t way better, but it’s just as good!).

So what did I want to do for my first “copycat” meal to be posted on Terrie’s blog? Why, the Big Kahuna from Jersey Mike’s. Because, well, why not? Terrie made a deep-dish pizza inspired by the Big Kahuna, but never the sandwich itself. The Big Kahuna has long been one of our two or three “go to” options when we just can’t figure out or don’t have time to make dinner. It’s unusual because we really aren’t fast-food people. But something about the combination of Philly cheesesteak topped with mushrooms, onions, peppers and jalapenos (and we usually ask for extra jalapenos) hits us both just right. That afternoon in Food Lion, I could envision the sandwich to come. I didn’t get the chance right away and I didn’t tell Terrie about my semi-brilliant idea. But a few days later, when I called to check in on my ride home, I pounced when there was not a firm dinner plan. “I’ll take care of it. I just have to pick one thing up from the Lion.”

It all came together very quickly. And you know what? It’s better than Jersey Mike’s. If I do say so myself.

Behold the Big Kahuna!

I started by sautéing onions and bells peppers, just til they were soft, and then I pushed them aside and added mushrooms to the skillet. When they started to brown, I pushed the mixture aside again and tossed the hot peppers in to heat them through.

While that was working, I spread a thin layer of mayo on each cut side of the bread and laid them on our stove-top griddle. When the inside was nicely browned, I flipped it onto the back side to give it some crisp.

The roast beef slices didn’t take long to brown and heat through. I arranged them in a long, narrow oval to match the bread shape, then laid the American cheese in strips across the top to melt it.

I used a long spatula to move the roast beef and cheese together onto one half of the bread, then laid the vegetables on the other half so they were fairly evenly dispersed, then cut that baby in half and called Terrie to the table.

The Big Kahuna

Servings: 1 giant sandwich
Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Difficulty: Average
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My jalapeño-loving husband has taken over the kitchen, recreating one of our favorite take-out foods at home! His version of this Jersey Mike's standard was fresher, hotter and better than the ones we can buy!

Ingredients

1/2 medium onion, sliced
4-5 good size mushrooms, washed and sliced
1/2 bell pepper, sliced into strips (I used green, but red works, too)
1/4 to 1/2 cup of jalapeño or cherry peppers (or if you like it spicy, as we do, both)
4 slices white American cheese
1/2 pound of sliced deli roast beef, cut into smaller pieces
1 French bread loaf (I used something called a “twin French loaf bread,” which was narrower than typical loaf and more like Jersey Mike’s style), sliced in half but not all the way through
Mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Directions

Heat a medium skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté onions and pepper until translucent. Push aside and add mushrooms until they begin to brown. Add jalapeños/cherry peppers and cook until all are softened and heated through. Set aside.
Slice the bread in half but not all the way through. Spread a thin layer of mayo on each half of the bread and lay in another skillet or stovetop griddle if you have one, lay the bread flat until it is nicely browned, then flip over to lightly crisp the top. Set aside.
Brown the roast beef slices (it won’t take long), then arrange them in a long, narrow oval to match the bread shape. Lay the American cheese in strips across the top. Cook until the cheese begins to melt.
With the bread on a flat surface, use a wide spatula to lay half of the roast beef onto the bread, then fetch the other half and do it again. Add your vegetables on the other side so they are fairly evenly dispersed, then do your best to hold the sandwich together and cut in half.

Heat & Sweet Baked Beans

10 Comments July 3, 2023 terrie gura

As far as I’m concerned, baked beans should be right up there with baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet— a true American classic. And as demonstrated by my relatives at every Fourth of July gathering during my childhood, there are many, many ways to prepare them. You can make them sweet, bacon-y, onion-y, molasses-y or pretty much whatever you want. I happen to want them all, and I’m on a mission to keep pushing the flavor boundaries until I run out of ideas.

For this version, I went rogue with both sweet and spicy additions to a can of prepared baked beans that my husband’s son, Alex, had left behind following his visit here from Hungary back in March. There are only so many things one can pack in a checked bag before you reach the weight limit imposed by the airline, and Alex had to choose between the bottle of Wild Turkey 101 or this can of beans. You guessed it, he took the bourbon back to Europe! Seriously, anyone could have called that one.

Alex’s choice left me with the enviable task of elevating the canned beans, which had a label touting “extra brown sugar.” I wanted something a little different, but not too crazy, so I started with onions and bacon— the two ingredients that always push baked beans into the savory zone. The canned beans had enough sweetness already, so I set my sights on texture and contrast. I tossed in some roasted corn (I used frozen from Trader Joe’s, but fresh would have been awesome) and about half a can of hot Rotel tomatoes, left over from a batch of Les’s amazing pimento cheese from a recent gathering of friends. For a huge kick of heat, I added a fat handful of sweet pickled jalapeño slices— also from Trader Joe’s— and I didn’t bother to drain or chop them. The only other seasoning I added was salt and pepper. Sooo easy!

This truly is an all-American dish.
Beans, corn, tomatoes and peppers— all four crops are indigenous to the Americas!

I mixed them up in the same cast-iron skillet I used to cook the bacon and onions, and then slid the skillet into a 350 F oven for about half an hour. The beans emerged hot and bubbly, but could have benefitted from a bit more oven time, so I would recommend 45 to 50 minutes if you like the sticky, candy-like sauce around the edges as much as I do.

Wow, this was one addictive batch of baked beans! There was more than enough kick, thanks to the Rotel and the jalapeños, and interesting texture from the corn and pickled jalapeños. Every bite was sweet at the start, and then the slow burn kicked in, making you desperate for another sweet bite, and so on. The leftovers were also delicious cold from the fridge. For sure, Alex would approve of what I did to his left-behind can of beans.

Good thing I wrote it down for his next visit. 🙂

Heat & Sweet Baked Beans

Servings: 6 to 8
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Difficulty: Average
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These baked beans are hot, sticky and sweet, with plenty of savory flavor and interesting texture. My latest homage to the Fourth of July gatherings of my childhood.

Ingredients

1 large can Bush’s baked beans with extra brown sugar
1/2 medium sweet onion, cut into slivers from top to bottom
3 slices uncured bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup fire roasted corn (frozen is fine, or fresh if you have it)
1/2 can Rotel tomatoes (habanero variety)
1/4 cup hot and sweet pickled jalapeños
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F, with rack in center position.
Place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add bacon pieces and cook until some of the fat renders and bacon begins to curl. Add onions and cook until bacon is slightly crispy. Season with a little bit of salt and as much black pepper as you’d like.
Add the entire can of baked beans. Swirl the can with a couple of tablespoons of water to rinse out every drop of sauce into the skillet.
Add corn, tomatoes and jalapeños and stir until evenly blended.
Transfer skillet to preheated oven and bake 45 to 50 minutes, until beans are bubbling around all the edges of the skillet. Allow the beans to cool about 10 minutes before serving.

Queso Fundido Potato Skins

19 Comments March 9, 2023 terrie gura

Ah, Spring! It’s difficult to narrow down what’s best about this time of year— is it the warming temperatures and longer days? The cheerful daffodils that are already in full bloom in the beds in front of our house? I am already envisioning donning my garden gloves and putting down soil for this year’s garden. Easter will be here before we know it, and that’s always a sign of a fresh start. It’s all so exhilarating!

But the thing that everyone around these parts is excited about has nothing to do with weather, flowers or new beginnings. Nope— this month, it’s all about March Madness, baby!

Many years ago, in what seems like a different lifetime, I worked in the main branch of a large, North Carolina-based bank. The “madness” that I witnessed included executives from the bank clearing their calendars so that they could stand in the lobby of the bank, focused on portable TVs that someone had plugged in right there along the teller line (this was all before the internet and smartphones, of course). Customers who came in to do their routine banking would stop for a few minutes, enjoy snacks that the bank staff brought in for a potluck table, and watch some of the games. Someone kept up with the brackets, to report to visitors which teams had advanced to the next rounds.

Weird, I thought, for all of this to occur in a business setting on a weekday— but I was the newcomer who had not yet learned that North Carolina has five key religions— Southern Baptist, Methodist, NASCAR, pulled pork barbecue and ACC hoops.

Thirty five years later, It no longer seems weird to me to see people interrupt business as usual to watch a basketball game in the middle of their workday. During my years in radio, I even sat courtside for a couple of those games and it is indeed a thrill. We have plenty of that excitement around here this week, too, as the rivalries intensify at the ACC Tournament, happening right now in nearby Greensboro.

If you need a hearty snack for your own March Madness viewing, consider it done with these zesty Mexican-inspired potato skins, with all the flavors of queso dip inside a split-and-scooped baby russet potato. These little guys can be prepped in advance for the most part, then popped into the oven at the last minute so the toppings— chorizo, fire-roasted corn, queso dip and jalapeño—all melt together in a melty, gooey self-contained snack that’s easy to eat while you’re watching the games. These skins would have really wowed the gang at the bank!

The first step in making them, of course, is prepping and baking the russet potatoes. I chose smallish ones for this recipe so the skins would be better suited to game day snacking. My secret trick with any baked potato recipe is the brine. Yes, I soak my scrubbed potatoes in heavily salted water before baking, and it ensures a crunchy, flavorful skin that is just as tasty as the fillings you put in them. The brining step only takes about half an hour, and the outcome is well worth it. I browned up the chorizo in cast iron while the potatoes soaked, and kept the drippings in the skillet.

When the spuds were cool enough to handle, I split them in half and scooped out some of the filling, keeping enough to hold the fillings without leaking. You can do whatever you like with the scooped out part; I added them to the current batch of homemade food for Nilla. To give the skins a bit of extra flavor, I fried them briefly (face-down) in the chorizo drippings, just long enough to get those edges crispy. From there, it was just a matter of filling them up with shredded cheese, queso, corn, chorizo and jalapeno.

A second trip through the oven melted all the tasty fillings together, and I finished them with a quick scatter of sliced scallions.

Queso Fundido Potato Skins

Servings: 16 skins
Prep Time: 40 minutes total
Cook Time: 35 minutes to bake potatoes; 8 minutes to bake skins
Difficulty: Average
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This is a fun game day snack that puts a Mexican queso dip twist on classic potato skins.

Ingredients

8 smallish russet potatoes, scrubbed
Hot, but not necessarily boiling, water
1 Tbsp. kosher salt (for brining the potatoes)
6 oz. fresh Mexican chorizo sausage* (see notes)
1 to 2 Tbsp. olive oil, if needed
1/2 container Land o Lakes queso dip*, cold from fridge
1/2 cup fire roasted sweet corn
1/2 cup Monterey jack or pepper jack cheese, shredded
16 pickled jalapeno slices
2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
1/2 cup sour cream (optional), for serving

*Notes: This recipe uses the fresh, crumbly style of chorizo, not the hard Spanish variety. Our neighbor turned us on to the Land o Lakes queso dip, and we love it! If you don’t find it in your supermarket, substitute something similar from the fresh dairy case.

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F, with oven rack in center position. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Place scrubbed potatoes in a large, heatproof bowl. Sprinkle kosher salt over the potatoes, then fill with enough hot water to cover the potatoes. Swish the water a bit to dissolve the salt. Let them soak for 30 minutes.
Brown the chorizo in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Scoop the chorizo out into a separate bowl and keep the drippings in the pan.
Dry potatoes with paper towels and arrange on the foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 35 minutes, until potatoes are easily pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out some of the soft potato, leaving about 1/4-inch around the edges and bottom. Use the excess potato in another recipe.
Place the chorizo skillet back onto medium heat. If the drippings are skimpy in the pan, swirl in a little olive oil. When hot, place the scooped potato skins face down in the pan, to crisp up the exposed edges. Arrange the skins on the foil-lined pan and prepare to fill them.
Divide about half of the shredded cheese among the skins and top each with a teaspoonful of the roasted corn. Transfer the queso cheese into a glass measuring cup and microwave about 20 seconds to loosen it up. Pour the queso over the filling in the skins, up to the edges. Top with chorizo, jalapeno slices and the remaining shredded cheese.
Place skins back into the 400°F oven for about 5 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly and skins are heated through. Sprinkle with sliced scallions and serve immediately.

Jalapeño Popper Pizza

11 Comments February 9, 2023 terrie gura

Most pizza lovers would agree that there’s never a bad day for pizza. But someone somewhere decided that February 9^th should be “National Pizza Day,” and I am here for it with a pizza that is not only delicious, but also especially appropriate for snacking during Sunday’s Super Bowl, er, “Big Game!”

Everything you love about a jalapeno popper, on a pizza!

This pizza, which is built on my go-to homemade sourdough crust, is a fun interpretation of the classic jalapeño popper, which is usually a hot pepper, stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar, then wrapped in bacon and baked.

We focused on those same ingredients, spread them out onto a pizza crust and turned it into a delicious slice. Two game day favorites, one tasty bite!

Arrange the ingredients so that every slice has all the flavors!

If you aren’t into making your own pizza dough, choose a store-bought dough from the deli department, preferably one that is about 11 ounces, and shape it by hand into a 14-inch round. There’s no sauce on this pizza—it doesn’t need it. Only mozzarella on the base, but also multiple cheeses in a homemade pimento cheese mixture (don’t worry, I’ll share that recipe, too), thumb-size pieces of smoky, salty bacon and fat chunks of fresh jalapeño, which I blistered in the same skillet I used to par-cook the bacon. You know what else would’ve been great on this pizza? Sautéed onions. Next time!

It’s worth the effort to shape your pizza dough by hand rather than rolling it out.

The pizza is surprisingly not all that spicy, despite having those two enormous jalapeños scattered all over it. If you desire more heat, keep some of the seeds on the jalapeños or consider adding some crushed pepper flakes at the table. Personally, we thought the pizza was just right.

The pizza steel has been a total game changer for our home pizzas. I highly recommend it!

We bake all our pizzas on a thick pizza steel, preheated for an hour at 550°F, the hottest our home oven will go. At this temperature, and with the steel, the pizza takes only 6 minutes to achieve blistered, bubbly perfection. If you’re using a stone or a pan, adjust temperature and baking time accordingly.

Jalapeño Popper Pizza

Servings: 6 to 8 slices
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 6 Minutes on pizza steel
Difficulty: Average
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All the flavors you love in a jalapeño popper, tossed onto a homemade pizza dough. It's two game day favorites in one delicious bite!

Ingredients

1 ball pizza dough, at room temperature
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup low moisture mozzarella, shredded
2 large jalapeño peppers, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
4 slices thick smoked bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup pimento cheese (see recipe notes about this)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced

Use a sturdy pimento cheese that does not have a lot of mayonnaise. If it drips or slides off a spoon, it is too runny for this recipe. Look for an artisan brand or make my Roasted Poblano Pimento Cheese for this recipe.

Directions

Preheat oven to 550 F, with a pizza steel on the oven rack about 8 inches from top heat element. From the time the oven reaches 550, set a timer for one hour. If using a pizza stone or pan, adjust heat and baking time accordingly.
Cook bacon over medium heat in a cast iron skillet, until most of the fat has rendered but the bacon is just shy of crispy. Transfer bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel. Drain off excess grease.
In the same skillet, toss jalapeño chunks until they are slightly softened and the skins are somewhat blistered. Transfer to the same plate as the bacon.
Shape pizza dough by hand into a 14-inch round and transfer it to a floured, cornmeal-dusted pizza peel. Drizzle or brush olive oil onto the crust, and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Scatter mozzarella all over dough, then arrange the jalapeño and bacon pieces. Place small dollops of pimento cheese onto the pizza, so that every bite will have a little bit of every flavor. Sprinkle minced garlic onto the pizza.
Slide the pizza from the peel onto the pizza steel and bake for about 6 minutes, until crust is blistered and golden and the cheeses are melted and bubbling. Serve at once.

Roasted Poblano Pimento Cheese

Servings: About 10
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes to roast poblanos
Difficulty: Average
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The joy of making your own pimento cheese is that you can spike it with any flavor you like! Here, I've used oven-roasted poblano chiles to complement the tangy pimentos.

Ingredients

2 medium poblano peppers, cut in half and seeded
Olive oil spray (or 1 tsp. olive oil)
3 oz. cream cheese or neufchâtel, softened to room temperature
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. mayonnaise
A dash or two of hot sauce, to taste
A few quick shakes onion powder or garlic powder (about 1/2 tsp. total)
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp. drained jarred pimentos
3 packed cups shredded or grated cheese (see recipe notes)

For best results, mix all the ingredients and adjust seasoning before blending in the cheese. Purchase whole blocks of cheese and shred it yourself, as the bagged varieties have a coating to prevent sticking and they won’t blend as well. Several varieties of cheese work great in pimento cheese, and I used a mix of Monterey Jack, American, Colby jack and extra sharp cheddar.

Directions

Preheat oven on low broil setting. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (not parchment) and use the heel of your hand to press and break the poblano halves until they’re flat. Arrange them, skin side-up, on the foil. Brush or spray them with oil, and then broil until the skins are blistered and peppers are softened (about 10 minutes). Transfer peppers to a bowl and cover for 20 minutes until they’re cool enough to handle. Peel as much of the skin from the peppers as possible and then chop fine.
In a fairly large bowl (you’ll need plenty of room to stir), blend together the cream cheese, mayonnaise, hot sauce, and onion powder. Mix until smooth. Stir in pimentos and chopped poblanos. Season to taste with salt and pepper, perhaps a bit saltier than you like because the cheese will dull those flavors somewhat.
Stir in the shredded cheese, one cup at a time, blending really well each time until all cheese is mixed in. Cover and refrigerate a day for best flavor.

Smoky Jalapeño Baked Beans

11 Comments June 28, 2022 terrie gura

One of the down sides to being a creative home cook is, well, the pressure to be creative all the time. It’s a self-imposed expectation, I know. But more than a few times in the recent couple of months, I’ve hit a brick wall on getting new ideas on the table. We have eaten well, but I have mostly pulled out familiar, favorite recipes because we’ve had too much going on. And a good many of our meals have been takeout, which is far more exception than rule at our house. This is not easy for me.

Last month, I had an epiphany—OK, it was more a reluctant acceptance of something my husband has been trying to tell me, and I finally gave in—and what a relief: I don’t have to make a rock star meal every night, and I don’t have to make everything from scratch. Sometimes it’s OK to take it easy. And that’s what I did with this baked bean recipe, which is begging to be part of someone’s July 4^th table.

The bacon is already salty, but a little added salt helps to soften the onions.

Sure, it’s special, with the salty bacon, slices of fiery jalapeno and a shot of charred oak barrel-rested whiskey, but here’s a secret I’m eager to share— I cheated! I dressed up a can of store-bought baked beans. And they were awesome.

Whew. It feels good to let that go, and I’m not going to pretend that I discovered the can of beans in the back of the cabinet and just whipped up a fun spin on them. Nope, I had every intention of taking a shortcut when I made my grocery list, and let me tell ya, it was just as much fun jazzing up a pre-made can of baked beans as it would have been if I’d made them from scratch. I chose the most basic variety of beans I could find, without too much embellishment. They only had a touch of brown sugar, and this made it easy to spin the beans in the savory direction my palate was craving.

Elevating a store-bought product can be just as rewarding as making a dish from scratch!

Dressing up the store-bought beans was easy, and they got a big flavor boost from two very thick slices of savory bacon, cooked up to just-shy-of-crispy with half of a sweet onion (I reserved the other half for the top). I didn’t want the beans to dry out in the oven, so I enhanced the sauce with a few tablespoons of ketchup, a splash of vinegar, some smoked paprika and a few shakes of cumin. Then, just for fun, I stirred in a shot of whiskey, the same one I used in the Kickass Whiskey-Braised Collards that we enjoyed a few months ago.

I was at the end of my bottle of ketchup, so I used the vinegar to shake out the last of it.

After dumping the beans into the same skillet, I stirred in the smoky sauce and topped the baked beans with the remaining onion slivers and jalapeno slices and slid it into the oven. Baking the smoky beans in the same skillet meant that I also saved time and energy on cleanup, which was a welcome relief. And, there’s just something cool about taking the skillet right to the table.

If your bacon has rendered a high volume of fat, drain some off before adding the canned baked beans.

This dinner was easy all around, as we served the smoky jalapeno baked beans with an All-American favorite—grilled, all-beef hot dogs with (gasp!) store-bought buns. Don’t worry, there is no danger of me permanently trading in my “do-it-yourself” personality in the kitchen, but occasionally, I could get used to this.

By the way, are you already doing this with your hot dogs? It only takes a few seconds, and you end up with so many crispy crevices to support your favorite toppings. 🙂

Smoky Jalapeño Baked Beans

Servings: 6 to 8
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Difficulty: easy
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This recipe builds on the flavors of store-bought canned baked beans (or pork and beans). For best flavor results, purchase a simple flavor, such as Bush’s “original” baked beans with bacon and brown sugar, or Bush’s vegetarian baked beans. You can kick up this recipe in multiple ways—for big, bold flavor, keep some of the jalapeno seeds and use the whiskey. For milder flavor, substitute green bell pepper and skip the whiskey.

Ingredients

2 slices thick smoked bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces (omit for a vegetarian version)
1 medium sweet or yellow onion, half chopped, and half slivered into crescents
1 medium fresh jalapeno, half diced, and half sliced into thin rings
3 Tbsp. tomato ketchup
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. smoked sweet paprika
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 oz. smoky whiskey (optional, but heck yeah!)
28 oz. can Bush’s “original” or “vegetarian” baked beans, or equivalent substitute
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350° F, with rack in center position.
Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium flame. Add bacon and onion, and season it a bit with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, to soften onions and render some of the fat off the bacon. If a great deal of fat results, drain off as much as you wish.
Combine the ketchup, vinegar, paprika and cumin in a small bowl. Stir in the whiskey (if using) and set the mixture aside.
When bacon is slightly crisp, add the canned beans to the skillet, including all the sauce. Stir in the diced jalapenos and the sauce mixture. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Top the baked beans with the remaining onion slivers and slices of jalapeno. Twist some freshly ground black pepper all over the top. Bake for 40 minutes, until sauce is bubbly all around.

Les’s Atomic Buffalo Turds

8 Comments February 4, 2022 les gura

The name alone demanded that I make this appetizer when I ran across the recipe sometime while preparing for my 2015 Super Bowl party. The fact that it was a heat-fueled bite made it even better. Not only did it pair well with my favorite chili, but it also helped get the guests to leave on time.

For some reason, I didn’t make these spicy bites for the 2020 Super Bowl bash at our house (the last time we actually had people over). And last year, when it was just me and Terrie for the Pandemic Bowl, no turds.

With this year’s Super Bowl coming up, Terrie asked me to make these and share the recipe, so here goes. I wish I could credit a specific source for these, but I cannot remember where I found the recipe. It’s just an awfully good one, and very conducive to substitutions of spices and topping sauce. So many different things can work. The key is the mix of sweet to offset the intense heat. The original recipe suggested cooking these on an outdoor smoker, but this adaptation is adjusted for baking in a home oven.

Behold, atomic buffalo turds!

My 2016 batch, enough for a houseful of hungry Super Bowl guests.

Ingredients (makes 12 pieces)

6 medium size jalapeno peppers, halved and trimmed*

12 li’l smoky sausages*

3/4 brick of cream cheese

1¼ tsp. smoked paprika*

3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (or less, if you’re scared)

6 slices of bacon, cut in half crosswise*

12 toothpicks

2 Tbsp. sweet rub seasoning*

Sweet finishing sauce*

Notes

Scoop out the innards of the jalapenos, removing most of the membrane and the seeds. However, if you really want heat, feel free to leave some of that membrane intact.
There are different brands of li’l smokies. Ideally, we’d love to find some without nitrites, but if they are made, we can’t find them. You can, however, probably substitute other kinds of normal size sausage and simply cut them down to the bite-size smoky portion.
There are many different types of paprika. For this batch, we used a bourbon smoked paprika we’d found online at Bourbon Barrel Foods.
I usually wrap the bacon raw around the jalapenos, but there is something to be said for lightly starting to cook the bacon in a skillet to render some of the fat and help it be more crispy later. But don’t cook it too long, or it will either burn or crack and fall off in the oven. Thin slices of bacon work better than thick.
The sweet rub seasoning can be anything you find that suits the bill; it is used to offset the heat. You can also make some your own, as we did in this case, using 3 parts of brown sugar to one part of Flatiron Pepper Co.’s dark and smoky BBQ rub. Flatiron is a very good specialty pepper company and we have enjoyed many of their products, which tend to bring the heat!
The finishing sauce is usually a sweet/tart, often fruit-flavored BBQ-oriented sauce. It goes on after the turds have cooked and provide a beautiful cooling note. Or, if you’re like us, you can look for a fruit-flavored-but-still-has-a-kick sauce. One year, I used a cherry-ancho BBQ sauce. For this batch, we had a raspberry-habanero sauce I’d bought from a friend who sells Pampered Chef products.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300° F.

The first thing to do is prep the jalapenos, which involves cutting off the stems, splitting them lengthwise and then taking out the seeds and membrane. The more of either you leave inside, the more the heat your turds will pack. Wash your hands thoroughly (unless you have kitchen gloves to work with, which I don’t) when you’re done. And don’t even think of getting that itch near your eye, even after you’ve washed your hands. Trust me. Been there, done that.

The seeds and membranes of the jalapenos are extra hot; remove them if you must.

Prepare the cream cheese mix by adding the paprika and cayenne. The cream cheese will turn orange. Don’t be alarmed. It helps, by the way, to let the cream cheese get room temp for easier mixing. Scoop the cream cheese to fill the half jalapenos and be relatively generous. Then place one smoky right on top of the cream cheese, lining up your jalapenos on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

This brand is more bland than others I have tried, almost like small frankfurters.

Take one of the half slices of bacon and wrap around the jalapeno, covering the smoky and cream cheese mix and securing with a toothpick on top through the bacon. Push down through the smoky and keep going until you feel resistance from the bottom of the jalapeno. Do not pierce the jalapeno if you can avoid it, as that will cause the cream cheese mix to seep out.

Sprinkle some of the sweet bbq rub over the turds and pop them into the oven.

Sprinkle a generous portion of whatever your sweet rub mix of choice is on each smoky and place the cookie sheet in the oven. Allow about 90 minutes. The long, slow baking time simulates the process of smoking them.

When the bacon looks done, remove the turds and brush or drip your finishing sauce on top of the turds. Then, enjoy the burn!

Atomic Buffalo TurdsPrint it!