Posted on

Charred Spinach Artichoke Chicken Quiche

We picked up some artisanal sausages the other day from Trader Joe’s and they were pretty good. So here comes the quiche that uses these sausages as the base for the filling along with some select vegetables for added flavor and texture.

Charred Spinach Artichoke Chicken Sausage Quiche
Charred Spinach Artichoke Chicken Sausage Quiche

I’ve seen a lot of things charred that you wouldn’t think would work lately. Some lettuce charred over a super hot grill in New Mexico used in a salad. Various Peppers and other vegetables charred in a super hot cast iron pot in Israel and your usual Roasted Chile Peppers in both New Mexico and Colorado. This got me thinking of trying this with spinach. So after a couple of tries with the gas grill, I think I’ve got it. The charred spinach has a unique flavor and it doesn’t cook down quite as much as when you prepare it normally. You’ll need a gas or charcoal grill that is super hot. And you’ll only need it for a few minutes. No more than 4 minutes for the spinach and no more than 10 for the sausage. So this may be better prepared in advance of when you plan to serve this with another meal so you don’t make a lot of heat for just one dish.

Serves 8 – 10 (one Quiche)

Ingredients

  • 1 – 1/2 lb Baby Spinach
  • 2 or 3 Spicy Spinach Artichoke Chicken Sausages (or Spinach Asiago Chicken Sausage)
  • 1/2 Yellow Onion
  • 1/2 cup 4 or 5 shredded Italian Cheese Blend (5 cheese has more flavor)
  • 1/4 cup Half and Half
  • 3 oz Greek Yogurt
  • 4 Large Eggs
  • 9 in Pie Crust
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Pepper
  • 1 tsp Marjoram (Optional for a unique Mediterranean style spice)

Preparation

Start your grill to get it as hot as possible. Take the baby spinach and spread it out on the grill when at least 400 F. Allow to cook undisturbed until you get some good charring on the edges. Flip as much as you can over to get a little more char on the other side. This shouldn’t take more than a minute per side. The spinach will loose a lot of volume and wilt quite a bit. But as long as you get some charred edges, that should be good enough. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Let the grill cool a little and put the sausages on the grill and cook until you get the same grill marks on the sausages. Then remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Slice up the Onion by quartering and then slicing into 1/4 inch pieces. Place in an oiled pan over medium high heat and saute until fully caramelized and a golden brown. If you like you should add a dash of salt and pepper while this is cooking. This can take up to 20 minutes and I always add water to help keep from drying them out too much. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

The charred spinach should be cool enough to handle by now and you should cut the leaves into slices about 1/4 inch wide and you can mix them with the onion for storage until final assembly. Cut the cooled sausages into small 1/4 to 1/2 inch chunks and store properly until final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 380 F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the charred spinach, caramelized onion, shredded cheese and chopped sausage together until fully mixed. Then loosely place these ingredients into the pie crust. In large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, half and half and yogurt together and whisk until frothy or for about 4 minutes. Also add in the salt and pepper to taste at this point. When fully whisked pour over the ingredients in the pie crust and mix it around a little to make sure that the egg mixture fully mixes in to hold everything together. Top with a little more pepper and put into the oven to cook for 35 – 40 minutes or until the top just starts to brown. Remove from the oven and either serve of pack it up for the rink.

Posted on

Fire Roasted Peppers and Steak Quiche

This was kicking around in my head for a couple of weeks, trying to get the right mixture of spices that wouldn’t overpower the favors from the primary ingredients. And I was having a debate with myself on whether to add the meat or not. I just couldn’t go without the meat, but if you like simply drop the meat altogether and add a few extra peppers to the mix to make up for the lost volume and you’ve got a “vegan” quiche.

Fire Roasted Peppers and Steak
Fire Roasted Peppers and Steak
But this one still has the beef. By basically grilling the peppers until they are a little charred, it brings out the roasted flavor in the peppers while also keeping the flavors that you’d have if you simply fried them in a pan. This method or cooking peppers, I’ve been doing for a couple of years with great results. So here is the recipe for the fire roasted peppers and steak quiche.

Serves 8 – 10 (makes one quiche)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 lb Sweet Baby Peppers (about 8 – 10 peppers)
  • 1/2 lb Thin Flank Steak
  • 1/2 of 14.5 oz can Fire Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic
  • 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1/2 cup shredded 4 Cheese Italian Blend
  • 1 9 in Pie Crust (your choice)
  • 3 Tbsp Greek Yogurt
  • 3 Tbsp Heavy Cream
  • 4 Large Eggs
  • 2 tsp ground Black Pepper
  • 2 tsp Sea Salt

Preparation

Get your grill going at a medium to medium high heat. Coat the Sweet Baby Peppers with a thin coating of Olive Oil and season with about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Prepare the steak by coating lightly with either a fajita seasoning or coat lightly with olive oil then add salt and pepper to taste. Put the peppers on the grill and cook until there is a good char on the outside of the peppers, should be about 5 minutes per side. Remove from the grill and allow to cool. Add the steak onto the grill and cook until you’ve got a good grill marks on the outside, no more than 5 minutes per side. You’re trying for medium rare to medium cooked. Remove from the grill and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes before handling further. This is all you’ll need the grill for.

Prepare your crust as you normally would for a precooked pie crust. By this time the peppers and steak should be cooled enough to handle. Loosely chop up the peppers and the steak into pieces no larger than 1/2 inch. Properly store these two ingredients separately until ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix together the pieces of peppers and steak completely. Open and drain the can of tomatoes and add half of the can to the pepper and steak mixture. Place the whole mixture into the pie crust and top with about half of the shredded cheese. In a large mixing bowl combine the Yogurt, Cream and Eggs together and whisk until fully mixed and fluffy. This usually takes about 4 minutes, and you should add salt and pepper to taste about midway through mixing. Pour the egg mixture over the filling in the pie crusts until almost to the top of the crust. Top with the remaining cheese and put into the oven for 35 – 40 minutes or until lightly golden browned on top. Remove from the oven and either serve or pack it up to take to the rink.

Posted on

Wild Mushroom Bacon Quiche

One of the guys had been out foraging in the mountains, and he came back with these strange looking mushrooms. He suggested putting these in this weekends quiche. Being careful, I watched him eat some of them to see if he’d get sick. He didn’t so I guess they are safe to eat. We worked together to come up with this combination to make this Wild Mushroom Bacon Quiche.

Wild Mushroom and Bacon Quiche
Wild Mushroom and Bacon Quiche
This would taste good with just about any kind of mushrooms, but these particular ones that we used were something that I hadn’t seen before. These are wild Chanterelles and they need to be dried out a bit to be useful in a quiche.

Wild Chanterelle Mushrooms
Wild Chanterelle Mushrooms
As you dry sauté them, drain the liquid that boils off. You can use this as a mushroom stock to add a little extra flavor either to the eggs or some other dish. After extracting this extra moisture, they will be ready for final cooking and you can use either the Bacon grease or simply butter to finish off the sauté of the mushrooms. Or if you want to try this without the bacon, it will still be quite tasty.

Serves 8-10 (one Quiche)

Ingredients

  • 1 – 1/2 cup Wild Mushrooms
  • 1/2 pkg Sliced Pecan Wood Smoked Bacon
  • 1/2 cup Sliced Shallots (about 2 – 3 bulbs)
  • 1 tsp Olive Oil
  • 2 Tbsp Butter
  • 2 tsp Pepper
  • 2 tsp Salt
  • 3 oz Plain Greek Yogurt
  • 4 oz Heavy Whipping Creame
  • 4 Large Eggs
  • 1/2 cup Shredded Asiago Cheese
  • 1 Tbsp Honey Glazed Pecans (Optional)
  • 9 inch prepared Pie Crust

Preparation

To properly prepare the wild mushrooms, first wash then and then in a skillet sauté them dry to extract the liquids over medium high heat. You’ll want to drain the liquids as it boils out of the mushrooms to speed up this process. But you should be done in about 10 minutes. You don’t want to brown them yet, just dry them out. When all the liquids appear to be boiled out, remove from the skillet and allow to cool.

Prebake your pie crust according to the instructions on the package.

Take the chopped and sliced shallots and sauté them over medium high heat with a dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, just to sweat them down for about 5 minutes. Remove from the skillet and allow to cool. Then store properly until final assembly.

Then cut the bacon up into 1/2 inch long pieces and cook them in the skillet until brown. Remove and place on a paper towel to absorb the grease. When cooled and drained, properly store until final assembly. If you want you can reserve the grease and use it for the final cook of the mushrooms, but I think butter helps keep the flavors separated.

The final cooking of the mushrooms is done by sautéing them in a skillet over medium high heat with the butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. This should go until most of the butter has been absorbed into the mushrooms. It should take about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and properly store until final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Combine all of the ingredients prepared above into the pre-baked pie crusts and loosely mix so that there is room for the egg mixture. In a large mixing bowl, combine together the Eggs, Yogurt, Cream and mix together with a whisk. Beat for about 4 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste about halfway through the beating. Pour this mixture slowly over the ingreadents in the pie crusts to allow the eggs to work their way into all of the filling. Top this with the shredded Cheese and let it set for about a half minute. Optionally, top with the Honey Glased Pecans and pop it right into the oven. Cook for 35-40 minutes or until a the top is a full golden brown. Remove and serve or pack it up for the rink.

Posted on

Mango Habanero Chicken Quiche

This is another one that was inspired by a meal that I had a few weeks ago. Qdoba has added some new items to their menu and and a couple taste good. I thought one in particular would make a great modification to one of our early quiches. And I thought that I’d try to make this as simple to make as possible. So I decided to use all off the shelf products to make this work. So here is a Mango Habanero Chicken Quiche that also has some Mango Candied Bacon included for fun.

Mango Habanero Chicken Quiche with Mango Candied Bacon
Mango Habanero Chicken Quiche with Mango Candied Bacon
All of these ingredients are simply off the shelf products and require a minimum of preparation so that you don’t need to spend a bunch of time working on preparation. Just a little bit of cooking, some mixing and your done. I originally intended to make this into a Tourtiere but changed my mind as this was meant to be simple. And if you want to taste what this tastes like, minus the eggs, try a chicken burrito from Qdoba and add their new seasonal mango salsa. They taste almost the same.

And for a bonus, if you don’t want to use the Mango Candied Bacon in the quiche, you’ve got yourself a real good snack.

Serves 8 – 12 ( one quiche)

Ingredients

Filling

  • 1/4 – 9 oz jar of Major Grey’s Chutney
  • 1/2 lb Chicken Breast
  • 2 tsp Olive Oil
  • 1/2 – 15 oz can Pinto Beans
  • 1/2 – 15 oz can Southwest Corn or Corn with Peppers
  • 1/4 to 1/2 – 10 oz can RO*TEL diced Tomatoes with Habanero (depends on how spicy you want it)
  • 1/4 cup sliced Green Onion
  • 1/2 – 7 oz cup Fage Yogurt (2% has a little better flavor)
  • 1/4 cup Half and Half
  • 4 large Eggs
  • 1/4 cup shredded Italian Blend Cheese (or if you want it fancy Smoked Gouda is good too)
  • 9 in Pie Pan with Pie Crust (I used a pre-made pie crust for the one in the picture)

Mango Candied Bacon

  • 1/2 lb Bacon (use your favorite cut, just not too thick)
  • 1/4 – 9 oz jar of Major Grey’s Chutney
  • 1 – 2 Tbsp Red Chile Flakes
  • 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper

Preparation

Mango Candied Bacon

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Remove the bacon from the package and lay out the bacon on top of a cooking rack placed in a lined cooking sheet so there is no overlap of the bacon strips. Using either a fork of a brush, spread out an even layer of the Chutney over the top of all the bacon. Then evenly sprinkle on the Chile Flakes and Pepper. Put it in the oven and cook for 20 – 30 minutes, or until it’s just starting to turn brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. When cooled remove from the tray and chop into bit sized pieces. A good quarter of these always get eaten before making it into the quiche. But put them away until ready for final assembly.

Quiche Filling

While the Bacon is cooking you can chop up the chicken breast into nugget sized pieces. Pour the Olive Oil into a small cup or bowl, and lightly coat the chicken pieces. Then prepare a cooking sheet by lining it with foil and evenly distribute the chicken pieces on the sheet. If you like, sprinkle lightly with a little salt and pepper. Place in the oven and cook for 20 – 30 minutes, turning over halfway through cooking. The chicken should start to turn lightly brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool until you can handle them easily. Then chop them up a little more into 1/2 inch cubes. Store properly until final assembly.

While all that is cooking, get a mixing bowl and open and drain the Beans, Corn and RO*TEL. Save about 2 Tbsp of the RO*TEL liquid (be careful as this makes it spicier) to mix into the eggs later. Put the Beans and Corn into the bowl and mix completely. Put the RO*TEL in another container if you want to layer this into the quiche. All this does is make the top a little more colorful. Store these properly until ready for final assembly.

And lastly if your using a prepared pie crust cook it according to its instructions.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 380 F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the Chicken, Bacon, Beans and Corn and thoroughly mix. Put this mixture into the prepared pie crust. Top with a layer of Cheese, RO*TEL Tomatoes and the sliced Green Onions. Then combine in a mixing bowl the Yogurt, Half and Half, Eggs and the liquid from the RO*TEL that you reserved earlier. Beat this mixture with a whisk until frothy. Pour this over the filing in the pie crust, shake it up a little to make sure the egg mixture fills all of the spaces in the crust. Top with a little salt and pepper to taste, and put it in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the top is a golden brown. Remove from the oven and either serve or pack it up for the rink.

Posted on

Cajun Blackened Chicken Frittata

After a dinner trip to Popeye’s for some Cajun style dinner the wheels started turning to figure out how to make my dinner into a quiche. The flavors should work so off we went looking for portioning and trying to figure out how to get the right spices into the chicken. And of course we included Red Beans and Rice into this because that is one of the best Cajun sides. All this combines to make this a very tasty Cajun Blackened Chicken Frittata.

Cajun Blackened Chicken frittata
Cajun Blackened Chicken Frittata
This took some research and testing to get the flavors close to the original. And had to come up with a similar seasoning that would taste like the little flavor packs that most people don’t know are available at Popeye’s. Or you could just get a dinner there and ask them to throw in a bunch of extra Cajun Sparkle packets. Personally, I think the Sparkle makes this dish, but it could also be the Red Beans and Rice. Who am I kidding, it’s the Blackened Chicken. We made this frittata style, but you could also use a buttermilk biscuit style crust to make this a quiche. If we ever get that perfected, we’ll add this to the recipes.

Ingredients

Cajun Sparkle

  • 1 Tbsp Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Sage (ground)
  • 1/2 tsp Paprika
  • 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • 1/4 tsp Accent Flavor Enhancer (Optional)

Filling

  • 1/2 lb Chicken Breast
  • 3/4 Cup Buttermilk
  • 3 Tbsp Tabasco Sauce
  • 4 Tbsp Zatarains Blackened Seasoning
  • 8 oz canned Red Beans (about half a can)
  • 1/4 Cup finely chopped Andouille Sausage
  • 1/2 Cup Cooked Rice
  • 1 tsp Butter
  • 1/4 chopped Onion
  • /4 Cup finely shredded Mozzarella Cheese

The Rest

  • 1 – 9 inch Pie Pan
  • 1 Tbsp Butter
  • 1/4 Cup chopped Green Onion or Chives
  • 1 – 2 Tbsp Cajun Sparkle (to taste, how strong to you want your Cajun flavor)
  • 1/4 Cup shredded Smoked Gouda
  • 4 large Eggs
  • 3 oz. Greek Yogurt
  • 1/4 Cup Half and Half

Preparation

You can make the Cajun Sparkle anytime before making this dish and store it for later use. The portioning makes a little more than 2 Tbsp of the seasoning, which is the amount you’ll need, so you can combine all of the Cajun Sparkle ingredients above and put this into a spice container for storage. Also, if you don’t like MSG you should leave out the Accent, as it’s mostly MSG.

To prepare the chicken you’ll need to start at least 24 hours before you’ll need the chicken to be cooked as this needs to marinate for 24 hours. Prepare the marinate by mixing the Buttermilk and Tabasco Sauce in a bowl. Chop up the chicken into 1/2 inch cubes and place in the marinate. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Prepare a cooking sheet by lining with foil and then either using a light cooking spray or oil coating to keep the chicken from sticking to the foil. Then heat a skillet over high heat. When the skillet shimmers, take the marinated chicken chunks out of the marinate and roll in the Blackening Seasoning. Knock off the excess so that each chunk is evenly coated.  Immediately place the chunks into the skillet for about 2 minutes turning the chunks about every 30 seconds. When they have a little char around the edges, transfer to the cooking sheet and place in the oven for another 5 – 7 minutes. Remove when done and set aside until ready for final assembly.

To prepare the Red Beans and Rice, you’ll need to mix the half can of Red Beans with the Andouille and Onion and cook for about 10 – 15 minutes over medium high heat to reduce the liquids and mix the flavors together. You can even add a pinch or two of the Cajun Sparkle while this is cooking. When thick like a gravy, reduce heat and allow to cool. Properly store until ready for final assembly.

The only thing remaining is to prepare the rice. Simply prepare it by the instructions on the box and add in 1 tsp butter when it’s done and thoroughly mix in. Store this separately until ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Coat the pan with the butter. Layer in the rice just so that it makes an even layer in the bottom of the pan. Then in a mixing bowl mix together the Green Onion, Mozzarella and the Blackened Chicken chunks. After you get them thoroughly mixed, then place them on top of the rice in the pan. In a mixing bowl combine the Eggs, Yogurt, Half and Half and Sparkly and whisk together for about 3 -4 minutes to thoroughly mix. Then gently add the Red Beans to the egg mixture mix thoroughly. Pour this mixture over the chicken and rice in the pie pan and top with the shredded Gouda cheese. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the cheese is a golden brown. Remove from the oven as it’s ready to serve or pack it up for the rink.