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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.

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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.

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Chipotle Beef Quiche

Sorry that we’ve been away for the last couple of weeks, there hasn’t been any ice available for us due to a big USA Hockey Camp, so no need to cook. And to make matters worse, we were going to post a recipe for Georgian Khinkali but every batch we make fails in some way. So we made this Chipotle Beef Quiche, because we knew it would be successful.

Chipotle Beef with Corn Salsa
Chipotle Beef with Corn Salsa
This one was inspired by a recent lunch at Chili’s. I’m guessing that Chili’s made their own version of a Chipotle’s burrito in bowl form, but who knows. They call theirs “Chipotle Fresh Mex Bowl” and this is just different enough that it got my interest. And it tasted good enough to try making it a quiche that tastes similar. The ingredients in this are pretty standard, except for the Chipotle Pesto Sauce that is drizzled all over it. It’s quite tasty and as usual, this disappeared quickly after the skate.

And on a side note, going foward the ingredients portions will be sized for one quiche, since most people will only cook a single pie at a time.

Serves 8 – 12 (1 Quiche)

Ingredients

  • 1 8 – 10 oz. portion of Flank Steak (or other cut to your preference)
  • 1/2 14.5 oz. can of Roasted Sweet Corn
  • 1/2 14.5 oz. can of Black Beans
  • 1/4 Red Onion (finely chopped)
  • 1 Jalapeño (seeds removed and finely chopped)
  • 1/4 cup cooked Rice
  • 1/4 cup Cilantro (finely chopped)
  • 1 Lime (halved)

Chipotle Pesto

  • 2 Chipotle Peppers in Adobo (remove seeds for less heat)
  • 3 Tbsp Hummus or Ground Chickpeas (use Pine Nuts for a traditional flavor)
  • 1/4 cup fresh Cilantro (chopped)
  • 2 cloves Garlic (grated)
  • 1/4 cup Queso Fresco (crumbled)
  • 2 – 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1 tsp Salt 
  • 1 tsp Ground Pepper

Quiche Filling

  • 4 large Eggs
  • 4 oz. Greek Yougert
  • 4 oz. Half and Half
  • 1/4 cup shredded Habanero Jack Cheese
  • 1/4 cup Tostada Strips

Preparation

Prepare and grill the flank steak in the manner that you find best. But my favorite is to simply sprinkle some salt and pepper or Monterrey Seasoning on each side and grill till medium on an open flame. Then let it rest while you prepare the other portions. 

The Chipotle Pesto is made by in a food processor or blender, by first blending together the grated garlic and olive oil. Allow that to sit for about five minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. Then pulse the machine while adding in the rest of the ingredients. When everything is in, run the machine for at least another 20 seconds. Remove and store in a glass container until final assembly. This will probably make about 1/2 cup of the Pesto and I recommend only using about 4 oz. in the quiche filling so you’ll have some to snack on. It’s great as a dip or even spread on bread.

The corn and bean salsa is made by combining the beans, corn, onion, jalapeño and half of the chopped cilantro in a mixing bowl. The beans and corn should be drained before mixing. After everything is fully mixed  squeeze in half of the lime and mix a little more. Store this in another glass container until final assembly.

Prepare the rice according to the package, and allow to cool until lukewarm. Then mix in the remaining chopped cilantro and squeeze the other half of the lime over the rice. Mix completely and refrigerate in a glass container until ready for final assembly. 

By now the meat has rested enough, so chop it into small squares, no larger than 1/2 inch. Refrigerate separately until ready for final assembly. 

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 380 F. Combine the chopped steak, corn and bean salsa and seasoned rice into the pie crusts and make sure they are thoroughly mixed. Prepare the egg filling by whisking together the eggs, yogurt, Half and Half and the Chipolte Pesto. I recommend about 4 oz. of the pesto, but a little more doesn’t hurt. Beat until fluffy, adding some salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the other fillings in the pie crust and top with a layer of shredded cheese. Then add the tostada strips on top. Place in the oven and cook for 35 – 40 minutes, or until the cheese just starts to brown a bit. Remove and either serve or pack it up for the rink.