Stuffed Chicken Breast Medallions

In keeping with the copy-cat theme, I've been trying to find a recipe for the stuffed chicken breast medallions served at Abuelo's.

I've tried making this a few ways with various ingredients, but today's test was the most successful by far.

4 chicken breasts
6 - 8 oz chorizo (pork is the best)
1 large (or 2 small) poblano peppers, peeled and chopped.
2 T fresh cilantro
grated cheese (cheddar)

Flour
2 eggs
milk

Peeling a pepper is made easier by following a few steps. By removing the skin, you help make the pepper softer and more flavorful. Broil the pepper, turning often, until it's blistered all over. Take it out of the oven, and into either a ziploc bag, or a tupperware container. What you want is for the pepper to "steam". Leave it in there for 5 - 10 minutes. If you've got it good and blistered, the skin should just peel off.

While your pepper is cooking, you can start cooking the chorizo. There will be lots of grease rendered, be sure to get rid of as much of this as you can. Greasy chorizo will make the rest of the process a lot harder. Chop the cilantro into a small mixing bowl. Add the cooked chorizo to the cilantro, and add the diced poblanos. Grate in cheese, I normally do 2 ounces or so, you really can't go wrong here. Mix well to combine. This will be your stuffing, so you want to be sure to get everything really mixed around.

Next, create a cavity instead each chicken breast by cutting a pocket. I start at the big portion of the breast, and swipe the knife around inside to create the void. You want the hole to be only slightly larger than the knife blade, but the caivty to be nearly as big as the breast. A large hole makes it more difficult to seal before cooking.

When the chickens have all been stuffed, you can either bake them (it's ok this way), or deep-fry them like fried chicken (much better). Baking takes about 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

To fry them, I mix two eggs with about 1/2 C milk. Dip the breasts into the egg mixture, then into flour, lightly seasoned with chili powder and garlic salt. Fry for about 5 minutes on each side -- turning only ONCE. You seriously dry out food by over-turning it.

Abuelos serves this with queso sauce, so if you've got some time to do that, it'd be great, but not necessary. I've been trying to get this recipe as close to the original as possible, and enjoy making it each time, even when it doesn't come out quite so good.

Overall Rating: 89 (scale of 100)