What's For Lunch?

So Sunday early morning I was viewing P. Allen Smith on a local station. He featured Kent Rathbun, an awesome chef at Abacus, Dallas, TX. He used to be a Sous Chef at Mr. B's, a 4 star restaurant in New Orleans as well as many other notable places. As I watched the video of Kent preparing his "Fajita Grilled Chicken and Green Apple Salad".... I drooled in my coffee. I knew I just had to make that for Sunday nite. So later on Sunday I set off to our local Diamondhead Grocery Store. I must explain that BK (before Katrina) we had at least 7 grocery stores and 2 Super Walmarts in about a 30 mile radius. Now we have 1 Walmart and 1 grocery store. Thank goodness for these 2 stores but "You Can't Always Get What You Want". So I had to make a few substitutes. Well, Mr. and I dined on this yummy salad last night. I loved it, I adore an infusion of many flavors, textures, and aromas. Mr. was just glad to get yet another meal. LOL. So here is my lunch today, left over from last night. I treated myself to a sitdown instead of a grab and go. Even used my pretty "Dine on the Bayou" dishes from Artist friend Susan Lumpkin to celebrate Rotten Bayou ( yes, that is really the correct name) across the street. S'cuse me while I go eat.

Grilling chicken and red pepper Sunday night.

I marinated the chicken breasts in zip lock bag for about 4 hours. The pesto sauce is made. I could not get a yellow pepper, fresh cilantro (I used dried), cotija cheese (I used goat cheese), or pumpkins seeds(I used toasted pecans) no Ancho chiles..(used canned). Oh heck! Will it taste the same?

Fajita Gilled Chicken and Green Apple Salad
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Description
You know, they say they do everything bigger in Texas and chef Kent Rathbun took this to heart when he decided to grill up some chicken to make chicken salad. Here is a transcript from my cooking lesson with Kent that explains how he made his Fajita Gilled Chicken and Green Apple Salad.
Ingredients
boneless chicken breastChicken Marinade:soy sauceWorcestershire sauceolive oilfresh cilantro, choppedlime juicejalapeño, choppedCilantro Pumpkin Seed Pesto:fresh cilantrojalapeñoolive oilgarlictoasted pumpkin seedsCotija cheese, (Mexican crumbling cheese)Ancho Honey Sour Cream:Ancho chiliessour creamhoneySalad Garnishes:Granny Smith applecilantroroasted red and yellow peppers
Instructions
Hey, guys, today we’re pool-side out in my backyard. We’re going to do a little chicken salad, Texas style. So, this is a fajita-grilled chicken salad that's very easy. We're just going to take some boneless chicken breast, and we're going to marinate them in a bit of soy sauce, some Worcestershire sauce, a touch of olive oil, some fresh chopped cilantro, a little bit of limejuice, and don't forget that spice to life, the jalapeño. A couple hours in the marinade, no problem. Overnight is even okay. And then take them out; put them on your backyard grill - charcoal or gas either one is good. And then grill them, get them nice and done, and then once they cool down, what we're going to do is kind of start tearing them instead of cutting them. What this does is it gives this nice little texture of torn chicken instead of cut. It’s just a nicer way to present the salad.Okay, so once we've finished with our chicken, it's time to move on to our cilantro-pumpkin seed pesto.In the blender I have some cilantro, a fresh jalapeño, some olive oil, a little bit of garlic, some toasted pumpkin seeds, and a little bit of Cotija cheese, which is a Mexican crumbling cheese.And then we're going to start blending this just like we would a pesto. Pretty simple.Okay, so, now we have a nice, smooth, beautiful, green dressing.So it's time to move on to our ancho honey sour cream, which is going to kind of be our finishing dressing for the salad.The first thing we're going to do is create an ancho puree. Just take some ancho chilies, re-hydrated them in a little bit of water, put them into a blender and blended them smooth. Next add just a touch of sour cream.Now take the honey, and add it to the ancho chili and make a really nice sort of sweet, hot, creamy dressing, and this is really going to be a great finish off for the salad.Just whisk the ancho chili paste, sour cream and honey together.Now we have a few garnishes that we need– julienned Granny Smith apple, roasted yellow and red peppers, cilantro leaves.Now it’s just a matter of piling it all up on the plate. Start with the chicken, then add a little of the pumpkin seed pesto. Top this with the apple, roasted peppers, cilantro leaves and a dab of the ancho sour cream. Stack it nice and tall and that is a chicken salad, Texas style.
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