Fajita Grilled Cheese. It's a Grilled Cheese with Fajita Meat Inside

This TexMex treat first originated after a long day on Lake Austin in 2003. A somewhat ravished and raucous crew of lakegoers ventured to Maudies for some post lake drinks and a hearty meal. Good times led to good drinks which led to a yearning, nay a hankering, for a grilled cheese by a younger El Smokeador. Originally met with quite a bit of "we can't do that" and "tell me again" my hunger (and quite a bit of the El Smokeador Y Smokehopper trademarked unadulterated gumption) prevailed and the waiter/cook finally agreed to make me a grilled cheese with fajita meats on the inside.

I have tried to make this for the blog twice in the past 3 years to no avail. Turns out as El Smokeador gets older the ratio of good drinks to bad pictures has a direct relationship in which the correlation grows closer and closer to 1 as amounts of both variables in the test are increased. Never thought the MBA would make an appearance on the ol' blog. Statistics!!

It should be noted that I cooked all of this on the stove top in the house I am currently leasing. Gas grill with a cast iron skillet. Here are the spices I used for the chicken. I am not going to go into great detail on certain amounts of what that I used because everyone likes it different, but lets say it was two tablespoons of olive oil and about a teaspoon of the rest of what you see in the picture. NOT THE METAMUCIL AND OATMEAL. THOSE ARE FOR A FORTHCOMING BRISKET. But the salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, coriander, garlic powder and olive oil were all used.


Bought three chicken breasts from the store. Washed. Patted dry and sliced into fajita like strips. Put them all in a bag with the spices and olive oil.



Found a couple of small limes, halved them and added the juice of both to the bag. I did this at lunch today and let them sit until about 7. So thats 7 hours if you are not counting along at home. I am pretty sure and hour or two would have been ok.


Bought this stuff for the toppings to go inside the sandwich with the cheese and chicken. Cut it all into 3-4 inch strips and tried to keep the onion in a circular manner. No real science to that.



Before slicing all of that up I threw the skillet on high heat and it got hot. Once everything was sliced in the most meticulous manner and the skillet was hot, I dumped the whole bag of chicken on (no oil as there was already oil in the marinade) and let it brown until the juice had simmered off. This is what we in the business of food call the wise mans gambit meaning its always better to have a little bit dried out chicken than the alternative of undercooked chicken. A wise man told me that once as I was huddled over a trash can nevermind. A little stream of consciousness folks. Tip your waitress.


When your chicken is thoroughly cooked it will look like this. Off of the skillet and on a plate so you can add the red pepper, white onion and jalapeno slices.



When the onions are carmelized to your liking and the peppers are soft enough for you, add the chicken back in. I don't know why but pretend your Nike. Hello Nike.


Based on previous posts you would think that buttering bread is not something this blog is about. Wrong.


In an ideal situation I would have used a nice thick piece of bread but I didn't have any and Stephsmoke is saving up her bread making abilities for Bagel Bites that will be made soon. That said, there is some cheese at the store that I have been enjoying, I think its New York Cream and Habanero Pepper-jack. I used two slices here. Could have used more to get a really cheesy sandwich, but I had a turkey sandwich for lunch and there is such a thing as too much cheese in one day.


Added the peppers and chicken to both sides of the bread and combined them into a singular being. Put the whole thing on a new non stick skillet and let it cook for about 2.5 minutes per side. You can do it longer if you want to burn your sandwich but I don't particularly care for burned bread. Toast on the other hand is delicious.



Finished product with a side of Guacamole. The guacamole was just avocado, half of a smallish tomato, some red onion, garlic and lime juice with salt and pepper. Couple of different views for you.



All in all it's a pretty cheap, somewhat healthy meal. No it's not healthy at all, but not much that tastes good is. If you try it at home please send us a pic and we will post it.

Also, from a musical standpoint if you don't have the new J. Mascis album get it. It's fantastic.

And there is this:


~El Smokeador~

Beercan Chicken With Guinness As the Beer

First post in a while, sorry. We have a lot of ideas tabled and frankly rose the bar a little too high with what we did in 2009. Butterfinger Brisket, come on. Chicken Fried Brisket, right. So, this is going to be relatively short and sweet. Really sweet.....because the chicken turned out really sweet. Zing.

But really, this has been on the to do list for a while. We still plan on producing several other variations on this classic but its been hard to find time lately. Smokehopper turned 30. Pretty Wild is on E!. New albums from Band of Horses, LCD Soundsystem, The Delta Spirit, Sharon Jones, The National and Gorillaz. Etc. Etc.

Onto the chicken.

Started with a whole fryer washed off and patted dry.

Threw on some paprika, salt and pepper. Also, you should crack open a Guinness at this point. The cans are sold in 4 packs, so you can have a couple yourself. In fact, when you're dealing with a smoker that is not cooperating and maintaining a pretty constant level of heat it is suggested.

Chopin is a good addition to the Guinness when dealing with a smoker induced headache. Particularly this :

That is The Clientele - Strange Geometry and Dave Matthews Band - Crash on the table. Both really solid albums if you can get over the fact that its not cool to like Dave anymore.

Dave sucks.

Not really, just kidding. Zing x2.

This is the smoker we used at SmokeNor's house. The original plan was to cook the chicken for about 4 or 5 hours at about 225. Things we didn't have that would have been great:

1) Meat thermometer (we ended up getting one later, so disregard this).

2) An oven thermometer that told gave us an accurate reading on the temp inside the chamber.

We didn't end up needing a thermometer but instead a better understanding of how the smoker worked. We didn't use nearly enough wood starting out and the heat only got up to 175 for the first 3 or 4 hours. Ended up cooking the chicken for a solid 6 hours after we figured out that we had to get a good sized fire going in the firebox. Took about 3 logs at a time. Sorry for the rant. It's under control.

We did some ribs too, but only LSmoke's turned out good. Next time I needed to make mine a little more tender. I also tried out a Guinness inspired bourbon, coffee, heath bar rub that will not be posted. Good idea on paper but executed poorly.

Anyway, here are the results. Check out how the Guinness came out through the top and drizzled down the skin. Don't think that had any effect on the final product but the chicken was easily the sweetest chicken I had ever tasted. So, I have to think that the Guinness penetrated the skin and got into the meat. It was fantastic. Like two guys playing horse.

Not much meat, but like I said above it was really tasty. Consumed pretty quickly.

So we played ship captain crew. It was a fun night.

Also, there is this:

The end.

Oh Hatch Chile's

You bring me joy.

You Bring Me Joy from Zach Galifianakis

It is Hatch Chile season. Last night was my first foray into the greatness of the Hatch and I must say I am ashamed that I was not told about this neat little green pepper earlier. I have read about them for a couple years and did my studies (on my own time, MY OWN TIME) to figure out the proper way to cook these big little guys. This post might have a lot of consecutive contradictions. (This blog is not necessarily all about grammar). Here we go.

Do not confuse these peppers with Anaheim peppers like Smokehopper used in his Ranchburgers a couple posts back. The store last night had them right next to the Anaheims and a smart notsosmart Smokeador would have grabbed them. Luckily I am a smarter Smokeador. This is what they look like:

(Not my pic. Don't tell the site I took it from.)

It's imperative that you roast these bad boys on an open flame until you get a nice black char on the skin. I didn't take pics of the roasting process because I wasn't sure that this was going on the blogosphere. BUT, after you get a good char going put them in a big ziplock and immediately put them in the fridge so they can sweat. This really makes it easier to get the skin off (thanks Shag) and saves some time peeling.

(In the bag after the fridge)

It should be noted at this point that Smokehopper told me that I needed to take the seeds out. I didn't take the seed out and it ended up being kind of spicy and delicious. Next batch seeds will be removed and we will see what I like better. Probably going to be no seeds, but again, first foray into the Hatch Chile.

(Peeled and sliced for the blender)

I roasted about 6 last night and only used 4 for this chicken. Saved 2 for my eggs this morning and they were glorious. Anyway, after they were peeled I threw them in the blender with some olive oil and tried to blend it up into a nice paste. Long story short, I didn't have enough in there for it to blend properly and I ended up with mostly more chopped not chopped peppers in the blender. Poured them back on a cutting board and went to town with a large knife.

Had a nice bowl of fresh crushed peppercorns and crushed pink Hawaiian sea salt and mixed it all up into a nice salsa'y, pasty kind of substance.

(Peppers on top of salt and pepper)

(Mixed up real good not good)*

I had three chicken breasts that I halved and put on foil on a cookie sheet. This blog should not be about putting chicken on cookie sheets but I just made it that way. So it is now I guess. More to come on that.

(Salsa'y substance applied to chicken)

Left it alone in the oven for 45 minutes on 350 and checked periodically. Ovens. I know. I am not impressed either.

Finshed product:

(Still on said cookie sheet)

(With a salad too because we all need our greens)

All said, this was a fantastic meal. I can't wait to dive in feet first into more uses for these awesome peppers. I have been experimenting with different kinds of chicken in the oven lately. Made a chipotle meco pepper baste a couple weeks ago that was fantastic as well. It is probably reasonably but not very ideal to make lots of chicken in the oven with various types of stuff on top of it. I still have a few of these peppers left and will probably buy more to maybe dry out for a brisket rub later in the year. I don't know if we'll have enough time. Anyway, it was good and you should all head to Pendery's to get some spices, and New Mexico for some Hatch Chile's and make some stuff. Good, old fashioned stuff.

Here are some tunes you need to check out too.

The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa

The Avett Brothers - Incomplete and Insecure

The Avett Brothers - The Perfect Space

Throw Me the Statue - Hi-Fi Goon

Girls - Hellhole Ratrace

Panda Bear - Bros

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's - Home

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's - Janglin

Patton Oswalt - Rats

Eels - That Look You Gave That Guy

and

All of Phoenix's "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" Its great.

~El Smokeador~

*Real good not good is henceforth a copyrighted term to only be used by El Smokeador y Smokehopper.