Chicken, Black Bean, and Avocado Stacks

Chicken, Bean, and Avocado Stacks

Hey guys, I'm back with another FOODIE original. As you should know by now, I LOVE to make appetizers or "small plates". It's cute food and it's always easier to make the presentation great with less food on the plate. I think I'm showing my "Bobby Flay-ness" in this recipe because it's got a nice southwestern taste with the beans and the spicy taste, but I also add some honey for sweetness, some avocado on top for freshness, and some lovely cotija cheese on top for some saltiness and texture. I think Bobby would be proud.

So how was everyone's week? Mine was very eventful, actually, but not all in a good way. But before I get to that part, first my dad, stepmom, and my 6 year old brother Jake came over last Saturday night for a quesadilla party complete with a viewing of "Iron Man". Awesome movie! I love RDJ's character. He was such an awesome ass in that movie. haha... But one of the coolest parts of that night was when Jake helped me make some of the quesadilla fillings. He was entirely responsible for the garlic chicken pieces. I mean that, I didn't do anything but cut the chicken into pieces and he did the rest: the seasoning, the olive oil, the sauteeing, etc. Sure, he may have needed to kneel on a stool, but so what? He did a great job and I'm so glad that he's interested in cooking at such a young age! Yay! I'm gonna have plenty of fun with this!

Jake the Future Chef

Jake smelling his chicken creation

While I finished preparing the quesadillas, Jake kicked back and played some tunes on Mark's guitar. Ok "played" may be a strong word, but you get the picture. :-)

playin' some tunes

Sunday Mark's parents came over and Mark made some spectacular ducks cooked on the rotisserie. He paired it with a blackberry reduction sauce and it was out of this world.

However, that's when our week took a huge turn for the worst. At about 4am Monday morning, both Mark and I came down with a raging case of the flu. Oh yes, it hit both of us at the exact same time. Remember that cute little boy that helped us make quesadillas a couple nights before? hahaha... yep! Oh well... It was awful and lasted until Wednesday before we started really feeling like ourselves again. So, whenever we're asked in the future, "Where were YOU when Barack Obama was elected president??", we will be able to say, "in bed with the flu!" But we did have CNN on all day and night that day and all I can say is that it was an absolutely amazing moment to see that Obama was going to win. I guess all my hoping and praying worked!

The rest of the week has been about getting back to normal. So needless to say, the subject of this post was not created this past week, but the week before. And here's how you make it:

Start by roasting up two medium sized poblano peppers until charred all over. Remove the skins, seeds, and dice up the flesh.

roast the poblano pepper, deseed, and peel

While the peppers are roasting, you can start on sauteeing the onions in some olive oil and seasoning them lightly with salt and pepper.

sautee the onions

Next, open a can of black beans, rinse them off, then add them to the skillet. Season with some cumin and lime juice. Remove from the pan when the onions are tender and set aside.

add black beans and lime juice

Next, cut about 3 small chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and toss them in olive oil. Then season them with salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and ancho chile powder. Finally, drizzle honey over the whole mixture.

season the chicken

Add the chicken mixture to a hot skillet coated with olive oil and saute until the chicken is cooked through.

sautee the chicken until brown

Transfer the chicken mixture to a bowl and stir in the chopped up pieces of roasted poblano pepper. Yum!!!

stir the poblano into the cooked chicken

Next, open a package of Naan and cut up both pieces into circles with a biscuit cutter.

cut the naan into circles with a biscuit cutter

Then grill the Naan circles on an olive-oiled griddle until golden brown on both sides. Transfer to a paper towl-lined plate and sprinkle them with sea salt.

grill the naan circles until brown on both sides

Now it is time to stack these babies up and get them into the oven. Lay down five Naan circles and top each one with the chicken-poblano mixture.

top the bottom naan circle with chicken mixture

Then top that with some shredded colby-jack cheese.

then top with colby jack cheese

Top each of those with a second Naan circle.

top with a second naan circle

Then top each second Naan circle with the onion-bean mixture. Yes, you will have beans, chicken, everything falling everywhere, but do your best to get things to stack on top of each other. It's ok if it's a little messy, it actually looks nice that way, too.

top the second naan circle with bean and onion mixture

Carefully place these into a 350 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes so the cheese can melt and everything heats through. Remove the tray of stacks from the oven and top them with some diced fresh avocado and sprinkle some crumbled cotija cheese on each one. Just do your best to get everything to balance on top. Then return them to the oven for a few more minutes so the cotija cheese can melt a little.

add avocado and cotija to the top

Remove them from the oven and serve them on a plate decorated with zig-zags of sour cream and pureed pico de gallo. Sprinkle everything with chopped cilantro and serve! I used parsley in the picture because it's all I had and it was still good (but I did miss the cilantro because I LOVE the stuff!).

Chicken, Bean, and Avocado Stacks

That's it! I didn't put together a formal recipe but if you follow the steps above and eye-ball everything, you'll be just fine. Have a great weekend!

Oh! and by the way... FOODIE's 1-year anniversary has already come and gone! So Happy 1-Year, FOODIE! I continue to enjoy sharing my food with all of you and I love the interaction I get with other foodies. This has turned out to be the creative outlet I so desperatley needed and I thank all of you for continuing to stop by and see how I'm doing. Thank you!

Comments

  1. Those look good! Congrats on 1 year of tasty posts!

    ReplyDelete
  2. kevin - thanks! I just got done checking out your pictures from Greece. They were beautiful! I also love that there were cats everywhere - how cute!

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow, those look fantastic! and some of my fav ingredients :) from the sounds of it you've got a family full of good cooks, so lucky!!

    ReplyDelete

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