Aug 27

Stuffed Chicken with Mango Guacamole

Access to abundant inexpensive mangoes is as good a reason to live in the jungle as any! I first saw this recipe in Ben’s “What’s Cooking” Blog and saved it to adapt to my tastes and ingredient availability.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts ; flattened
2 slices of ham
4 -6 oz pepper jack cheese in strips
Some ; fresh spinach leaves
salt, ; pepper

The first thing you will note from my picture of ingredients is that I have no pepper jack cheese. It is impossible to find pepper jack cheese in Peten. Cheese selection is minimal at best and incredibly expensive for the 2 or 3 types carried. I have gone with my “fall-back blend” of local white cheese, combined with grated Parmesan cheese.

Spinach is another rarity, so I used a couple of leaves of aselgar.

I also added some sprinkles of Balsamic Vinegar, just because it seemed like the flavor would add to the dish.

1 small ripe avocado
2 ripe Manila mangoes
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 jalapeño pepper ; deveined
2 Roma tomatoes
the ; juice of 1 large lime

The biggest change in the Mango Guacamole is that I didn’t have an avocado and there were none at the local tienda, so I decided to try it without. So I guess its not really a guacamole anymore.

I have a tree that produces giant lemons and I figure that one big slice is about equivalent to the juice of a lime (aren’t limes just unripe lemons?)

The third thing I changed is the amount of cilantro. I love cilantro. I was old enough to be suffering from mid-life crisis before I consciously tasted it in my first bowl of black bean soup and I have loved it ever since. Along with the mangoes, abundant cilantro is another great reason to live in Guatemala.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C)
2. Put a slice of ham, a couple of slices of cheese and a couple of spinach leaves over one of the flattened chicken breasts. (I put the ham slices, the leaves of aselgar, the cheeses and some sprinkles of balsamic oil)

3. Roll and hold with toothpicks.
4. Drizzle olive oil over a cookie sheet. Put rolls on cookie sheet, drizzle some olive oil over them and season with salt, pepper, parsley flakes and oregano.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes
6. In a food processor blend mangoes, avocado, cilantro, jalapeño pepper, tomatoes, lime juice and salt to taste.

7. When the chicken comes out of the oven serve with your favorite accompaniments, spoon some mango guacamole over the chicken and enjoy.

Verdict:

Even with all the changes that I made to the original recipe, the dish was excellent. The guacamole that wasn’t really guacamole added a tangy spicy bite to the chicken and you wouldn’t even realize that the main ingredient was missing. As a matter of fact, the extra sauce inspired the next recipe.