00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Cowboy Cornbread Chicken.
00:08That's right, instead of serving chicken with cornbread, we're serving chicken in cornbread.
00:14And not just any cornbread.
00:16Right, we're going to spice up some cornbread Southwest style, just like cowboys make it.
00:22Allegedly.
00:23And to get started, I'm going to cut up three chicken breasts lengthwise in half.
00:27Not because I wanted to, but because they were ginormous, and I had to.
00:32Right, these didn't even have the tenderloin attached, and it was still close to like 12 ounces.
00:37So what we'll do in that case is take a knife and divide these right down the middle into two
00:42strips that are hopefully equally sized.
00:45And by the way, if you can find some normal-sized chicken breasts that are closer to like 6 ounces,
00:50then you can just buy 6 and use them whole.
00:53But either way, once cut, we'll toss them in a bowl, and we'll drizzle those with a little bit of
00:57olive oil.
00:59Before we season and spice them up, with a generous amount of salt, some freshly ground black pepper, plus I
01:06also added some chipotle pepper.
01:08But of course, as usual, you go ahead and toss in whatever you want.
01:12And what we'll do once we've given that a thorough mixing is pop it in the fridge until we need
01:16it.
01:17And then we'll head to the stove, where we are going to melt an entire stick of butter over medium
01:22-high heat in some kind of cast iron or other oven-safe pan.
01:26And once that butter melts, we'll go ahead and toss in a diced onion, along with our customary big pinch
01:32of salt.
01:33And we'll cook that stirring for a couple minutes, until, yes, you guessed it, they start to soften up and
01:38turn translucent.
01:40And once they do, and things are looking a little something like this, we can back our heat down to
01:45medium, and we'll toss in some bell pepper.
01:48And I like to use both red and green.
01:50And then we'll also toss in some minced garlic.
01:53And we will cook this stirring for about two minutes, or just until those peppers soften up slightly, and start
01:59to lose their raw edge.
02:01At which point we'll turn off the heat, and we'll grab a small bowl.
02:05Because before we move to the next step, I like to remove about three or four spoons of the mixture,
02:10so that we can scatter those over the top of the cornbread before it goes in the oven.
02:15So this step is optional, but I think the cornbread does look better if we do it.
02:19So let's do it.
02:21And once that's been accomplished, we'll remove the pan from the heat.
02:25And we'll let that sit and cool for about five minutes, during which time we can mix up our dry
02:30ingredients.
02:31And there's only three.
02:32Okay, some self-rising flour.
02:35Some cornmeal, of course.
02:37Plus a little bit of salt.
02:39And then we'll take a whisk and give that a thorough mixing for about 30 seconds.
02:43And by the way, as always, if you don't have self-rising flour,
02:47you can simply use all-purpose with some baking powder mixed in.
02:51And we will definitely add how to do that to the written recipe.
02:54And once that's set, we'll head back to our pan, and we'll transfer in about three tablespoons of honey.
03:00Or two if you want it less sweet, and four if you want it more.
03:04And once the pan's been honeyed, we'll transfer in our buttermilk, as well as a couple large beaten eggs.
03:10And then we'll take a whisk and mix this thoroughly, until we're very sure everything's been evenly combined.
03:16And by the way, I would make this no matter how many pots or pans it needed.
03:19But as an added bonus, this is actually a one-pan meal.
03:23So we got that going for us.
03:25Which is nice.
03:27But anyway, once that's been mixed up, we will transfer in our dry ingredients, and we'll grab a spatula.
03:33And we will very carefully, very thoughtfully mix this in.
03:37And we are only going to do that until the flour disappears.
03:40So as not to over-mix the batter.
03:42Alright, I like my cowboy's tough, but I want my cornbread tender.
03:47Oh, and if your spatula starts to get gunked up a little bit, just use a spoon to go ahead
03:51and clean it off.
03:53And once we do have that mixed in, we'll go ahead and scrape down and clean up the sides a
03:57little bit.
03:58And we'll also kind of level out the surface.
04:01At which point we can grab our chicken, specifically the chicken we seasoned and put in the fridge.
04:06And we can start pressing and pushing those pieces down into the batter.
04:10And as I started to place these in, I realized my original wagon wheel spoke design was not going to
04:15work.
04:16Right, these pieces were just too long.
04:19But as you know, we never let the food win.
04:22And eventually I figured out that if I kind of bent them and shaped this more into a spiral,
04:27that I would be able to fit them all in, and they would be nice and evenly spaced.
04:32And by the way, if you are using six small breasts, and you're not using these cut-up pieces,
04:37you can just go a round stick in a minute like a 45 degree angle, in roughly the same positions.
04:43Right, as long as they're equally spaced, it's all going to work out just fine.
04:48And then once we have that placed in, we'll take a spoon,
04:51and we will take a little bit of that batter from here and there,
04:54and do about three or four spoons in the center,
04:56where all the thinnest pieces of the chicken came together,
04:59which I think helps this bake up nice and evenly.
05:02And that's it. To finish this off, we'll go ahead and scatter over our reserved pepper-onion mixture,
05:07followed by a nice sprinkling of grated Monterey Jack cheese.
05:11Or at least that's what I decided to use.
05:14Right, a cheddar would also work well.
05:16So you decide.
05:18I mean, you are after all Billy the Kid, of whether to do it like Chef John did.
05:23And that's it. This is now ready to transfer into the upper center,
05:26of a 400 degree oven, for about 40 to 45 minutes.
05:31Or until our chicken's safely cooked, our cornbread is beautifully browned,
05:35and it hopefully looks like this.
05:37Oh yeah.
05:39I mean, yee-haw!
05:41Now that is a real looker.
05:43And not to brag, but I knew this was cooked just by poking it.
05:47Or if you want to test with this gear, to see if it comes out clean,
05:50or stick a thermometer into the chicken, go ahead.
05:54But anyway, once we're sure it's done,
05:56we will garnish the top with some freshly sliced green onions.
05:59And that's it. Our cowboy cornbread chicken is ready to enjoy.
06:04So I grabbed a spoon and scooped out one of those pieces of chicken,
06:08with of course an appropriate amount of cowboy cornbread attached.
06:12And while I'm sure this would be great as is,
06:15I decided to serve mine up with some hot honey butter,
06:18which is nothing more than half butter and half honey heated in a pan.
06:22Oh, and I also spiked it with some more chipotle and a little shake of cayenne,
06:26which actually makes this hot, hot honey butter.
06:29And yes, those measurements will be in the written recipe as well.
06:32And that, my friends, for someone that loves cornbread and chicken as much as I do,
06:36was a tremendously enjoyable bite of food.
06:39Oh, and if you wanted to do an extra step,
06:42you could actually brown the chicken in the butter before you add your onions.
06:45But I'm really not sure that's going to make much of a difference in this.
06:49And those pieces of chicken are actually going to stiffen up,
06:52and possibly be harder to put into the batter.
06:54So I didn't.
06:56And what this reminded me of most,
06:58was a cornbread stuffed chicken breast I had one time.
07:01Except this was way easier and less fussy.
07:04And as I already mentioned,
07:05we only need one pan,
07:07which I'm sure cowboys will appreciate,
07:10since everybody knows they hate to wash dishes.
07:13In fact, I remember watching a western when I was a little kid.
07:16And after they finished eating,
07:18they actually rubbed their dishes with sand to clean them.
07:20And after seeing that, I asked my mom if we could do that.
07:23And she said no.
07:25But anyway, the point is,
07:26cowboys don't like to wash dishes.
07:28And neither do we.
07:30And while the hot, hot honey butter was really good with this,
07:33a classic brown chicken gravy would also be beautiful.
07:36But no matter how you serve yours,
07:38I thought this easy one-pan dish came out incredibly well.
07:42And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
07:45So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
07:48a printable written recipe,
07:50and much more info as usual.
07:52And as always, enjoy!
08:04Thank you!
08:05Amen.
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