Tag: main course
Avocado Chicken Salad
Avocado Chicken Salad
Avocado chicken salad is a popular filling for arepas in Venezuela. You can use leftover roast chicken to make the salad or poach your own chicken breasts. Everything gets mixed together in a bowl and is ready that quick.
Ingredients
Poached Chicken
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1/2 small onion
- 5 peppercorns
- 3 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 pinch salt
Avocado Chicken Salad
- 2 avocados ripened
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 red bell pepper finely chopped
- 3 tbsp white onion finely chopped
- 3 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 1 jalapeños seeded; finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Add the onion, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaf, and salt to a pot of water. Bring to a boil.
- Add in the chicken breast. Simmer for 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Cool and chop.
- Mash the avocado with the lime juice in a large bowl.
- Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Chill until ready for use.
Venezuelan Street Dogs
Venezuelan Street Dogs
If you’re sick of the same old ketchup and mustard hotdog, I have something for you. Venezuelan style hotdogs, also known as asquerositos, are next level. These hotdogs are topped with shredded cabbage, onions, garlic sauce, salsa rosada, ketchup, fried potato stix, and cotija cheese. To make these hotdogs requires either a baguette or a hoagie bun. A regular hotdog bun won’t be able to hold all of the toppings. So change up your next barbecue and impress your guests. You too can and will be king wiener.
Equipment
- immersion blender
- mandolin
Ingredients
- 6 hotdogs boiled or grilled
- 2 large baguettes each cut into 3 pieces; toasted
- green cabbage finely shredded
- white onion finely chopped
- ketchup
- cotija cheese grated
Potato Stix
- 1 potato
- vegetable oil for frying
- salt to taste
Garlic Sauce
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1/2 lime juiced
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
Salsa Rosada
- 5 tbsp mayonnaise
- 5 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Using an immersion blender, purée the garlic sauce ingredients until smooth. Keep in the refrigerator until ready for use.
- Mix together the salsa rosada ingredients. Keep in the refrigerator until ready for use.
- Slice your potato on a mandolin with the julienne attachment. Heat up 1/4” of vegetable oil in a small skillet over medium high heat. Add the potatoes to the oil.
- Fry for 3 minutes a side until crispy.
Hotdog Assembly
- Place the hotdogs down the center of a toasted baguette.
- Place shredded cabbage on one side; onions on the other.
- Spoon the garlic sauce on one side; the salsa rosada on the other. Squirt ketchup across the hotdog in a zig zag pattern.
Picanha Steaks
Picanha Steaks
Picanha is slowly growing in popularity due to restaurants like Fogo de Chao and other Brazilian steakhouses. Picanha is from the culotte muscle, which is the top flap of the whole top butt sirloin. That entire muscle is peeled off with the fat cap left untrimmed. The culotte muscle is cut with the grain into 3 large steaks.Traditionally, the culotte steaks are marinated in Brazilian sofrito(onion/garlic/olive oil purée) and placed on large skewers and grilled upright on an open flame. While that might be an issue for most people to replicate, there are other ways to duplicate the picanha. You can simply grill them, broil them, and even pan fry in a cast iron skillet like I did in this recipe.
Equipment
- food processor
- cast iron pan
Ingredients
- 1 whole culotte about 2.5lbs; untrimmed
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 head garlic peeled
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- coarse sea salt
- cracked black pepper
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
- Purée the onion, garlic, and olive oil in a food processor.
- Cut the culotte with the grain into 3 steaks.
- Marinate the steaks with the Brazilian sofrito in a gallon sized storage bag for 24 hours. Make sure to squeeze out the excess air.
- Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Place the steaks on a meat/fat side. Sear for 4 minutes.
- Flip the steaks to the other meat/fat side. Sear for 4 minutes.
- Flip the meat to the fat side facing down. Cook for 5 minutes to render out some of the fat.
- Flip the steaks to fat side up. Sear for 2 minutes.
- Remove the steaks from the skillet. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
- Thinly slice the steaks against the grain.
