Chipotle chicken rice bake
Built on cooked rice and a rotisserie bird, which is not cheating if nobody sees.
At a Glance
Story
The maple is not there to make this sweet. A spoonful of sugar against chipotle pulls the smoke forward and lets the heat arrive a beat later, which is why chipotle in a plain tomato sauce reads as sharp and the same chipotle in a glaze reads as barbecue. Cut the maple and you do not get a less sweet dish, you get a thinner one.
Ingredients
- 10 oz cooked pulled chickenfrom a rotisserie bird
- 8 ½ oz cooked jasmine ricea pouch or last night's
- 3 oz fire-roasted cornfrozen is right
- 2 oz cheddar and Monterey Jackgrated
- 2 tsp canned chipotles in adobominced
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 oz pickled jalapeñossliced
- ¼ cup full-fat Greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup crispy fried onions
- cilantrochopped, and a lime
- olive oilsalt, pepper
Method
Assembly, really, rather than cooking. Everything arrives already cooked and the oven's only job is to get it hot and melt the top.
- Oven to 450°F. Oil a small roasting tray.
- Knead the rice pouch for a few seconds to loosen the grains, then tip it into the tray with the corn, half the cheese, the chopped cilantro, a good squeeze of lime and as much jalapeño as you want. Season and stir.
- In a bowl, toss the pulled chicken with the maple, the chipotle, a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper.
- Spread the chicken over the rice, scatter the rest of the cheese and bake uncovered 15 to 20 minutes, until everything is properly hot and the top has taken some colour.
- Yogurt in spoonfuls, then the crispy onions, then more lime.
Put the onions on at the table, not before. They go soft in about ninety seconds and the crunch is half of why this works.
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