Grilled Fusion Chicken

Morita chiles are red, fully mature Chipotles. This gives them a unique, medium – hot smokey flavor which is popular in many Southwestern dishes. These can be added to sauces (including Mole) to add smokey flavor and maintain the red color of the sauces. These peppers are about 2-4 inches in length, 1 inch in width, and have a deep brick reddish brown color. The word Chipotle translated to smoked chile. Consider the Chipotle a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hottest). Scoville heat units 7,000-25,000.

Suggested Use:
Use Morita in enchilada sauces, chili, stews, barbecue ribs, and corn bread. Their smoky quality combines well with poultry, meats and fall squash.

Heat Scale
Submit Recipe

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup garlic-infused olive oil (see notes)
2 Tbsp. each tequila and fresh lime juice
1-1/2 tsp. Bailey Farms hot sauce
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tsp. ground dried chipotle chile
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
chopped cilantro (optional)

Notes: You can substitute 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus 2 tsp. minced garlic for the garlic-infused olive oil.

Instructions:
Pound the chicken to 1/4″ thickness. In a shallow dish, whisk the oil, tequila, lime juice, hot sauce, Worcestershire, ginger, chile and salt. Reserve 1/3 cup of this marinade, then put the chicken in the dish. Turn to coat and marinate for 30 minutes.

Grill the chicken over a charcoal or gas grill on medium heat (you can hold your hand 1-2″ above the grill level for only about 4-5 seconds), turning once, until it is cooked through, 6-8 minutes total.

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, simmer the reserved marinade until it reduces to about 1/4 cup, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the cream, then remove it from heat. Serve the chicken drizzled with the sauce and garnished with the cilantro, if you like. Serve with some extra sauce and a green salad on the side.

Recipe by Janet Hubbard, Sunset Magazine, August 2006.