I recently purchased The Phoenix Cooks Cook Book by Cristina Barrueta. It is a cook book that features recipes from many of of the best chefs from Phoenix. The first recipe I tried was the Chiles Rellenos with Duxelles, Goat Cheese Cream, and Chimayo Salsa. This recipe is by chef Rene Andrade and chef Roberto Centeno from Ghost Ranch Modern Southwest Cuisine in Tempe Arizona. The recipe is very unusual for a home cook. This recipe calls for 2 cups of garlic plus TEN cloves. I also thought three cups of heavy cream is a lot of heavy cream for 7 peppers….. Even though I changed up the recipe a bit I do not have permission to publish it. I will just mention my experience with the recipe. For some people this recipe might make way more filling and sauce than you might need for 7 peppers but it is delicious.
Roasted Anaheim peppers
Chimayo salsa..This came out very thick for me. I added some water like they suggest to if the sauce is too thick. I also added 1/2 a cup of apple cider vinegar. I thought it brightens it up some. This makes way more than needed. It also gets thicker and needs to be thinned down more.
Goat Cheese Cream – three cups of heavy cream plus the goat cheese is too much for me so I only used one cup of cream that I didn’t reduce. I added a secret small dab of French Dijon mustard for a little depth. Still had plenty of goat cheese cream.
Duxelles….I made the duxelles but maybe my garlic was too strong and not as fresh as what a chef gets. The 2 cups of garlic was too much garlic for my mushrooms….to remedy this I added 3 Tablespoons of Mushroom Powder and one cup of huitiloche (Mexican Truffle also called corn smut) salt and pepper. (P.S. the mushroom powder is very good to add to things and is locally made by a woman known as the mushroom lady.
She supplies very fine mushrooms to the finest restaurants around Phoenix. My peppers for stuffing were far smaller than what the chefs have used because I had enough leftover to fill around a dozen roasted yellow Mexican chili peppers. The leftovers were also really great in omelettes too. (down below are the Mexican Yellow Peppers filled with the leftovers after filling 7 Anaheim peppers)
Garnish with chives….I fried leeks instead.
It came out Delicious and AMAZING…My changes I feel were only minor……. I never would have made this delicious dish without the Phoenix Cooks Cookbook.
Chiles Rellenos with Duxelles, Huitilloche, Goat Cheese Cream. and Chimayo Salsa
A Special THANKS! To chef Rene Andrade, chef Roberto Canteno and Christina Barrueta for this amazing recipe.
We have been doing a lot of take out in Metro Phoenix since the pandemic has happened. We’ve taken out a lot of Chicken Dishes so here they are in no particular order.
We are starting with the AMAZING Fried Chicken lunch from Confluence in Carefree. It’s a very large portion of chicken and it’s INSANELY Delicious chicken. It comes with this sauce that is mustardy, spicy and a little sweet but in a way that is a hundred times more delicious than I can describe. They change up the sides every few weeks but it’s always CRAZY GREAT!
The Greek Salad from Pita Kitchen tin Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide with added chicken kabob is usually very good (like 17 out of 20 times…. The chicken is usually moist and is always developed with delicious flavors. It always has a delicious kind of char taste too.
Below is the chicken fajita salad from Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
This salad is always a little different every time I have it but I can say for sure that it is always a large salad. I always enjoy their house made salsa with this salad.
From Taco Fusion in Glendale. I would highly recommend the mild chicken habanero taco. It’s even better with their pineapple salsa if you can get it on the day you are there. Actually all their food is very good. Even the tortillas are better than from most places. You do have to ask for the salsas here.
Bellow is the chicken cabbage salad from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix.
It’s tasty and just the right size and only cost around $5.00. Next to it are their chicken potstickers. They are also really great too!
Below was the chicken family dinner from Tratto in Phoenix.
This was very good. Everything was very good. The pasta is exceptional. How could it not be? It’s by a James Beard Award Winning Chef Chris Bianco. This take out was really special.
Below is food from Chino Bandido in North Phoenix.
Chino Bandido
We got big combo pans that start at less than $10. Not all but many of the choices are chicken in a somewhat Asian, Mexican or Caribbean variety. I’ve tried maybe all their chickens and I usually get the emerald chicken because I like the moist chicken breast with that ginger scallion sauce. I think this day I got their popular red jade chicken.
Below is the chicken and goat cheese salad from Cucina Tagliani in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UppetWestSide.
The dressings are made in house and are very tasty.
Below was our take out from Mochilero Kitchen in Peoria/#UpperWestSide.
One of them is a chicken bowl.
Below is our take out from Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix. They serve Caribbean Food and also Vegan options.
The top pan is my favorite meal there…….The curry chicken and jerk chicken combo. It’s always delicious with tender falling apart chicken. It’s also a big pan of food that I get more than one meal out of it too.
From Philla-Deli in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide I got the chicken steak as a wrap.
Next below is the chicken kabob from Alzohour Market in Glendale. It’s a Moroccan/Middle Eastern Restaurant that also sells some baked goods, some grocery and some Islamic clothing. It just might be the best chicken kabob on this side of town.
Everything is amazing from Alzohour Market. Don’t pass on the tea there or you will be sorry.
Skewers Mediterranean Grill in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide serves really great nice salads with chicken shawarma or-
Chicken kabob (below). The salads are crazy cheap and are only around $7.50@.
Below is the noodle bowl with chicken and egg roll from Banh Mi Vietnamese Bistro in North Phoenix.
It’s delicious and big. I know it was $10 or less and can be two meals for some people.
Below we tried a brand new restaurant called Kabob Grill and Go. The sides were all very good. The garlic sauce can make you go yip-pid-dee-WOW-wow! It might make you grow hair on your chest. It feels healthy.
The two outer boxes contained chicken. One was tenders and the other was on the bone. We ordered an extra meal because this place was highly recommended by our food critic and the prices are very low so we wanted to try. Maybe we just live too far to take out from here. Good flavors but all three meats were very dry.
This next one was very good! It’s a HUM YUM DINGER!
Here is the menu fried chicken thigh sandwich (with added Calabrian Peppers) from CHZBURGR in Glendale. This is really FORKING GREAT! Great flavors, it’s crunchy, lots of juice. Even the bun is very good and not too big so you can eat it as a sandwich. Below on the right side is a crispy boneless chicken leg special I had to try also from CHZBURGR.
Next is the chicken and strawberry salad from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
The strawberries in this salad taste better than the ones I buy from the store…It’s a nice treat for a salad.
Phila-Deli in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide offers great BIG $7.50 salads in addition to their sandwiches.
This salad is nice and big and only $7.50. Thanks Phila-Deli for filling my belly!
The Delta & The Larder is an AMAZING Restaurant. When they offer their KFC Chicken sandwich DROP EVERYTHING! RUN and GET IT! I didn’t get that sandwich recently but did get a take out special.
We took out the hot fried chicken special there.
I really like the spicy lemon chicken salad (on left) from-
Sala Thai in Peoria/#UpperWestSide.
Lower right corner is the tender and delicious chicken and dumplings from-
Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale. The chicken was super great in this dish!
Below are the seasonal specials from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
On the left is the chicken piccata. This one was very tender and very lemon-ee. The mushroom pasta was really excellent too!
On the left is the chicken from-
Fe La Cubana Cafeteria in Glendale. (little Cuban Restaurant)
On the right is the very flavorful yellow curry chicken from-
Angelina’s Pho and Grill in Glendale/#UpperWestSide.
We even went to Starlite BBQ by Old Town Scottsdale.
On the left is the hot fried chicken. It was very tasty!
Below was a Friday Night Dinner of Jerk Chicken Special for two from the Bread Fruit and Rum Bar in Down Town Phoenix. It had nice exotic flavors and came with this hot sauce that is so hot it can be used as a weapon.
Friday night jerk chicken for two special from The Breadfruit & Rum Bar in Phoenix
We went to the newly opened Nanaya Japanese Kitchen in the Arcadia Area of Phoenix.
It the right corner is part of one of the chicken ramen dishes that they offer. The plastic tub holds the liquid. Mt half looked more like this.
I have to say that chicken was really tender and developed with delicious flavors.
I heard about a spicy chicken sandwich special from Aioli Burgers in Phoenix.
Not real spicy but were tasty moist chicken sandwiches.
Below was the fried chicken special from FnB in the arts district of Scottsdale.
WoW! It was glorious! Really GREAT fried chicken and SUPER GREAT sides that were made with the best vegetables on earth.
Below is Mrs Chicken “HOT” Nashville Style dark meat on bone with mustard slaw.
WOW! It has a DELICIOUS REALLY GREAT shattering crisp exterior. It doesn’t seem so hot at first but the heat builds quickly and turns to molten heat before you know it. The interior chicken was tender and juicy moist delicious chicken.
Those were the majority of the chicken dishes we took out since March 2020.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
