Coriander Chicken Tostadas with Refried Beans and Grilled Fennel

Date Prepared: 01/15/11

Source: bon appétit magazine, January 2011, p.85



Coriander Chicken Tostadas with Refried Beans and Grilled Fennel.
Picture taken by D. Detrick.

*Recipe:
beans
2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, liquid drained and reserved
1/2 cup chopped white onion
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

fennel and chicken
1 large fresh fennel bulb, trimmed, cut through core into 1/3-inch slices
6 tablespoons safflower oil, divided
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/3 cup coriander seeds, coarsely crushed

assembly
6 purchased corn tostada shells
3 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce
6 radishes, trimmed, thinly sliced
6 fresh cilantro sprigs
lime wedges

Prep. time: 40 min.
Cooking time: 40 min.
Serves: 6

Place beans and next 5 ingredients in [food] processor; blend to chunky puree. Heat oil in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add bean mixture and 1/2 cup reserved bean liquid. Stir over medium-low heat until warmed through, adding more bean liquid if dry, about 5 minutes. Season with coarse salt and ground black pepper.

Brush fennel slices with 1 1/2 tablespoons oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add fennel slices. Sear until lightly browned and crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to plate. Cut into strips. Reserve skillet.

Using rolling pin, flatten chicken between sheets of plastic wrap to 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick cutlets. Spread out coriander seeds on sheet of foil. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper; coat with coriander seeds.

Heat 4 1/2 tablespoons oil in reserved skillet over medium high heat. Working in batches, if necessary, Add chicken to skillet. Sauté until cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to work surface. Cool 5 minutes. Cut chicken in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/3-inch-wide strips.

Top each tostada shell with beans, lettuce, radishes, fennel, chicken, and cilantro sprigs. Serve with lime wedges.
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Difficulty: Easy - This recipe is relatively straightforward. The extent of the difficulty lays in making sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked without being over-cooked.

Accessibility: Common - The ingredients for this preparation should be readily available at your basic grocery store. The canned chiles can be found in the ethnic section of a grocery store along with the tostada shells. Safflower oil should be available near the olive or vegetable oil. Regarding technique and tools, a food processor is helpful but can be compensated for by a fine dice and manipulation with a standard potato masher.

Visual Appeal: The mixture of colors and textures with the height make this dish look mouth-watering. It looks like it would taste good and is even more enticing to look at than the recipe even suggests.

Overall Taste: Chipotle peppers give this dish some spice and the cilantro and lime brighten up the flavors even further. The aroma of the coriander, cumin, and oregano are pleasant but not overpowering.

Overall Experience: This dish seemed trivial to prepare, yet it generated a good number of dishes to clean. This is probably not typical just something that I manage to do! The work was well worth the final product and the dish a good accompaniment to a Saturday night football game. For friends and family that enjoy the Mexican/Latin American genre of food, this would be a nice and different recipe to add to your list of dishes to make this year.

Additional Notes: The bean mixture contained raw garlic, so I cooked it a bit longer to remove the raw flavor some. Safflower oil is not an oil that use often in my kitchen, so a mixed vegetable oil was used as a substitute. The mixed oil did smoke a bit more but still got the job done. This dish did not have any recommended accompaniments but I did serve it with a Zatarain's Spanish rice, which provided a starch for the meal. The one change that I would make if serving this recipe again would be to omit the crushed coriander seeds and use only ground coriander. The seeds provided some texture but not necessarily in a good way. The crushed coriander was more of a nuisance, picking it from my teeth than an enjoyable addition.

*The recipe and instructions for this recipe have been reported to maintain the original instruction and is not an original recipe and belongs to the source indicated. This post has been prepared as a review only and with no intention to take credit for this recipe. This recipe has been reviewed without instruction or influence by the parties or companies mentioned therein.