Sunday, May 22, 2011

Summer Squash-Stuffed Chipolte Turkey Cutlets

I had a three-week hiatus from the All About the Food blog; our recent trip to New Orleans and other side trips kept me from the kitchen for any length of time. So, it's time to get things started again; I threw out the challenge and boy did I not get let down challenge-wise. Here are the ingredients I received:
turkey--summer squash--beets--garbanzo beans--pickles 
Okay...
After some thought and imaginary tasting, I came up with the following:
Marinade turkey cutlets or chops (or a chicken breast if you prefer) in a chipolte-based sauce. You can find these most anywhere. Let this marinade in the fridge overnight. 
Take a summer squash, cut and clean out the seeds, slice into about 1" slices and place on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake these slices at about 375 degrees for around 35 minutes. Turn them once and pierce the fleshy part with a fork to test for tenderness. Once they are very tender, remove from the oven and turn it down to325 degrees.
Put the turkey cutlet on a baking sheet. Bake for around 20 minutes and check for doneness. If the chop or cutlet is thin, make sure it doesn't dry out. An internal temperature of 170 degrees is suitable.
While the cutlet/breast is baking, cut all the fleshy parts of the squash from the peel. Mash the squash; season as desired, but remember that you have some strong flavors with the other items. 
For the garbanzo bean side dish, simply heat a can of the garbanzos, and then drench with cold water to cool down. To these add some finely chopped kosher dill pickle and sweet dill pickle. Mince up a couple of beet slices and add just before serving since the beet will stain everything it touches.
This has probably been on of the most "interesting" Friday Night Challenges, ingredient-wise, but that's what makes it fun. And, I was quite amazed that the flavors ended up complimenting each other. If I did something like this again, I believe I would use a smoked turkey breast instead of regular chops to get even more lasting flavor.


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