Almond Chutney Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Printable Recipe

Fresh lemon lends a bright refreshing lift to this out of the ordinary lettuce wrap. The chicken salad-like filling is served cold with a side of cucumber and a plate of crispy lettuce leaves to wrap burrito style and eat at the table. A delicious luncheon or light dinner served with hot soup. Or may be eaten at midnight standing in the open refrigerator door - let's not get too fussy, here, shall we...not?

So, let's get ready to roll! We're going to make this quick and easy by buying a roasted whole chicken at the grocery and pulling the meat off the bone.

But first let's combine the rest:
1 small red onion
1 lemon
1 jalapeno
2 celery stalks

Chop the onion very fine. Split the celery into two or three pieces lengthwise and then chop into fairly small pieces crosswise. From the lemon, we want to use the inside and out both. Using a fine rasp, grate the zest stopping just short of the white pith which is bitter. Don't want that. Now, halve and juice the lemon, too.

Mix 1/3 cup Mayo or Miracle Whip and about 1/2 jar of Major Grey's Chutney. Add all the zest and maybe 1/2 the lemon juice to start and taste it. It should be both sweet and tangy but not make you pucker up like a lemonhead. More lemon juice if it needs it.

Finally, add 1 cup of almonds, roughly chopped. I love these smokey salty almonds and they really added an extra element to this dish.

I pulled the chicken into a big pile and just rough chopped through the whole stack with a large chef knife until it was taken down to smaller than bite size pieces.

Mix all together and let sit at least a few hours to marry all the flavors together.  

Wrapping it up right at the table.

THE SHOPPING LIST

    One 3-pound roasted chicken
    1 medium red onion
    1 large lemon
    1 jalapeno, fresh
    1 jar Major Grey Chutney
    1/3 cup mayonnaise
    Salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
    Celery
    1 cup whole salted almonds, coarse chopped
    1 large head Bibb lettuce
    1 large cucumber
Summer has given way to Fall Fest at the Food Network website where you'll find my foodie blogs along with other great food lovin' bloggers, offering up our best ideas all the way through the holidays! Each week we'll be blogging together with the FN Dish to produce fabulous ways to enjoy your produce!  This week, it's Mixed Lettuce, next week come on back for perfect ways with Pumpkins. Check out these other delicious ideas:

Jeanette's Healthy Living: Quinoa and Black Lentil Salad With Mixed Salad Greens
Cooking With Books: "Chopped" Salads
Haute Apple Pie: Roasted Butternut Squash Salad With Warm Bacon Dressing
Dishin & Dishes: Beet Salad With Garlic Vinaigrette
Thursday Night Dinner: Mixed Lettuce, Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pita Pizza
And Love It Too: Rainbow Salad
Made By Michelle: Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches
Feed Me Phoebe: Hearts of Romaine With Beets, Pistachios and Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette
HGTV Gardens: Garden-to-Table: Mixed Lettuce
Virtually Homemade: Mixed Fall Greens With Dijon Chive Vinaigrette
Devour: Lettuce (Hold the Salad)
Delicious Lean: Chiffonade of Mixed Greens
FN Dish: Top 12 Lettuce Wraps

Spinach-Sausage Saute with Pan-Fried Gnocchi

Printable Recipe

Starting the skillet with a good spicy sausage gives a blast of flavor to the handful of spinach you'll toss in to melt together with a bit of chipotle in adobo and then, voila - dinner is on the table. Take an extra few minutes to pair it with a side of pan fried gnocchi and you have a great last-minute dinner that doesn't feel last-minute at all.

Start by assembling ingredients. As with any quick fix meal you'll want everything out of the package and at hand, ready to hit the skillet. Pre-washed spinach unbagged, chipotles rough chopped, sausage into 1" dice.

I've used a lean turkey kielbasa link sausage here because it is what I had on hand, but pancetta would be excellent and chorizo would really spice it up!    Look for the freshest and softest gnocchi because we're not boiling it first. That's right! I haven't lost my mind. I lifted this idea straight from Nigella the Queen of Bites. I found this little pearl of an idea on her iPad app called Nigella Quick Collection. Great collection of recipes taken from half a dozen of her cook books and loaded with in-app videos.
While I was making a brief advertisement for Nigella the sausage took off cooking without me. I am not Nigella's agent but I would like to meet her whenever she's ready, ahemmm.

When the pan is good and crispy on the bottom and the sausage browned, drop in a few handfulls of spinach and a tablespoon or two of chopped chipotles, depending on how hot you like it, baby.
Let it all melt down together which will only take a few minutes.

Don't empty that skillet yet! First let's grab up all that flavor on the bottom with a quick splash of water. Even 1/4 cup will do it as long as the pan is good and hot. It should sizzle immediately and dissolve all that flavor into a wonderful savory glaze as you scrape the skillet and keep everything moving.
Now transfer all to a serving platter and give the skillet a quick wipe out with a dry paper towel.

There should still be a fine layer of browned fond left behind which will help the gnocchi to brown well. Film the skillet with a layer of mild olive oil and raise the heat to medium high.

Toss the gnocchi to coat with the oil and spread them out in a single layer with enough space to allow them to brown. Watch the heat and reduce if necessary. Flip the ghnocci when they have browned well and repeat on the other side. Serve immediately with the Spinach and Sausage for little out-of-the-ordinary meat and potatoes meal!



THE SHOPPING LIST
Bag of Prewashed Spinach
One Pkg Fresh Gnocchi
One Pound Link Sausage (Kielbasa, Pancetta,   Chorizo)
Small Can Chipotle in Adobo

Summer has given way to Fall Fest at the Food Network website where you'll find my foodie blogs along with other great food lovin' bloggers, offering up our best ideas all the way through the holidays! Each week we'll be blogging together with the FN Dish to produce fabulous ways to enjoy your produce!  This week, it's Spinach, next week come on back for tasty ways with Turnips. Check out these other delicious ideas: 

Jeanette's Healthy Living: Skinny Hot Spinach Dip
Feed Me Phoebe: October Evening Lentil Soup With Spinach
And Love It Too: Grain-Free Spinach Pie
Cooking With Elise: Baby Spinach Salad With Cranberries, Spiced Pecans and a Maple Vinaigrette
Virtually Homemade: Three Onion Dip With Spinach
HGTV Gardens: Garden-to-Table: Spinach
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Whole-Wheat Pasta With Spicy Spinach and Peanut Butter Pesto
Thursday Night Dinner: Spinach Ice Cream
Cooking Channel: Fresh Spinach in Indian Recipes
Delicious Lean: Spinach Leaf Roll Ups
Bacon and Souffle: Baby Spinach Pizza With Sopressata and Sriracha
FN Dish: Stuff It With Spinach