Savory Smoked Chicken Tart with Shallots and Apricots

See this post for a little background on this dish.

Morning of (or night before) Dinner:

• 1 lb chicken breast, trimmed of excess fat
• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 3-4 dried apricots, sliced thin
• 3/4 c. good quality soy sauce

Place all ingredients in zip top bag or other water-tight container. Marinate at least 4 hours, or overnight.

Two hours (or more) before dinner:

• 7oz shallots, sliced thin (I just used the rest of my half-pound bag)
• 1 cup-ish dried apricots, sliced thin (I counted out 20)
• 1/2 c. marsala wine
• 1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced (dried is fine)

Place all ingredients in zip-top bag and marinate for at least an hour. Here's a superfluous shot of my sliced ingredients:

Pro tip: If you, like me, are too manly to be seen crying in the kitchen, cut your shallots near an open flame. This won't work if you're crying because you've cut your self; in that case you've got no options but to man up.

Right about now is a good time to start smoking your chicken. I smoked mine for about an hour and a half using hickory wood. If you like a milder smoke flavor, apple or pecan wood work well with this dish as well. As you can see I added the shallots and apricots from the chicken marinade to help keep the chicken juicy and flavorful.

For those of you not fortunate enough to have a smoker, you can grill the chicken along with a foil packet filled with wood chips. If you don't have a smoker or a grill, then have a nice little cry, then cook the chicken in the oven instead.



Mmmm smokey goodness

Yummy Herb-Garlic Crust

• 1-1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 1/2 c. corn meal
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• large pinch salt
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1/2 c. (ish) very cold milk

Disclaimer: if you already know how to make pie crust then don't listen to this part. If you don't know how to make pie crust then say a little prayer before proceeding. It's not at all hard to do, I just never do it and I'm not very patient.

Thoroughly mix together all dry ingredients, then cut in butter until it's nice and pebble-y. Add milk a small bit at a time and stir together. Keep adding until the crust just holds it's shape when pressed together. Flatten into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for about an hour.

Almost dinner time!!!

• Shallot/apricot mixture, drained of excess liquid
• Yummy garlic-herb crust
• 8 oz. goat cheese, softened
• Smoked chicken breast, diced

Saute your shallot/apricot mixture over medium-low heat. It'll be hard to tell how cooked everything is since they will be stained a nice shade of black, but you want them to soften and for the harsh vinegar smell to mostly dissipate. (Don't test this by sticking your head over the pan and sniffing. A wise man learns from other people's mistakes.)

Meanwhile, roll out the dough on a floured work surface to a nice 1/8th inch to 1/4 inch thickness, in a roundish shape. Mine ended up being too dry, so I pressed it into a tart pan instead. The key to making mistakes is to make it look like you planned it that way. Spread the crust with a thin layer of the goat cheese. If you are having trouble spreading it, warm the crust in the oven for a minute (you did preheat that to 350, didn't you?). Set the cheese on the warm crust to let it melt a bit and it will spread like butter.

Add the chicken next, and top it all off with your shallots and apricots. Pop it in the oven long enough to warm everything through and cook the crust (should be no longer than 10 minutes). It should look like this:


Money shot! The dark color is poor lighting; it wasn't at all burnt.

It's salty, sweet, savory, chewy, crunchy, tangy, smokey, fruity, creamy, and most importantly: total yumsters. Enjoy!

Musings: Shallots and Apricots

There's this awesome site called FoodieFights. Check it out.

This week's episode is Battle Shallot and Apricot, and I went through the grueling selection process and was selected as a contender for this week's battle. (AKA: I put my name in the hat and they picked it. They pick six names every week. This week, I was in a pool of... six people.)

Anyways, shallots are not something I'm that comfortable working with, because, at least around here, onions are SO MUCH CHEAPER. Last November I bought a fifty pound bag of onions for eleven bucks. Fifty! Eleven! (In case you are wondering, it was gone by March). Compare that to the 1/2 lb bag of shallots I found.

It was one of only two bags in the store, and it cost me two dollars. Needless to say, I don't work with shallots... ever.

The other ingredient is something I've worked with often. Around Ohio we have apples, apples, apples, apples, and corn, but no apricots. In fact, I was able to find pineapple, kumquat, passion fruit, and even some fruit I've never heard of, but they didn't have one single fresh apricot.

So long story short, this is going to be an interesting challenge. 

My first thought was to try and concoct some sort of dessert. It would be challenging to people's palates, but it shouldn't be impossible; shallots do have a lot of natural sugars. This would be a good application for an ice cream, though if it didn't turn out perfectly it would taste terrible. It's also not something that comes across well to judges who aren't actually eating the final product. I can say "I swear this tastes good" all I want, but what it really comes down to is gut reactions.

My next thought was to do something with smoked apricots but it's raining here and I don't feel like getting wet. Plus I don't think dried apricots would really take to smoking, and onions when smoked pretty much disappear.

I think I'm going to go with a savory tart-type application, which is going to be interesting seeing as how flour and I don't always get along. The challenge for me to keep in mind is that the apricot and shallot, two ingredients used to being kept in the background, need to be the star attractions. I lucked out a little bit on the sweetness angle, though, because I seem to have purchased the least sweet apricots I've ever had. I'm still mulling over what exactly I'm going to do (nine times out of ten I don't finish a recipe idea until it's actually on the table), but I think it will be good.

Battle On!