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I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

chipotle

Chipotle Lime Honey Roast Chicken

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Let’s talk Podcasts.

I am super behind the times and just ‘discovered’ them.

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I know, I know. I am lame. But it’s true.

Still reeling from when John & Sherry quit blogging at Young House Love last year, but things are getting better now that they have a podcast.

I downloaded the Stitcher app on my phone and now I’m hooked. I have gone through all their podcast episodes, and now I’m discovering others.

I’m burning through the David Gregory Show, I listen to NBC’s Meet The Press too. I have added Chris Loves Julia to my favorites to check them out. Gilmore Guys… yes please!  I have been adding bunches and bunches to my queue.

Send me podcast recommendations!!!!

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Anywho, it’s Tuesday… so it means Taco Tuesday.

So what am I doing posting a chicken?

I use the ‘Taco Tuesday’ loosely in this sense so that I can make cool dishes like this chicken that is loaded up with Mexican spices and flavor notes. Plus, it’s super cool to slice this chicken up and load it up on a taco.

I mean, I’m not telling you how to live your life and eat tacos, but it’s cool to change things up and have some roasted chicken in tacos. Give it a try so you don’t just eat the same ground beef tacos. Although I could eat them 24/7…

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We get chicken whenever it’s on sale or when we go to Costco since we try to cook them up every weekend, or so. I think they are great for dinner and for whatever. My husband makes chicken salad all the time. He is working on perfecing his roasted chicken too. He plays around with spices, herbs, butter vs oil, temperatures. It’s quite fun to watch and taste his work.

But I took over chicken roasting duties recently to make this chicken.

It takes about 10 minutes to prep. Then another hour and a half of cooking, when it fills up your house with the best aromas. Let it rest for a bit- a must or all those delicious juices will come pouring out when you cut it. And then done. It’s done in under 2 hours which is perfect for a Sunday dinner.

I served our dinner with some fresh summer corn and a cous cous salad I quickly through together with some tomatoes, cucumbers, red cabbage, cilantro, and a lime based dressing.

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The layered flavors of the spicy and smokey chipotles, zesty lime, and sweet honey make this chicken liven up your dinner tonight!

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Chipotle Lime Honey Roast Chicken

Makes 1 Roast Chicken

Ingredients

  • 5lb whole chicken, giblets removed
  • 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo
  • 2 limes
  • 1/4 Cup honey
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Progress

  1. Preheat oven to 450F degrees.
  2. In a small bowl, mix together the adobo sauce, lime juice, honey, garlic.
  3. Carefully, lift the skin up from the breast by inserting your hands under the skin. Place about 2 Tablespoons of the adobo mixture under the skin of chicken. Massage the rest on the ski of the chicken. Generously sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  4. Roast for 20 minutes, then turn down to 375 for the rest of the cooking time.Baste every 20 minutes. If the skin of the chicken is getting too dark, or dry cover with foil for the remaining cooking time.
  5. Cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes, until the internal temperature is 160F.
  6. Let sit for 15-20 minutes prior to cutting.

 

 

 

 

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Chipotle Chocolate Cupcakes

I saw the Spicy Chipotle Chocolate Cake from What We’re Eating and have wanted to do it for awhile. I love Mexican hot chocolate so I thought they that I would enjoy this too. Our friend Essa is going back to Egypt to sort some Visa issues out so decided to make these his ‘pot luck good luck send off’.

It was fun to bring them to the pot luck dinner because I was able to have quite a few reviews of it. Everyone liked them but they liked the cake and frosting seperately. The cake gave you a hint of chili about the 3rd bite in, a slow mellow burn. They could not taste any nutella in the frosting, just cream cheese.  But people like the frosting since they were eating it out of the mixing bowl (frosting them there made transporting them a bit easier!). I will try it again with a plain chocolate buttercream frosting so the cream cheese does not battle with the chipotle. Such a good cake, I know I’ll make it again.Amanda had a great idea with the chili/chocolate combination. So good!

I made changes to the recipe to work for cupcakes and my convection oven. (You may refer to the original recipe here)

Chipotle Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes
2 sticks butter, unsalted
10 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp chipotle chili powder
 
For Frosting
16 oz cream cheese, room temperature
6 oz nutella
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 cup milk, plus extra as needed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line 24 cups in cupcake pans with wrappers. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, sift together the salt, flour, baking powder & chipotle chili powder. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl/stand mixer, combine the eggs and sugars. Beat until the sugars have completely dissolved into the eggs and the mixture begins to thicken- 3-5 minutes.

While the egg/sugar mixture is mixing, melt the butter in a double boiler. Once the butter has melted, add the chocolate chips. Stir until all chocolate has melted. Do not burn chocolate. Remove from heat.

Once the egg and butter mixture has thicken fold in the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla extract and chocolate-butter mixture into the batter. Fold to incorporate. Batter will be thin

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake lines. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. (If it comes out with any gooey batter, let the cake bake longer, as needed.) Remove the cupcakes from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Cool for at least 2 hours before frosting, store frosted cupcakes in a cool place/refrigerator. Once cooled, the cupcakes may be covered and stored at room temperature for a day before frosting.

Making the Frosting:

Using a larger bowl and electric beater or standmixer beat the the cream cheese and nutella into until light and fluffy. Sift in the cocoa powder and powdered sugar. Add the milk then then gently beat to incorporate. Beat until the frosting is light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes!