I made this stromboli last summer, while working in a resort at the hottest place on earth, Furnace Creek! The site had an employee dining hall that was located about a mile away from the historic inn, where I did my cooking. On busy days, us employees had no spare time to waste. On those busy days, I simply gathered scraps and day old food in the kitchen and whipped up a meal for a crew of three to five employees. Leftover southwestern spiced roasted chicken was a good choice of grub for the crew. Focaccia bread is easy and cheap to make, so a southwestern style stromboli seemed like a good idea. Every chef knows that employee meals are supposed to be made at a food cost of less than 8%. Considering that the day old leftover roasted chicken from the buffet at the inn was usually tossed out to the coyotes in Death Valley, the actual food cost of this stromboli was closer to 1%! The restaurant price of a four portion stromboli runs about $18. This great southwestern style stromboli turned out to be one of the cheapest, yet best tasting employee meals of the summer season! Roasting a southwester spiced chicken ahead of time, then letting it cool is necessary for this recipe. A stromboli has no sauce inside and very little cheese is added to the filling. The filling of a an authentic stromboli is about 93% meat or meat and vegetables. The sauce is always served on the side. Focaccia dough is a very forgiving durable dough. During the summer at Furnace Creek, kitchen temperatures often exceeded 135 degrees and the humidity was less than 4%. That is not ideal conditions for making bread or pastries. The only kind of bread that I made successfully in those extreme heat conditions was focaccia. Focaccia can take the heat! If I can make a good focaccia at the hottest place on earth with success, then my readers should have no problem making focaccia anywhere else in the world!
This entire recipe makes a large 3 to 5 portion stromboli! Pizza Dough Recipe: If you have dough making experience, then this will be easy. High gluten flour is best for this recipe, but bread flour can be used. The elastic gluten strands give pizza dough the ability to be stretched and tossed in the air! Pizza dough is focaccia dough or Italian bagette style bread dough. No oil in the mixture will produce a dough that is like many Italian breads that are not enriched with fat or a French baguette bread dough. Many pizzeria chefs do not add oil to a pizza dough and that is also correct pizza dough. Focaccia style doughs require enrichment with fat. Olive oil is a fat! Oil strengthens and elongates the gluten strands of the dough. It only takes a very small amount of oil to produce a nice texture. Add 2 tablespoon of fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon of dry yeast to 16 ounces of tepid luke warm water in a mixing bowl. Place the mixing bowl in a luke warm place like on top of a warm oven. When the yeast activates, add 2 teaspoons of sugar to proof the yeast. Add about 2 cups of flour. Add 2 teaspoons of sea salt. Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. Stir the mixture with a spoon, till a very loose wet dough is formed. Start adding a little bit of flour at a time,while stirring, till a loose dough is formed. Add a little more flour at a time, while mixing with your fingers, till the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. You will be able to feel when the dough is starting to get elastic. It will stick to your hands when made correctly, but that will change after rising twice. Add flour, while hand mixing, till the dough can pull away from the sides of the bowl. Cover the dough in the mixing bowl with a dry towel. Set the bowl on top of an oven in a luke warm area, with a second towel underneath the bowl to protect the dough from too much heat. When the dough rises more than double, beat it down with your knuckles and gather the dough like a ball in the bowl. Cover the dough with a towel and let it rise again. When it rises the second time, beat the dough down and knead firmly with your hands for 1 minute. Place the dough on a floured counter top. Roll the dough into a large ball. Cut the dough ball in half for two medium size pizzas portions or into four portions for mini pizzas. Roll and tuck each dough portion with with your hands to make smooth dough balls. You can cover and refrigerate each dough ball for a few days or freeze the dough portions for later use.
Southwestern Chile Honey Basting Sauce: Any extra basting sauce can be refrigerated for 7 days. The Southwestern Chile Honey Basting Sauce can be used for grilled or roasted poultry, fish pork or beef. The excess will definitely not go to waste! Place 1/2 cup of honey in a mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Add 3/4 cup of blended olive oil. Add 1/4 cup of finely minced bermuda onion. Add 3 minced garlic cloves. Add 1 tablespoon of coarsely ground black pepper. Add 2 teaspoons of sea salt. Add 1 tablespoon of ancho chile powder. Add 1 tablespoon of chile guajillo powder. Add 1 teaspoon of chile puya powder. (This dried chile you may have to grind on your own. Chile puya is mildly spicy and it has a complex dried fruit and chile pepper flavor.) Add 1 teaspoon of New Mexico chile powder. Add 4 tablespoons of chopped cilantro. Stir the ingredients together.
Southwestern Roasted Chile Honey Chicken: This recipe is good on its own! Try not to snack on all the chicken, before assembling the stromboli! Butcher 1 whole chicken into 5 sections. The back, 2 whole legs and 2 breasts with the wings attached. Save the chicken back for making stock or broth for another recipe! For this stromboli recipe, remove the skin from the chicken sections. Lightly brush a roasting pan with vegetable oil. Place the chicken sections in the pan. Use a basting mop to thoroughly brush the chicken with the southwestern chile honey basting sauce. Slowly roast the chicken in a 300 degree oven, till the chicken becomes fully cooked. Allow the chicken to cool to room temperature. Pull the chicken meat off of the bones. Tear and shred the chicken meat by hand into bite size pieces. Place the Southwestern Roasted Chile Honey Chicken pieces in a mixing bowl and set it aside.
Southwestern Chicken Stromboli: Roast 1 ear of corn in a 350 degree oven, till the kernels become tender. Allow the corn to cool. Shuck the corn. Cut the corn kernels off of the cob and add them to the reserved Southwestern Roasted Chile Honey Chicken in the mixing bowl. Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of blended olive oil. Add 1 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped onion. Add 1 cup of coarsely chopped mixed red and green bell pepper. Add 2 to 3 sliced green jalapeno peppers. Saute till the vegetables become al dente. Allow the vegetables to cool to room temperature. Add the vegetables to the Southwestern Roasted Chile Honey Chicken in the mixing bowl. Add 3/4 cup of chopped roasted poblano pepper. (Canned roasted poblano pepper is okay for this recipe, but fresh is better!) Add 1/3 cup of coarsely chopped cilantro. Add 1 cup f grated queso fresco or mozzarella cheese. Toss the stromboli filling ingredients togethether. Place a portion of pizza dough on a large baking pan that is lightly brushed with blended olive oil. (The dough portion should be enough for an extra large size pizza. A dough ball that is about 8" to 9" in diameter should be enough. Excess dough can always be trimmed off and saved.) Pat out the pizza dough with your finger tips, so a large, flat 28"x 15" oval shape is formed. Mound the Southwestern Chicken Stromboli filling evenly across the oval shaped pizza dough sheet. Be sure to leave a 4" to 5" wide bare edge of pizza dough around the mound of stuffing. Drape the pizza dough ends over the lobster stuffing. Overlap the sides of the dough over the mound of stuffing to form a large tube shaped stromboli. Pinch the seams of the dough shut to seal the stuffing ingredients inside. Invert the stromboli, so the seam side faces down. Brush the stromboli with blended olive oil. Bake the Southwestern Chicken Stromboli stromboli in a 450 degree oven, till it becomes a light brown color. Remove the finished stromboli from the oven and let it cool for 2 to 4 minutes. Slide the Southwestern Chicken Stromboli onto a serving platter. Garnish with peperoncini. Note: No sauce is necessary, but serve with a thin spice BBQ sauce if you wish. I have posted many BBQ sauce recipes in this blog!
This is a big stromboli! A stromboli like this is great for casual dinner parties, family meals and sporting event parties. As far as I know, there are no chefs or restaurants anywhere that make a Southwestern Chicken Stromboli, except for myself. I guess this stromboli creation was my own idea. If you cook and serve this stromboli, guests will rave about it! Even if the guests are Italian! Italians like southwestern cuisine. I cooked Texas BBQ beef brisket for over 1,000 Italian tourists last summer in Death Valley and they really liked the food! Ciao Baby! ... Shawna
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