Enough with the gluten-free cupcake reviews! Clifford Wright says about this recipe, Chicken in Jalapeno Cream Sauce, in his brand-new cookbook, Hot & Cheesy, that it’s a beauty to behold, and I have to agree. In fact it’s so good, I can’t think of any way to make it better, and once you try it, you’ll probably be wondering (like I was) how soon you can make it again.
I was worried about the “heat” when I saw the ingredients list. You seed and chop 8 jalapenos and process them in a blender with 1/2 cup whole milk.
Then you melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat, add a tablespoon of flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten-free all-purpose flour mix with great success) and cook, stirring, for about a minute to make a roux. Add the blended chile mixture and stir until smooth. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add 1 cup of Mexican crema or heavy cream, and stir until the sauce begins to bubble, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and add a teaspoon of salt. By this time the heat has really cooled down. The sauce can be refrigerated at this point for up to a day.
It’s a funny thing, but I’m not a huge fan of skinless, boneless chicken. That’s what you use here though — you melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, then add 2 pounds of boneless breast halves and brown for about 4 minutes on each side.
The browned breasts go into a buttered 12 x 9-inch baking casserole, although come to think of it, I probably forgot to grease the pan.
The gorgeous green sauce goes on top.
And because this book is called Hot & Cheesy, you top everyhing with 1 1/2 cups (about 5 ounces) greated Monterey Jack cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes and serve hot with some warm corn tortillas (it’s also good with rice). And don’t worry about the spice because it totally mellows by the time the cheese melts in and everything is done.
Wow!! I don’t eat chicken, but the jalapno sauce looks yummy!!
i wonder what else you could serve it with
Cauliflower — and cheese go good together. I love this cookbook — and now I know what recipe to make next!
cauliflower and cheese are definitely a great combo
I am thinking something like spinach mushroom enchiladas with this sauce. How does that sound??!!
that sounds great to me
Yum. Creamy, cheesey, jalapeno sauce over chicken is my kind of dish. Looking forward to trying this. Thanks for sharing.
i hope you do try it. thanks for visiting.
Hey Justin,
Thanks this looks awesome and I’m making it Thursday for a lunch I’m throwing. I wanted chicken, chili and cheese and google sent me to you. I lived in Astoria for a couple of years and sure miss the city. It looks like I can do a little catching up here!
this dish should be a hit
This looks delicious! I absolutely love jalapenos, but don’t get enough chance to use them creatively!
it’s funny because they’re usually a little too spicy for me (i’m a whimp) but they’re just right in this recipe
As a Texas cook that has been cooking with jalapenos for almost 200 years now, I can’t wait to make this recipe. Most people don’t realize that the longer you good jalapenos, the milder they get and the pureeing of these would help them to cook all the faster. This looks like a wonderful recipe for my family dinner on Thursday night. Thanks!
i definitely didn’t know that, until i tried this recipe
HOT DAMN! That would frighten me too (for a moment)! Great way to adapt the recipe for your gf needs.
right, i was tweeting while making the recipe, in a bit of a panic, but it was perfect. and as adapting recipes go, this was pretty straightforward. when it comes to baking recipes, i’m still clueless.
I love the light green color of the sauce and I love almost any kind of peppers. I can’t get jalapenos but I’ll be making this with some green chili peppers I have. Thanks for posting!
my only caution is that the jalapeno flavor is partly what makes this dish special, versus just the heat of chiles
I want to put this inside a tortilla wrap! Thoughts?
Also, I’m a big fan of spice, any idea how I can make it very spicy while keeping the cheese?
a tortilla wrap would be pretty similar to how i served it, with corn tortillas, but it’s SUPER messy so i’m not sure the wrap would hold up. i guess you could just add more jalapenos, but if you really wanted to spice this up, probably just adding one much spicier chile like a habanero would do a lot to heat things up. that’s just a guess though.
I made this tonight for dinner, and even my 6 yr old loved it! I forgot the salt, and ended upneeding to add a little on top after serving, but otherwise turned out even better than I expected it to! It wasnt spicy at all, and had a wonderful jalapeno flavor. Thanks! I’ll definitely be making this again!
love this comment since no one else had reported back after actually making it! now i feel like it wasn’t a fluke that i totally loved it. i hope the person who asked about their 7-year-old reads it. you’re welcome.
Miam miam miam! Cheese, Jalapeno and chicken…there’s nothing in this dish that I wouldn’t swoon about.
ha, right… it’s a great combination
loved it, even my 9 year old loved it! I found this recipe a couple weeks ago on Pinterest and have been meaning to try it and was so glad I did! Thanks for posting it.
that’s great. yes, the photos seemed to get a lot of attention on Pinterest, which was pretty cool.
I have now made this dish three times, and it is AMAZING every time. Tonight, I made it using roasted poblanos, and it was succesful once again. It’s made into the rotation, and I can’t wait to play around with it more. Thanks for the wonderful recipe. Tonight, my husband officially declared it his “death row dish.” Well done, sir!
wow, that’s incredible. i’m so glad to hear it.
I am going to make this tomorrow since I have a ton of jalapenos leftover from our Cinco de Mayo celebration yesterday. I am going to add garlic and cilantro to the sauce. Looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing
Just put it in the oven! I added some mushrooms and onions around the chicken. (I just prefer a little vegetables with my chicken) I’ll let you know how my husband and guests like it!
Making this tomorrow! So excited!
i hope you liked it — it’s just about the most popular thing i’ve ever posted on my blog
There is a Mexican restaurant by my house that serves enchiladas topped with a jalapeno cream sauce. I have been trying to find a recipe to duplicate it, and I think I am going to this one a try! Thank you!
good luck!
We made a variation of this. I was always in love with the jalapeño sauce but only found fresh ones this year. We pan fried the chicken until they were golden brown, made a basic bechamel sauce,and then put the jalapeños into a food processor with some white wine and mixed them into the sauce during the last stage. We then poured this over the golden brown chicken which were diced and had it with 18 grain rice. This was published in 2012, so we waited a long time before we could really make it. 🙂
Wow, I’m so glad you finally made something like it! I haven’t had it in so long, but I need to make it again.