Hot Chicks

My friend Brian asked me for a simple but delicious appetizer that everyone will like.  So for Brian and his Christmas party, here is how to assemble some Hot Chicks.  You will need the following:

• Thick sliced bacon - one piece of bacon will do two Hot Chicks

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts - depending on the size, you can get six to eight slices from each breast

• Fresh jalapeno peppers - depending on the size, you can get eight to twelve pieces from each pepper

• String cheese (mozzarella) snack sticks  - each stick will do four Hot Chicks

• Toothpicks  - one per each

• Your favorite spicy hot rub - I use a rub I developed for my pork buttts and spare ribs on my smoker, but you can use any commercial dry rub you particularly like - there are hundreds of them out there.

Do the prep work:

1. cut each cheese stick in fourths
2. cut the bacon slices in half
3. cut the outer shell off the pepper and discard the stem and seeds, then cut pieces about the same size as the cheese
4. out of the widest part of the chicken breast, cut thin slices crossways as shown below;  they will need to be long enough to wrap around the cheese and pepper.  Save the remaining end pieces of chicken for other use.

Lay a chicken strip overlapping one end of the bacon strip, and then add a piece of cheese and of pepper as shown below.

Roll the chicken strip over the filling like this:

Continue to roll the chicken and bacon up fairly snug, keeping the cheese and pepper centered inside.  Secure the roll with a toothpick.

These go pretty fast once you get the parts all ready...

Sprinkle  the tops of these with the rub mentioned above

Here is a little tray of 16, ready to firm up in the fridge before hitting the oven.

 

I put these on a middle rack in my electric oven on high broil with the door open. Mine take about 15  minutes, but depending on your oven - Your Mileage May Vary.  I'd start checking them after 10 minutes.  

You can also top them with extras after they are finished - here I used slices of tomato and avocado and some coarse ground pepper.  I have also served them with an avocado cream dip, very popular.