Chicharrones Chimichangas

Chicharrones Chimichangas are a tex-mex inspired dinner made with pork rinds, fajita marinade, prickly pears, and ancho chillies.

What’s A Pirate’s Favorite Letter?

‘TIS THE C!!!
☠️
OK I was looking for a cowboy joke but I couldn’t find a good cowboy pun that didn’t involve the Dallas Cowboys. Ah well. Pirates are funnier. You know what else? The Fuckin’ Fab’ Food Bloggers are back!!!

Oh I Love Those Dudes!

Me too! For those of you not in the know, the Fucking Fab Food bloggers is a small collective of badass food bloggers with a DGAF attitude. We’re back together, this time, for our #WhatsInTheBoxChallenge.
And on the wings of a dream, so far beyond reality…

What’s In The Box?

So here’s how it works. We have 6 bloggers this time. Blogger 1 sends a mystery box of 3 ingredients to blogger 2. Blogger 2 sends their own mystery box to blogger 3. Blogger 3 sends to blogger 4, and so on until we get to blogger 6 who sends a box to blogger 1. OK I made that sound way more complicated than it should be. Here I’ll just make a little table for you.

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Blogger 1 Nomageddon

I got a box from blogger 6 Ashley Blom of Forking up. She sent me:

Fajita Marinade
Chicharrones
Dried Ancho Chilies
Prickly Pears (Bonus Item)

Recipe:
Chicharrones Chimichangas

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Blogger 2 All Roads Lead To The Kitchen

She got a box from blogger 1, me of Nomageddon. I sent her:

Beer and Pretzel Mix
Peanut Butter Stout
Dried Plantains

Recipe:
Chicken Plantain Peanut Stew With Pretzel Dumplings

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Blogger 3 Big Flavors From A Tiny Kitchen

She got a box from blogger 2, Heather Schmitt-Gonzalez of All Roads Lead to the Kitchen . She Got:

Buckwheat Flour
Vegetable Chips
Clancy’s Fancy Hot Sauce

Recipe:
Veggie and Spice Crusted Pork Tenderloin With Tropical Buckwheat Salad

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Blogger 4 NY Foodgasm

She got a box from blogger 3, Ashley Covelli of Big Flavors From A Tiny Kitchen. She sent her:

Garlic Onion Flatbread
Orca Beans
Garlic Flavored Coconut Oil

Recipe:
Best Hummus

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Blogger 5 Bread, Booze, Bacon

She got a box from blogger 4, Sophia Del Gigante of NY Foodgasm. She sent her:

Trader Joes Coconut Cream
Trader Joe’s Wild Rice
Trader Jose Beer

Recipe:
Beer Braised Chicken With Coconut Curry Wild Rice

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Blogger 6 Forking Up

She got a box from blogger 5, Julie Kotzbach of Bread, Booze, Bacon. She sent her:

Honey Roasted Pecans
Israeli Cous-cous
Bacon Jam

Recipe:
Pecan-Crusted Chipotle Chicken Drumettes with Cold Cous-Cous Salad Dressed with Bacon Vinaigrette

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Das A Lot of Boxes!

Yup! The FFFBs, keepin’ the USPS in business since 2015. So, the awesome Ashley Blom sent me her box filled with Tex Mex ingredients because she currently hails from the Texan liberal oasis known as Austin.

Cookwell & Company Pecos 83 BBQ Marinade

1 bottle of bbq marinade that says it’s perfect for fajitas. Side note: after that episode of family guy I can’t not say fajita like Peter Griffin.

Say it with me now Fuh-Jai-Ta. Hehehe.

Chicharrones

Chicharrones, are a Mexican dish made from the skin of fried pork belly. Basically, they are Mexican pork rinds. Honestly, they don’t taste like much. It’s just fried pig skin and salt. Then again, it’s fried pig skin and salt and it’s basically a blank slate for something stellar. Now what can we flavor it with?

Dried Ancho Chilis

Now we’re talking. The Blomburger knows I love spicy food and ancho chilis are a good sweet, robust, spicy flavor that is a staple of a lot of Tex-Mex dishes.

Prickly Pears

Wait that’s 4 things. Well badass rule breaker Ashley E. Blom decided to go all maverick and throw in a fourth ingredient, just to keep me on my toes. Prickly pears are a fruit that grows from the opuntia cactus plant and they go by names like, nopales, tunas, and of course prickly pears. Prickly pears are an edible fruit of a cactus and some varieties can be bright red/pink when ripe. The kind she sent me were the ones you can usually find in a produce aisle and are green on the outside with sone purple tones.

Usually, the nopales you’d find in the store have already had the spines removed. If they aren’t despined, or if you find them fresh, you’d need some heavy duty gloves to safely remove them. Luckily they are usually clean if they are store bought. To get at the fruit inside just cut the top and bottom off the fruit and with a paring knife cut through the green skin until you hit the flesh. Then just run your finger in between the flesh and skin and it should come apart.

Inside is a super bright fruit that’s slightly mushy and filled with seeds.

What Can You Make With These?

That’s a good question. After wracking my brain and too many viewings of the movie Deadpool I just had to make chimichangas.

Jimmy Who?

Chimichangas are basically deep fried Burritos. There are even dessert chimichangas that are usually made of plantains or bananas, and cinnamon and sugar. Well, without further ado…

We start this recipe with the prickly pears. Cut the skin off the prickly pears and then chop them into chunks. Toss the chunks in a blender and liquify. Now, there are a million and one seeds (not really) in prickly pear so you are going to need to strain those out. Strain solids out through a sieve into a measuring cup. You should have about a cup.

Pour contents into a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. By the end you should have approximately 1/2 cup liquid. If you don’t, it’s OK. You will just have a bit more of a concentrated flavor in the end and that’s not a bad thing. Strain the juice again through a sieve and let it cool.

Next, pour the juice into a glass bowl and add 8 ounces of the fajita marinade. Stir until well combined. Add the chicharrones and toss until well coated. Marinate for at least an hour.

While the chicharrones marinate, you need to rehydrate the ancho chili. Pour boiling water over the pepper and let it sit until ready for use.

We can’t just put pork fat in the chimichangas. We need at least like one vegetable. To fill out the chimichangas we’re going to use a Spanish onion, a bell pepper, and two cloves of garlic. Slice the onion into large, thick slices and slice the bell pepper similarly. Chop the garlic.

Heat a large cast iron or other heavy bottomed skillet over medium-low heat. Drizzle some olive oil into the pan and once hot, add the onions. Cook until softened and beginning to brown, about 20 minutes. Add the garlic and cooking for another minute. Take the dried Ancho out of the water and chop it. I like to keep the seeds in for extra heat so don’t bother fishing them out. It’s all part of the flavor. Add the peppers and a pinch of salt and pepper to the pan and cook for 10 minutes.

Now you’re ready to add the chicharrones. Toss the pork mixture into the pan and turn the flame down to low. Stir until well combined and cook for 15 minutes.

Since chimichangas are deep fried burritos, you’re gonna need to heat some oil. Fill a large heavy bottomed pot with about an inch of oil. Affix a candy thermometer to the rim and heat the oil to 375ºF. If you don’t have a candy thermometer you really should pick one up. They are about 5-10 dollars and are, obviously, for more than just candy.

Lay a tortilla on a flat surface and add the filling. Add the grated cheese and wrap it up like a burrito.

How Do You Wrap a Burrito?

Well, honestly, the best way to learn how to wrap a burrito is to go to Chipotle and get diarrhea watch them wrap your delicious food baby. You should have enough filling for 8 chimichangas so make about 8. Now fry each one until golden brown, about 60-90 seconds per side.

That’s it! You’ve just chimi’ed your fuckin’ changa! I was really afraid that this recipe would suck but honestly it was absolutely, positively delicious.

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