Super Bowl Sunday? Stuff It!
New City Chicken — my adaptation of a Pittsburg classic — is a homemade pretzel stuffed with tender honey mustard chicken.
It’s that time of year again! More than 1/3rd of the U.S. is getting rocked by weekly winter storms and everyone’s got a fever… Super Bowl fever!! Thursday is the official kick-off of Super Bowl XLV Weekend in Dallas, Texas. There’s about 100,000+ ticket holders wondering if their flights will be canceled (or if the Dallas rooftops can sustain the weight of the snow). The rest of us will be scrambling for recipes and/or invites to Sunday’s big game.
I have to admit, I’m not as delirious with the fever as I was last year when my Saints won it (I still love ya, guys!), but it’s always fun to do a little recon to find out who’s cooking what and what traditional food comes from the Super Bowl team’s cities. I was pulling for the Jets for a great NY melting pot menu but I am once again challenged by a midwestern team and… um, Pittsburgh. Green Bay has its Wisconsin cheese and dairy and reputation for world-class meat but what in the world does a Steeler eat??
Much to my surprise, Pittsburgh is rich in food culture. Heinz (yes, the ketchup) was founded in a Pittsburgh suburb in 1869 and now sells more than 650 million bottles of ketchup a year (they also own Weight Watchers and T.G.I.F.). Pittsburgh is also the birthplace of the Clark Chocolate Bar (developed in 1886). While not invented in Pittsburgh, Slavic-American communities introduced city staples like pierogi’s, cabbage rolls, kielbasa and halusky (noodles and fried cabbage), while the Italians introduced Italian sausage and Italian Wedding Soup.
The most interesting Pittsburgh dish I discovered is called City Chicken. This dish came to be during the Depression (the last one, not the one we’re still in) when people took leftover cuts of meat and fashioned a drumstick out of the scraps. Perplexingly enough, chicken is not the main ingredient in this dish. At the time, pork was a much cheaper meat so it, not chicken, is the typical staple of choice. Sometimes the meat is ground and but it is more common to use cubes of both pork and veal combo. The meat is breaded, marinated, placed on a skewer and either baked or deep fried. I’m not sure why it’s marinated after breading but most of the recipes I saw called for that step. It sounded like an odd process to me so I came up with my own version. And I’m using chicken!
I like to challenge myself to come up with a Super Bowl chicken dish that surpasses the beloved and ubiquitous wings. Though I was tempted to copy a Chocolate Cola Sauce I saw on a cooking channel and even re-create the wonderful Bourbon-Molasses BBQ sauce from last year’s Crunken Chicken recipe, I kept coming back to the idea of updating the City Chicken. I wanted to use chicken instead of pork because, while it may feel like we’re in a Depression Era, I wanted to celebrate like we were back in the Golden Era. Okay, and because I’m making pulled pork tacos and I didn’t want to duplicate meats on the menu. At first I thought I would use a pretzel crust to bread the meat in a nod to the original preparation. Then I thought, “Ah, just stuff it!” What’s better than a deliciously chewy, perfectly salted pretzel on game day? I’ll tell you… one that’s stuffed with honeymustard marinated chicken, that’s what!
Homemade pretzel dough is ideal for this ultimate “hot pocket!” I marinated cubes of chicken for a half hour and “browned” them in a straight-sided skillet before I wrapped them with this fun and simple pretzel dough from Alton Brown.
I was inspired by a recipe for Bean Samosas on the Heinz website so I plan on creating something similar with a cucumber yogurt or ranch dip. I’m going to round out my Pittsburgh menu items with the mini Roethlis-burger. Named after Steelers quaterback, Ben Roethlisberger, this hamburger is made up of ground beef, sausage, scrambled eggs, grilled onions and American cheese. For my version, I’m going to keep the onions on the side and I may just switch out the American cheese for Wisconsin cheddar. Why? Because I still don’t know who I’m routing for this Sunday!
May the Best Team Win Super Bowl Sunday Menu
Wisconsin Cheddar and Crackers
Black Bean Samosas with Cucumber-Yogurt Raita
New City Chicken w/ Spicey Honey-mustard Dip (recipe below)
Mini Roethlis-burgers with Heinz 57 Sauce
Pulled Pork Tacos with Manchamantel Sauce
Deconstructed Guacamole Salad with Lemon Vinagrette
My Mom’s Brownies with Vanilla Ice Cream and Crumbled Clark Bars
If you can find it, pick up a six pack of Duquense Pilsener. Self described as the “Prince of Pilsener” in the late 1800’s, Duquense bottled in Pittsburgh until 1972. The brewery reopened in 2008, brewing their pilsener with a blend of Hallertau hops from Germany, Saaz from the Czech Republic and Magnum from (where else?) Washington State.
Use Alton Brown’s recipe from The Food Network as a building block for a great stuffed pretzel (hot pocket anyone?!). I used honey-mustard chicken but you can go crazy with your own inventions from grated cheese, sloppy-joe’s, hot dogs or even your own version of the Roethlis-burger!
Recipe - New City Chicken
Makes 32 appetizers bites
Ingredients:
Pretzel Dough
1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, to grease pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt (or a very coarse sea salt like Sel Marin de Guerande)
For Spicey Honey-mustard Chicken
1 1/2 lbs. boneless breast of chicken, fat trimmed, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. tumeric
1/2 tsp. hot paprika
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt and black pepper
Prepare
Mix mustard and next 10 ingredients in a small bowl. Mix chicken with a pinch of salt and pepper in a medium bowl and add in 1/2 cup of honey-mustard mixture. Reserve the rest to serve as a dipping sauce. Cover chicken with plastic wrap and let marinate in the fridge for 1/2 hour.
In the meantime, follow the directions for Alton Brown’s pretzel dough as follows:
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
If your kitchen is drafty, you can place the bowl in an oven warmed at 200° and the oven door cracked open. Alternately, you can place it near (not on) a radiator.
While the dough is rising, heat 1 Tbl. canola or olive oil over medium-high heat in a straight-sided skillet. Remove the chicken from the marinade and add to the skillet. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until chicken looks brown or white on all sides (the chicken will not cook long enough in the pretzel dough, so you want to be sure to get it well on its way). Remove the chicken to a bowl, cover and cool.
When the pretzel dough has doubled in size, preheat the oven to 450°. Line 2 baking sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide in half, returning one half back to the bowl. Divide again into 16 equal pieces (8 if you would like larger bites). Working one “bite” at a time, roll dough into a 3” square. Place one piece of chicken in the center of the square and fold the dough around it to form a log or square (you can also make a crescent shape if using the 8 larger pieces of dough) Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan. Repeat with the remaining dough and chicken.
Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 4 - 5 at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a slotted spatula or spoon. Return to the baking sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel bundle with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 13 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving. Serve with honey mustard dip.
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