Fiesta Chicken Crostata with Chile-Lime Yogurt Sauce and a Guest Blogger

I want to introduce you to another  great blogger friend,Wendy@  The Weekend Gourmet who is taking over my kitchen, due to the passing of my Dad.  Wendy and I have been blogging friends from the beginning. Hers is  a blog with big Texas flavors like the recipe here today, or  Garlic-Herb Goat Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts & Pesto-Tomato Farfalle or her wonderful White Chocolate Strawberry Cake.  If you live in the San Antonio area, you might see the budding TV star on Great Day San Antonio, kens5.com cooking some of her wonderful recipes. You can also follow Wendy on Facebook, and Pinterest.

First off, thank you to my sweet friend Becky for inviting me to guest post for her while she’s away from her blog. I always love reading Becky’s blog, and she’s such a genuinely warm and nice person. I’m glad to be introducing myself and my blog, The Weekend Gourmet, to those of you who don’t already know me!! The recipe I’m sharing today is a tweak on a cooking method I learned while writing a post over Easter weekend. I made Sausage and Egg Crostatas for a Pillsbury Bake-Off spotlight post. The technique was incredibly simple, and I loved how pretty the end result looked...so I knew the basic technique could be adapted to create all sorts of fun recipes. This is my original variation on that theme: Fiesta Chicken Crostata with Chile-Lime Yogurt Sauce.

Using refrigerated French bread dough and roasted chicken breast, you can have this crostata ready to pop in the oven in about 20 minutes. While the crostata bakes, you have time to make a simple yogurt-based dipping sauce to serve on the side. I used my favorite Mexican flavors in this dish: cumin, cilantro, red onion, diced tomatoes with green chiles, colby-jack cheese, and chicken. I find that cutting the crostata into wedges after it comes out of the oven and cools for a few minutes makes it easy to dunk into the creamy sauce. You can serve the crostata wedges with tortilla chips on the side...they’re also really tasty dipped into the chile-lime yogurt sauce!

Fiesta Chicken Crostata

with Chile-Lime Yogurt Sauce

a Weekend Gourmet Original

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 350. Place parchment paper or a silpat on a 15x10 rimmed baking sheet. Remove dough from a package of Pillsbury French bread and carefully unroll it onto the lined pan. Use your fingers to press the dough out to ensure it’s an even thickness all the way around. Combine 1 tbs. dried cilantro, 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. onion powder; sprinkle the spices evenly over the bread dough.

Step 2:  Sprinkle the bread dough with 1 cup shredded colby-jack cheese and 1/2 a can of the well-drained tomatoes with green chiles. Note: My preferred brand is Red Gold. Scatter 1/3 cup of thinly slivered purple onion on top of the crostata. Finally, evenly scatter about 1.5 cups of cooked chicken breast over the crostata. You can cook and chop some chicken tenders like I did...or you can just shred one roasted chicken breast from the deli.

Step 3:  Stretch the bread dough about one inch over the top of the ingredients all the way around, pinching and crimping the crostata into an oval as you go. It’s important that the edges stay together, so keep pressing if you need to. Brush the edge of the crostata with olive oil, then sprinkle with garlic salt and black pepper. Bake the crostata for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Step 4:  While the crostata bakes, make the chile-lime yogurt sauce. Combine the following ingredients in a small bowl: 8 ounces fat-free Greek yogurt (I prefer Chobani), 1 tbs. dried cilantro, the juice of a small lime, 1 tsp. chipotle chile powder, 1 tbs. finely chopped purple onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to combine and refrigerate until serving. When the crostata comes out of the oven, let it cool for five minutes before slicing. That’s just enough time to pour drinks and put the dipping sauce into individual ramekins.

We really enjoyed the flavor of this crostata...the spicy tomatoes and cheese combo reminded us of a Mexican-style pizza, and the spice sprinkle gave the bread a just a bit of heat. I debated whether to use green onions or slivers of purple onion when developing this recipe, but I was really pleased with the flavor and color of the purple onion. The addition of garlic salt and olive oil to the crust was a good call too: it ensured that every bite of the crostata was flavorful. The only thing I would do differently next time is to use a bit more cheese...maybe 1.5 cups...so it’s a bit more cheesy. Otherwise? This was a perfect weeknight meal...20 minutes prep time and full of flavor!

Thank you Wendy for this wonderful guest post.  I appreciate it very much.  I can't wait to try this flavorful recipe.