A wonderful smokey chicken flavor with black beans, corn and a bit of spinach all with creamy melted jalapeno jack cheese. Chili’s serves this with a creamy avocado ranch dipping sauce.  It’s probably going to take you a bit longer to prepare these then you think, but it’s certainly worth the effort.  Make sure you leave plenty of time in your schedule to pre-freeze your egg  rolls before you fry them up.  Oh, and if you’re watching your fat intake, you can back these in the oven.  I just coat them with a few shots of cooking spray.  Of course, the most authentic are when you indulge in the pleasure of frying them.

Ingredients

• 1 Chicken Breast (just one half of a full chicken breast pair)
• 1 Tbsp Vegatable Oil
• 2 Tbsp Red Bell Pepper – Minced as small as you can go
• 2 Tbsp Green Onion – Minced as small as you can go
• 1/3 Cup Corn – I prefer the frozen corn
• ¼ Black Beans – Rinsed canned beans work well
• 2 Tbsp Cooked Spinach – Frozen works perfectly
• 2 Tbsp Diced Jalapenos – Fresh or canned
• ½ Tbsp Parsley – Fresh minced
• ½ tsp Cumin
• ½ tsp Chili Powder
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 1 Dash Cayenne Pepper – Be careful, a dash goes a long way
• ¾ Cup Pepper Jack Cheese – Shredded
• 5 Flour Tortillas – The 6-7″ ones work well.

Directions

1. Preheat your grill as hot as possible
2. Lightly coat the chicken with the oil and place them on the grill, cooking for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper on each side while cooking
3. Set the chicken aside to cool at room temperature and then dice into very small cubes. You don’t want them to be took big.
4. Saute the green onion and bell pepper in a tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Make sure you preheat the pan and just saute until tender.  Don’t overcook them.
5. Add the diced chicken, corn, beans, spinach, jalapeno’s, parsley, chili powder, cumin, cayenne and salt. Stir and cook for 4-5 minutes.
6. Reduce the heat to low (or completely remove the pan from the heat) and sprinkle the cheese over the mixture.  Stir in until evenly distributed and melting.
7. Place the tortillas in a plastic zip-lock bag and microwave on high for about 30 seconds.  This is to steam and make them pliable.
8. Place 1/5 of the chicken mixture onto the lower 1/3 of the the tortilla, centered from side-to-side.
9. Fold in the sides of the tortilla and then roll up as tight as possible.  Weave a toothpick through the loose flap and place seam-side down on a plate.
10. Continue with the remaining tortillas and chicken mixture.
11. Cover the eggrolls with plastic wrap and place in the refridgerator for several hours.  If you can leave them overnight.
12. Deep fry the eggrolls at 375° for 6-7 minutes or until golden brown.
13. Drain on a wire rack or paper towel and cut at a slight diagonal angle before arrange on plate with the a small bowl of the avocado dipping sauce in the middle.

There appears to be a bit of a controversy about the inclusion of oregano in the recipe. Many have said true Olive Garden™ bread sticks don’t have any oregano. Keep this in mind when you make these up for your family. Crumble up the oregano very fine and don’t over do it on each stick. If you want to see if you can tell the difference, just skip the oregano on a couple of the bread sticks. After all, it’s your taste buds you’re looking to satisfy.

Recipe:

• 1 Loaf frozen bread dough, thawed and brought to room tempurature
• Pam vegetable spray
• Garlic Powder to taste
• Dried oregano leaf, rubbed to a fine powder

Once the dough has been resting at room tempurature, spray a small amount of Pam on your finger tips and begin to knead the dough but don’t over do it.

Take the dough and roll out small little cigar shaped sticks. You should be able to get 8 to 10 sticks from each frozen package of dough.

Spray a cookie sheet with a light coating of Pam vegetable spray.

Lay the bread sticks out on the cookie sheet approximately 3 inches apart.

Let the dough rise in a nice warm area until they’ve doubled in size. This should take between 1 1/2 and 2 hours.

Lightly spray the tops of each loaf with more Pam vegetable spray and sprinkle with some garlic powder and the fine oregano powder.

Bake at 375 degree for approximately 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool on the sheets or a cooling rack and serve warm.