Plated Recipe Challenge...Featuring Tex-Mex Confetti Chicken Flatbread

As an active member of The Daily Meal's Culinary Content Network, I was recently invited to take part in a chicken recipe contest for Plated. Chicken is one of my go-to ingredients for quick meals, so I immediately jumped at the chance to participate. If you’re not familiar with Plated, they offer a fresh take on cooking for busy food lovers. They remove the stress of grocery shopping and searching for recipes. Subscribers are provided with several weekly menu options. They select a recipe, and Plated sends the ingredients to create it in their kitchen.  I think it’s a great concept…so convenient! If my chicken recipe is chosen, it will be featured on a Plated weekly menu next month…and subscribers all around the country can try my recipe. How exciting is that?!?!?

The rules of the contest are pretty simple: recipes must use chicken breast or thighs, contain no more than 12 ingredients, and be ready to eat in 30 minutes. Chicken is so versatile and can be used in so many ways, so the hardest part was choosing which direction to go. In the end, I went with a weeknight meal that everyone will enjoy: Tex-Mex Confetti Chicken Flatbread. It tastes a bit like a taco in a pizza-like form. By using frozen garlic naan, prep time was a snap. While the seasoned chicken breast seared, I assembled the rest of the flatbread with a festive confetti of my favorite Tex-Mex flavors. After the chicken was cooked, it got a quick chop and was placed on top of each flatbread.With green onion, Roma tomato, spicy jalapeno and cooling avocado, all of my favorite Tex-Mex flavors were represented. To keep the theme going, I used taco sauce and shredded co-jack cheese. These flatbreads will conquer two cravings at once: Mexican food and pizza. Not too bad for a 30-minute investment of time. Wait until you see how easy these spicy flatbreads are to whip up!

Tex-Mex Confetti Chicken Flatbread

a Weekend Gourmet Original

Ingredients:

• 3 pieces garlic naan (can substitute pita)
• 1.5 cups taco sauce [I used Frontera New Mexico Taco Skillet Sauce]
• 1.5 cups shredded co-jack cheese
• 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 tbs. Mexican seasoning blend
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 2 sliced green onions
• 1 Roma tomato, seeded and chopped
•  ½ avocado, peeled and diced
• 1 jalapeno, thinly sliced
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 400. Place the olive oil in a non-stick skillet over med-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with the seasoning and sear until golden-brown on each side. Turn heat to med and cook the chicken for 10 minutes. While the chicken cooks, prep the rest of the flatbread. Place parchment on a large rimmed baking sheet. Lay the naan on the parchment and top each with 1/3 of the taco sauce and cheese.

Step 2: Top each flatbread with some of the chopped tomato, green onion, jalapeno and avocado. Let the cooked chicken rest for a couple minutes before cutting. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and arrange on top of the flatbreads. Bake the flatbreads for  8-10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the naan is golden-brown. Turn the sheet pan around halfway through baking for even cooking.

Step 3: This makes three flatbreads, which is two servings. One flatbread is filling for me, but men will likely want to have two. We found the flatbreads  filling on their own, but a green salad with any extra tomato/green onion/avocado would be nice too.

We really enjoyed these flatbreads! They had all the flavor of a chicken taco in an easy-to-eat flatbread form. The colorful chopped veggies really do look like festive confetti. I love foods with a lot of color, so this one gets a thumbs-up for presentation too! You can’t order pizza and have it delivered in the time it takes to whip up these flatbreads, and you get to control how much of each ingredient you want. Michael likes his food fiery, so he got extra jalapeno on his flatbread. I’m nuts for avocados, so I scaled back on the jalapeno and went a little heavier on the avocado. Everybody’s happy…and you will be too if you give these a try!

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