On last weeks episode of Recipe to Riches it was the battle of savoury snacks. The chipotle chili bites took home the prize and beat out the Asian snack wraps and the chicken Cornish pasties.
Stephen Childs from Victoria BC, is the creator of the Chipotle Chili Slams. I was really looking forward to trying the chipotle chili slams after the episode aired and I was a bit surprised to see that they changed up his recipe quite a bit. I was excited to try the little deep fried polenta fritters but they changed them into a wheat and cornmeal baked pastry. One thing that is nice about them is that they are individually wrapped so you can just take out one for a snack.
The instructions on the back say you can microwave or bake them and I opted to bake them in the oven. The chipotle chili slams had a golden flakey crust and got nice and crisp. The mixture of the cornmeal into the pastry added a slightly sweet pleasant flavour to the pastry.
The filling inside is a vegetarian bean chili. I don’t like ground beef and I avoid cheese so I was happy that the chili didn’t contain these items. There was a decent amount of filling inside, with whole chunks of corn and beans. The chili had a subtle chipotle flavour and it wasn’t too strong or spicy. My only complaint is that the filling was a bit dry and could have used some more moisture.
I enjoyed the chipotle chili slams, but I couldn’t help to be a bit disappointed after seeing how different they were than the ones on the show. These are good for a healthier non-greasy snack and they taste better than a pizza pocket. If you want to try making the original version of these, the recipe is on the Food Network Canada website.
