Southwestern Eggrolls

This is a previous entry that I am reposting to send to SriLekha's Chicken event.


I had this the first time at a restaurant and fell in love! I looked online for a copycat recipe and was so excited to find one. Unfortunately, the recipe wasn't all that great. That's when I set to work developing this recipe. My mom helped a lot with the dipping sauce. It took a really long time to come up with this exact recipe but it was so worth it!

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, diced small
• vegetable oil for frying
• 1/2 minced bell pepper
• 1 onion, or 1/2 cup green onions, minced
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1 cup black beans
• 10 ounce frozen spinach
• 1/4 cup chopped jalapeño peppers
• 1 tbsp. minced fresh parsley
• 4 tsp. cumin powder
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups Monterey Jack cheese
• 8 large tortillas

Dipping Sauce:

• 2 avocado's
• 1 cup mayonnaise
  
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 3 tbsp. buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp. white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. minced parsley
  
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 1/4 tsp. dill weed
• dash garlic powder
• dash pepper

• Chopped tomatoes and onions for garnish

Method:

Prepare dipping sauce a few hours prior to eating. Mash avocado's and combine them with the remaining ingredients for dipping sauce. Refrigerate until ready to use. Meanwhile, sautee onion and green pepper until onion is translucent. Add chicken and sautee until no longer pink. Add spinach, corn, beans, jalapeños, parsley, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper until mixture is heated through. Remove from heat and add cheese until melted, stirring. Cool this mixture before assembling egg rolls. To assemble, place a bit of the chicken/spinach mixture onto each tortilla, wrapping in the sides and rolling to secure. Deep fry egg rolls until golden. Cut each egg roll in half and serve with dipping sauce, garnished with tomatoes and onions.

~When my time comes, I hope no one drains my veins of their sustaining fluid and fills them with formaldehyde, then wastes me by putting me in a concrete box in the ground for eternity. Rather, just a simple pine box with an acorn on top of it. Find a place where a tree is needed and return me to nature. When the acorn grows, I can nourish it and give back in some measure what I've taken. Maybe someday kids can crawl in my branches or a raccoon might curl up in my trunk or the larks can sing out from my leaves. At any rate, I would rather let an oak tree be my epitaph than a marble slab be my tombstone. - Mike Royko~