This was a complete accident. I wanted to make the Homemade Chicken Cheesesteaks recipe from How Sweet It Is but I didn’t have the right ingredients. Sometimes, that’s a blessing. Here’s what I came up with and this is really, really yummy. I’m writing this now so I don’t forget what I did to create it! It was great on mesquite grilled chicken as well as with tortilla chips.
Hatch Pepper, Havarti & Cream Cheese Sauce
3 hatch peppers, roasted on the gas flame (or purchased roasted but in my tiny town, they’re not available that way), then sliced and seeded if you want – we didn’t bother
4 oz havarti cheese, sliced thinly
4 oz cream cheese, cubed or sliced as thin as you can
1 small to medium onion, sliced
6 T butter, approximate
1 T. balsamic vinegar
3/4 c. milk
In a cast iron pan, saute roasted peppers and onions in butter (about 2 T) until the onions are transparent and soft but not carmelized completely. Remove from flame and stir in about 1T balsamic vinegar. It will steam up so be careful — this smells heavenly (hello, fajita toppings!). Salt and pepper to taste. Remove peppers and onions and set aside for now.
Add more butter to the pan (I used 3 to 4 T). While the butter melts, whisk in about 3T flour and add about 3/4 cup milk slowly and keep whisking as it thickens (we used goat’s milk and it added a wonderful tang!). When mixture is smooth and thickened add havarti and cream cheese and whisk together. Return onions and peppers to pan and stir gently — salt and pepper to taste. At this point, I turned off the heat.
I took some out to hubs grilling the chicken and he said, “Man! That’s yummy!” Good sign. I think we’ll be eating this more often around here.
