Creamy Poblano Chicken Over Cornbread Waffles

Well, we've been forced inside for awhile due to a torrential downpour, so while we're stuck inside I thought I'd do another blog update. It does not look pretty outside, so I may do a couple posts...who knows!

I felt recently in my meal planning that I needed to break away from using Pinterest for my meal planning, so I pulled out a cookbook my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas a few years ago. She was a teacher at a Christian school in San Antonio, and one of the high school classes put together a cookbook for a fund raiser. I pulled the cookbook out for something else recently and decided to flip through it for some meal planning ideas. This jumped out at me, and I had some random peppers in my fridge already, so I thought it was worth a go. Then lo and behold, when I did a search for cornbread waffles, it turns out the recipe is from an old issue of Southern Living because the first search result took me to this exact recipe!

Creamy Poblano Chicken Over Cornbread Waffles
Source: San Antonio Christian School cookbook and Southern Living

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 poblano chile peppers, seeded and diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 skinned and boned chicken breast halves, cut into bite-size pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken and mushroom soup, undiluted
1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
1 (8-ounce) package shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Cornbread Waffles (recipe below)

Melt butter in a Dutch oven. Add onion, chile pepper, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes. Add chicken, salt, and pepper; cook, stirring often, 8 to 10 minutes or until chicken is done. Stir in soup and sour cream until smooth. Add cheese, and cook 7 to 8 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Serve over Cornbread Waffles.

Cornbread Waffles
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups frozen white shoepeg corn, thawed

Stir together first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together egg and next 3 ingredients; add to cornmeal mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Bake in a preheated, oiled waffle iron just until crisp.

*****

There were mixed reviews on this meal at my house (and from my BFF who was over briefly after dinner. I loved this. The husband was confused by the cornbread waffles because he expected them to taste like regular waffles would. Once he told himself to expect cornbread instead of waffles, he liked it a little better. Boy #1 wasn't home, Boy #2 ate it okay. I really liked it, but only if the bites were really saucy. Jen thought it was okay when she stopped by. We decided it might be better as a pot pie filling instead of served over the waffles. Or over biscuits. The husband thought it could be spicier, and I agreed. I wasn't sure what kind of peppers I was using or how hot they'd be. Someone at the husband's work had brought in peppers from their garden that he brought home, but we had no idea what they were. They were too small to be Anaheims, they were too big to be jalapenos. I still have no idea what they were. But I could have used another one or two for a bit more oomph.

I don't know if I'd make it again...I really liked the flavor, but since everyone else in my house that ate it was pretty indifferent about it, I don't know if it will come into rotation in our house again. Maybe in a different form, but probably not like this. But, I thought it was tasty!!