Steemit Sandwich Contest Week #47- Flamin' Hot Cheetos Crusted Chicken and Bacon Marmalade Jam Melt

One of my guilty pleasures is eating Flamin' Hot Cheetos. I do not know what they put into those crunchy corn snacks but they are spicy, tangy and you can never just eat the suggested serving size, at least not for me. Whenever I indulge in them my fingers are always stained red for days and that is probably why I stay away from them. Did you know that Flamin' Hot Cheetos were invented by a janitor who was inspired by his native country's dish of corn sprinkled with chili and lime source? For this week's weird sandwich theme on Steemit's sandwich contest created by @jaybird, I thought I would make a cheesy melted sandwich incorporating the bright colored cheetos.

Ingredients

• cornmeal bread (bread flour, coarse cornmeal, scallions, honey, buttermilk, egg, salt and canola oil)
• Flamin' Hot Cheetos crusted baked chicken breast (chicken, flour, eggs, ranch seasoning, buttermilk, Flamin' Hot Cheetos)
• bacon jam (bacon, onions, brown sugar, vinegar, balsamic vinegar, fresh thyme, garlic, marmalade, and mustard)
• pickled jalapeños
• mayonaise
• cheddar cheese
• monterey jack cheese
• ranch seasoning
• fresh dill
• fresh thyme
• arugula

Since cheetos are made with cornmeal, I wanted to make a bread that also had cornmeal. To make the bread more savory, I added some sliced scallions which complemented the cornmeal and honey.

Sometimes I find chicken breasts can be quite bland so I marinated them overnight in buttermilk and powdered ranch seasoning. The buttermilk will help tenderize the chicken breasts and add a bit of tanginess. To finish the chicken, they were dredged in flour, then dipped in beaten eggs and coated with crushed Flamin' Hot Cheetos. I wanted to keep that bright red hue associated with cheetos so I baked the chicken breasts. I wanted to add another unlikely pairing with my baked Cheetos crusted chicken so I made a bacon jam.

For the bacon jam, I rendered the bacon until the bacon was crispy and then I sautéed onions in some of the bacon fat. The bacon and onion mixture was slowly cooked along with the sugar, garlic, fresh thyme, mustard, water and vinegars until jam consistency. The jam was salty, sweet and sour but I felt something was missing so I rummaged through my refrigerator and saw a jar of marmalade and knew this would be perfect. The marmalade added a bright citrusy note.

Now my sandwich is coming along. To finish the sandwich I spread some mayonnaise on the outside of the bread. On one piece of bread I spread a layer of bacon condiment and on the second slice of bread I spread a mixture of cheddar, Monterey jack cheese, mayonnaise, chopped thyme, dill and ranch dressing seasoning. The mayonnaise is to add richness to the sandwich. For some reason when the Cheetos were crushed, they lost some of their heat and I wanted more heat to my sandwich so I added pickled jalapeño slices. The slices of bread were slowly grilled mayonnaise side down until the cheese melted. I sandwiched the slices of bread with a piece of chicken breast and some arugula leaves.

This sandwich is not for the faint of heart. It's creamy, cheesy, sweet, smokey, salty, spicy, tangy, and the burst of orange marmalade brought all the flavors together. The pepperiness of the arugula added freshness and helped cut through the richness of this sandwich.

For all sandwich lovers out there, check out the competition here and start sharing your creations. Happy sandwich eating!