When you don’t get a moose and you’re tired of salmon, there’s chicken. This recipe began as a quick way to whip up a tasty tortilla filling from leftover roast chicken. It has since grown into its own entity, and it’s a favorite.

Chicken Stinkum (a recipe from The Church of Chicken)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 medium onion
1 jalapeño
5 chilpotles in adobo sauce
1/2 can of black beans
salt to taste
chile powder, or salsa as taste dictates
cheese if you’d like it
good tortillas

Chop the onion. Heat a pan with olive oil in the bottom while you’re doing that, and put the onion in when the pan is hot, spreading the chopped onion evenly across the bottom. Blacken the onion on medium-high heat while you chop the rest of the main ingredients, stirring the onions occasionally. The onions dance in the pan when you are doing this right, but don’t let burnt spots accrue and stick to the bottom (this saves on cleanup time). When the onions are ready to stop being blackened, add the chopped garlic and peppers. The volatilized capsaicin from the peppers is what gives this dish its name. If you didn’t remember to turn on the fan, this will probably remind you to do so (when you’re done sneezing and wiping your eyes). If you don’t like peppers as much as I do, seed the jalapeño and maybe use half the chilpotles. Add the chopped chicken and flip and stir while it cooks. Add salt and chile powder or salsa as needed, and add the beans just a few minutes before it’s done. It should be bubbly, but neither too dry nor too wet. For fresh chicken, don’t put the lid on; you may want to simmer it on low for a little while to dry it out.

A bubbling panful of Chicken Stinkum

Heat the tortillas. We prefer handmade corn tortillas and heat them on a comal until they smoke. A large pan on medium high works alright as a comal. That toasted corn taste is superb. If you’re in a hurry, a microwave gets the job done. Add a perfect amount of stinkum to the tortilla so you can roll it up, fold an end, and eat the whole thing in your hands.

A hot tortilla loaded with Chicken Stinkum, with added salsa and cheese.

Now, I like this dish so hot that it makes me cry. Tears of joy. In my view, if properly made, you don’t need to add anything at all when you put some on a heated tortilla. Just roll and enjoy. But if other diners can’t take the same level of hot peppers that I enjoy, adding some salsa after you’ve loaded the tortilla is good, and sometimes cheese is nice, too. Enjoy!

We’ve concocted Small Batch Stinkum, Moose Stinkum, and other Stinkum-brand delights. If you are wanting to try the Original Recipe, leftover roast chicken doesn’t have much moisture; I use Worcestershire sauce and/or red wine to moisten things up a bit.

Note: I used to enjoy throwing phrases at Google that would yield zero hits. It looks like after I post this, one of the favorite food phrases at our house is going to increase infinitely, from zero to…