Sweet + Spicy Glazed Chicken, Corn + Avocado Tostadas with Blueberry Peach Salsa.
It’s because lately? My mutually beneficial relationship with chicken has been, suffice to say… ROCKY. Like, really rocky.
It’s been a downright mess.
I occasionally pride myself on being able to throw together fairly creative, delicious and most importantly – different! – meals including chicken, which is something that someone must do when they live with another soul who consumes thousands of pounds of it per year. Survival of the fittest, my friends.
But in the last three months, I’ve had like twenty chicken fails. We just could not get it together. I’ve literally been roasting two chickens a week in order to overlook the other complete disasters. And I’m the bonehead who roasts a chicken when it’s 95 degrees outside. So smart.
Alright, I’ve also literally been roasting two chickens a week because I’m addicted to the crispy skin. It’s like a race to the finish to see who can consume it first. Can’t stop won’t stop. But whatever.
Some of these fails were huge, as in they didn’t turn out at all and I just stared at my brain in my head asking WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? Some where tasty but ugly, in which I considered sharing in a post titled “hideous chicken dishes that still taste okay.” Others didn’t live up to my standards, but were scarfed by that guy I live with… and I pondered a “chicken dishes I hated that you may love” blog and then realized that no thorough criticism can come from a man who claims he’s about to die from starvation.
Short story long, I’ve barely been able to make a new chicken dish to save my sad little life.
Buuuuut now that I’ve whined for 43 seconds of your morning, it’s apparent that this issue resolved itself in the form of tostadas. With blueberries! Does that sound weird? It shouldn’t. It’s freaking incredible. It totally hits the spot, especially if you enjoy the sweet and the salty, the spicy and the fresh, and the chewy and the crunchy . Plus, it goes fabulous with beer AND tequila, which is basically a requirement of anything I put in my mouth in the summertime.
Yeah I said it.
Sweet + Spicy Glazed Chicken, Corn + Avocado Tostadas
serves 4-6
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil + 1/4 cup more for tortillas
8 small corn tortillas
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2/3 cup cooked sweet corn
1 avocado, cut into cubes
Cut chicken into cubes and toss with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add chicken and cook until golden on all sides, about 10-12 minutes. In a bowl, mix together vinegar, honey, barbecue sauce, soy sauce, garlic and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
I usually fry the tortillas while the chicken is cooking. I use a small skillet (just slightly larger than the tortillas), add about 1-2 tablespoons of oil at a time over medium-high heat, then add each tortilla, cook for 15-20 seconds on each side and drain on paper towels. I’ve also brushed the tortillas with oil before and added them to a nonstick skillet without additional oil, but they aren’t quite as crispy or authentic as these.
Remove chicken from the skillet and place on a plate, keeping the heat on. Add sauce to the skillet, whisking well. Let it cook and bubble for 5-6 minutes, whisking occasionally, until it slightly thickens and reduces by just a bit. Add the chicken back in the skillet and toss.
Assemble tostadas by placing chicken on the tortillas, then covering it with a few spoonfuls of corn, avocado, and blueberry salsa!
Blueberry Peach Salsa
1 cup fresh blueberries, chopped
1 ripe peach, chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
3-4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
the juice of one lime
salt + pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and mix. The longer it sits, the better it tastes! Keep refrigerated.
And now I’m putting blueberry salsa on EVERYTHING.
64 Comments on “Sweet + Spicy Glazed Chicken, Corn + Avocado Tostadas with Blueberry Peach Salsa.”
Chicken and I have had a rocky relationship for the last…. 2 years. Ha.
This looks so delicious, but what I really want is that BEER in the background. Yeah and it’s only 7:20AM.
What a great flavor combination! I never would of thought to put blueberry and peach together!! I have to try this recipe too!! Loving all the recipes you have been posting lately!! By the way I made your double chocolate cupcakes for a lady at my Husbands work and the word was, those cupcakes were the bomb!! They LOVED them!!! You saved me!!! Thanks for always cooking up something fabulous!!
I just picked a couple pounds of blueberries and was trying to figure out what to do with them. I may skip the chicken….but that salsa is definitely happening!
Jess, I think you’re one of the most creative people I know, and that entitles you to hundreds of fails because you always seem to be able to produce double the amount of total hits! You’ve been tasked with a pretty tough gig (finding squillions of ways to make chicken sexy) and I’d say you definitely do a better job than most. Mr How Sweet doesn’t know how spoiled he is!! ;)
That salsa sounds so perfect right now that I can almost feel those berries bursting in my mouth!
These ARE just gorgeous! Funny, I was going to ask you if all of your food is beautiful and then I read this… “hideous chicken dishes that still taste okay.” Ha! I feel better now.
Must try this salsa!!!
For the record, I don’t mind ugly but tasty dishes:-) This sounds fabulous.
crispy roasted chicken skin = amazing. and i would totes put that blueberry salsa on eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeverything too. Esp cinnamon sugar pita chips! But seriously today’s recipe sure does dress up chicken – no more chicken fails! winner winner chicken dinner!
I have a love/hate relationship with chicken. It can be really amazing but often I find something about the flavor and texture very unappealing unless it’s cooked perfectly (moist) and full of flavor. I think it’s because my mother cooked plain chicken to death when I was growing up. But this looks fabulous. I’ve pinned it to try sometime soon!
Literally, the only thing I am missing for this recipe is a peach. But I’ve got some kiwis and don’t want to go to the store. Improvise maybe? These look delicious! I’m glad you found your chicken mojo again!
I just made this tonight, and I was thinking about how kiwi would be a great variation on this recipe. I say go for it!
Chicken is the one food I could eat every day for every meal. There’s so many different ways to make it and, to me, it’s pretty much always delicious (unless my gram makes it- but that’s a different story). The thing is, my guy (who also claims he’s is 100% of the time in starvation mode) hates chicken- WHAT?
I think paired with that blueberry salsa I may be able to get him to give this one a try. Plus, we also live by the beer and tequila standard in the summer, so that helps!
YUM! I use a lot of mango and peach salsa in the summer but never thought to do blueberry salsa…yes!
My boyfriend LOVES blueberries and I have 1/2 a bushel of peaches in my fridge begging for some creative uses. Chicken with fruit always looks so yummy, can’t figure out why I haven’t tried any recipes yet. Maybe now’s the time?!
Yum, this look SO delicious – the perfect summer meal! I especially love that fruit salsa…those are so tasty but I don’t think I’ve ever made one with blueberries – I’ll have to try that!
I love the combination of the fruit with the chicken.
Nothing ugly about these!
I say forget chicken and keep making amazing salsas like this one! ;)
Come make chicken for my husband…puuhhleeeze. Oh, and me too.
I go in and out of chicken phases as well. This thought? This looks incredible though. I could overlook chicken’s past indiscretions for this.
You made up for the chicken fails in a big way- these must be PACKED with fantastic flavor!!! :)
Mmmm more fruit salsa! That glaze looks delicious too. I wish I could stop saving every single recipe you post…my “recipes to try” list is comically long. Completely unrealistic. Oh well.
yeah, the whole crispy chicken skin is going to be the death of me. i too have been roasting chicken every week and i just don’t even wait for nate to show up in the kitchen…i eat all of the skin pretty much straight out of the oven. so freaking delicious!
too funny–I’ve got blueberry salsa on the blog today! Next time I’m adding peach and serving it with chicken tostadas :)
What a great combination of blueberry & peach! I cannot wait to make this. :)
Blueberry salsa sounds so amazing! Great recipe. Oh, I also “can’t stop won’t stop” when it comes to crispy chicken skin :)
This recipe has left me speechless. All I can say is this looks amazing!
I absolutely love the sweet and savoury combination. I live in South Africa and when I feel like a sweet and savoury craving coming on I like to have biltong (I am sure you know what that is) with milk chocolate! Sound weird doesn’t it!! Anyway. Beautiful recipe, will love to try it out!
that salsa looks great – you are the queen of fruit salsas and I love that!
I’ve been looking for new things to do with blueberries since apparently I CAN NOT STOP BUYING THEM. Every time I go to the store now they just look so fresh and plump and cheap, and I buy another 5 pounds of them. Anyway, I’m making this.
Oh WOW. This looks great. I would never think to add Blueberries but it seems like such a great idea. Little and Refreshing. Thanks for sharing!!
Oh man this looks really really great! I love the idea of it, and it looks gorgeous too! Definitely on my list!
Any thoughts on an alternate fruit for the salsa that will go well with the rest of this recipe? The guy I date-who eats practically EVERYTHING-refuses to eat anything with blueberries. Apparently, he had a traumatic experience with a blueberry dessert as a kid…
It’s always a battle to get the crunchy skin in my house too! haha
I struggle with chicken sometimes too. It’s the one meat we always have an abundance of in the freezer and I am always trying to get rid of it!
But, this is a total win!! How perfect for summer with that purty salsa!
Thank you for saving me from dinner ho-drum multiple times per week! I love coming to your site to see what you’ve been cooking up in your crazy kitchen, and my husband and I are setting out to make this delicious meal, beers in hand, it looks amazing and delicious. I love putting together creative recipes, as do you, obviously and think the only HUGE difference in our taste buds is that I actually love myself some dark leafy greens all over the place and for breakfast every morning in my green smoothie. I think I’ll email you the recipe and challenge you to make it because I know you will love it. I have many pics to upload to your facebook group and will do it one day as soon as I get outa the kitchen.
My mouth is watering. This recipe looks fabulous and your photography is amazing! I’m going to make this tomorrow night; thanks for sharing.
Looking forward to meeting you at the Thermador event next week.
Have a fabulous weekend!
I’m loving the blueberries and corn combination…and you in all your chicken honesty. I keep roasting fruit even though it’s 95 degrees. I can’t figure out why it feels like the right thing to do.
I was thoroughly entertained by your whining :)) I can totally empathize with your chicken failure, I have some grand ones of my own. Thankfully I don’t need to roast them so often, so that saves me a little heat.
Love your blog :)
What a fun dish! And man, that blueberry peach salsa sounds amazing. I could seriously eat that by the spoonful.
Jesssssssssss. We just gorged ourselves on this meal. Like i am not kidding, we shoved our faces. In between bites there were few words muttered, but some notable ones by my boyfriend went something like this…
“This is the best salsa I have ever had in my life.”
“Well, we won’t be going out to mexican restaurants anymore.”
“Where did you find this recipe again?”
….So yeah, this is my new go to summer recipe. I loved every single moment of this meal, and not to mention that the prep for it was super easy. How are you so amazing again?
what a great combination of flavors: blueberry, avocado and peach. love your creativity! this is definitely added to my summer meal list!
Chicken success! I did like the idea of a blog post about good but ugly dishes :)
I. Want. This. Now!
Great recipe! Your post also make me so hungry!
ellen-loves.blogspot.com
I made this tonight, for family dinner with the roomies, and it was a hit! We are now thinking of how we can pair the chicken with other things (ie. on rice, in a wrap…), and plan to eat bucket-fulls of blueberry peach salsa all summer long. AH-MAZING!
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Since you posted this recipe I’ve made it 3 times! It’s been pretty hot out so I grilled both the corn and the tortillas outside. Loving, loving, loving the blueberry salsa. Thanks for an amazing recipe that has now become one of my staple chicken dishes :)
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