Savoury Chicken Tarts with Bacon, Chicken and Apple

One word: YUM.

I developed this for the upcoming Super Bowl, which is two weeks from today: The filling can be made in advance, and the wrappers make a fast little tart shell. You can use mini muffin or medium (regular) muffin tins. I went for mini with this recipe – which makes a perfect yield of 24 bites.

Chicken, bacon, carmelized onion and apple all meld beautifully. The apple and bacon create a nice smokey-sweet balance and the gruyere’s nuttiness is a wonderful accompaniment.

A tip regarding the apple juice for this recipe: If I buy a can/bottle/carton for a recipe, half of it goes to waste, because I am more into eating fresh fruit than drinking store-bought juice. I buy a bundle of those little tetra lunch boxes of juice so that I have just a 1/2 cup or cup at a time and I’m not wasting any more – or having to drink it before it expires. I get different flavours of juice so that overnight guests who drink juice with breakfast have some variety as well, as well as drop-in guests who like juice in their cocktails.

And if you have leftover won ton wrappers, and don’t know what to do with them, here are two other favourites: sweet potato ravioli and ginger pork pot stickers.

Savoury Chicken Tarts

Ingredients

24 wonton wrappers
1 onion, finely chopped
3 slices of bacon, trimmed of fat, coarsely chopped
1 chicken breast, chopped into 1/2 inch dice
1/2 tablespoon of dried ground sage
1 gala apple, with skin, cored and chopped into 1/4 inch dice
1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice
1/2 cup gruyere, finely shredded

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Carefully place one wonton wrapper into each mini muffin cup.
Bake the wontons for about 7 minutes - they will be just getting lightly golden at the edges.
Remove and allow to cool slightly.
Combine, onion, bacon, chicken and sage in a medium bowl.
Preheat medium frying pan to medium high heat.
Saute onion bacon mixture, until onion is golden brown and chicken and bacon are fully cooked.
Add apple and apple juice, scraping up any brown bits in bottom of pan, and allow to come to a boil.
Cook until liquid has almost evaporated. Mixture should be moist, but not wet.
Spoon mixture into pre-cooked wontons.
Top with gruyere.
Bake for another 7-9 minutes, until wontons are lightly brown and cheese is golden. Don't over-bake.

http://www.onecooktwokitchens.com/super-bowl-recipe-savoury-chicken-tarts-with-bacon-and-apple/

With only three basic steps and a few ingredients, this is a fast and impressive finger food. This recipe makes 24 bites, but you can easily double this recipe.