Pollo Nevado (a.k.a. Snow Chicken, or Mexican Chicken)

Boy, I can tell when I'm busy at work because I'm too exhausted to blog at night.  However, I have still been reading cooking magazines, cookbooks, and eating out on my travels, and now I have some new recipes to show for it.  One in particular is Pollo Nevado.  I ordered this at a restaurant called Hacienda de Vega in Escondido, California.  This restaurant has the best outdoor dining experience in Escondido. If you want to take a long lunch or dinner, and feel like your on vacation this is the place. Actually, I've eaten there a several times now, but now Pollo Nevado is what I order whenever I'm there.  You know how it is, right? You go to a restaurant, and whether it's your first time or after a few visits, you find something on the menu, and that's it -- from then on that's what you order.  Pollo Nevado is that dish for me. (Snow chicken according to my internet research). Here is my home made version it.  Although I still don't know how they get the chicken so thin unless they press it like a tortilla, hmmmm.

Pollo Nevado

chicken breast cutlets (one for each serving)
olive oil
1 15 oz. can refried beans
mild cheddar cheese, shredded
fresh cilantro, chopped

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) If  you can't get chicken cutlets from the butcher simply half them yourself from a boneless, skinless chicken breast.

3) Place a cutlet on  a cutting board, cover with plastic rap, and pound out as thin as possible.  Repeat for all the cutlets.

4) Heat an oven proof pan for a few minutes, add olive oil, and after another couple minutes add the chicken cutlets.  Cook for one minute, flip and remove from heat.

5) "Frost" the cutlets with refried beans.

6) Top with shredded cheese.

7) Place pan in the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt and get slightly brown and bubbly (about 10 minutes) - sprinkle with fresh cilantro.