Chicken Stuffed, Whole-Grain Crepes

Chicken Crepes.

The papery thin lace of a good crepe, what’s not to love? Thin, delicate, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth batter, with just a hint of a crisp? Crepes, made from home-ground flour mixed into a batter that sits for almost a full day, positively sing their way into your mouth with the glorious mix of eggy-goodness and whole-grain nutty flavor. I don’t mind telling you that when I cook these, I keep my fingers crossed and say a prayer that I flub at least one of them up so I can have a taste test while the rest cook! (Today I messed up two, and Brian and I tore into them shamelessly!)

Whole, local ingredients.

I learned to make crepes from Annika, my dear friend and exchange student from Germany who moved into our house during my senior year of High School, after it didn’t work out with her first host family. I cherish a lot of memories with Annika, but one thing I will always remember is making crepes, without a recipe. She taught me to look at the batter and see that smooth, creamy texture that means the batter is exactly right!

We used a lot of eggs and flour experimenting that year. We tried flavoring crepes with vanilla, but also dipped into my mom’s liquor cabinet and tested out anything we thought might enhance the flavor—brandy, flavored liquors, and amaretto. I think I carried on cooking them long after the school year and Annika’s return to Germany. Anyone who was around, including the handyman who was installing tile in the bathroom, got a taste.

Back then I made them with white flour, homogenized skim milk, vanilla, and store-bought eggs. When I later got married and joined a Jewish family, my recipe didn’t change much—except that I learned to fill my blintzes with cheese and top them with blueberries! When we moved to Nashville, I learned about southern café-style crepes, filled with chicken, veggies and cheese. And, when I first started changing my diet to the dark side (the dark side of flour that is), I made kamut and whole wheat crepes.

Today, although it still reminds me of the ones Annika and I used to make, I am making a completely new crepe. This recipe uses yogurt to break down whole grain flour. The yogurt and flour mixtuer is then combined with eggs, melted butter, salt, and enough water to give the batter that familiar smooth, glossy look that makes thin, rich pancakes, prettier than an antique doily.

I started this batch last night after the concert, while Mia was sleeping. I mixed two cups of plain, whole yogurt with two cups fresh-milled whole wheat flour, put a lid on the bowl, and set it in my pantry to wait until dinner tonight. Mia’s nap was late today, so she was again asleep when it was time to work on the crepes. A fact I am not going to complain about!

Mixing flour and yogurt to soak overnight!

I turned the yogurt and flour mixture out into my food processor, added 4 eggs, ½ teaspoon of celtic sea salt, about ½ cup of melted butter (eyeballed, but not strictly measured), and enough water to get that smooth cream texture. While everything was blending, I heated my cast iron skillet and melted butter (on the stove—remember, this is a no-microwave zone!) and got out my silicone pastry brush. I brushed the hot pan (heated at the mid setting on my burnter) with melted butter, and then poured in two large ladles full of batter. I picked up the pan to swirl the batter around for good coverage, then poured the excess batter back in the bowl. When the center of the crepe was dry and the edges were brown and starting to curl, I turned it out onto a plate. About a million repeats of this later (and two wonderful mess-ups that I mentioned before) and I was done!

 

Although Brian speculated that my new recipe would taste great filled with bananas and whipped cream, this was dinner, not dessert, so I made a savory filling using the leftover chicken breast from last night’s lemon-herb chicken. This wasn’t a recipe with measures, because that’s not how I cook, but I will tell you what I put in it. First, I chopped up and sautéed two bell peppers, 3 cloves of garlic, one onion, and one small eggplant. (I salted the eggplant first to remove the bitter taste, then rinsed well before cooking.) After the veggies browned, I poured in about two tablespoons of my homemade flour and stirred. Then, I added whole, non-homogenized milk to make a thick sauce. After that, I threw a teaspoon of homemade mustard (which falls in taste somewhere between Dijon and wasabi) into the mix. I also added grated, aged feta—which came as hard as cheddar from our co-op a few weeks ago and needed to be used. I stirred while it melted its way into heavenly gooeyness in the sauce. I let it all simmer until thick, then seasoned it with Celtic sea salt, pepper, and paprika. I removed it from the burner and used spoonfuls to fill the crepes. I filled them pan side out, but you can turn them either way. (Sometimes it's pretty to alternate, so you get a striped effect in the pan!) Once they were side-by-side in a buttered baking dish, I topped them with a little grated cheese and baked at 375 degrees until barely browned and a little crisp to the touch.

Chopping up the CSA veggies for the filling!

Rich, creamy sauce and veggies make a great filling!

The first bite? Delicious! I had never had them before—in fact, I typed this as I cooked them and made the chicken filling up as I went! My verdict? Just for the aroma alone, I wouldn’t kick these crepes out of bed! My house smells good enough to eat tonight! And, they were hearty and full of flavor. Possibly the best I’ve ever made! My eyes and enthusiasm were bigger than my stomach. I served myself a second crepe, but had to split it with Brian.

Lining the crepes up for dinner!