Recipes featuring Chicaoji Sauce

These are recipes that people have come up with the use Chicaoji Sauce in one way or another. It’s a very versatile sauce because it has all the flavors: sweet, tart, salt, bitter, savory/umami PLUS the medium heat of chipotles (smoked jalapeño chillies).

“Chicaoji Viva Brownies” by Stephanie

Brownies in a skillet
| Randall Waugh

Cream together:

  • 1 cup melted coconut butter (or regular butter if you prefer), and 4 squares melted bitter chocolate
  • 2 cups dark brown sugar (Side note about replacement: Each square is ¼ oz so that’s 1 oz of unsweetened chocolate. 1 square unsweetened chocolate = 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder and 1 Tablespoon shortening)

Add:

  • 4 lightly whisked eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp. chicaoji sauce

 

Stir in:

  • 1 1/3 cups almond flour (or wheat)
  • mixed chopped nuts of your choosing (as many as you’d like)

Put in a 9″x 13″ greased pan, bake at 325° until sides pull away from the pan (about 25 minutes). Do not overbake, and test with a toothpick at about 18-20 minutes as all ovens are different, and it varies with using a glass or metal baking pan.

For extra chocolaty goodness (aka gooeyness 🙂 I like to sprinkle chocolate chips and nut chips on top once out of the oven as well,… OR if you’re a real chicaoji fan, melt those chocolate chips in a pan and add about another 1/2 tsp of that most wonderful sauce! YÜÜÜMEEE

Chicaoji Chocolate Pudding

| Randall Waugh

in 20 minutes

Howdy everyone,
Chicaoji Chocolate Pudding?! Sounds crazy right? Well, I’m here to tell you it’s worth a try.

Back story: How Chicaoji Chocolate Pudding came to be…

We’ve been making Chicaoji chocolate milk for quite a while but one day we felt like having something more treat-y. Chocolate Pudding is pretty treat-y… so we started playing around with a basic pudding recipe. We enlisted several Lopez Islanders, including a couple of kids, to help try out the various variations.

We came up with the recipe below. It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. We generally eat some of it hot and refrigerate the rest for later.

Chicaoji Chocolate Pudding recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups milk (or almond, coconut, oat milk, etc)
  • 4-6 Tablespoons cacao powder (I use 6)
  • 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • ¼ Cup maple syrup
  • 1 Tablespoon Chicaoji Sauce (or more if you want)
  • ½ Teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ Teaspoon cinnamon powder (optional)
  • Pinch of salt

Method:

  1. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly in double boiler (metal bowl in a pot with water in it. )
  2. Add a bit of milk and stir/whisk to make a paste. (The dry stuff clumps up if doesn’t get evenly moistened in the beginning.)
  3. Slowly add remaining milk and stir frequently as the mixture slowly heats up. This helps avoid clumps too.
  4. Add the Chicaoji, maple syrup and vanilla extract at some point. (There seems to be some disagreement as to whether it makes a difference WHEN the Chicaoji goes in. We seek your opinion on this matter.)
  5. Continue stirring until the pudding thickens. It bubbles a bit if you stop stirring.
  6. Eat: Pour into cups or ramekins or whatever you want to eat it out of. (Or just eat it out of the bowl!)

Eat hot right away or refrigerate and eat later.
It’s yummy either way.

Much thanks to the tasting crew for guiding us to this point.
We like this and thought you might like it too.

I’d really love to hear your feedback on this idea. Would you add more/less cacao? Would you add more/less Chicaoji? Any suggestions for improvement?

 

Jack’s Fiesta Markley (mostly) vegetarian Chicaoji Stew

| Randall Waugh

A Fiesta in Your Mouth!

Jack H. and Isaac shared the Fiesta Markley (mostly) Vegetarian Chicaoji Stew recipe via email.

“I’ve been working on a project of making weekly stews throughout autumn and this week I made a spicy stew with peppers and, of course, Chicaoji. Here’s the recipe:”

The Ingredients

  • 2 red carrots
  • 4 red potatoes
  • 1 and 1/2 yellow onions
  • 2 Anaheim peppers
  • 2 jalapeños
  • 1 poblano
  • 1 habanero
  • 3 Roma tomatoes
  • 3rd head of cauliflower
  • 3rd head of red cabbage
  • 3 radishes
  • 1 Can ranch beans
  • 1 Can White kidney beans
  • 1 red, yellow, and orange peppers
  • Cajun seasoning to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 tbsp cumin
  • 1 tomato paste can (small)
  • Lime juice to taste
  • Half cup Chicaoji
  • 1 bag sweet corn
  • 1 can of hatch chiles
  • Half cup of cilantro
  • 10 chopped cloves of garlic
  • 1 box vegetable broth
  • 1 box bone broth (Substitute veg broth for vegetarians/vegan stew)
  • Cotija cheese (for individual bowls)

The Process

You can watch Jack & Isaac make it happen on this video:

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClCyeM-pZfp/

1. Sautée potatoes, cauliflower, onions and carrots in stock pot for 20 mins, adding cajun seasoning and salt
2. In a separate pan, sautée all peppers (chopped)
3. Combine and add broth and all ingredients (wait 10 minutes before adding cilantro)
4. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for an hour
5. Top with Cotija and additional lime juice and cilantro (if you want to add a dash of extra Chicaoji to your bowl, go ahead!)

The Map It Up Stew Crew
The Map It Up Stew Crew, ? on L and Jack on R.
Chicaoji, a key ingredient in Fiesta Markley Stew.
Chicaoji, a key ingredient in Fiesta Markley Stew.
Stir the stew.
Stir the stew.
Measure out Chicaoji for recipe.
Measure out Chicaoji for recipe.
Add Chicaoji to Fiesta Markley Stew
Add Chicaoji to Fiesta Markley Stew
Yum!
Yum!

Jon’s Chicaoji Hummus

| Randall Waugh
  • 1x 16oz. can garbanzos  aka chickpeas (See below for dry/cooked beans ratio.)
  • 1 large clove garlic, crushed and chopped
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 2 – 3 Tbs. Chicaoji (to taste)
  • Juice of 1 lemon or lime
  • 2 – 4 Tbs. toasted sesame oil (according to taste)
  • 2 – 3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Rinse garbanzos well in a strainer. Put the rinsed garbanzos, garlic, salt, Chicaoji, lemon or lime juice and sesame oil in a food processor. Process until a smooth puree forms – about a minute or two. Add a little water to make the texture smoother if necessary. With the processor still running, add the olive oil. Process until smooth and incorporated.
Great with crunchy vegetables such as celery, jicama sticks, carrots, cucumber sticks, etc. Or on pita or naan.

Notes:

Jon added, “You can use tahini instead of the toasted sesame oil. I don’t like the texture that the tahini often imposes, so I use the oil. But others find the tahini just as good.”

Jon’s recipe referred to a can of beans so I looked up what that means in term of dry/cook beans. Here’s what I found:
One 15.5 ounce can of beans = 1 ½ cups cooked = ¾-to-1 cup dried

JP’s Magic Chicaoji Sauce

| Randall Waugh

John P. from Burlingame, California came up with a REALLY unusual recipe that I want to share with y’all. This is what he said when I asked him if he had a Chicaoji recipe. RW

“I do have a recipe for you. It’s a super simple one, once you obtain the 3 ingredients, that is, but amazing if I might say so myself.

I put it on everything and make lots to give away.

Here ya go:

  • 1/3     Chicaoji Sauce
  • 1/3     Kewpee Mayonaise
  • 1/3 (or less, depending on how runny you want it) Yuzu Juice

I riff’ed it up while messing around in the kitchen one evening. It just clicked.

Now, I can’t live without it on things like:

  • Fried Okra, or fried anything
  • Grilled Asparagus
  • Tacos
  • Roast veggies of any type
  • Fish of any type and cooking style
  • Anything where you might use mayo or a sauce”
    ~~~~~~~~~
    The ingredients for John’s recipe can be found online. I had to look up both ingredients that were not Chicaoji!

Kewpie Mayo is apparently the go-to mayo for master chefs. (Not surprisingly, I’d never heard of it!)

Yuzu Juice is a really interesting food that is common on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. It’s a variety of citrus that is considered to have some health benefits. Here’s a LINK to some info I found about the benefits.  John even has a Yuzu growing at his Bay Area home.

Now not everyone is going to have Kewpie Mayo and Yuzu Juice on hand but you can get the idea from John’s recipe. Please do let me know if you come up with substitutes and or any “recipe riff” of your own.

Thank you, Randall

Brandon’s Breakfast Eggs on Toast with Chicaoji

| Randall Waugh

Thank you for providing such a lovely product over these years! Thank you for the information, I truly had no idea I could get my favorite sauce here in Everett! [Sno-Isle Food Co-op] Thank you for letting me know, I will check it out there next time!

I have been enjoying chicaoji for quite some time now… roughly 6-8 years or so now. I first found out about Chicaoji at a local market on Lopez Island some years back, and I believe it was you that sold it to me 🙂

Typically, I use chicaoji on my egg recipes or chicken recipes. My favorite breakfast to make for myself and my wife is as follows:

  • 1 piece of toast
  • small layer of cream cheese
  • a few cut cherry tomatoes
  • sprinkle sunflower seeds
  • various greens mix of lettuce
  • 2 eggs over easy/medium on top
  • Chicaoji Sauce drizzled to liking

or

  • 1 piece of toast
  • layer of lightly fried ham
  • cheese (cheddar or pepperjack)
  • 2 eggs over easy/medium on top
  • dollup of sour cream
  • sliced avocado
  • Chicaoji Sauce drizzled to liking

Perhaps you will try them and see what you think!

Jon’s Lopez Island Chicken Wings

| Randall Waugh

Lopez Island Chicken Wings

  1. Chicken wings – First and second sections only – the drumette and flat wingette. Cut off the wing tips and use them for bait in your crab traps.
  2. Preheat a grill to a relatively low heat. I put all six burners on my natural gas grill to the lowest setting.
  3. Place the wing sections on the grill and cook over direct heat for approximately 7 – 8 minutes. Turn the sections over and allow to grill for another 7 – 8 minutes on the other side. Wings should have crispy skin at this point, and some grill marks. There should be visible signs that cooking is complete, such as small amounts of clear juices bubbling under the skin.
  4. Remove the wing sections from the grill and place in a large bowl. Put a few tablespoons of Chicaoji sauce for each pound of wings into the bowl and toss with a spatula to make sure all the wings are coated with the Chicaoji. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the wings to rest and steam in their juices for about 10 minutes and for the Chicaoji to adhere to the chicken skin.
  5. Serve with crunchy vegetable sticks such as celery, carrot, jicama, or cucumber, and a creamy dipping sauce such as blue cheese or ranch dressing.