FIRECRACKER CHIPS AND FRUIT SALSA

May 30, 2012

smitten ⋅ appitizer, fruits and veggies, kiddos, munchies ⋅ appetizer, chips, fruit, munchies ⋅ 2 comments

•I’m pretty lucky that I have an abundance of people with different palates that I can try recipes out on.  This one seemed to be a hit with the school that we had at camp this week (shout out to Cottonwood Elementary).  The kids liked the chips because they were covered in sugar and the teachers and staff dug the salsa.  I even had somebody profess their love and handed out my website info to some teachers who wanted the recipe, flattered♥ We used fruit that we had in our kitchen and it was a nice combo, but you can adjust it to whatever you like.  They are called firecracker chips because I secretly want summer to come and go, if you’ve ever worked in a kitchen in the heat of summer you’d understand they are coated with a sugar and chili powder mixture that give them a sweet and spicy taste.

for the chips

2 bags white corn tortilla chips

2 cups white sugar

3 tbls cinnamon

2 tsp kosher salt

4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter

 

for the salsa

4 granny smith apples-diced

4 pints strawberries-diced

5 kiwi-peeled and diced

1 bunch of red grapes-cut in half

1 small “personal” watermelon or 1/4 of a big one-diced

1 can of pineapple tidbits-drained (fresh would be better)

1 jalapeño, seeds and veins removed-finely minced

1 small white onion-minced

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 limes-zest and juice from 1 and just the juice from the other

1 lemon-zest and juice

1 tbls honey

 

prep and baking time 1 hour-majority of time is spent dicing, fine a friend to help =)

 

serves a crowd-We made this for 85 people and had to adjust this recipe down so there might be some extra seasoning-save it to sprinkle on sweet potato fries!

350°

 

Line 2-3 rimmed baking pans with parchemnt paper or foil, set aside.  Melt the butter over low heat on the stove top.  Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, salt, cayenne and chili powder. 

Working in two batches, dump one bag of chips into a large bowl, and pour over half of the melted butter.  Toss gently with a large spoon.

Sprinkle with a handfull of sugar mixture, toss with hands and spread out on baking pan.  Sprinkle with another handful of sugar mixture, toss again and set aside.  Repeat with the remaing chips, butter and sugar mixture.  These only have to warm up in the oven for 5-7 min so wait until right before serve so they will be warm.

Dice up all of the fruit.  If it’s not gong to be served right away seperate everything and make sure to add the apples to some acidulated water to keep bright white.

Zest and juice the lemon and limes according to directions above and add it to a small bowl along with the salt and honey-mix.  Chop up the cilantro, dice the onion and mince the jalapeño.  Pop the chips in the oven just to warm 5-7 min.  Mix all the fruit, veggies, cilantro , and juices together and serve along with the warm chips♥Enjoy

Thank you to all the helpers to put this giant salsa for 85 campers together

Preston-don’t let his accent fool ya’all, he knows his way with a knife!  Diced the apple, pineapple and after much debate halved the grapes =)

Terri-deseeded and diced the seedless watermelon and strawberries.

Kevin-dear Kevin just wanted to make sure he was in the post!  He comes in with recipe ideas and the one he brought in today is what we adapted this recipe from, oh and he diced the kiwi.