I started out with six large chicken thighs. I selected thighs over the more oft-used breasts, because they stay much more moist and have more flavor. I skinned and de-boned them myself, removing as much fat as practical.
Then I went to my inside freezer and pulled some compound butter I had made a while ago. This particular butter is combined with cilantro, lime juice and garlic. Killer stuff! I put about 1/2 tablespoon of the compound butter in each muffin well.
Next, I formed the boneless thighs into a nice smooth ball and wrapped them with bacon. These were placed upside down in the muffin wells on top of the butter. You can run these either in the smoker or the oven, but count on about 45 minutes at 275 degrees. These I had to cook in the oven, as the weather was not conducive to running the smoker, unfortunately. Remember, thighs won't turn white like breasts, so you can't go by color - a good instant thermometer is your friend here.
I then selected some nice slices of home made smoked Canadian Bacon and brought the slices up to room temperature. Okay, there actually were more than six, but I sampled a couple for quality control purposes.
Now comes the most challenging part of the dish, especially if you have never made Bearnaise sauce before. It can be very challenging if you aren't good with a whisk. There are many different recipes for this delight, so I'll leave it up to the reader to find one they are comfortable with. If you absolutely can't do it, Knorr makes a packaged mix that can be substituted, but it won't be quite the same. Either way, this is a very rich sauce and definitely not low-calorie - about a third of it is butter.
Now to plate it up. I used well-toasted English muffin halves as a base, and applied a "light" layer of Bearnaise followed by a slice of Canadian Bacon.
Next I removed a wrapped chicken thigh from the muffin tin, inverted and drained the butter from it, and centered it on the Canadian bacon. Although not shown below, another coating of Bearnaise was spooned over the final product. It would be great served with a side of grilled fresh asparagus and maybe some herbed new potatoes.
I didn't get any finished and sliced pictures, as we were hungry and they disappeared before I thought of it. These were very delicious, and although very rich will by popular demand be on the regular rotating menu here at Casa Gordita!
