BBQ Chicken Cupcakes

Original Recipe: http://snappygourmet.com/2012/05/17/bbq-cupcakes/

This past Sunday, my gentleman (S.) and I were feeling lazy, and neither of us wanted to cook anything to labor-intensive. After tooling around on Stumbleupon for a while, I came across a page dedicated to savory cupcakes. The idea intrigued me, and I especially liked the idea of meatloaf cakes with mashed potato frosting. However, S. and I had had beef the night before, and were having it the next night as well, so meatloaf was out of the question. The above link caught my eye because A. I had cornmeal in my baking cabinet and B. I could easily replace pork with chicken.

Substitutions:

1. Replaced pork with chicken because I had breasts thawed in the fridge.

2. Ditched the pimento frosting. I didn’t have cream chees or pimentos, and S. made a face when I mentioned it, so it would have been out anyway. Replaced it with shredded cheddar cheese.

Final Result Impressions:
These were definitely yummy, but, as the images show, the meat-to-cake ratio was way off. They needed more chicken! Next time, I’ll probably throw the batter into a ziploc, cut the corner, and pipe it into the pan. That way, Ill be able to more precisely measure out each cake and, since I’ll be using less batter and I had leftover chicken anyway, there will be MORE CUPCAKES!

Cost v. Outcome
Ingredients
◦1¼ c all-purpose flour……Had on-hand, 5lbs ~ $3
◦½ c corn meal……………Had on-hand, 1 tub ~ $2
◦¼ c granulated sugar……..Had on-hand, 4lbs ~ $3
◦2 tsp baking powder………Had on-hand, 1 can ~ $3
◦¼ tsp salt………………Had on-hand, 1 tub ~ $3
◦¾ cup milk………………Had on-hand, 1 gal ~ $3
◦1 egg…………………..Had on-hand, 1 doz ~ $2
◦5 tbsp butter……………Had on-hand, 1lb ~ $3
◦1 chicken breast…………Had on-hand, 1lb ~ $2
◦BBQ sauce……………….Had on-hand, 1 bottle ~ $2
◦cheddar cheese…………..Had on-hand, ½lb ~ $2

Yields: 12 cupcakes (though there would have been more if I had piped my batter)

While I definitely wouldn’t have gone out of my way to puchase ingredients just to make this, this is one of those recipes where I just had everything already. Serendipitous, perhaps, but I don’t think it’s too far out of line to think many will have most of these things in their homes.