Chicken Spring Roll Appetizers

I was invited to a New Year's Eve party with some good friends. When I asked if I could bring anything, their response was, "Something you can eat." I have a new bottle of coconut white balsamic vinegar from Prima Oliva, which is a great little shop just down the street from the wine shop where I work. I wanted to try it out, so I decided to make some chicken spring roll-inspired appetizers. Here's what I used:

For the dressing:

2 T brown sugar
1 clove garlic,  minced
1 cup chicken broth
3 T coconut balsamic vinegar
2 T sesame oil
1 T chili oil
a dash or two of soy sauce

Combine all of the ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid reduces by about half. Allow to cool.


For the filling:

2 cups diced, cooked chicken (or tofu, pork, shrimp, mushrooms, etc)
2 cups prepared coleslaw. You can make your own, but I used a bag from the store. It seemed like the right thing to do.
3 T toasted sesame seeds
Salt and pepper to taste.

Toss everything well. When the dressing is cool, toss dressing and filling together until you've got a well coated and damp, but not soggy mixture. Set this someplace cool until you're ready to fill your holders.



For the holders:

Here you have 2 options. You can either make wonton cups (spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray. Press in wonton wrappers and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Remove cups and place upside down on a cookie sheet. Bake an additional 5 minutes to toast the bottoms.) Or you can go the easy route and use premade fillo cups from the freezer section of the grocery store. Again, this seemed like the right thing to do. It had been a long day and I was exhausted.


Either way, fill the holders with as much mixture as you can stuff in there. Sprinkle them with some more sesame seeds if the spirit moves you (or cilantro, coconut flakes, red cabbage, crushed pineapple, crushed peanuts, etc.)

Serve these cool-room temperature. I'm taking along a bottle of Segura Viudas Prosecco to serve with these little munchkins. This recipe makes enough filling for 60 little fillo cups, or about 50 slightly larger wonton cups. I have no idea what happened to my finished picture, so unfortunately I can't show you what they look like done. They sure taste good, though!!