Linda Keaton’s Scooby Snacks

In one of those whoops moments. I managed to post this before I had it finished.

Last month, the Iron Chef family lost a very dear friend, Linda Keaton. Linda was known in many circles as “The Rabbit Lady” as she volunteered at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle for many years taking care of and educating the public on rabbits. To many of the close friends in the Iron Chef Family, she equally famous for bringing an appetizer to parties which many years ago we dubbed Scooby Snacks because of their delicious and addictive qualities. It won’t be the same without Linda at our gatherings, but fortunately she did show me how to make the snacks and the tradition can be carried on. The recipe is pretty easy to make (the below recipe makes about 40 pieces) and can easily be scaled for a larger quantity.

The Software

• 6 oz. (2 cups) shredded extra sharp cheddar
• 2 cups green onions chopped
• 5 tablespoons of bacon bits
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons mustard
• 6 oz. (1 ½ cups) shredded chicken breast, poached and cooled
• 1 egg
• ½ cup Mayonnaise
• 1 ¼ cup flour
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup cottage cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup margarine

The Recipe

Poach the chicken breast in water for about 20 minutes until done. Remove from water, let cool and while it is still slightly warm, shred into bite sized pieces.

Combine cheese, onions, bacon bits, ginger, garlic, mustard, chicken and egg in a bowl and mix until well combined. Fold in the mayo until incorporated. Refigerate until needed.
Combine flour, cottage cheese, salt and margarine in a bowl. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time to the flour mix and knead the dough until it becomes slightly sticky (you may not need all of the water). Let sit for 20 minutes. Roll out onto a floured surface into roughly a 16” by 12” rectangle (although it may be easier to divide the dough in half and roll out in 2 batches, just make sure the dough is rolled out to a uniformed thickness). Cut the dough into 2” by 2” squares. Add about a tablespoon of filling to the dough and fold over to form little mounds (they should be about that size of a half dollar coin).  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve.

Notes

I have tried a few variations of this recipe (that is going to be in a forthcoming post), but the two suggestions that I have are to use real bacon instead of bacon bits (you may have to add a pinch of salt depending on how salty the bacon is) and to use a mustard with a touch of heat – a spicy brown mustard, good dijon, horseradish mustard or jalapeno mustards will all work here. The recipe can easily be converted to vegetarian – just replace the bacon bits with a vegetarian alternative and the chicken with an equivalent amount of butternut squash that has been cubed into 1/2 inch pieces and roasted. The snacks can be served either hot or cold, but they are better hot.