Today’s post is probably the number one recipe on this here food blog: boom boom sauce; a combination of sweet and hot peppers, cheese (well, cheese “food” – unless you use this recipe), chicken stock, and a can of cream o’ chicken soup.
Sounds unlikely, no?
Surprisingly, this sauce works as a dip for chips or bread, as a slather over a fine steak, and even, as shown here, as the base for a very nice barbecue ‘za!
I might even go so far as to suggest trying a bit between some nice crusty bread for a zippier grilled cheese.
INGREDIENTS
•1 tbsp olive oil
•1 tbsp chicken stock
•2 red and/or orange peppers, diced
-about 1-1/4 cup
•3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and sliced
•2 Serrano peppers, seeded and sliced
•3 garlic cloves, minced
•3 tsp dried parsley (or 3 tbsp fresh)
•1 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1 (4 oz) can hot chopped green chili peppers, drained
•1 (4 oz) can mild chopped green chili peppers, drained
•1 (11 oz) can crushed tomatillos
•1 (10 oz) can cond. cream of chicken soup
•1 tsp fresh lemon or lime juice (optional)
•1 lb Velveeta, cubed*
*As noted above – if you want your boom boom without the cheese “food” – you can easily make your own, impressively meltable cheese with three simple ingredients: real cheese, powdered milk, and gelatin. Well, and water, so, four simple ingredients, but still… Wanna know how? Check it out, here.
Heat the olive oil and chicken stock in a large pot over medium high heat, then add the peppers and garlic.
Sauté for seven to ten minutes, until the garlic is nicely aromatic and the peppers are tender, but still brightly colorful.
Lower the heat to medium, then stir in the cream of chicken soup, parsley, green chiles, and Aleppo pepper; then warm through.
A note on the tomatillos: although the recipe called for adding a can of crushed; I was unable to find anything but an 11 oz can of whole tomatillos, so I drained them and then gave ’em a whizzz with the immersion blender. Worked a treat.
Taste the sauce – it’ll be zippy! I knew the cheese would mellow it out, but thought that first it needed just a little sumpin’ sumpin’, so added a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice. Lime juice would’ve been perfect, but I was out of limes at the moment, so lemon it was, and it was good.
Sauce warmed through and nicely seasoned, it’s time to smooth things out a bit. My tagine does many things well, but the low, 
sloping sides do not lend it to in-the-pan blending; so I transferred the sauce to an 8-cup measure and gave it a good whizzz with the immersion blender. You could also do this in a regular blender.
Return the sauce to the pan and add the cubed cheese.
Give it a stir, set the flame on low, cover the pot, and let it be for five minutes or so.
Lift the lid, give things a stir and, if needed, recover and let sit on that low flame, stirring every few minutes, until all of the cheese is melted.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:
Boom Boom Sauce.
Trust me, try this on a nicely grilled steak, or mebbe even pork chops or tenderloin; and do not forget to try it with – or on – your next ‘za! – this one is really quite good.
And then, there are the grilled cheese sammiches and quesadillas to consider.
I’m thinking you need to make you a big batch o’ this, today!