Quick Bite: Cheese Whizzes
Callie’s Charleston Biscuits delivers the quintessential Southern spread
Homemade pimiento cheese delivered to your doorstep? Sounds like a lazy summer day’s fantasy. In fact, it’s a delicious reality for downtown residents, and it gets even better: the snack fairy comes courtesy of Callie’s Charleston Biscuits. Place an order, then leave a cooler on your porch Wednesday morning, and they’ll nestle their newest menu item inside.
“We’ve been wanting to do pimiento cheese for some time,” says Carrie Morey, who founded the company in 2005 with her mother, local catering maven Callie White. It’s just that with appearances on Today and Unwrapped—plus celeb clients like Susan Sarandon, Ross Perot, Mario Batali, and Nicole Miller—they’ve been a bit busy.
Their handmade spread, a favorite at the parties White caters, finally debuted in March. Find it at Caviar & Bananas, The Wine Shop, Newton Farms, and all Mount Pleasant Piggly Wiggly locations. Customers can also order at www.calliesbiscuits.com (where Morey’s blog includes mouthwatering recipes such as Roasted Pimiento Cheese Chicken). The product has already made it into stores as far away as Texas, Wyoming, even New Jersey, “although we had to explain what it is,” laughs Morey. A few bites of this Southern staple, and the love spreads pretty quickly.
Callie’s Charleston Biscuits, (843) 577-1198, www.calliesbiscuits.com
Roasted Pimiento Cheese Chicken
For roasted chicken:
- 3 stalks of celery, cut in half
- 1 onion, chopped
- 8-10 baby carrots
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Olive oil, enough to coat ingredients
- 4 split chicken breasts
- 2 limes, one juiced and one for garnish
- Salt and pepper, to taste
To finish:
- 4 Tbs. pimiento cheese
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 4 Tbs. pico de gallo
- Tortilla chips, to taste
Preheat oven to 275˚F. Toss first six ingredients together, and place them in the bottom of a cast-iron skillet or other oven-safe pan—this will be the “nest” for your chicken.
Toss the chicken breasts in lime juice, salt, pepper, and olive oil and lay on the nest. Cover with foil for slow roasting and place in the oven for one and a half to two hours, or until the juices run clear. Remove from the oven and uncover.
Turn the oven to broil and broil on high for six to eight minutes, or until the skin is crispy. Remove the skillet and top the chicken with a healthy dollop of pimiento cheese, a few avocado slices, a scoop of pico de gallo, and crumbled tortilla chips.
Return the skillet to the broiler for about three minutes, or until the pimiento cheese softens and bubbles slightly. Remove from oven and discard “nest.”
Serve chicken with a simple roasted vegetable such as asparagus.
To find more recipes on Carrie’s blog, click here. http://www.calliesbiscuits.com/blogs/callies-biscuits-blog
