Grilled Chicken and Key Lime Salsa

I've taken a break from posting for awhile - mostly because I am now eating healthfully and so many of my previous recipes no longer qualify as something that I can eat on a regular basis. Sad, but true. However, this new healthy initiative has enabled me to find some truly delightful recipes that taste good and are much better for you. For example, this delicious grilled chicken with salsa. I was even surprised at how awesome the salsa was. In fact, I would recommend just making this salsa and eating it on chips. Or baked won-ton wrappers. Anyway, enjoy the party in your mouth!

GRILLED CHICKEN AND KEY LIME SALSA
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 C Worcestershire sauce
3 T fresh lime juice from Key limes (or if you are lazy, from the plastic lime bottle)
3 medium oranges, sectioned, with pith and seeds removed
2 T scallions, chopped
1 T cilantro, chopped
1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 tsp chopped green chiles or more to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine Worcestershire sauce, 3 T of lime juice and chicken in a Ziploc bag. Refrigerate up to 4 hours.
2. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in a medium-sized bowl to make salsa. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.
3. Preheat grill or broiler. Grill or broil chicken until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes per side. Serve chicken with salsa.

Kira's Notes: No, I did not buy Key limes to juice for this recipe. Because I am (1) lazy and (2) cheap. And guess what? It tasted amazing with lime juice from the lime-shaped bottle. Also, I think I may have added more scallions and cilantro than the recipe called for. I also used cayenne pepper for heat in the salsa instead of the chopped green chiles because again, I am lazy. Marinating this for 3-4 hours would probably be perfect. I only had time to let mine marinate for an hour or so and it was good, but the flavor wasn't as good as it would have been with more time in the sauce and lime juice. I also cut up the orange slices into smaller chunks.

Smoky Sweet Potato Chicken Stoup

Rachael Ray always wins me back eventually. I just happened to catch an episode of 30-Minute Meals last Friday and she made Smoky Sweet Potato Chicken Stoup - it looked so amazing that I wanted to lick the TV. So I looked it up this week on foodnetwork.com and here we are! It looks kind of tricky because there are a lot of ingredients but it really isn't too hard to make. I still think that Rachael relies on her superhuman chopping and dicing abilities to get these recipes done in 30 minutes. However, us mere mortals will still be able to make this "stoup" in 45! I served this with pepperjack grilled cheese sandwiches...quesadillas would be fun too!

SMOKY SWEET POTATO CHICKEN STOUP
Rachael Ray, foodnetwork.com
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

2 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium carrots, peeled
2 ribs celery
1 large onion, peeled and halved
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus a spoonful of sauce from the can
Salt and black pepper
1 t dry thyme
1 bay leaf
1 C dry white wine
5 C chicken stock
1 large sweet potato
3/4-1lb chicken tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 scallions, white and green parts thinly sliced
1/4 C cilantro leaves, a generous handful, roughly chopped
1/2 C sour cream for garnish, optional

DIRECTIONS:

Heat a soup pot over medium-high heat with 2 T of extra-virgin olive oil, about 2 turns of the pan.

While soup pot heats, chop carrots in half lengthwise and then slice into thin half-moons. Add the carrots to the pot while it heats, stirring to coat the carrots in the oil. Chop and drop in celery and onion, chopping them as small as you can without driving yourself crazy. Add the garlic, chipotle, and adobo sauce and stir to combine. Season the veggies with salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf. Cook the veggies together for 1 minute. Add the wine and reduce 1 minute. Add the stock to the pot, cover the pot, and raise the heat to high. Bring the stoup to a boil, remove the cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into quarters lengthwise, then thinly slice into bite size pieces, Add the cut chicken and sweet potatoes and simmer for 10 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through. Turn the heat off, add scallions and cilantro. Serve each portion of stoup with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Pico de Gallo

This summer, desperate for a twist on my super-easy pico de gallo (4 ingredients, you know what they are) I started looking for a slightly different take on the traditional pico. But I didn't want it to be TOO different. None of that "made with basil" pico garbage. I ended up finding my recipe in a WONDERFUL cookbook by Mark Bittman - How to Cook Everything. He isn't kidding about the everything. If you need a reference cookbook, it's a great choice. I need a reference cookbook because anytime I go outside of my chicken comfort zone, I have no idea what I'm doing. Mark helps me through those trying times.

I served this pico for the first time at our annual 4th of July party. It was gone in about 3 minutes, so I'm guessing that meant it was good? Anyway, it's not too tough - although the chopping scallions part is rough on eyes - but the reward is worth the onion trauma! I wish I had a picture because this stuff is gorgeous. Maybe next time I make it I will take one - if I don't eat it all first.


PICO DE GALLO
from How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

Ingredients:

2 C cored, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped tomatoes
1 C minced chopped scallions (preferred), onion, or a combination
1/2 t minced garlic
2 T freshly squeezed lime juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 stemmed and minced jalapeno or hot red chiles, or to taste, or cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes to taste
1/2 C minced fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

1. Combine first six ingredients, then taste and see whether you want to add more salt, pepper, or chiles. Stir in about half of the cilantro, then set aside for 1 hour, or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day.
2. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnish with remaining cilantro, and serve.

Kira's Notes:

I used Roma tomatoes - I like them better. I would also go with the scallions - it sucks to chop them all up but don't worry, it's totally worth it in the end! I go a little longer on the garlic than Mark indicates. The first time I made this I think I used not jalapenos. But it was still very tasty...basically, you just can't screw up this pico. So throw in whatever you like.

White Chicken Chili

I had this chili for the first time at the home of my parents' very good friends. Their son-in-law had been hard at work in the kitchen making dinner for everyone and boy did he do a great job! My mom begged for the recipe, and so this is Benji's chili by way of Kathy. There's a bit of cilantro, so that makes it just a little tiny bit Mexican. Maybe like 1/16th. And you can make it even MORE Mexican by serving with shredded cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips. Anyway, it's the best kind of recipe because it tastes like it took you a long time and a lot of effort when in reality... :)

I didn't do a very good job writing down the directions for this recipe - on my piece of paper all they say is "cook onions and garlic, add other stuff," so I am going to try to expand upon that for my (possibly three?) faithful readers! :)

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI
Recipe from Benji Rutgers

Ingredients:

1/4 C butter
1 C diced onions
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
3C chicken stock
4 C cooked cubed chicken (you can use canned chicken for this, but don't try and serve it to Ryan!)
2T fresh chopped cilantro
2t dried basil
1T chili powder
2 15oz cans Great Northern white beans, do not drain liquid
2 roma tomatoes, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Saute onions and garlic in butter in large stock pot until cooked through. Add everything else except for the diced tomato. Heat through, simmer for awhile if you want to, cook it until it tastes good I guess! (this is what happens when you fail to write down most of a recipe and you cook mostly by feeling - sorry!). When you are ready to serve, ladle into bowls, adding about a tablespoon of diced tomatoes to each bowl. If desired, add shredded cheese and sour cream. Serve with tortilla chips.

Muy bien! :)