Meat

Latin Baked Chicken

Here is a simple recipe for chicken that only has five ingredients: Latin Baked Chicken. A short marinade of lime juice, honey, soy sauce, and chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, a quick trip to the oven and you’ve got dinner. If you’ve never had chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, they are nothing more than smoked jalapeno peppers. These little firecrackers are deliciously smoky in flavor and very spicy. The lime juice and honey in this marinade cuts the heat of the peppers slightly but if you don’t like spicy food, you probably won’t like this. I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts instead of bone-in-chicken thighs and used a meat thermometer to tell me when they were done (165°F!). I served this with a side of spanish rice (Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice Spanish Style to be exact!) as per Cooking Light’s suggestion and had a smokin’ hot dinner!

The ingredients:

Combine lime juice, soy sauce, honey, and chiles in a large bowl.

Add chicken to the marinade, coating well, and let stand for 10 minutes.

Place chicken on a baking sheet and bake in a 400°F oven. Reserve marinade.

Meanwhile, place reserved marinade in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

Base chicken with marinade half-way through the baking process. Pull chicken out once it reaches 165°F, approximately 15 minutes.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions:

Chicken breasts for chicken thighs

Overall Rating: Like It

Source: Cooking Light Magazine

Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry

I’m a sucker for stir-fry so this Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry was a no-brainer. The original recipe from Cooking Light is actually a beef stir-fry but since I don’t eat beef, I adapted it to my liking and boy, do I like it! Thin slices of chicken are cooked and then mixed with a salty, sweet, spicy sauce and then with baby spinach. Yum! If you are watching your carbs, or even if you aren’t, please consider making this. You could easily serve it over rice to make it an even heartier meal but I like it just the way it is. The stir-fry sauce is very tasty with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, and crushed red pepper. Because crushed red pepper doesn’t give me the kick of heat that I usually want, next time I make this (and there will be a next time!) I’ll probably substitute it with hot chili sauce like sriracha or cayenne pepper but if you have a sensitive tongue, you can leave it out altogether. If you don’t like spinach, the versatility of this recipe allows you to switch up the ingredients. Try making it with broccoli, or if you want it make it vegetarian, try this sauce with any of your favorite veggie combinations.

The ingredients:

Slice the chicken into thin strips and cook in a pan with sesame oil.

While chicken cooks, make the stir-fry sauce by mixing together soy sauce, ginger, garlic, dark brown sugar, and crushed red pepper in a small bowl.

Remove cooked chicken from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, add green onions and stir-fry sauce and cook briefly.

Add cooked chicken slices back into the pan and mix until well coated.

Into the pan, add baby spinach and cook until wilted.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions:

Chicken for beef

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Cooking Light Magazine

Turkey Meatball Reuben Subs

It’s not often that I eat sandwiches unless they are paninis but every once is a while, I want to dig into a hearty sandwich like the next guy. These Turkey Meatball Reuben Subs are right up my alley. Ground turkey is flavored with spices, and topped with swiss cheese and a quick coleslaw. Paprika, coriander, and garlic gives ground turkey some flavor while the cayenne and black peppers give it some heat. I used broccoli slaw instead of regular cabbage slaw and liked the additional crunch factor it provided. These can easily be made and wrapped up to go so I might just make another one of these for my next tailgate!