So, I just made the best chicken of my life. And I think it could’ve been even better, if I had a couple more ingredients.
The chicken in choice is taken from this site, with some modifications. I’m going to post everything now because that site has like 50 paragraphs before you even get to the recipe.
First, the marinade, from their site:
- ¼ cup (60ml) freshly-squeezed lime juice
- ¼ cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp powdered red pepper flakes (you could also use cayenne pepper or chili pepper flakes)
- grated zest of 2 limes
My modifications were that the lime juice was from a bottle (thus, no zest), I used about 1/4th a tsp of garlic powder instead of cloves, and I used chili powder instead of flakes. Out of all of those, I probably missed the zest the most.
I did do the pan sear and I will swear by that until the day I die. The only other real change was that I don’t have a Dutch oven so I just baked them in a dish without a lid. Didn’t seem to matter at all, the chicken was still moist and delicious. Again, the zest probably would’ve kicked the lime flavor up a notch, but I’m very satisfied with what I made.
I also made some lime & cilantro rice. I’m one of those freaks who thinks cilantro tastes like soap, so I didn’t have any. It doesn’t taste like soap in a rice dish like this, or at least it doesn’t at Chipotle, but regardless, I don’t keep cilantro around.
For the rice I used this recipe, which I kind of screwed up.
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups basmati rice, or other long-grain white rice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 1/4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Finely grated zest of one lime
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 cup lightly packed chopped cilantro (leaves and tender stems only)
Modifications: I used enriched long grain rice instead of basmati, sesame oil instead of olive, garlic pepper, and no zest or cilantro. The sesame oil gave the whole thing a toasted sesame flavor and smell that was nice.
It says to brown the rice first, which was fine, but then when it came time to add the water I poured a bit in and forgot that the pot was hot, thus the water boiled immediately and I freaked out a bit and just poured water into the pot without measuring. I’m pretty sure I put too little in, and thus the rice was a little chewier than I would prefer. But it wasn’t bad! I also only used lime juice for this and it worked well.
For the veggies, I just steamed ’em and added pepper and some chipotle Tabasco, which I kind of regret doing. Wasn’t terrible, but the flavor was distinctly not what this dish was. Oh well.
The best part is that I have lots of leftovers, plus some extra raw chicken in the marinade still that I plan to just cook on the stove top. Apparently I meal prepped today. How about that. Reminds me of when I would cook chicken years ago when I was weight lifting … except much, much better. Back then it was frozen chicken with salt and pepper. Sometimes olive oil, if I felt special. This Spartan recipe wasn’t because I was watching calories, but because I couldn’t cook for shit. I’m getting better!