Kelly the Culinarian: Cooking with Kelly: Chicken fiesta

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Cooking with Kelly: Chicken fiesta

It's finally summer! I love the flavors of summer. Everything is fresh, bright and verdant. While my tomato seeds died, the seedlings I bought are fairing well.

Until they give off fruit, I'm onto buying. But I devised a tomato-rich recipe for chicken for the happy day when I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with.

This dish includes lime and chipotle marinated chicken breast grilled with melted cheese and topped with sour cream. It's served alongside Mexican-style rice and pinto beans along with a homemade rustic salsa. PS - Mexican food is really hard to photograph attractively.
You need:
Two chicken breasts
10 limes
Chipotle salsa
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons of sour cream
5 tomatoes
3 onions
2 green onions
1 jalapeno pepper
1 bunch cilantro
1.5 cups rice
1 packet taco seasoning
1 can pinto beans

3 cloves garlic

Olive oil

To start with the chicken, I marinaded it in a chipotle salsa and the juice of three limes for three hours. Make sure to trim the breasts of fat and blot with a paper towel before putting on the grill for 12 minutes or until cooked throughout.
For the salsa, you'll want to finely chop five small tomatoes, two small onions, a half-cup of cilantro, two green onions and one jalapeno pepper. I take the rib and seeds out, but that's up to you as to how much heat you'd like. I also added the juice of a half of a lime to keep the flavor going and help break down the salsa into one flavor. Refrigerate for an hour before serving.

For the rice, I brown a clove of minced garlic and a half of a chopped onion in two tablespoons of olive oil. Then, I added 1.5 cups of long-grain rice and allowed it to brown for five minutes, stirring constantly. Next, add three cups of water and one packet of taco seasoning, stir to coat and bring to a boil. Stir every so often and keep cooking until all the water is absorbed/evaporated. Stir in another three tablespoons of chopped cilantro for a fresh flavor and another tablespoon of the chipotle salsa.

Drain and rinse the beans. Brown another clove garlic and half an onion in a tablespoon olive oil. Add the beans and stir to coat in oil. Just warm the beans and add salt and pepper.
I know it's multi-stepped but you could save time if you'd like to buy some of the elements. It sure is tasty.

2 comments:

Katie Zeller said...

It may be hard to photograph.... but it's easy to imagine the tastes... I love Mexican, and the only way I can get it here is to make it... Thanks for the help!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I agree that it may be hard to photogragh attractively...but it sure tastes out of this world:D