Grilled Chicken: A Tex/Mex Take

I have never paid any attention to Cinco de Mayo. With Easter and Memorial Day I have enough food events for late spring. But for some reason the holiday caught my culinary interest this year. This prompted the Southwestern Chicken and Rice a few days ago and resulted in some leftover Mexican rice and some leftover raw chicken. So what to do with it?

I have never paid any attention to Cinco de Mayo. With Easter and Memorial Day I have enough food events for late spring.

I rooted through my memory, mentally snorting and snuffling like a hound dog following a scent trail through the detritus of my mind. I tracked a few false scents, I sometimes circled around, but eventually my coon-dog instincts took me deep into the hollows of my memory and I remembered marinating chicken in tequila years ago and then grilling it. Surprisingly, I’d actually added it to the recipe management program I used back then — perhaps more surprising I never deleted the program although I haven’t clicked on it in ages.

So I printed the recipe out, tweaked it a bit (I can’t even leave my own recipes alone), and fired up the grill (pan). Sadly the local fire marshall hasn’t relented in prohibiting people who live in multiple-occupant buildings (I’m in a condo/apartment) from grilling over flame. But although I missed out on the smoke flavor, I did get the taste of carbon from the grill.

Tequila Chicken
Serves 4.

12 chicken tenders
1 c tequila
1/2 c orange juice
4 limes — zested and juiced*
2 tsp chile powder**
2 tsp ground cumin
2 clove garlic; crushed
3 tbsp salt (optional***)

Whisk together all ingredients except the chicken. Pour into a ziplock bag and add chicken. Refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours, occasionally shaking to redistribute marinade.

Remove chicken from bag and pat dry with paper towels. Grill chicken over medium high heat for about 2 minutes per side. Serve over Mexican rice.

**Chile Powder
Makes 1/2 – 2/3 cup.

2 ea Ancho chiles
3 ea Pasillo chiles
2 ea Chipotle chiles

Stem chiles and break them up. Then process them in one or two batches in a spice mill or coffee grinder.

*Note 1: You need about 1/2 cup of lime juice so more limes might be needed.

***Note 2: In my original version I only used a teaspoon of salt and then reduced the marinade by 2/3′s and added some arrowroot to make a sauce. This time I used more salt to carry the marinade deeper into the chicken (and used tenders instead of breasts) and replaced the marinade sauce with salsa. I can’t say which was a better choice as I can’t compare last night’s meal with one I had ten years ago.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | chicken | mexican

6 Responses to “Tex/Mex Chicken”