Sunday, February 20, 2011

Healthy Tex-Mex Chicken with Lime, Onion and Cilantro

I love spicy food, and I really love Mexican food. The truth is, unless one lives in Chicago and visits one of Rick Bayless places, it is very hard to find authentic Mexican cuisine. Most of what us Americans love is "Tex-Mex", Americanized dishes that all of us love. Chili, nachos, fajitas, burritos are all examples of "Tex Mex."

Recently I started to "diet"...I know, the term scares all of us foodies!! Truth is in my youth, heck even in my early 40's I was a bodybuilder...not a competitive juice head, but a pretty large guy! Worked out ever day, strong as an ox and ate pretty healthy. A few factors in life changed my diet and I made the choice to start making better eating choices. Does this mean I will stop enjoying my gourmet food.... HECK NO...I will make some of my full fat, full blown dishes to eat in moderation on occasion, but I am attempting to cook more healthy. I'm 47 years old and want to feel my best and look my best.

Tonight's dish is a play on the flavors of Chicken fajitas. I love them, but don't want the carbs right now (I will slowly be adding carbs back into my diet....the key is slowly...seeing what my body needs)

This is great meal for someone that doesn't want the fat and zero carbs, of course one could serve this with a starch if you are not carb restricted...I simply had steamed green beans with garlic pepper and some sea salt.
I normally prefer fresh herbs in everything, but with some dishes I do prefer to use "dried" or powdered seasonings.  This dish uses common spices that are most likely in ever kitchen. Enjoy!


Ken's Healthy Tex-Mex Chicken


Ingredients
  • 2 large chicken breast cut in half (will serve 4) 
  • 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
  • 2 teaspons of ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons of chili powder
  • 1 teaspon of  Mrs. Dash® Southwest Chipotle Seasoning Blend
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 small lime
  • a few sprigs of fresh cilantro
  • 1 medium onion, halved.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix toegther all of the spices and rub them unto both sides of your Chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour to marinate and infusion more flavor into the chicken.

In a non-stick sear grill pan, heart over medium high heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil. Once pan has heated, add chicken, cook 2-3 minutes per side, add halved onion to pan.

Put pan in preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Do not over cook! Chicken should be juicy!

Serve with cilantro and line juice squeezed over chicken

5 comments:

  1. This is beautiful and delicious and making me hungry! It's great to have easy and satisfying low/no carb recipes like this, especially this time of year coming out of the winter hibernation!

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  2. This looks so delicious and fresh! Love how healthy it is too!

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  3. Love, love the combination of herbs you put on the chicken! A must try!

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  4. Oh yum. Too bad it's time for bed. I'll have to eat dinner early tomorrow using this recipe! Seems like it's forever.

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  5. This looks great! Living in Texas makes it easy for us to get good Tex-mex, but it can be so loaded in fat. I will have to try this one out.

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