Grilled Garlic-Lime Chicken

Grilled Garlic Lime Chicken with a Side of Smoky Black Beans

This chicken is so good! And it's a recipe we just kinda toss together. Nothing is measured. Hear that? Nothing. Don't ya love it? Enjoy!




Grilled Garlic Lime Chicken
~ pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
juice of 1 lime
splash of vodka or tequila (whatever's in the house)
squirt of canola or olive oil, maybe a tablespoon or two
really healthy shakeshakeshake of garlic powder (NOT SALT!)


1. Fire up the grill if you are using charcoal.
We use charcoal, but suit yourself. In winter, I use a grill pan on my stove, so I don't fire up anything until about 3 minutes before I'm ready to cook. I 'spect if you use a gas grill, you wouldn't need to fire it up much in advance, either.

2. If you are like me, you buy big bags of chicken breasts from a mega-mart. Sometimes those breasts are all different sizes, so you need to cut them down, and maybe even flatten them a little so that each one when cooked will be about the size of a deck of cards / palm of your hand (4 oz).
4 oz is a serving of protein, friends. I'm honest enough to admit this: our dietitian has told us more than once that the foods we eat are not the problem; it's the serving size! I believe I've mentioned we are hogs. In any case, even if you plan to eat 4-5 cuts of chicken breast, you still need to make sure the cuts are all about the same size so that all will take about the same amount of time to grill. Moving on...

3. Wait: do you know how to flatten chicken breasts?
I have a tenderizer/meat-beating hammer thingy because I'm a serious cook (yeah, right. I don't even know what to call the danged thing). If you don't have one, just throw the breasts in a plastic zip-closure bag, let out all the extra air, seal the bag, and whack them a few times with a rolling pin or even a heavy frying pan. It doesn't require specialized equipment. You want them to be about an inch and a half thick, I guess, and only the thickest breasts will need to be flattened. Sometimes I'll butterfly a thick breast instead of flattening it. Butterflying is not difficult. Or if I'm not in the mood to butterfly, I'll just slice the thing in half like a hamburger bun! Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

4. After you've prepped your chicken breasts, throw all of the marinade ingredients in a bag with them. Let them sit awhile in the fridge.
How long? Well, if you are like me tonight, I decided at 5:40 that we were gonna do these, D fired up the grill, and 30 minutes later we were grilling. So... longer is probably better, but hey, you're not gonna ruin the meat by doing only a 5-minute soak. I know. I've done many a 5-minute soak.

5. Remove the breasts from the marinade and discard the marinade.

6. Grill breasts for probably LESS time than you think you need to.
Boneless skinless chicken breasts have almost no fat, and they dry out RIDICULOUSLY quickly on a grill. They are done the minute the juices run clear. To check doneness, just cut or poke into the thickest part of a breast and spread apart the flesh. If it's not bloody, you're good to go.

Notes:
1. Ok, I know I said I was not brand-loyal, but I guess I am a little because I use only McCormick California Style Garlic Powder with Parsley because the garlic granules are big and not powdery.
2. Do you know how to juice a lime? You might own a reamer or a juicer tool, but I just slice it in half through the middle, jab a fork into each half, and work the fork around while squeezing the half to get the juice out. You can do that with limes b/c they don't have seeds like lemons do.
3. Tonight, we served our chicken with a side of Smoky Black Beans. I do not buy canned black beans. Except for Kuner's brand, I cannot find any no-salt-added beans close by, and I'm not making a special 30-mile trip--one-way--to get Kuner's. Instead, I now buy dry black beans in bulk, pressure cook them, and freeze them in meal-sized portions.

Bonus recipe: 
Smoky Black Beans
Some cooked black beans, rinsed and drained if you got them from a can
~ 1 tsp dried cumin (probably my FAVE spice flavor)
~ 1 tsp chili powder (be careful! many of them have added salt)
garlic powder (I don't know how much. I just put some in. Be brave. Go for it.)

1. Toss beans with spices and zap in the microwave for a couple of minutes.


Notes:
1. Most cooks say cumin has a "smoky" flavor. I love it. Chili powders (all of them, I'm pretty sure) have cumin in them. Once you are familiar with the scent and flavor of cumin, it is unmistakable.
2. Any leftover chicken and beans make wonderful innards for chicken tacos on a subsequent evening. Just sayin...

Marinara Sauce

We eat a lot of pasta in this house. I'm sorry, FOOD TV superstars. I watch you gleefully toss a palmful of salt into every pasta pot, insisting that I "must" do the same. No, I mustn't. If he knew I was cooking like that, Dr. E would give me a disapproving glare, and I can't take it. Besides, if I make a flavorful sauce, why do I need salty pasta?

Here's a sodium wake-up call:

How much sodium in a teaspoon of salt?  2325 mg
Dietary guidelines for people with high blood pressure? >1500 mg/day
How much sodium does your body actually need per day to function? ~250 mg (ouch!)

Remember when I said "canned sauces must go"? Sodium in a half-cup of Ragu pasta sauce: 300-360 mg/serving.  Get that? 1/4 of your allowable sodium intake gobbled up in a half-cup of pasta sauce. And let's be real. Who eats only a half-cup of pasta sauce at a sitting? By the way, don't even think you can get around that "canned sauces" blackout by buying plain canned tomato sauce and doctoring it, either. Unless you buy the no-salt-added kind, canned tomato sauce is anywhere from 200+ to 400+ mg/serving. And how much in a serving? 1/4 cup. What. a. downer.

The good news is this: healthy marinara sauce is easy-peasy to make yourself. Here is a delicious, fast, easy homemade marinara sauce for some pasta. It is 100% developed by us, so there is no link to an original recipe. If you use a pound of dry pasta, it serves 4 or thereabouts. It should probably serve more people, but we are hogs.

Puree

Marinara Sauce  (~30 mg sodium per 1/2 c of sauce)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 29 oz can tomato puree (I use Contadina or Red Gold)
3-4 plump garlic cloves, pressed or finely chopped (cloves are sections of a bulb)
1 small-medium onion
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 Tbsp garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)
1 Tbsp onion powder (NOT onion salt)
1 bay leaf
~2 Tbsp granulated sugar

1. Toss onion, dried oregano and dried basil in food processor and chop finely. I use a Cuisinart 4-cup processor. Yes, you can chop with a knife.
2. Heat some olive oil (1-2 tsp) in a 3-qt saucepan over medium heat. Toss in pressed garlic and saute briefly. If your oil is too hot, you will scorch the garlic, and trust me, that's disgusting. Patience, grasshopper.
3. Once garlic has turned white and smells delectable, add bay leaf and the onion/herb mixture from the processor and heat until it begins to add to the heavenly chorus.
4. Add the tomato puree. Be careful, it will probably plop and blubble. 
5. Add the garlic powder, onion powder, and granulated sugar.
6. Reduce the heat to low, slap a lid on the marinara sauce, and let it go for a while--at least 15 minutes. Check it once in a while and get busy boiling your pasta. Remember! No salt in that boiling water.
7. Remove the bay leaf and serve over pasta noodles of your choice.

Notes:

1. I can get from "maybe we'll have pasta tonight" to food-on-the-table in less than 30 minutes with this recipe.

Paste

2. Canned tomato puree (always my preference for marinara sauces) or canned crushed tomatoes (also ok) have far less sodium than canned tomato sauce. Because lower-sodium alternatives are readily available, we always avoid canned tomato sauce. Sauce and puree and crushed and paste are all different products.  Crazy, huh? That's a photo of paste to the left. I don't even have canned tomato sauce in my house for a photo. Finally, check those food labels. You'll be amazed at the difference in sodium levels among brands. 
3. No meat? No meat. Two reasons. First, our son is a vegetarian. Second, ground beef has some sat fat, which we avoid, no matter how much we love the taste. Could we use ground turkey or chicken instead? Or a plant-based meat substitute? Yep. If you want red meat, add it. Just remember that you are adding sat fat when you add red meat. I'm not anti-red meat. I love red meat. I wish we could eat more of it, but on a lo-sat fat diet, it's a BIG no-no. In a sauce, we don't miss it, so I leave it out.
4. In summer when we have fresh basil and oregano, we use them. Chop 'em in the food processor separately from the onion, and add them closer to the end of cooking, and NOT in step 3. To cook them that long would destroy their lovely, fresh pop of flavor.
5. I always add fresh (raw) garlic and onion as well as powdered. My husband does not. He always uses fresh and only sometimes uses powdered if he thinks the sauce needs it. See what you think. It's not rocket science. Enjoy!