Welcome Spring!

Say hello to spring with this easy grilled chicken recipe. The earthy green of the avocado and bright red tomato make a beautiful and delicious salsa and is definitely the star of the dish. Cooking Light suggested to serve this with saffron rice...well good luck finding such an exotic flavor in the minute-rice section! And I wasn't feeling ambitious enough to make my own that night so I just went with some easy Spanish Rice (one of those 5 minute Fiesta Sides) which was actually pretty tasty for how quick and easy it was.

Cilantro-Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa

The first night I had this I made everything pretty close to what the recipe called for and felt that it needed a little kick. The salsa was kind of oniony instead of spicy. So when I had the leftovers I chopped up a whole jalapeno (membranes and seeds removed) and threw it in with the second half of the salsa. It still wasn't very hot so I was kind of disappointed. The other thing I did the second time around to kick up the flavors was serve the chicken and salsa over some salty yellow corn tortilla chips. I really liked this addition because it gave the dish a crunchy texture which really helped because the avocados were pretty mushy a few days later.

Quick & Dirty

Changes:

• For the chicken I used dried cilantro instead of dealing with fresh cilantro that I'd end up throwing away most of a few days later
• I pounded the chicken breasts a little so they'd cook faster on the grill
• I also used bottled lime juice because unfortunately my lime went bad really fast :(
• I tried adding some jalapeno to the salsa for a bit of a kick but I think I should've left some seeds in

Yumminess:

• The chicken came out pretty good, a bit of a crispy skin but moist on the inside
• Mixing the chicken, salsa, and some crunchy chips together in one bite was the best way to eat it
• Once in a while mix in a little spicy Spanish rice and it was a pretty good dish overall

Sadness:

• The salsa needed more flavor...and I wonder if you actually marinaded the chicken for longer than 3 minutes if it would have had more flavor as well
• I couldn't get my chicken to get real pretty grill marks like in their picture...I always just seem to brown the entire side and it makes it hard to eat
• I was kind of hoping this would compare to Applebee's Fiesta Lime Chicken because that is definitely a favorite of mine but it didn't even come close