Mango-Chipotle Chicken and Smoked Potato Salad

I made this chicken tonight and loved it.  I used to hate chicken... and I love this chicken!  The kids liked it too.  They ate it without the extra sauce on it.  We loved the sauce and loaded it up.  The picture shows the chicken with a chimichurri sauce that I made to go with it.  It was good, but it wasn't necessary and almost distracted from the mango-chipotle flavors.  Next time, I'm not bothering with  the chimichurri, so I'm not even bothering with that recipe.  Anyway, tonight's dinner was heavily inspired by some in Food Network Magazine.  I changed the chicken one a bit to reduce how much it made and I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of chicken on the bone with skin.  I get a little grossed out by chicken on the bone, which doesn't really make sense since I eat steaks and pork chops on the bone.

Mango-Chipotle Chicken

2 mangoes, peeled, pitted, and chopped
3/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro, not chopped
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce plus 1 teaspoon sauce from the can
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 teaspoons canola oil, plus more for the grill
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs

Put the mangoes, cilantro, chipotles, adobo sauce, vinegar, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and canola oil in a food processor and puree until smooth.  Toss half of the mango mixture with the chicken in a resealable plastic bag and massage the chicken to coat with the sauce.  Refrigerate at least 6 hours to marinate.

Put the other half of the mango mixture in a small saucepan and simmer over low heat until slightly thicker, about 15 minutes.

Preheat a grill to medium and brush the grates with canola oil.  Remove the chicken from the marinade and grill for about 20 minutes total turning until cooked through.

Transfer the chicken to a platter and serve with the reserved mango sauce.

2-3 servings (the four of us, two adults and two young kids, finished it off in one sitting)

Smoked Potato Salad


2 tablespoons canola oil, plus more for the grill
2 1/2 pounds yukon gold potatoes
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, minced
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons chopped capers
juice of half a jumbo lemon

Preheat a grill to low.  Oil the grates.  Slice the potatoes into 3/4-inch thick slices.  Place potatoes in a bowl and add 2 tablespoons canola oil, paprika, salt, and pepper.  Toss to coat.  Place the potatoes on the grill.  Cover and cook 5 minutes.  Rotate potato slices 90 degrees and cook an additional 5-10 minutes.  Flip the potatoes and repeat on the other side.  They should be slightly puffed and golden brown.  Remove and allow to cool completely.  Cut into 3/4 to 1-inch pieces.

In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, celery, red onion, and cilantro.  In a smaller bowl, combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, capers, and lemon juice.  Fold the mayonnaise mixture into the potato mixture until coated.  Cover and refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes.  Stir and adjust seasoning as needed.

4-6 servings

Grilled Mojo Chicken and Barbecue Black Beans with Rum

Tonight's dinner took forever to get made because the kids just weren't cooperating. I started preparing dinner at 4:30 and at 6:15 I had put no more than 20 minutes into it because Adeline wanted to be glued to my breast and Camille wanted to test me on everything. But we finally ate and it was well worth the wait. Plus, we'll have leftovers tomorrow, so I can sit back and relax (yeah right..) tomorrow night.

So, dinner tonight was grilled mojo chicken, barbecue black beans with rum, and brown rice. The mojo chicken recipe is from Food Made Fast: Weeknight (Williams-Sonoma), which is one of my best used cookbooks. The recipe is also available on the Williams-Sonoma website. The barbecue black beans with rum is my vegetarian version of a recipe from Cooking Light in 2000. I've been making these beans for

years and they are so delicious.

I'll start with the chicken:

Grilled Mojo Chicken

zest and juice from 2 oranges

zest and juice from 4 limes

1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, minced

2 tablespoons fresh oregano, minced

3/4 teaspoon dried thyme

8 garlic cloves, minced

4 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

8 (about 3 pounds) skinless, boneless chicken thighs

salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine the orange and lime zest, orange and lime juice, parsley, oregano, thyme, garlic, and cumin in a bowl large enough to fit the chicken. Whisk in the olive oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the marinade and stir to coat the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

About 20 minutes before cooking the chicken, take it out of the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature. Heat a gas grill to medium heat and oil the grill rack. Place chicken on the grill brushing marinade over the top side of the chicken. Cook, turning once until opaque throughout, about 20 minutes. Makes 8 servings

The original recipe specified grilling on high heat for less time. I prefer to cook chicken at a lower temperature for longer so it doesn't get so charred on the outside while cooking on the inside. I also recently discovered that grilling with the grill open makes meat take longer to cook, but it's less likely to overcook or burn. Yeah, I'm 35, have been cooking for years, and just figured that one out. I probably had the grill closed for a total of 4 minutes while cooking this chicken.

Barbecue Black Beans with Rum

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 vidalia onion, chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup rum

1/4 cup dijon mustard

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon hot sauce (optional)

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3 cans black beans (2 - 15-ounce cans and 1 - 26.5-ounce can)

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Saute onion and jalapeno for about 5 minutes until onion is softened. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add next 8 ingredients (ketchup through ground ginger). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the black beans. Simmer over low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

I like to serve these beans over brown rice as a side dish.

Thai Chicken Curry

I love Thai food so I was looking forward to trying this recipe. It's from Food Made Fast: Weeknight (Williams-Sonoma), which is a great cookbook, one of my favorites. Overall, we really liked this dish, but it wasn't quite what David and I were expecting. We were expecting the curry sauce to be more intense and taste like the curry sauces from Thai restaurants. The flavor was similar, but very mild. That said, I'm planning to make this again because Camille loved it! She has never eaten so voraciously. Seriously. So Camille loved it and we liked it -- it's a winner.

I made a few changes to the original recipe. I used chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts because they taste better to me and are less dry. I also tripled the amount of green beans and I added red pepper. Here's the recipe as I made it:

1 teaspoon lime zest

1/4 cup lime juice

1 3/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut in strips

salt and freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons canola oil

3/4 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

1/2 of a red pepper, cut into thin strips

1 1/2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste

1 1/4 cups lite coconut milk

3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce

6 scallions, sliced

1/4 cup slivered basil

Sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper on the chicken. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally until golden, about 4-5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate. Add the green beans and red pepper and cook, stirring frequently, just until tender-crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Transfer to the same plate as the chicken.

Stir the curry paste in the pan over medium-high heat. Stir in the coconut milk, chicken broth, and fish sauce. Bring to a simmer and stir, scraping up the browned bits on the pan bottom. Stir in the lime juice and lime rind. Return the chicken and vegetables to the pan and stir to combine with the sauce. Simmer until the chicken is opaque throughout and the sauce is thickened slightly, about 10 minutes. Stir in the scallions and basil.

Serve over brown rice.

I plan to make a few changes next time I make this. The first is that I plan to plant some Thai basil in my garden, so I'll use that instead of regular basil. I'll also try using about half as much lime juice and increase the amount of curry paste. If the changes are successful, I'll post it again with an updated recipe.