Easy Cilantro and Lime Chicken Recipe

He-llooooo (singing to the tune of Adele's song, haha)

Can you believe it's October already?!  I love that Fall is already here!  I love this season because first, the weather is cooler and second, I get to watch new TV Shows!!! Woohoo!  (I will be sharing with you list in a different post.)

What's happening in our casa right now?  Well, I volunteered to help out in the Princess' class every Tuesdays (yesterday was my first day) so this is one thing I am excited about every week!  The kids are excited about Trick or Treating and are counting the days until Halloween while Hubby's excitement is all about his Fantasy Basketball Team, haha.

And today I am excited to share with you another recipe which I've tried the other night.  I am happy that the dish exceeded my expectations because honestly, I wasn't sure f I wanted to try it!  Okay, let me clear that up, haha.  I wasn't sure because I'm afraid of trying recipes that are not in my "comfort zone".  I've never tried recipes whose names sound like they belong to a restaurant's menu. . . . something like Cilantro Lime Chicken!

So why did I go for it?  Because I hate wasting food.  You know how you are left with a handful  of an ingredient because you only needed to use a tablespoon of it? Haha.  In this case, I have a bunch of cilantro (from making guacamole) on hand that is enough to use for this recipe.

I remember seeing in my FB feed a recipe for Cilantro Lime Chicken dish so I googled and found this recipe from Suzy of The Mediterranean Dish blog.  It is a simple and easy to follow recipe (plus her dish looked pretty in her blog post! haha)

All I can say is something so simple can actually taste good . . . I will definitely cook it again!

For the full recipe, please click here.

My personal notes:

1. I love Chicken breast but I think for this particular recipe, using chicken thighs would be best.

2. I didn't have dry white wine (as listed in the recipe).  As a substitute, I just used chicken stock and rice wine (1 tbsp of rice wine mixed with 1 cup of chicken stock).

3. I love garlic so I used more than what the recipe called for.

4. I also added 2 tbsps of butter in the dish (while it was simmering) which I've added before putting it in the oven.  (just because butter makes everything better, haha) 

5. You don't have to buy a cast iron pan to make this dish.  But I have to say, I love using this kind of pan because it gives the meat a nice sear and color.  It also made this dish a "one pan plan".  I used the same pan to sear, cook and bake the chicken in.

Hope you like it as much as I do =).  Happy Cooking!

Must Try Recipe: Baked Honey Garlic Wings

I love chicken wings!  But I only love them when they are fried, haha!  

Oh and my favorite part of the wing is the Drumette!  It is that part which they use for chicken lollipops (another favorite food of mine).

I saw a pack of beautiful Chicken Drumettes (yes, I find beauty even in uncooked food, haha!) when we were doing the groceries so I got one and didn't really know what to do with it.  Actually, I have a favorite wings recipe (Restaurant Style Buffalo Wings) which I blogged before here.  It is my go-to recipe and the only Chicken Wings recipe I've ever tried, haha!  I think it's about time to explore other recipes.

Since we have a bottle of honey (which we rarely use) in the pantry, I want a sauce that has honey in it.  I remembered the sauces that BonChon (a Korean Fried Chicken place) has for their wings.  One has Garlic and another has Honey.  I thought Honey and Garlic together sounds like a good thing for these wings!  But instead of frying them, I want to try baking them . . . for a change.  Plus it's healthier!

There are a lot of recipes online so I just picked two recipes (from these blogs: Spend with Pennies and The Endless Meal) and got something from each of these recipes.  I'm more than happy to tell you that this recipe was a success!  It actually exceeded my expectations.  Haha!  

I looove the sauce!  And I love how the wings, though baked, tasted like they were fried!  Thanks to the 4 tbsp of melted butter that was used to coat them before putting them in the oven, haha!  (Did I mention the word "healthier" earlier?  Well, I think t's still healthier than deep frying them, right? Haha!)

I hope you try this recipe so you can enjoy this messy finger licking goodness!

Ingredients:

Part I
1 lb of chicken wings
Salt or Seasoned Salt
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Pepper

Part II
1/3 cup of All Purpose Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Garlic powder
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Paprika
Pepper

4 tbsp of melted butter

Sauce:
1/3 cup of honey
1-2 tbsp of soy sauce
3 big cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of ginger
1/2 tbsp of olive oil or vegetable oil

*Feel free to adjust the measurement of the sauce to suit your taste =)


Directions:

1. For Part I, season the wings with (I just eyeballed the ingredients) salt, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper and let it sit on the ref for at least two hours.

2. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.

3. Pat dry the chicken pieces.  In a big bowl, combine everything in Part II (except the melted butter). Toss the chicken to coat well in the flour mixture.  (I put the chicken and the flour mixture together in a ziploc bag and just shake it).  Remove the excess flour from the chicken.  Then, coat the pieces with melted butter.

4.  Place your wings on a baking tray (line your baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone mat) and bake it for 40 mins (one side) and then turn them around and bake it for 15 minutes or until cooked.

5. Put all the ingredients for the sauce in a pan and boil it (in medium high heat) for 3-4 minutes until the sauce gets reduced to a thick consistency.  Drizzle over the chicken, toss and shake the pieces around . . . 

until each piece gets a taste of that yummy honey garlic sauce!

Dig in! =)