Lime Cilantro Chicken With Tropical Fruit Salsa

Josie is here visiting–which means lots of discussion of all things culinary but less time to type about it.

The night she got here, I whipped up a tropical chicken dish that was hard to beat for ease with lots of flavor. The chicken itself was really simple–basically brown the meat and then braise it for about 30 minutes in a lime/cilantro sauce. Earlier in the afternoon I made a tropical fruit salsa to serve over the dish–which was a perfect complement to the sour tang of the chicken dish. John loved this dish.

Stay tuned for our Indian feast…

Lime Cilantro Chicken
Adapted from Pacific Palate, Alaina de Havilland

3 T vegetable oil
3 lbs chicken meat, your choice–if using dark meat, remove the skin (I used chicken breasts and a pork tenderloin I had in the freezer)
2 T minced ginger
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 T turmeric
2 t ground cumin
1 1/2 t ground coriander
1/4 t red pepper flakes (more for more heat)
salt and pepper
grated zest of one lime
juice of 2 limes plus water to equal 1 scant cup liquid
1 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro
brown sugar to taste

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan over medium high heat. Brown the chicken all over in batches–remove when done. Set aside.

Add the ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin, coriander and red pepper flakes to the pan and cook for one minute, stirring. Add a splash of water if it is too dry. return the chicken to the pan and add the lime juice and water. Bring to a boil, stirring. Add the lime zest, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to low to maintain a gentle simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes, until the meat is cooked through. Add brown sugar to taste–remember that you will serve this with a sweet salsa. You may not need any sugar if you like things really tart; we needed 2 tablespoons.

Tropical Fruit Salsa
Adapted from Pacific Palate, Alaina de Havilland

1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro
1 t salt
1 t ground black pepper
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t cayenne pepper (or all cayenne and no paprika for more heat)
1 10-oz container of grape or cherry tomatoes
2/3 of a medium pineapple, cut into chunks
3 ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
1 large onion, sectioned and membranes removed
juice of 1-2 limes (to taste)

Process all of the ingredients, in batches. First add the first 4 ingredients, and pulse 6-7 times. Remove to larger bowl. Then add the remaining ingredients and pulse 6 times, finishing by processing for 2 seconds (you made need to do the remaining ingredients in 2 more batches, for a total of 3–I did). Mix all of the processed batches and taste for additional salt or limes juice.