One of Chris' favorite out dishes is the fiesta lime chicken from applebees. The last time he had it there, it was good, but not as good as when he had it before. They changed up the recipe. I decided that would be a good new recipe to try at home. There are plenty of copy cat recipes on pinterest, but I chose to just come up with something on my own, just using the basic Mexican style flavors.
The sauce is a "mexiranch" sauce ( Although it contains zero ranch, it tastes like a southwestern ranch!)
I first prepared the sauce, that way it would have some time to chill in the refrigerator, as well as so the flavors could develop. For the sauce I used 1/4 cup of mayo and 1/4 cup of sour cream as the base. To that, I added maybe a tablespoon of diced jalapeno. I added about a 1/4 cup of el paso chunky style salsa. I added a bit of lime juice, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, and cumin. I just kept tasting a little as I went along, and added more of whatever seasoning I felt like it needed. Everyone has different tastes, so this could vary accordingly.
After I prepared it, I allowed it to chill for about an hour.
Next, I got the chicken ready, you can use any sort of chicken, breasts, thighs, whatever, I used thighs because that is what we had on hand. I seasoned both sides with salt, pepper, and paprika, for a smoky flavor, since I know applebees grills their chicken and we don't have a grill. We baked it, but the paprika adds that smokiness to it.
I placed them in the refrigerator, while I prepared the veggies for the rice mixture.
For the veggies in the rice, I diced up 1/2 an onion, about 1/4th red pepper, and added in frozen corn and garlic.
I started by sauteing the veggies in a pan on the stove top with a bit of olive oil.
While these, were going I had some rice cooking over boiling water. In a separate pan with some olive oil, I pan seared the chicken on both sides, not cooking it but to get a nice color on it.
Once they had a good amount of color to them, I placed them on a cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed with nonstick spray. I placed them in an oven preheated to 350 to bake for about 20 minutes. While these were cooking, I finished sauteing the veggies, seasoned it with salt, pepper, and lime juice, and then added in the cooked rice.
When the chicken was finished cooking all the way I added some shredded sharp cheddar cheese to the top as well as a bit of Mexican cheese. This would be great with pepper-jack, colby, or Monterrey jack cheese as well!
This was seriously so simple, but one of the best things I have made in a while. The Mexiranch sauce was good on the chicken as well as in the rice!
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