Grilled Cilantro Chicken with Pickled Tomato and Avocado Salsa
Photo: Peden & Munk; Styling: Amy Wilson
Look no further for this season's go-to grilled chicken dish featuring a simple marinade and an addictive Indian-style pickled salsa on top.
How to Make It
Step 1
Make salsa: In a bowl, combine tomatoes, chiles, and green onions. In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring vinegar to a boil. Add brown sugar and salt and cook, stirring, until dissolved, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Put ginger, garlic, and dry spices in a bowl. In another medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat until rippling. Add ginger mixture and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 minute. Remove from heat, stir in seasoned vinegar, and pour over tomato mixture.
Step 2
Let salsa cool, then cover and chill at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours. About 1 hour before serving, cut avocados into 3/4-in. chunks, add to salsa, and bring to room temperature.
Step 3
Make chicken: In a large bowl, combine olive oil, lime juice, and seasonings. Turn chicken in mixture to coat. Let stand at room temperature, turning occasionally, 30 to 45 minutes.
Step 4
Heat a grill to high (450° to 550°). Lift chicken from marinade (discard marinade) and grill chicken, covered, turning often, until no longer pink in center, 15 to 20 minutes.
Step 5
Transfer chicken to a platter and spoon salsa on top, saving half the liquid for another use (such as salad dressing).
Step 6
Note: Nutritional analysis is per serving.
Border Grill, Santa Monica and Las Vegas and Ciudad, Los Angeles
Also appeared in: Sunset, April, 2009
almadenmike's Review
We loved this recipe ... and will be making it frequently in the future.
I made two major adjustments: 1) I'd run out of fresh ginger, but had lots of crystallized ginger left over from holiday baking, so I used that instead, and cut back on the brown sugar to compensate. But I also misread "tsp" as "TB" (LOL!!), so I'd accidentally used 3x the specified amount! But it was delicious! We loved the assertive flavors.
2) Frying the spices in 1/2 cup of olive oil seemed excessive, so I used 2-3 TB instead. It worked out fine. (I wonder if "1/2 cup" is a typo in the printed recipe.)
I also diced the tomatoes, rather than quartered, and used skinned chicken breasts, which I pounded/flattened to a uniform thickness before marinating.
msmom67's Review
N/A
akolebuck's Review
WOW! This is one of the best chicken recipes ever! It is absolutely delicious. I was low on ginger so only used maybe 2 tsp. I used just one serrano pepper (took out the seeds) and I chopped in food processor. And I did not add the cayenne becuase I did not want it too hot. But it was fantastic. Wonderful recipe.
FranTrot09's Review
N/A
redcucina's Review
This truly is fantastic. Very multidimensional favors in the salsa. I used heirloom tomatoes instead of beefsteak since in season and only used one serrano and seeded it. Flavors and level of spice were perfect. I thought it was a lot of work making the salsa, but it was worth the effort.
PennyRice's Review
Love, love, love the flavors. The next day I used the leftover chicken, olives, cucumbers, feta cheese, and the salsa. Wow!!!!
oedalis's Review
N/A
Itsmehowesit's Review
This is DELICIOUS! I love the blend of the unique flavors and ingredients. We served it with handmade tortillas and queso fundido. Simply wonderful.
2BPaulaB's Review
As they say, there is a lot going on here. The salsa was really bad. I had overwhelming flavor of the vinegar and tumeric. I had to toss out the salsa which is such a disappointing waste of fresh farmers' market goodies. The chicken was good on its own, which is the only reason I am giving it two rather than one star.
JamesMH53's Review