Marinated Chicken, Brown Rice, Black Beans, Guac and Pico!

This is a quick meal, and if you grill extra chicken breasts you have it for the next day or two, which comes in SO HANDY, especially when you’ll be out and don’t have a lot of time to whip something up. Using good ingredients (vs. processed or pre-made ingredients) can only make it healthier, right?

Right! To start, I made a marinade for the chicken. I don’t measure because it depends on how much chicken you have. We use Bell & Evans THIN Chicken. It’s like a chicken breast cut in half so it’s thinner. So you’re really eating half the amount of chicken as you normally would, but you’re getting the protein and flavor. I love this marinade, and the grilled chicken is excellent cold the next day or two.

MARINADE: Add the following to a zip-top plastic bag…

canola oil or olive oil (or a mix) – maybe 1/4c sometimes more
squeeze a wedge of lime
squeeze of honey
microplane or mince a clove of garlic
pepper, dash of salt
minced onion (optional) sometimes I add it, sometimes not
chop fresh cilantro (optional, but oh so good and pretty too!)

Then using your hand gently squeezing the bag, mix to combine ingredients. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel and add to the bag.

Massage and move the chicken around until coated with ingredients. (I marinate an hour or two on average).

Grill (Fred uses our outdoor gas grill) – the thin chicken cooks quickly so don’t walk away too long! Use a meat thermometer if you’re not sure if you’re chicken is done!

We served with brown rice (Trader Joe’s, package of 3 servings that you pop in microwave, a real time saver!), guacamole, pico (or salsa), heated black beans, and some grated pepper jack cheese. It’s refreshing to have a quick squeeze of lime over the top. We served with white corn tortilla chips, but I only had a few, the flavors were so good as they were.