Cilantro Lime Chicken with Coconut Rice
It sounds so fancy, right? Well it tastes restaurant worthy but was so incredibly simple to make that it may very well become a staple in your summer meals repertoire.
In the summer months, I’m all about keeping the mess in the kitchen to a minimum and embracing the season that is all about grilling outdoors. I made the marinade for this in less than 10 minutes and if you wanted to, you could add everything to a blender or food processor to decrease the time even more so. If you don’t have a food processor or fancy equipment though that’s perfectly ok. A good old fashioned knife and cutting board will do the trick!
Coconut rice is one of those sides that sometimes sounds overly complicated but believe me when I say that it’s just easy as making traditional plain rice. The only difference here is that some of the water is replaced with coconut milk. Not complicated at all, right? When it comes to making rice, I always follow a trick from Jamie Oliver. One mug of rice for every two mugs of water. In this instance because I was using canned coconut milk, I used the can as my measuring tool. One can of coconut milk, one can full of water and one can full of rice. It’s literally that easy! It should make enough rice for four people but if you’re serving Italian-sized portions (like I always do) I’d double up op on the rice. It also makes for great leftovers.. left over rice is never a bad thing!
Cilantro Lime Chicken with Coconut Rice
Life From the Playpen | Date
Prep Time: X mins | Cook Time: X mins |
Total Time: X mins
Servings: 4-6
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb chicken thighs & legs or chicken breast
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes (optional)
- S & P to taste
INSTRUCTIONS:
- In a large resealable bag, add in all of the ingredients for the marinade. Give everything a good mix and shake (ensuring that the bag is sealed). Add the chicken into the bag making sure to massage the marinade into the chicken so that it soaks up all of the flavour. Let it rest and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes or up to overnight.
- Preheat your gril over medium high heat and grill chicken evenly, roughly 25-30 minutes or until fully cooked through (165°F internal temp). Depending on the size of the chicken legs/thighs it may take more or less time so make sure to check with a meat thermometer).
- Serve chicken on top of a bed of coconut rice and top with sliced avocado, extra squeeze of lime and a pinch of hot pepper flakes if desired. Serve immediately and enjoy.
