Chili Marinated Chicken with Lime Guacamole

Ah, the summer. The time where we ~~try to~~ eat healthier, don’t want to heat up the entire kitchen while cooking, and always looking for something quick to make. I’m always on the look-out for new things to try–I mean, what foodie/food blogger/etc wants to have the same thing all the time?

One Saturday afternoon, while ~~annihilating my foes on Warcraft~~ watching TV, I turned to my clever boyfriend and said, “Any suggestions for dinner?” I had to go to the store anyway… He picks up his iPad and starts tooling through his collection of recipes by his favorite chef–Gordon Ramsay. While I admit he’s not my favorite chef, he does have some very clever recipes. Said clever boyfriend shows me the picture from his iPad and I was sold. I admit, after seeing the ingredients initially, I was a little intimidated by the amount of cayenne powder and chili pepper (I’m not a HUGE fan of spicy food)–but this is not as bad as I first anticipated.

I made a few changes to Gordon Ramsay’s recipe, I prefer my own guacamole in this–and even that is slightly modified to go with this. Enjoy!

Chili Marinated Chicken with Lime Guacamole

Adapted and modified from Gordon Ramsay

Ingredients

For the Marinade:

4 large boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
1 lime
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp clear honey
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp paprika
1 large red chili, diced

For the Guacamole:

2 ripe avacados
1-2 plum or roma tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped
juice of 1 lime
2 tsp dried cilantro
1/2 tsp garlic salt

To serve:

Boston butter lettuce, baby gem lettuce, or romaine
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

For the Marinade, combine zest and juice of 1 lime, and remaining marinade ingredients minus the chicken in a bowl, stir to combine. Cut the chicken into strips or chunks (personal preference here) and combine with marinade. Let sit while making the guacamole.

For the Guacamole, mash your avocado with a fork until only subtle chunks remain. (If you prefer your guacamole creamy, then mash it all the way.) Cut and dice your tomatoes and onions, add to mashed avocado. Mix with garlic salt, lime juice and cilantro, and set aside.

In large frying pan, drizzle a little olive oil in the pan. Once hot, add the chicken and cook through. Add any excess marinade if the chicken starts to dry out. Once cooked through, turn off fire, and set aside.

To serve, wash individual lettuce leaves, set on a plate, and scoop a small amount of guacamole onto the leaf. Put one or two pieces of chicken on the guacamole and enjoy! You can eat this similar to a taco or lettuce wrap, but be warned if you got REALLY excited with the guacamole like I did, you may need a napkin or 5…and a fork and knife.

Peach Cobbler

Happy Summer everybody! Yes, yet again, I’ve been remiss on posting. I totally walked into this “food blog” thing with the intention of posting at least twice a month. And yet…life keeps getting in the way! You know how you tell yourself “today I will get this task done.” Yeah, well, The Cookatorium has been put on the back burner over and over again.

The latest of the “big” things going on in the past few months is the baby shower for my sister,

and in the month following, my bouncing, beautiful nephew joining our family!

So, of course with this being my first nephew, and the first grandchild, we’ve all felt the overwhelming need to dote every hour of every day either a.) visiting b.) texting my sister or brother-in-law madly for more pictures of said bundle of adorableness or c.) looking up for latest pictures on Facebook–and of course, commenting on how adorable he is. Did I mention he’s adorable!?!

ANYWAY. All gushing aside, you came here for the food, and got the added bonus of adorable baby! I decided to make my peach cobbler for the blog this time. Since peaches are in season, and also, I had to impress the boyfriend with the awesome deliciousness of this peach cobbler; so it seemed like a good excuse to share it with all of you!

This peach cobbler recipe came off the back of a sugar package back when I was 12. I have no idea (precisely) who the manufacturer was of this recipe originally, just that it came off the back of the package–and has been a family favorite ever since! For this recipe, I used “white flesh” peaches, however any kind will do. You can even substitute nectarines and use them the same way.

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

For the cobbler mixture:

3 c sliced peaches (canned or fresh)**
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tsp almond extract

For the dough:

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
3 Tbs granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs baking powder
1/3 c shortening
1/2 c milk
1 egg, beaten

Directions

Heat the oven to 375º. Butter an 8″-square baking dish.

For the Cobbler mixture, in a bowl, mix together fruit, sugar, juice and extract. I recommend cutting up the peaches in 1/2″ chunks. Once mixed, put in the baking dish and toss it in the oven to heat while you’re making the dough. (Make sure that butter gets every nook and cranny of that baking dish!)

For the dough, combine flour, salt, baking powder and 1 Tbs of sugar. Using a pastry knife, cut in shortening until crumbly. Slowly add milk and egg, stir until moist.

Take out the warmed peaches from the oven, and spoon small dollops of dough over the hot peaches and spread dough only slightly to cover (it will expand in the oven anyway).

Sprinkle with remaining 2Tbs of sugar. Bake 40 minutes or until golden on top.

Eat and enjoy!!

**Note: For fresh peaches, you can choose to peel them or leave them unpeeled. In this case I chose to peel all but one, and let the flavor from the peel mix in. It’s a personal preference, you can do it either way you like. I recommend trying both ways to see which you like more.

Aunt Kookie's Cookatorium

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