I've been making this chicken for years! You can serve it with rice or pasta, have it in a sandwich with some mayo, or cut it into strips and wrap it in a flour tortilla. It is full of strong flavors and it's super good.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons lime juice

1. In a small bowl, mix together salt, black pepper, cayenne, paprika, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, onion powder, thyme and parsley. Sprinkle spice mixture generously on both sides of chicken breasts.
2. Heat butter and olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken until golden brown, about 6 minutes on each side. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons garlic powder and lime juice. Cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently to coat evenly with sauce.

• 1 tablespoon of cranberry sauce
• 2 tablespoons of cranberry juice cocktail
• splash of Cointreau
• Prosecco

Place cranberry sauce into a high ball glass. Add cranberry juice cocktail and Cointreau. Slowly fill with Prosecco and stir to combine.

• 3 cups seedless-watermelon chunks (about 1 lb. peeled watermelon)
• 1 ½ cups fresh lime juice
• ½ cup sugar (or less, to taste)
• 1 cup tequila
• ½ cup Grand Marnier

Combine watermelon, lime juice and sugar in a blender, and blend on high until completely liquid and frothy. Combine in a pitcher with tequila and Grand Marnier. Fill pitcher with ice, stir and serve.

BTW: Ice goes in at the last minute, so it doesn't dilute.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root (using a Microplane fine grater)
  
• 3 cloves grated garlic
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon chili sauce
  
• 8 ounces Udon noodles
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until tender according to package directions. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, combine chicken broth, ginger, soy sauce, peanut butter, honey, chili paste, and garlic in a small saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until honey, peanut butter, and chicken broth melts and combines, and is heated through.
   
3. Add cooked noodles and toss to coat. Garnish with green onions and peanuts.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
• 4 teaspoons hot chile paste (optional)

1. In a medium saucepan over high heat, whisk together the sugar, soy sauce, water, onion powder, and ground ginger. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 5 minutes.
2. Remove the mixture from heat, cool, and whisk in lemon juice and hot chile paste. Place chicken in the mixture. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours before preparing chicken as desired.

Corn & Lime Chipotle Butter

Ingredients:
4 ears of corn
1 stick butter
4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, seeds removed
4 tablespoons lime juice
pinch of salt & pepper

Directions:
1. Cook corn in boiling water. When corn is done, leave until cool enough to handle.
2. Using a chef's knife, cut the corn into 2 inch rounds and place in a large mixing bowl.
3. Cut open the chipotle peppers and discard the seeds.
4. Melt the stick of butter in microwave.
5. Combine peppers, butter, lime juice, salt and pepper in a food processor and blend until smooth.
6. Pour the butter mixture into the large mixing bowl and toss to combine with the corn.

Who knew the New York Times had a food blog? Tried this quick and simple recipe last night and it turned out to be a pretty good Asian dish. According to the blog, it was inauthentic Cambodian.
To give it a tad more flavor, I sprinkled the raw shrimp with some paprika before adding it to the skillet.
I added a little homemade sauce because I served the shrimp with vermicelli noodles and didn't think there would be enough of the sugar/lime sauce left over to coat the noodles.
At the bottom of 2 bowls (one for me, one for the boy), I mixed, per bowl, approx. 1 tablespoon of hoisin sauce, 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, and a splash of hot sesame oil. I added the cooked noodles directly into the skillet to get all the sauce off the pan, and then tossed the noodles in the serving bowls to incorporate my sauce into everything else. Turned out the hoisin, soy, and sesame oil was a good idea because the lime sauce alone was a little too tart.

I found this Mojito Chicken recipe a few weeks ago and have been waiting for a day that wasn't too busy to make it because it has a lot of steps and a lot of marinating time. It did have a lot of mini-recipes, but actually it wasn't as labor intensive as I thought it'd be. There are 3 main parts/steps here: the dry rub, the marinade, and the glaze.

The major change I made was that I used dark tequila in place of the rum that the recipe called for. It was really good! I prefer tequila to rum anyways. Instead of using a whole chicken, I used a few drumsticks and thighs. In the marinade, I used some Sunny D to substitute for the OJ. Also, instead of squeezing fresh limes, I added 5 tablespoons of bottled lime juice. I bet it would be even better if you added lime zest! In the Mojito Glaze, I only added about half of the water and cornstarch mixture because it was just getting a little too thick.

Searing the chicken skin side down was absolutely essential! It just created such an awesome crust and flavor. I seared it in a skillet and just threw the entire thing into the oven. I wouldn't skip any of the steps because the end result was 100% restaurant quality.

The chicken was served with this Cilantro-Lime Rice recipe: