Chicken and Tomato Kabobs with Spicy Cilantro Sauce

This is truly an easy meal to prepare. The best part is that you can make the sauce the night before, throw your chicken into a bag, & let it sit overnight. The next day all you need to do it slide them into the skewers with your tomatoes, & pop them into the oven or onto the grill.

In the summer, we grill these outdoors, but it is just too cold right now. It’s still a nice summery and healthy meal, which we serve over Jasmine rice….and a little of the sauce we saved. The tomatoes get a really flavorful caramelized flavor, and the chicken is delicious when you marinate it overnight. Mmmmmm!

Chicken & Tomato Kabobs with Cilantro Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pound whole, skin removed Chicken Breasts (about 3 chicken breasts)

1 large bunch of Cilantro-Washed, dried & roughly chopped

3 large cloves fresh Garlic-peeled

2 teaspoons ground Cumin

Salt & pepper

¼ - ½ cup Olive Oil

½ Serrano pepper-1/2 seeds removed

1 & ½ quarts Grape Tomatoes

Wooden skewers

Directions:

Begin by adding cilantro, garlic, cumin, Serrano pepper, and salt & pepper to food processor. As you pulse the ingredients, slowly add olive oil. Adjust & increase amount of olive oil as you reach the desired consistency for cilantro sauce. It should be fairly thick, somewhat like a dipping sauce. Retain a small amount of sauce before you add the chicken to use to serve as a dipping sauce the next day.

Cut chicken into bite sized cubes. They need to be thick enough so that they will stay on the skewer. Add cilantro sauce & chicken cubes to a large zip lock bag, and allow to marinade for at least 4 hours, and up to the next day.

 The next day:

Preheat oven to 400. Remove chicken cubes from bag, and alternate a tomato, and a chicken cube in skewers. Rub remaining marinade onto the tomatoes & place in a large greased baking sheet with sides. It should look somewhat like this:

And then this after it's cooked:

Bake for about 25 minutes, gradually turning the chicken in the pan so that all sides cook evenly. Serve immediately with rice, and a side of the sauce.

Chipotle Turkey Chili

It snowed ALL DAY yesterday, & this morning was 1 degree. Icicles are covering the patio. I think a warm, hearty turkey chili is in order. Along with a little homemade cornbread....a good hearty bowl of comfort food is just what we needed. Substituting beef for turkey made for an even lighter meal. Enjoy!

Chipotle-Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons Olive oil

1 pound ground Turkey

1 medium yellow Onion-diced

5-6 cloves Garlic-minced

1/2 teaspoon Penzey’s Chili 3000

1 tablespoon Chipotle Chili

3 tablespoons Hungarian Paprika

2 tablespoons ground Cumin

1 tablespoon ground Ancho chili

1/4 teaspoon ground Allspice

1 can Beans

1 Carrot- peeled and diced

1 Green Bell pepper

6 ounces of dark Beer

2 ½ cups whole peeled Tomatoes-chopped finely (retain juice)

1 teaspoon Oregano

2 teaspoons coarse Salt

4 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons Corn Masa (corn tortilla mix)

Directions:

Over medium-high heat, sauté onions & garlic till golden brown in olive oil. Add turkey, chili powders, & cumin. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add bell pepper, tomatoes & tomato paste. Cook for an additional 3 minutes. Add beer, beans, water & remaining seasonings. Simmer for 45 minutes on low heat. In the last 5 minutes, add Masa, stirring well to thicken.