Dinner for Two: Chile Lime Rubbed Chicken Kebabs w/ Watermelon Mango Salsa
Grilling season!!!!
Let’s get after it.
For a hard-core kitchen dweller like myself the opportunity to cook my meals outdoors is a huge relief, so summer in mi casa is allll about grilling. Now as an NYC chick I’m pretty lucky to have this option — “space” is a foreign concept here — but one of the luxuries of my well-appointed terrace is a petite electric grill that’s perfect for whipping up dinners for two, these skewers being an obvious example.
As I’m sure you can tell — you have eyes, right? — there’s a lot to love about this recipe, most importantly that it’s ready in <30 minutes. But it’s also devoid of any crappy carbs, you actually get thinner while eating it (this might not be true), and the presentation is all sorts of summery gorgeousness.
I mean, do you SEE how bright this is?! I swear it tastes that bright too.
The crux of this recipe (as far as the chicken is concerned) is the chile lime seasoning, which you can find pretty much anywhere. I’m partial to the Trader Joe’s version, but Mrs. Dash, McCormick, and Whole Foods all have their own varieties, so you should be able to find it easily. And once you do, simply smother it over cubed chicken breasts before threading onto skewers — Grill five minutes on either side and you’re halfway to dinner.
By itself the chicken actually has plenty of flavor to stand on its own — the smokiness of the grill plus the inherent tangy spice of the seasoning is an epic combo — but this wouldn’t be a complete meal without the watermelon mango salsa.
Which, can we talk for a minute?
It’s UNREAL.
Like the show!
Are you watching? Tell me you’re watching!!
I based this salsa off my pom mango salsa from last summer, so basically I’m just plagiarizing myself here. But as a sort of “meh” person when it comes to watermelon, I honestly couldn’t get over just how FRESH this tasted, I was eating pure forkfuls of it with zero shame. Like any salsa it’s fairly straight forward — dice some things, slice some things, you get it — but this particular version had such amazing texture between the delicate icy crunch of the watermelon and the tougher mango consistency, I was in fruity heaven. And when you combine it with the spicy chicken?
YAS.
So much yaaaas.
Now just a quick word of advice: Since watermelon is 92% water (duh, I know) try to prepare the salsa to serve — The watermelon will render juices quickly, so you don’t want this sitting too long before serving. However, if you do make this ahead of time — OR on its own to be paired with chips, which is a terrific idea — just drain it a bit before serving and you’ll be good to go.
xo!
Dinner for Two: Chile Lime Rubbed Chicken Kebabs w/ Watermelon Mango Salsa
Ingredients:
- 8 oz Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
- 2 – 3 tsps Chile Lime Seasoning
- 1 Mini Watermelon
- 1 Mango
- 3 Jalapeños
- 1/4 cup Cilantro leaves (approx.)
- 3 tsps Lime Juice
- 2 tsps Lemon Juice
- a few pinches Salt & Pepper
- a few drizzles Honey
Directions:
- Pre-heat outdoor grill to medium-high heat.
- On large cutting board cut the chicken breasts into cubes, maintaining as consistent of a size as possible. Transfer cubed chicken to mixing bowl and toss in chile lime seasoning, evenly coating to your liking. Next, thread chicken along metal skewers.
- Wash down cutting board, then use it to cube the watermelon and mango and dice the jalapeños and cilantro. Compose the salsa with 2 cups cubed watermelon, 1 cup cubed mango, the jalapeños, and 2 tbsps cilantro – depending on the size of your fruit/your cutting technique you may yield more than this, so I want to be specific! Toss ingredients in the lime + lemon juice, then season to taste with salt & pepper and drizzle with honey as desired.
- Once the salsa is prepped, grill the chicken skewers for ~5 minutes on either side until cooked through. Immediately plate & serve over salsa, then eat!
grill life.
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