Grilled Lime Chicken with Mango Red Pepper Salsa

My husband went to the grocery store a few weeks ago and came home with mangoes.

“They were only a buck”, he said. So, he bought three of them.

“What should I do with them?”, he asks.

“Salsa”, I said. We cut into one immediately and it was quite clear that it wasn’t ripe enough. So they sat in our refrigerator for a couple of weeks. I forgot about them, until last week when I found them underneath some apples.

They were ripe and it was time for some salsa.

Grilled Lime Chicken with Mango Red Pepper Salsa

The Salsa

• 2 mangoes
• 1 medium red pepper, chopped into small pieces
• 1/4 to 1/2 red onion, depending on how much bite you like, chopped into small pieces
• parsley, chopped fine. I used about 1/4 of the bundle that I bought at the store
• juice from one lime

The mangoes are ripe enough when they are slightly soft to to the touch. It is similar to an avocado in that sense, when it is hard it is not ripe enough.

Peel the mangoes.

If you have never cut a mango, the pit is in the middle and it is hard to see. You need to cut vertically to the side. If you put the knife through the fruit and it gets stuck, move the knife slightly more to the outside to cut around the pit.

This is the pit. It seems wasteful. I nibble around the pit for a little snack.

Chop the mango into small chunks.

Add a medium red pepper, chopped into small pieces.

Add 1/4 to 1/2 of a red onion, chopped into small pieces.

Mix in the chopped parsley and lime juice. Set aside in the refrigerator.

The Lime Marinade

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• zest and juice from one lime
• 1 teaspoon fiesta seasoning, if you don’t have fiesta seasonings, use 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
• 2-4 chicken breasts – pounded to about 1/2 inch thickness

The kitchen smells so fresh when you are zesting a lime.

I put the chicken breasts in a plastic bag, that is not closed all of the way, and pound with a rolling pin. Pound the meat until it is evenly about 1/2 inch thick. It shortens the cooking time and prevents some parts of the chicken breast from cooking before the thicker parts.

Mix the olive oil, lime juice, zest and seasoning and pour over the chicken. Let sit in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

It is 20 degrees here in the northeast, so I used my indoor grill pan on my stove top. I’m not venturing outside to the grill when it is that cold.

Spray pan with non-cooking spray and heat over medium heat.

Remove the chicken breasts from marinade and discard the marinade. Place the chicken on heated pan and cook for about 7 minutes until golden brown. Flip and cook on the other side until golden brown and cooked all the way through. Probably another 5-7 minutes. The key here is to not over-cook, because that dries out the chicken, but you want to make sure it is cooked all the way through.

Top the chicken with the Mango Red Pepper Salsa and Enjoy!