Grilled Cilantro Chicken

In all honesty, I thought this was gonna be a recipe that appealed to a small demographic, not including my husband who is affectionately known as the Contrarian. He doesn’t care for avocados and tolerates the cilantro in Mexican dishes.

But this dish is based on BATHING the chicken in cilantro. I figured he wouldn’t like it, but I wanted to try this recipe, so I figured, hey, he can dislike it and I’ll put it on the rarely made burner.

But, instead of being awful (from his point of view) or just okay, it turned out to be utterly marvelously grandly WONDERFUL. In other words, we both loved it. It’s not hard to put together, and the taste is just terrific. So do give it a try.

This is almost verbatim from RecipeGirl.

INSTRUCTIONS:

2 lbs or so of chicken thighs or any pieces you like. I like to use one cut only because it all cooks evenly.
1/4 c EVOO
1/4 minced garlic
1 bunch fresh cilantro
3/4 c sweet spicy chili sauce (I used a Thai sauce that was just perfect–you want something somewhat hot, but sweet

INSTRUCTIONS:

Put the chicken in a ziplock bag.
Put all the rest of the stuff, minus the chili sauce in a blender and whir up until it’s smooth.
Pour this in the bag and massage the chicken, covering thoroughly. Put in the fridge for a few hours at least, overnight if you can.
Heat up the grill, and place the chicken pieces on, and cook 4-5 minutes per side until done
Baste with the chili sauce and continue grilling, just until it starts to char.
Remove and serve.

Serves: 4

NOTE: this is really easy if you remember than nothing is particularly sacrosanct in terms of measurement. I used like 5 chicken thighs. I threw in a bunch of cilantro (a good bunch, but it depends on how big the bunches are doesn’t it?), three large cloves of garlic and enough EVOO to emulsify. So don’t worry about measuring everything out. Just follow your instincts as to how garlicky you like it, and how much olive oil is need to smooth it out.