Recipe: Blackened Chicken and Cilantro-Lime Quinoa

As promised last week, I'm back to share this really delicious recipe with you!

Last week MG and I tried another Pinterest recipe: Blackened Chicken and Cilantro-Lime Quinoa (Original website here)

Ours turned out really good and the entire meal was incredibly healthy. Quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") is a great grain that gives you lots of good stuff and keeps you full. I had wanted to try using it a while back and I finally got my act together with this recipe.

What You Need (Chicken and Rub):

-2 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)

-1/2 tsp paprika

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/4 tsp pepper

-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

-1/4 tsp onion powder

-1/4 tsp cumin

-1 tsp olive oil

For the Quinoa:

-1 cup of dried quinoa (find this in the organic/healthy section of the grocery store)

-Juice from 1-2 limes (the original calls for juice and zest from 2 limes. We used 1 1/2 and it was almost too lime-y)

-2 cups low sodium chicken stock

For the Creamy Avocado topping:

-2 avocados, cubed

-2 T. cilantro, chopped

-1/2 small carton of Greek yogurt (I think we used about 4 oz)

-small amount of milk to thicken the cream and make it easier to blend

What You Do:

1. Mix all of the dry seasonings for the chicken in a bowl. Rub the chicken on both sides with the rub. 

At this point you can either cook the chicken in a frying pan using the olive oil (about 7 minutes on each side) or broil it in your oven. We chose to broil our chicken since MG is the master of broiling!

2. While your chicken is cooking, add the chicken stock and quinoa to a medium sauce pan. Get it to simmer on medium heat, then once it's simmering, reduce the heat to low, put a lid on the saucepan and let it go until all of the chicken stock is disappeared. The original recipe says 10-15 minutes and ours took about 15 minutes.

3. While that's cooking, chop up your cilantro. I used my trusty herb scissors (you've seen them on Pinterest....and funny enough it was on Pinterest that I learned what they were used for since my mom gave them to me and I thought they were for craft projects. Ooops).

4. Let the chicken sit once it's done cooking. Take the quinoa from the saucepan and add it to a larger bowl (this one cup of dry quinoa makes a LOT). Add in the lime juice (next time I would use one lime) and the cilantro along with a little bit of salt and pepper if you want. Mix that puppy up!

5. Add avocados, greek yogurt, splash of milk, a tsp of lemon juice and some cilantro to a food processor (we used our Magic Bullet). This will be your cream topping to "cool" the heat of the chicken.

6. Serve the chicken on top of the quinoa. Add the avocado cream topping to the chicken.

7. Enjoy!