Chicken With Cilantro Sauce

Last night I tried out a new recipe from a Once a Month Cooking book that I got for Christmas. I had the original book for awhile and this is the "Family Favorites" edition. It has some great new recipes and even a 2 week gluten free plan. The thing I love about these cookbooks it that they have both Monthly plans and 2 week plans for those of us not quite ready to commit to a months worth of cooking from their book. It gives the grocery list, what staples you should have on hand and a list of freezer containers. They book give you a guide on the order to assemble the meals. They also give you a guide on how to create your own once a month cooking plan using your own recipes. For January, I did a combo of recipes from these books, South Beach and my own favorites. This is a link to the sample menu guide http://once-a-monthcooking.com/includes/MenuSampler.pdf. It will kind of give you and idea of what the books are like. Personally, I love them. I have cooked almost every recipe from the first book and I am working on the second one now.

That takes me back to where I was, the Garlic Lime Chicken with Cilantro Sauce.

Looks good, doesn't it? Yes, I know the sides are pretty basic, but it was cold and I was feeling too lazy to be creative yesterday.

Anyway, the recipe is basically chicken breasts marinated in lime and garlic with a cilantro cream sauce. Of course, I am not good at leaving a good recipe alone so I made some changes from the book and have a few more that I will do next time. The chicken, lime and garlic are all put together in a freezer bag with a small bag of the cilantro sauce taped to the outside. The sauce consisted of yogurt, sour cream, cilantro and lime juice. The sauce was great and had wonderful flavor, but was a bit thin for me. Next time I will drain the yogurt to get out some of the water before making the sauce. The chicken is supposed to be grilled and would probably have been even better that way, but it wa in the 20's here and I wasn't going outside to strt the grill, so I baked it. The kids loved it and so did my husband. I was immediately asked to put it "in the rotation" as my nine year old calls it. I gave the 2 youngest ones cups of the sauce to dip in so even the veggies got a bit of the sauce. Definitely a make again for us

This is my adapted recipe if you want to try it out.

Garlic-Lime Chicken with Cilantro Sauce

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 lime - juiced and zested
1 tbls chopped garlic

Coat the chicken breast with the garlic, lime juice and zest and place in a gallon freezer bag.

Cilantro Sauce:
8 oz plain yogurt - drained in a cheese cloth or coffee filter for 30 minutes
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime - juiced and zested
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and place in a quart size freezer bag. Tape to the chicken bag or place inside with the chicken.

All cooking time - thaw both bags and grill the chicken for 15 minutes or until no longer pink inside. Served topped with Cilantro Cream sauce.