Pepper-Lime Chicken, Southwestern Macaroni and Cheese, and Glazed Carrots

I have a chicken lasagna recipe I'm going to try which only calls for one bone-in chicken breast. So, what do I do with the rest of a whole chicken? Chop it up and broil, baby, broil!

Pepper-Lime Chicken

• 1 whole chicken, cut-up, 5 lb
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Cut up your bird into serving sized pieces if you didn't buy it that way. Cut breasts in half.

Place chicken pieces in a resealable plastic bag.

For marinade, stir together lime juice, oil, thyme, basil, pepper, salt, and garlic. Pour over chicken; seal bag. Marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Drain chicken, reserving marinade. Place chicken on the unheated rack of a broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat about 6 minutes or until light brown, rotate chicken pieces and return to broil an additional 6 minutes.


Turn chicken and brush lightly with reserved marinade. Discard any remaining marinade. Broil for 6 minutes, rotate chicken, broil 6 more minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (170 degrees F).


Southwestern Macaroni and Cheese

• 8 oz. elbow macaroni
• 2 cups vanilla soymilk
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Mexican-blend cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling lightly salted water 4 to 5 minutes or until barely tender. Drain; rinse with cold water to cool. Place in large bowl.

Meanwhile, heat oven to 400°F. Spray 8-inch square (2-quart) glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup of the soymilk and flour until smooth.

Heat remaining 1 3/4 cups soymilk in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until small bubbles form around outside edge.

Add flour mixture; cook 2 to 3 minutes or until sauce bubbles and thickens, whisking constantly. Remove from heat.


Add cheese; stir until melted.

Stir in chiles, green onions, cilantro, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
 

Pour over pasta; stir to mix.


Place in baking dish.

In small bowl, mix bread crumbs, paprika and oil. Sprinkle over pasta. (Casserole can be made up to 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)


Bake, uncovered, 35 to 45 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.


The thing that sucked about this is that I made broiled chicken along with a side that had to be baked, which just prolonged things. In other words, I had to do the mac'n'cheese AFTER the chicken was done.

However, the chicken and the macaroni and cheese were tasty (even by Rodney's finicky standards), though the mac'n'cheese was a little overdone. I'll watch the progress toward the end if I make this again.  And if I make the mac'n'cheese again, I'll make it a point to use real milk.  The vanilla flavored soy was a little much.

Overall, cheap. Chickens, when you get them whole and on sale are, well, cheap. I'm guessing $0.79/lb. The marinade? Dirt cheap if you have the items on-hand anyway. I'll have to get back to this post later for the $ breakdown.

Time to make this meal -- too long for what I got out of it. I mean, it was tasty, but it wasn't like 4-star and the time/reward ratio wasn't great. I'll have to remember that time-wise these two things don't accompany each other.

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