Healthy Recipe For Cinco De Mayo – Baked Chicken With Chipotle “Cream” & Cilantro Drizzle

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With Cinco De Mayo right around the corner I thought I’d create a festive Mexican inspired healthy whole foods recipe. Although Mexican cuisine gets a bad rap for being fattening, it’s actually surprisingly easy to make good-for-you and to-die for delicious Mexican food. Lucky for me as I absolutely love Mexican food!

I developed a taste for authentic Mexican food from a very early age. When I was little (starting at age 2) my parents took me on yearly trips to Mexico City; I remember the exchange rates being incredibly favorable for Americans and so it was 5-star all the way. We stayed at the Grand Chapultepec hotel and ate at the absolute finest restaurants for pennies on the dollar. To this day, hands down, my most vivid memory of Mexico City was the fabulous food. At its core, authentic Mexican food is flavor-forward, fresh and extremely satisfying without being overly filling. The real-deal Mexican food is considerably lighter (with a focus on fresh herbs, chiles, spices and nuts) and much healthier than the Americanized processed version that runs rampant on this side of the border.

For this particular Mexican inspired chicken dish I combined the smoky, spicy flavor of chipotle peppers with fresh vibrant lime and earthy beer. For a minute, I thought about smothering the chicken with some cheddar cheese (which, believe me, would definitely taste good!!) but then I got the idea to make a vegan and ultra healthy nut “cream” in place of the cheese. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure the nut “cream” was going to be all that great tasting. My husband was highly skeptical when he saw sauntered in the kitchen and saw what I was up to and was super quick to suggest I not get “too carried away” with my culinary creativity. Getting carried away is something I do frequently though, so I decided to move forward with my nut “cream” anyway. Good thing I did!! Hands down this has to be the biggest hit, best-tasting chicken dish I have made in recent memory. It’s incredibly moist, rich-tasting and beyond delicious. It’s also a super easy whole foods recipe that takes less than 15 minutes of hands-on time to prepare. Perfect for a healthy and hassle-free whole foods Cinco de Mayo!

You can serve the chicken over brown rice and black beans with grilled carrots. Or, try it as we did over pinto beans and whole grain quinoa pasta. As a side bar, the light colored quinoa pasta is the perfect whole grain pasta to serve anyone convinced they don’t like whole grain pasta! It looks just like the refined white stuff (and tastes pretty close too!) but it’s still whole grain.

Hope you have a Happy & Healthy Cinco de Mayo!!

Chipotle Nut “Cream” Ingredients

1/2 cup raw cashews
1/4 water
1 seeded chipotle pepper plus 1 teaspoon adobo sauce
1. Place ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor. Process until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Cilantro Drizzle Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (such as Costco’s Kirland brand)
3 cloves garlic
2-3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1. Place ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor. Process until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Chicken

1 pound free-range boneless, skinless chicken breasts (such as US Wellness Meats)
Sea salt (such as Costco’s Kirkland brand), for seasoning
1/2 cup beer
Juice from 1 whole lime

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Season chicken breasts with salt. Place chicken in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Pour beer on top of chicken.
3. Squeeze lime juice on top of chicken. Spread the chipotle nut “cream” on top of chicken. Cover chicken with aluminum foil. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

4. Drizzle cilantro sauce on top of chicken. Serve warm.