TEQUILA LIME CHICKEN.- One of my family's favorites.....

TEQUILA-LIME CHICKEN.- I've been making this dish since my kids were young, everybody loved it but you move on to new food trends and try other things and sometimes you forget the old recipes you used to love. I don't know why this happens but you see it all over, people pay attention to the latest food trends and great classics go by the wayside, not because they're not great anymore but because we are fickle and want new, new and improved....

One of the main focuses in my restaurants has always been to do a "culinary anthropology" study of the old dishes in Mexico which seem to be disappearing. Everybody working, busy lives with no time for elaborate preparations with lots of ingredients and labor intensive steps, then they're relegated for "special occasions" where Mom or Grandma makes them for the family but as years go by they're no longer being prepared and instead, are ordered at the local restaurant for the holidays. And so, little by little our culinary heritage will be affected, so I decided to do my part and keep those wonderful dishes around made the "old fashioned way" with natural ingredients and following classic techniques. I love it and am very proud to have been able to contribute to all this. But back to the dish at hand which has nothing to do with classic recipes but we like....

I wanted to infuse the Tequila-Lime Chicken with as much flavor as I could and you'll see the recipe does this in a very simple and easy way that truly delivers, I hope you'll try it. You'll need:

TEQUILA-LIME CHICKEN:
6 Chicken Breasts, Split, Bone-In or your choice, I've used cut-up whole chicken, wings, legs...
1/2-1 cup Gold Tequila or your choice
1 cup Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice, 5-6 Persian Lemons (must be fresh)
1/2 cup Fresh Orange Juice, 2-3 oranges (must be fresh)
1 Tbl Tajin Salt or Chile Powder
1 Whole Jalapeño / Serrano Pepper, de-seeded, in thin strips, chopped fine
1 Tbl Garlic Clove, finely minced
Salt and Pepper, generous
1-2 Tbl Cilantro Leaves, finely minced

Combine all the ingredients in a baking pan or bowl that will hold all the chicken pieces so they're well covered. A great idea is to use a large zip-lock bag to keep your fridge clean and make shaking, turning easier. Refrigerate at least overnight, I usually like at least 2 days.

Get the grill ready for cooking and insure you rub the grill with some oil so it won't stick. Once the charcoal is ready, remove the chicken from the marinade and place the chicken on the grill skin side down, keep an eye on it and turn as needed until done. Enjoy!

Note: I use a version of this marinade, in smaller quantities and without the Tequila, to use with fish and vegetables, it's really great.