Cilantro and Lime Chicken

I got this great recipe from Cooking Light. I learned from the WC Nesties that Cooking Light has great recipes so I bought the most recent issue on the newsstand and found a few new recipes I'd like to try. This one is Cilantro and Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa. My guys aren't big fans of Avocado, so I left it out this time, but I did feel the salsa was lacking and I think I may sneak it in next time or maybe add some peppers. You can find the original recipe here: http://tinyurl.com/d4puwm

Cilantro and Lime Chicken with Tomato & Onion Salsa
Serves 4

For the chicken:
2 tbsp fresh cilantro minced
2 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tbsp EVOO
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Cooking spray
Old Bay Seasoning

Salsa (I made mine without the avocado)
2 Plum tomatoes diced
2 tbsp chopped onion (I kinda went overboard on this one. It worked for us though!)
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
Black pepper
Garlic powder* Oregano* *I added these two final ingredients because I felt that the salsa needed a little something*

Add the cilantro, oil and lime juice to a medium sized bowl. What it looks like before the chicken:
Next, add the chicken to the bowl and let sit for 3 minutes.

While the chicken is marinating you can start getting the salsa ingredients ready. Dice the tomatoes and onions. As you can see, I chopped a BIG onion and forgot that it was only supposed to be a few tablespoons of onion. However, since I cut the avocado out, my mistake worked out. Add the tomato and onion to a bowl. Add the black pepper, garlic powder and oregano and mix.


Next heat up your grill pan and spray with cooking spray. Add the chicken to the pan. Discard the marinade. I hit the chicken with a few dashed of Old Bay seasoning. I like to use something flavorful when I cook other than salt.

I love my grill pan. We received it as a Shower gift last year and it's come in handy for when we can't grill outside. Please ignore the "bald" spot on the one chicken breast. I accidentally brushed some of the seasoning off. Grill each side for about 5-7 minutes. Depending on how thick the chicken breast is.

Give the chicken a flip. Look at the pretty grill marks with the green cilantro. It smelled really good too. I didn't add any Old Bay to the other side. I just let them cook for another 5-7 minutes.


Toward the end of the second side cooking, I added some of the tomato and onion salsa to two of the breasts. I left two "plain" so Bear would eat them without complaint. Which he did.

The finished product. Two plain and one breast with the cooked tomato and onion on it.


I served this with Zataran's Spanish Rice mix. It complimented the chicken very well. I would've made my own Mexican rice, but I couldn't find a recipe that I could do. Maybe next time.

For Weight Watchers each serving of 1 breast with salsa and rice is 10 points. The chicken and salsa without the avocado is 3 points (4 points with the avocado) and the rice mix is 7 points for a 1/2 cup serving. I was shocked about that, but the rice is good so I followed the serving size. Here's a picture of what my dish looked like.

As I said, I was surprised by the serving size points for the rice, but I used my handy-dandy measuring cup and measured out the rice. Because of the chicken and tomatoes I did feel full after eating my dinner. I'm sure the water I drank with it helped too.

Enjoy!