Spicy Chicken Over Linguine in a Garlic Lime Broth

For the past several months I have been hearing a lot of talk on a cooking board I frequent about a recipe for Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken (Allrecipes.com), so I decided to check it out this weekend. I found that it used all dry spices, no fresh herbs or garlic, and didn't seem to have much in the way of sauce, so I used the idea of the recipe as my inspiration for what turned out to be an extremely flavorful and juicy chicken and pasta dish.

Ingredients

• 3-4 boneless chicken breasts, pounded out just a bit
• Spices: Kosher salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, dried parsley, dried cilantro, paprika
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 c tequila
• 1 14.5 can low sodium chicken broth
• Juice from 1 lime (next time I'll use more)
• Handful of chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tbsp butter
• Olive oil

Directions

• Coat chicken in the dry spices - I simply shook the spices right onto the chicken from the spice jars and then rubbed them all in. I don't measure, but it was probably about 3 shakes from each bottle per side of chicken.
• Heat about 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan.
• Add chicken and cook on medium high heat for about 4-5 minutes per side. The chicken will turn a beautiful golden brown color. If the chicken is not cooked all the way through, lower your heat and continue to cook, or transfer it to the oven to finish (covered).
• Remove chicken from the pan and add another tbsp of olive oil.
• Add garlic, saute
• Deglaze pan with the tequila.
• Add chicken broth and lime juice; bring to a boil.
• Add cilantro
• Whisk in butter to thicken the sauce up a bit
• Serve chicken over linguine; top with the sauce.

Wow - this was so delicious and tasty!! I can't imagine not having a sauce or broth with this chicken. The spices on the chicken gave the dish such a punch of flavor, and the broth was garlicky and spicy and so rich with flavor. I would have liked it to be just a touch thicker, and I thought about adding just a touch of cream, but the idea of cream with lime juice freaked me out a bit.

Definitely try this one - I think it's a great variation on the original.

Have a great week, and good luck to my PHILLIES as they head to Tampa for the World Series!!!!