Margarita Chicken

Over the past few months we have been trying out recipes that have black beans in them - Steve really likes black beans and they are a nice way to add in another texture to a lot of dishes. In our new 'Cook This Not That: Easy & Awesome 350 Calorie Meals' cookbook there was a recipe for Margarita Chicken (which included black beans) so naturally we wanted to give it a try.

Here are the ingredients that you'll need for this recipe:

1/2 can black beans (14-16 oz) drained
1/4 tsp cumin
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tbsp canola oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup prepared salsa
1 cup pepper jack cheese
Chopped cilantro

Here is how we brought it all together:

1. Preheat oven to 450 deg F. Combine black beans and cumin on a saucepan and heat all the way through. Squeeze in the lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and warm before serving.
2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper and sear in a hot pan for 3-4 minutes on the first side, until a nice crust develops, then flip. Cook for another 3-4 minutes,then spoon the salsa over the meat, top with cheese and place in oven. Bake until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese is fully melted, no more than 5 minutes. Divide the beans among all of the plates and top with chicken and garnish with cilantro.

This dish was OK but was not something that I would be jumping at to try again. Given that most of the flavour is coming from the salsa you really need to make sure that you are using a salsa that has a full flavour to it.

If you try this recipe please let me know how it worked out for you and if there were any substitutions that you made.

Bon appetite & enjoy!