Those of you who are married or partnered, does your husband or wife find recipes in magazines or on the net and bring them to you with big smiles saying, “This looks good!” It happens frequently here. This week John handed me a grocery store magazine “with an idea,” he said.
I had to agree that it looked pretty good in the magazine (don’t they always?). It suggested mango and chilli salsa but John’s dad can’t eat anything spicy or he’s up all night, so we figured it would be just fine without the chillis on his plate. He agreed and ate every bite.
I liked this recipe because you make the lime and cumin marinade/sauce/goop and smear it over the chicken and there’s no waiting if you’re in a hurry. I was in a hurry so right after I oiled up the chicken, in the pan they went, presentation side down. Once they were all sizzled, I turned them over and then into the oven for 30 minutes. That was how long the recipe called for but maybe they had bigger pieces than I did. I will cook 20-25 minutes next time and check for doneness.
Believing that a recipe is going to be perfect as written is a bad habit of mine. If they say 30 minutes, that’s when I check. Dumb, I know. Why I assume that every recipe writer is smarter than I am – I dunno.
This meal was on the table in 40 minutes. My apologies to Jamie Oliver but rare is the day I can get a from-scratch meal on the table in under 30 minutes. It must be my age but frankly, I’ve never been able to do it, even when I was in my 20s.
- 4 chicken ½ breasts
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds, toasted
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Grated zest of two limes
- Juice of one lime
- 1½ tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Mangoes, sliced
- 1 long red chilli, thinly sliced (it's just fine without the chilli)
- 1 cup small basil leaves (or larger ones chopped)
- 1 cup small mint leaves (or larger ones chopped)
- Preheat oven to 200C/400F
- Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic, cumin seeds and salt until a coarse paste forms.
- Add lime zest and juice and oil and stir to combine.
- Smear marinade all over the chicken
- In a hot frying pan or grill pan cook the chicken presentation side down first until slightly charred.
- Turn over and brown on the other side - just another minute.
- Place the frying pan in the oven (or transfer to a baking pan like I did) and roast for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through. Don't overcook chicken - it's tough and disgusting.
- Combine the mango, chilli, basil and mint.
- Rest chicken for 5-7 minutes and slice and transfer to a serving dish and drizzle over pan juices.
- Serve with the salsa.
Love all the flavors of this recipe… lime, cumin, mango.. perfect!
I wish Phil would read magazines and pick stuff for me to cook, but he rarely does that – I sometimes ask him to take a look at one particular cookbook and pick something, he promises to do that “soon”. oh, well…
🙂
It doesn’t happen here very often either, Sally. John was in a waiting room with 2 magazines, both food and he came home with 3 ideas.
OOoh, I’m always on the lookout for quick and yummy dinner recipes! I would probably faint if Bill ever handed me a recipe to try…I have to hound him for dinner ideas!
It doesn’t happen often here. This one was from when John sat in the waiting room at the podiatrist for his dad. He came home with 3 recipes from the 2 magazines (only).
Gosh, i can imagine how refreshing and pungent fragrant ofthe chicken..
Superb!
btw, i love to rub cumin on lamb or pork trotter before roasting too….
It was really good, Dedy!
G’day Maureen, your photo look delicious, true!
I thought it was only me that it took longer to make cookbook timed recipes too!
Cheers! Joanne
Since I don’t have kids to feed, house to clean, homework to help, kids to bathe and read stories to, I don’t worry about how much time it takes. 🙂
Mrs K R and I hand each other recipes to make all the time! And sometimes one of us makes it! Actually, if I see something sweet I let her know about it, but she’s always looking for new sweet things to make. She does the same for me with savory dishes. Anyway, this is a great looking dish. I’ll eat anything with mango in it, and this looks terrifically flavorful. I so rarely follow recipes as written that I don’t often get in trouble assuming the recipe is correct (I get in trouble because I try something that I think will work, and it doesn’t). You’d think I’d learn – but I never do!
I need to trust my instincts more. I’ve always done a recipe as written the first time but even then, I should trust myself. 🙂
I’ve seen chefs try Jamie’s 30 minute recipes and they all claim he’s WAY off. So, I wouldn’t blame yourself. I’ve never done a mango salsa but this recipe may well be my first time pairing meat and fruit.
I had fun with this one 🙂
mango salsa is the bomb! Seriously, one of my favs to use over chicken or pork! I love the cumin added to the dish alongside the flavors in the salsa. Divine
This was a hit all around 🙂
I love this Maureen. What an excellent idea and we would definitely be having chilli in or on the mango salsa. Yes, cooking times vary so much you have to use your intuition. yOu are lucky to get such gorgeous mangoes so early in the season. I will be trying your recipe, thank you x 😀
Love the flavors in this recipe, Maureen. Lime and Cumin never disappoint.
Marion has a habit of clipping recipes from anywhere she can find them. The kicker is she’s been on a cookbook buying spree from the tons of catalogs she gets each day. (she gets at least six a day:) She’s been known to buy doubles more than once, lol…
I’m so bad at following recipes. I usually start checking way too far in advance which of course makes the dish take longer to cook!
Thanks for sharing, Maureen…
Bobby sends me links every once in a while and most of the time I try to make them, but sometimes I take one look at it and say “You make it!” 🙂 John did good with this one. Very simple and tasty! Love the cumin lime marinade for the chicken. I need to try this one. Thanks!
I thought about asking him to help but then I remembered I needed a few things done on the blog so we did a trade-off. 🙂
Simply gorgeous flavouring my friend 😀
Mango salsa is also a perfect side!
Cheers
CCU
We enjoyed it. I know it’s not up your alley but you could eat the salsa. 🙂
Yum this is my kind of recipe, it sounds so tropical and healthy too!
It’s summer here and it was a lovely meal. Too windy to eat outside but soon!
Yum, perfect for summer! Are mangoes inexpensive in Queensland Maureen? They are still quite expensive here.
I don’t need someone handing me recipes, Maureen. I’m forever ripping them out of magazines on my own. I certainly wold have grabbed this one. It sounds delicious and ready in 40 minutes? Yum!
I don’t need any inspiration at all but it’s nice every once in a while for him to feign interest in the kitchen. 🙂
Lovely Maureen, I have piles of clippings everywhere – so need to get them organized!!
I have 9 big binders stuffed with recipes I’ve made, copied, ripped off. I’ll have to live to 214 to cook them all 🙂
Lol, I’m glad I don’t have someone telling me that, because I have boxes and boxes of things that “look good” to be made still!!
This DOES look good though!
x
It happens so rarely that it’s just fine with me. 🙂
I wish my hubby left me clues as to what he wants for dinner. He’s always like ‘surprise me’. Feel like ripping my hair out. One of these days I’m really going to ‘surprise’ him with the ultimate revenge; bulls testicles.
Until then, his ‘surprise’ tomorrow night will be lime and cumin chicken, LOVE the flavour combo! x
I thought of you when I made this. It sounded like something out of your kitchen. 🙂
Love that lime cumin rub! I think everyone in our group could cut down in the time in our kitchen if their were “magic clean up fairies” that work to clean up all of our messes in our kitchen like Jamie has, don’t you agree? I like the idea of adding mint to your mango salsa-very refreshing. Have a super week. BAM
Mango salsa is our next post. Just funny to see the coincidence, I looked in your website and see this. It looks good!
Mine was really simple but it went well with the flavors on the chicken. Lovely to see you!
I could eat it all.
LOL I did!
Great recipe I will be trying soon! It sounds delicious! I’m new here and like your blog, title and all!
So nice to see you Pam and thanks so much for coming by!
Hubby here rarely asks me to make something, but my boys, they are something. Even yesterday, my teen came home with croque madame in mind..:). I made it and he enjoyed it and asked for a 1 minute mugcake, demands never end.
This looks so deliciously and simple, a great weeknight meal.
Enjoy them while you have them. Ahh the eggy joy of a croque madame. 🙂
This looks delicious! I’m in my 20’s (smack bang in the middle) and I also can’t get a from scratch meal on the table in under 30 minutes (salads don’t count!), unless it’s a stir fry but the way I cook rice takes half an hour in and of itself… so technically that doesn’t count, either, no matter that the rest of the prep/cooking is quite quick 😛
I can do a stir-fry in about 10 minutes but the chop chop chop always takes me 30 minutes 🙂
It sure does look delicious Maureen and healthy too! I love all of the ingredients and your presentation is beautiful. For a new recipe I usually set my timer about 5 minutes less because I never know if my oven is hotter or cooler so I just check a little early. BTW thirty minutes to table is awesome!
Maureen, this dish looks magazine quality beautiful!! So colorful! My son will actually casually mention a dish he sees on the internet and very casually inquires if I ever heard of it and would know how to make it..?? He’s pretty subtle, but I know what he’s thinking!!
It’s nice when they’re subtle like that because you can ignore them if you’re not interested. 🙂
I’m always spending waaaay too long in the kitchen so this looks perfect.
I asked Rich to go through a magazine once and pick out 3 recipes he would like and of course he picked the 3 most involved ones because he has no idea what it takes to put dinner on the table….somedays he just gets a bacon nutty.
A bacon nutty??? I don’t know what that is but I think I want one.
I rate this chicken a 5 YUM dish!!!
I’ll take that as a win!
Ooh I have so many of those ingredients growing in the garden! Now I just need to find a local mango tree. I’m with you on the 30 minutes. I’m sure it’s not impossible but I certainly haven’t achieved it.
You will appreciate 30-minute meals once the bub starts school but I don’t have a time card to punch so I don’t really care. It’s nice to have a good meal on the table and not spend hours though.
That lime-cumin rub is going to be roadtested this very weekend ~ methinks with very positive results 🙂 ! I love Jamie’s 15 minute ones better than his 30, but have always taken for granted one cannot make hay in that time!! But the recipes are fun and reasonably fast and. these days, almost healthy: so what is there not to like!!!!! And may I echo Chicago John’s statement, please 😀 !!
It was really good!
Well here’s an amazing coincidence. I have to be out all afternoon and have been wondering what to cook for dinner that I can get to the table fairly quickly as it will be 6.30pm before I’m home. I decided I’d cook chicken breasts with a spicy marinade and was just about to do a google search but instead I came to your blog! I’ll cook this tonight and let you know how I go. Also…when I’ve made mango salsa I’ve used the green mangoes. I’ll try that because I’ve seen them in the shops. That would make it more of a Thai dish xx
The reason I chose this one was just because it used ripe mangoes and not much spice. Rob would live on antacids if I wasn’t careful. 🙂 I found a recipe I sort of liked and changed the seasoning but kept the salsa. 🙂
These are the flavours i l0ve. Wish I had it tonight. Wish you were going to Perth…. I never believe any recipe , just a bit of age old habit. Deeeeeelissshous
I wish I was too. I had the best time last year. I need to work harder so I can afford it. 🙂
Yumm! The chicken paired with the salsa is such an amazing dish…the flavors balancing so well.
My husband is a foodie but he never takes the trouble to pick a food magazine and throw a hint 😉
You’ll have to have stern words with him! 🙂
I can not imagine my husband noticing recipes, never mind suggesting them!! But John clearly spotted well with this example – lime, cumin and mango sound great to me and this dish seems perfect for summer weather.
We really enjoyed it. You have to be careful not to overcook a chicken breast but these were nice and juicy and well flavoured.
I could hug you for posting this. 🙂 I have so many chicken breasts in my freezer and my frazzled brain couldn’t think of a thing to do with them that sounded remotely appetizing. This sounds fantastic. 🙂
It was yummy and a dish I’d make again and again
Yum. And easy. And the perfect thing to do with mangoes if you don’t have a friand pan. 😀 Seriously, it looks so good, the only change I’d possibly make would be to use thigh fillets – I like those more, and they tend to stay moist in the oven.. xx
Yes, my recipe calls for thigh fillets but I had breasts on hand and that had to do 🙂
Oh yum — this dish looks so flavor-packed!! I love it!
Dear Maureen, I always feel that way too. I automatically think the person writing the recipe know more. I suppose that it is the fact that I am not “professional” chef. Reading and seeing your recipes I think you could cook anyone under the table!! Your food looks, as Tony the Tiger would say, “GRRRREAT”.
Anyway, I never used or even tasted cumin until recently and I really enjoy the taste. This looks very good and would be a hit on my table.
Blessings dear and hugs, Catherine xo
p.s. I hope you are feeling better.
Oh Catherine, cumin is my favorite I think. or ras el hanout which has cumin in it.. rubbed on lamb and slow roasted? oh my. 🙂
Ah goop! Such a poetic word. Well the goop obviously worked because this is beautiful! I think I might show the finished photo to my husband and say “This looks good! Hint hint, nudge nudge.”
LOL well it WAS sort of goopy. liquidy with stuff in it. It was really good. I’ll work on better wording next time I promise.
Hehe I don’t think hubby has ever brought something to me from a magazine although he did once suggest that I make a thousand layer apple cake again. Unfortunately it took so long and was so painful I told him to enjoy every slice of the current cake because I’ll never make it again!
LOL you always tell it like it is, Lorraine! Still thinking of you riding the sheep.
Love the spices Maureen, and anything that had mango too! My girls sometimes bring me magazine clipping recipes to try but I already subscribe to do many foodie magazines already that I have a big pile to work through 🙂
I stopped quite a few magazines because I find I just don’t have time to read them. or I don’t take the time to read them. I’m either working or doing chores. 🙂
Oh so good!! Beautiful colors Maureen. My husband does not bring anything – he is not into magazines, which is why I think he never has, but he makes suggestion ALL the time.
John was so proud of his suggestions, he gave me several ideas he picked up at the good food and wine show today. 🙂
This is my kind of food… easy to make, flavorful and healthy. Hope you’re doing well.
Well, it does have cream, Mireya. 🙂 (trying not to sin)
Anything with mango in it, and I’m in. And Queensland has some great mangoes there!
We bought another 10 mangoes yesterday. Can we ever fill up the FIL ? I don’t think so.
Maureen, I’ve asked for suggestions to no avail… TMOFW says he likes “whatever I cook.” Apparently your guys do, too — including fulfilling their requests customized to their palates! You’re a gem. As for thirty minute meals… yeah, right… as soon as I learn to chop as fast as Morimoto. 🙂
I know but I don’t sweat the amount of time it takes. It takes what it takes and I really enjoy the cooking process. Back when I had kids in school I don’t think I felt the same way. 🙂
I love these flavors, especially the side of mango salsa!
We all loved it.
Loving all the flavors you have going on here… cumin is one of my favorite spices to cook with. 🙂
What a great combination of flavors with the cumin, lime, and mango salsa!
Why, thank you. 🙂
I’m exactly the same, I’ll follow a recipe to a T, even if I know that the process or ingredients doesn’t sound quite right or I think that I could do it better another way. I need to trust myself more, and you absolutely do too!!!!
You are so right. We need to listen to our inner cook. 🙂
The flavors caught my attention right away … I have a mango sitting on my counter ready to eat, now I can give it marching orders, per se. I know what you mean about 30 minute meals, I too have a hard time with that unless it’s a grilled steak and salad or seared fish of some sort and sauteed spinach. Maybe I just get distracted somewhere along the way, or it’s the back and forth of reading a recipe? Either way, I’m good with a solid 45 minutes if it ends in something savored. 🙂
I know exactly what you mean but then I’ll admit I’ve never tried to rush it. I give myself an hour and if it takes longer than that, we eat late. 🙂