Yucatan Chicken

In many parts of the country, winter just doesn’t want to leave, and while we have been relatively lucky in the Northwest this year, we wanted to showcase a recipe that would help blast away those winter chills.

In North America, bananas are used primarily as a sweet additive to desserts, salads, or smoothies. In contrast, Central and South America have many more savory uses for this tropical fruit. This recipe takes full advantage of that combining bananas, oranges, chipotle chilies and achiote paste to make a fiery chicken marinade. While it still maintains some of the sweet, tangy flavor from the banana and orange, the consistency and flavor is similar to a barbeque sauce.

This is a quick and easy recipe to make although you do need to let the chicken marinade overnight or longer. Achiote paste and chipotle peppers can be found at most stores in the foreign food section next to other Hispanic and Latin ingredients. Early in the year, bananas and citrus are plentiful, but since we just finished our HarvestClub™ Exotica for the month, we decided to use Red Bananas in our recipe. Preparation and grilling is straightforward and easy, just make sure you don’t let the chicken burn. The sugar from the fruit will blacken quickly, so watch your temperature and turn the meat frequently.

Ingredients

• ½ cup achiote paste
• 2 tablespoons chopped chipotle chile pepper
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 10 large boneless chicken breasts

Preparation

Blend marinade ingredients in a food processor until the mixture is thick. Pour into a sealable plastic bag, add the chicken and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Barbeque with marinade on chicken, being careful not to burn the chicken as it cooks. Watch closely. The finished chicken will have a nice orange red color.

Recipe courtesy of foodnetwork.com