Paprika-lime Chicken with Penne

Rice or pasta often appears on our dinner menu.  The other day, I came across this recipe from Eat Drink Paleo while looking for a new way to prepare chicken.  The spices in her recipe promise flavorful dish, and I have most of the spices except for Allspice.  I substituted Seven Spices because Allspice is one of the spices.  Instead of olive oil, I used mild flavor cooking oil so it won’t compete with the spices. The spices and lime juice marinades add flavors to the chicken tenders, and will definitely wake up your taste bud.  I had to tone down the spicy meter, but you can kick it up several notches.  For tasty result marinate chicken over night.

Ingredients:

• 453 grams (1 pound) skinless, boneless, chicken breast cutlet (or your choice of chicken meat).
• 25 grams (5 teaspoons) smoked paprika
• 2.5 grams (1/2 teaspoon) cayenne pepper
• 7.5 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) sea salt
• 10 grams (2 teaspoons) Seven Spices (optional)
• 5 grams (1 teaspoon) black pepper
• 59 milliliters (4 tablespoons) cooking oil
• 3 cloves garlic, skin-removed, finely minced
• 12 grams (2 teaspoons generous) tomato paste
• 1 1/2 large lime juice to marinate
• 1 lime juice to sprinkle before serving
• 3 medium tomatoes, cleaned, diced
• 226 grams (1/2 pound) penne, cooked according to package direction

Directions:

1. Mix all the dried ingredients, garlic, and lime juice  in a large bowl. Make paste and set aside.
2. Clean and cut chicken into small cubes.  Add all chicken cubes into the bowl of paste, stir to coat the chicken well. Cover bowl and refridge over night or at least an hour before cooking.  (make sure to refrigerate the marinated chicken in the fridge whether marinating for one hour or overnight to avoid salmonella).
3. In a skillet over medium-high heat, warm the skillet temperature.  Once skillet temperature is hot, add oil (wait for 30 seconds) then add marinated chicken.  Cook over high heat for 5 minutes (until just cooked)
4. Add in tomatoes cubes to the chicken, cook for another minute.
5. Stir in cooked penne.
6. Sprinkle one lime juice over chicken, add chopped cilantro, mix well, and plate.

Hope you enjoyed this mouth-tingling tasty recipe.

Totoro Bread

Can you guess I am having lots of fun with this bread project?  (Please forgive the bad lighting, it was an impromptu. I didn’t have my camera with me.)

My family watched My Neighbor Totoro more times than we can count.  They know the movie line by line.  We like to make each others’ birthday present so for one my girls’ birthday, I surprised her with her favorite character.

Since I was trying to master po lo bao recipe, I used it again and shaped the dough into Totoro, her favorite character.  I really enjoyed playing with  dough; figuring out how to shape it into Totoro.  So glad it looked like Totoro.