Whole30 Jerk Chicken & Avocado Mango Salsa
As seen on Day 27 of our Whole30 Challenge (click to read more).
We served this delicious salsa with Whole30 Jerk Chicken (click to see the full recipe from Day 27) which was originally modified from a recipe from A Saucy Kitchen. This recipe is also Paleo-Friendly & Gluten Free.
For sake of repetition, our final week of Whole30 would be dedicated to one new Pinterest inspiration recipe a day, since I've exhausted most of my options by this point. I told hubs I would cook tonight since "Takeover Tuesday" is just around the corner, and he also was hard at work putting Humpty Dumpty Isabella (our vintage sofa) back together again. That's a story and a blog post for another day, but I'm sure you'll get a little teaser in his blog post tomorrow...
Since hubs was working hard upstairs, I let hubs choose the recipe (pending we had most of the ingredients already in the house). He settled on this Whole30 Jerk Chicken & Avocado Mango Salsa recipe from A Saucy Kitchen, which I modified slightly to the one below. To see her original recipe, click here. This recipe is also Paleo-Friendly & Gluten Free.
Before I go into the recipe specifics, I'd like to quickly circle back to Day 1 of our Whole30 Challenge. For a quick refresher, I had discovered a Whole30 Timeline that mentioned the phenomenon of "Tiger Blood" that could be experienced in days 16-27... Well, 26 days ago, I didn't have even the slightest inkling as to what this would entail. My best guess imagined it would look something similar to this...
GIF compliments of GIPHY.com
Well folks, I think it's safe to say, I have the evidence in front of me... aka hubs going to town finishing projects off the honey-do list left and right. Let's just say he made up for lost time this weekend and literally finished a weekend's worth of work in 5 hours. He mowed the lawn, treated the lawn with weed killer, cleaned the patio woodwork, finished a vintage window frame, tackled the laundry pile with me (and even laundered/folded his questionable clean/dirty pile that had been sitting in the spare room for about a month), and put Isabella back together! Humpty Dumpty Izzy is back to good ol' Isabella! His new motto... "If at first you don't succeed, try again 6 months later with Tiger Blood." :)
GIF compliments of GIPHY.com
Onto the recipe you've been patiently waiting for...
Main Modifications: Since I didn't have all of the ingredients in the original recipe, I put on my thinking cap and flexed my creative muscle. I didn't have any dates in the house or a scotch bonnet (heck, I don't even know what that is!), and only had ground ginger instead of fresh ginger, and I may have been short on the lime juice and 1 avocado...but I made it work. Since I was dateless, my first idea was a fruity Lara bar as I know they are made of dates, but apparently I finished the last one off this morning... On to creative idea #2... Thinking about the consistency and sweetness of a date, and what options I actually had available to use to avoid a grocery run, I decided to substitute 2 dried apricots (and 1 tablespoon of coconut milk just for fun) for the missing date. I also omitted the scotch bonnet altogether and made the other switches as necessary for the ginger and missing lime/avocado. Thankful I didn't have to make a trip to the store, and hopeful it would all taste ok, I gave the recipe a whirl.
TASTE TEST: The avocado mango salsa complimented the chicken perfectly. The dish was a lovely blend of sweet with a little spice and chock full of flavor. Hubs comment, "That was finger-lickin' good" as he literally scraped the last of the salsa with his middle finger...(because, "That was the longest finger for the bowl...") Oh hubs...
Whole30 Jerk Chicken & Avocado Mango Salsa
INGREDIENTS:
3-4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
JERK PASTE MARINADE:
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
3 green onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 tablespoon chopped jalapeño pepper
1 sprig of fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 date, seed removed (I used 2 apricots instead since I was dateless)
juice from 1 lime
sea salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste
AVOCADO MANGO SALSA:
2 large mangos (peeled, pitted, and diced)
2 avocados, pitted and diced (I only had 1 and it still worked well)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
juice from 2 limes (I used 1 lime and it still was an A+)
2 tablespoons chopped jalapeño pepper
STEPS:
In a food processor or blender, combine all marinade ingredients and process until fully mixed and smooth to make jerk paste marinade.
Coat chicken breasts with the jerk paste. Place in large ziplock bag and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes, but preferably 2 hours.
Make the avocado mango salsa by combining all salsa ingredients in a bowl and place in fridge until ready to use.
After chicken has marinated, take chicken out of the fridge. Preheat grill or skillet pan to medium-high heat, then place the chicken on the hot grill or skillet pan. Cook each side for 4-6 minutes. Keep cooking until chicken has internal temperature of 165°F. (I put a lid on my pan to retain the heat.)
Remove chicken from heat and let rest for 5 minutes before cutting.
Serve the chicken with avocado mango salsa and enjoy!
