Cherry-Chipotle Chicken

Inner-nerd factoid for the day: I love alliteration so the fact that this recipe is all "ch's" makes me squirm with excitement.

Moving on to what you care about, I've had several people ask for more basic recipes, ones that will appeal to: 1) picky eaters that do like to cook but have a hard time finding new things due to their tastes, 2) those that don't like recipes with a lot of ingredients because it looks complicated even if it isn't, 3) those that need health-conscious meals as they try to stick to low-cal, low-fat foods. As I try to answer those requests, this seemed to be congruent with the recipes I'm drawn to AND all 3 of the stipulations above. TRUST ME.

How many of you love those store-bought marinades? You know, the fruity ones that have a little chipotle kick that are frequently served over cream cheese at dinner parties or showers. In this recipe, you are essentially making your own but this way you get to control what goes in it for a lower cal/carb/fat result. If you don't like cherry flavor, use other fruit jams like raspberry, preach, apricot, mango - you get the point. This is absolutely interchangeable to fit your taste! I am slightly adapting the recipe found in Cuisine Lite's Fresh and Fabulous 30-Minute Entrees, sticking with their Cherry-Chipotle sauce but removing the dried cherries from the ingredients taking out 120 unneeded calories and 22g extra sugars.

This recipe takes all of 15 minutes to make and contains roughly 122 calories (after taking out the dried cherries), 70mg cholesterol, 10g carbs, 36g protein, 1mg iron and 22mg calcium per serving.

Grocery List:

• 1/2 cup purchased BBQ sauce
• 1/4 cup cherry jam or preserves
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp. chipotle adobo chili sauce (get the peppers in the adobo sauce but for those that want to turn up the heat, grind up a pepper, for those that want a more mild kick, spoon out the sauce the chiles are in)
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• 2 chicken breast cutlets (already pounded thin and filleted, I cut each in half and have a total of 4 petite chicken fillets)

I used my griddle, or you can use a grill, either way go ahead and preheat your grilling method of choice, spraying with cooking spray to help the meat from sticking. In a saucepan, combine the BBQ sauce, jam, brown sugar, vinegar and chile to a simmer over medium heat.

Cook until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Stir continuously, then add lime juice and set aside.

Place chicken on the grilling surface and brush the top surface with the cherry-chipotle sauce and let grill for about 4 minutes. Flip and repeat.

Once both sides have been on the grill surface, coat with sauce again and let each side cook for an additional 2 minutes. Once your chicken is cooked through, you are ready to serve. Add some of the additional sauce as you please and enjoy!

 Paired with a simple yellow squash and green bean saute