Mango Salsa Chicken

Talk about a winner! This easy and healthy meal is one of Ram's favorites, and when I need a surefire hit (to balance out all of my other trials-and-errors), I add this to the menu. It is a pan-fried chicken with mango salsa, couscous, and simple salad greens. The couscous is out of a container; one cup of grains to one cup of boiling water, turn off heat, cover, fluff in five minutes. Couscous could not be any easier. The salad greens were fresh from Karalynn's garden (so grateful!), tossed with my favorite blush wine vinaigrette from Cape Cod dressings.

So the real star is the chicken, and it really has two components: the chicken itself and the sweet salsa. Ordinarily I butterfly my boneless chicken breast and pound it to create a flat and even cooking surface. I dredge (coat) the breast with flour, then dip it into a mix of egg and water, and, finally, coat it in breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs can simply be from the container, but I like to add spices, too. Fresh cracked black pepper, garlic powder, oregano: anything you like can work. Chili powder would be delicious-- and a great accompaniment to the cold salsa.

At any rate, this three-step process for breading chicken might seem excessive, and you are free to bread it however you prefer. The three-step process is one that I've seen professionally trained chefs use on television. The reasoning behind this is that the egg mixture won't stick to an average piece of chicken; think slippery upon slippery. The flour gives the egg something to grab onto.

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To cook this pounded out, butterflied chicken, simply pan fry in a chicken fryer or wide-bottomed pan. I like to pan fry in olive oil with a bit of margarine, to impart a saltiness. If you've pounded the chicken thin, this will take maybe four or five minutes on each side, at the most. Keep the heat about medium so you don't scorch the outside (done that a couple times).

Now, in the photo above, I chose not to butterfly and pound the chicken (laziness after a long day in the city). I still used a pan fry to put some great color and crisp on the outside of the breast, but I finished them off in the oven. Total cooking time was 20-25 minutes. This preparation of chicken imparts the crunch we all love in a good piece of fried chicken, but it eliminates the 'deep fried' oil overload.

I prepared the salsa ahead of time. I chunked some mango, added finely chopped onions, dried cilantro, lime juice, and small diced tomatoes. I added salt and pepper to taste and set it aside-- covered-- in the fridge about an hour before I cooked the rest of the meal.

This is a crowd-pleaser. Homemade salsa always feels like a special treat, so folks with a taste for mango and/or salsa will love it. Folks who lack that affinity will still enjoy the meal, perhaps with another sauce (sweet and sour would be great, BBQ would be sufficient). At any rate, with a little presentation and elbow grease, you'll win over everyone at the table... with fork in hand.