Someone’s Listening and FOFF Tequila Lime Chicken

I was feeling down and out and trying to decide whether my malaise was due to recent events regarding tummy trouble, the cold winter weather, or thoroughly depressed because I missed an event I had my heart set on for years, The Goofy Challenge.  The thoughts of this years big birthday loomed heavy on my mind and certainly didn’t do anything to make matters better.

The dogs demanded attention, having no pity on the sick, wounded or depressed, I took them on a walk down the road.  It was cold, gray, and snowy outside. Everything seemed so gloomy.  Thoughts went through my mind about races I have signed up for, Boston and Flying Pig and how I wasn’t sure if I wanted to train again. I knew the time to put into preparing would be exhausting.  Maybe I should have stuck with my plan early in 2012 which was to pass on all races in 2013?  Certainly the beginning of this year might be construed as a sign.  Then I thought of the feeling when you cross the finish line and all those months of training pay off.  Still, on this day, I didn’t want to run, race, and I turned for home because now I was upset with the dogs and didn’t even want to walk.

Sometimes it seems as if someone is listening because during these moments of self pity, I opened an email from iRunFar.com, an article written by Geoff Roes: “New Beginnings”.  There was comfort found in his words regarding getting off track with running, derailment.  Whether due to illness, injury or loss of motivation, whatever the reason, you aren’t running any more. It’s a good article and one in which most long time runners can relate.

My lack of motivation at the moment could be as previously mentioned, disappointment, recovering from illness, whatever the reason, thanks to “New Beginnings” I know I’m not alone and I know if I chose to take a break, my come back will be stronger with more roads to conquer in a different frame of mind.  For now, I guess, no, I KNOW I’ll just keep running.

FOFF Tequila Lime Chicken by Carla Vavala in her book Fusion of Food and Friends.

Serves 4 *Ted went nuts over this recipe – LOVED IT!  I didn’t have it but if you don’t eat chicken, certainly a vegetarian substitute would work well with tweaking the protein cooking time/method accordingly.

• 4 chicken breast halves
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 cup flour
• 4 tsp. olive oil
• 3/4 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
• 2 TBS brown sugar
• 3 TBS fresh squeezed lime juice (about 1 1/2 limes) – DIVIDED
• 3 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 TBS cold water
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1 TBS oil or butter  *We did not add any additional oil/butter.
• 1/3 cup tequila (brandy if you don’t have tequila)

Pound chicken flat between wax paper sheets then salt, pepper and coat in flour. Set aside.

Heat oil over medium high heat and when hot, add chicken to cook 5 – 7 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the breasts. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Add broth, sugar, 2 TBS lime juice, mustard to the pan and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

Whisk the water and cornstarch to make a slurry and add to the pan with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook until slightly thickened.

Add 1 TBS lime juice and oil (if you want) and continue to whisk.

Return chicken to the pan and add the tequila. Simmer for 5 minutes and serve.

Oh wait!  More sauce….

That’s better. Ted likes the tequila sauce.

This recipe was easy to prepare and according to all taste testers, had some exciting TANG! from the lime. As for the tequila, it’s a background flavor and, although it would be missed if not added, is not pronounced among the other flavors.