Pickled Tomato Avocado Salsa FTW

Inadvertently I brought a cookbook with me. A happy accident to be sure! One of my latest Sunset magazines had their top 25 recipes and one of them screamed "make me! make me!" So I did and it was wonderful. And very spicy.

Some interesting things happened while making this recipe. It's the first one I've made here that wasn't improvised, and following a recipe with measurements proved to be a bit more challenging without measuring cups or spoons. Luckily I made do with guess work and what I know from cooking over the past 10 years. 

I think these are around 3/4 cup

The chicken I bought was deceptive and a cut I hadn't seen before. I thought I was buying chicken breasts, but it turns out I bought partial chicken breasts with the drummies still attached. It was a bit disappointing because there wasn't that much meat to be had.

the drummies were tucked under the breast meat - deceptive!

Grilled Chicken with Pickled Tomato and Avocado Salsa

Serves 4

from Sunset Magazine

Salsa

• 1 pound tomatoes, quartered and seeded
• 2 chiles - serrano or jalapeno - seeded and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 2 1/2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 4 tsp minced fresh ginger (I didn't have a microplane so I omitted this)
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh garlic
• 2 tsp mustard seeds (I couldn't find any so mine didn't have this)
• 2 tsp cracked black pepper
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 firm ripe avocados

To make the salsa

1. In a bowl, combine tomatoes, chiles and green onions.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring vinegar to a boil. Add brown sugar and salt and cook, stirring until dissolved about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
3. Put ginger, garlic and dry spices in a bowl. Heat a skillet with oil over high heat. Add ginger, garlic and spices and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and add the seasoned vinegar to the garlic mixture. Pour over tomatoes.
4. Let salsa cool then cover and chill at least 1 hour. About an hour before serving, slice the avocado and add to the salsa. Bring to room temperature.

Grilled Chicken

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (or parsley)
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 4 chicken breast halves with bone and skin (2 1/2 pounds total)

To make the chicken

1. In a large bowl, combine olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. Add chicken and turn to coat. Let stand at room temp for 30-45 minutes.
2. Heat a grill (or a skillet if you don't have a grill) to high. Cook chicken for 15-20 minutes until no longer pink in the center.
3. Transfer chicken to a platter and spoon salsa on top.