It’s Meaty Monday once again! I hope it makes your Monday a little less painful. I spent the weekend cooking up some recipe for the Fourth of July. The Fourth is one of my favorite holidays. I love fireworks. My love stems back to my childhood when my cul-de-sac used to buy a huge thing of fireworks and shoot them off for all the neighbors! It was a rush lighting the fuse then running away. I haven’t shot off my own fireworks in a couple years, but I love watching almost any fireworks. My favorite is probably the white one that go off then send individual sparkles a couple seconds later. It reminds me of being out in the country and looking up into the unobstructed night sky.
I’ve been a little burnt out on chicken lately, but this recipe snapped me out of my funk! This tomatillo ranch doesn’t just make an amazing chicken sauce. It is also a creamy salad dressing. Tomatillos spruce up this traditional ranch dressing with a nice summer flavor. I always forget how much I like tomatillos until I eat them. I still remember the first time I cooked with tomatillos. I spent almost an hour trying to fire-roast six tomatillos over my tiny gas burning stove for some fire-roasted tomatillo guacamole. Definitely wish I’d known the broiler would have done all six in about 10 minutes. Don’t worry this recipe is super easy! With a light lemon marinade the chicken pairs nicely with the tomatillo ranch sauce. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 lbs chicken cutlets, about 4
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup light tasting olive oil
- 1 tbls lemon juice
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- pinch of salt
- 2 medium tomatillos, husked and large chopped
- 1/2 cup packed parsley
- 2 tbls ranch seasoning
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
Directions
- Mix all chicken ingredients in a large bag and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour. If you can’t find chicken cutlets, you can buy chicken breasts and then butterfly them.
- While chicken is marinating, mix up the sauce. Crack egg into blender then pour in olive oil, lemon juice, dijon and a pinch of salt. Mix for 30-45 seconds until mayo emulsifies. Once you have a thick mayo, add in tomatillos, parsley, ranch, garlic and lemon juice.
- Pull chicken out of fridge 5-10 minutes before cooking. Fire up the grill and heat it to medium-high. Dip a paper towel in coconut oil and oil up the grill. Grill chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
- Serve chicken with tomatillo ranch sauce.
Enjoy!
x vanessa
So excited to make this tomorrow! Question: assuming this can be done with pre-made mayo (homemade, or course… 🙂 ) how much would you recommend using for the sauce?
You would use 3/4 cup to fit with the rest of the recipe. It does make a lot of sauce though and you can easily half the recipe and use 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons mayo!
I had a tough time getting the egg/oil mixture to emulsify. It remained runny and eggy and my husband was too afraid to eat it! Is there a trick or do you need a certain kind of blender? I just used my Cuisinart but have been thinking about getting a Vitamix. I have a Ninja, but it broke and never worked all that well. Any tips on the emulsification?
I use my individual ninja attachment or immersion blender. I think the tighter space doesn’t let as much air in, and air equals more runny. I’ve never tried it in a full blender, but the immersion is typically my go-to method. I used my individual serving for this to say on the dirty dishes!
Do you roast the tomatillos first? Or are these raw?
I used raw tomatillos.