Lowcarbezine!

Cooking Low Carb - San Diego Chicken

Sometimes these things happen fast: A version of this recipe appeared in my local paper yesterday, and it looked tasty, but it was way too high carb for us. I played around with it, cut out a lot of the carbs, ended up with this recipe, made it for dinner, and - yum!

San Diego Chicken

8 ounce can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/8 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
3 tablespoons Splenda
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar (if you don't have any on hand, I'm sure pple cider vinegar would taste fine - different, but fine.)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon hot sauce
3 pounds cut up chicken

Mix together everything but the chicken pieces. Place the chicken pieces in a large zipper-lock bag, and pour the tomato sauce mixture over it. Seal the bag, pressing out the air as you go, and turn to coat all the chicken pieces. Let your chicken marinate for at least a few hours, and I'm betting a day wouldn't hurt a bit.

When you're ready to cook: Get your grill ready - I use a charcoal grill, and waited till my coals were covered with white ash. If you have a gas grill, you know your unit better than I; set is as you do for chicken. Pull your chicken out of the marinade, and pour the marinade out of the bag, into a saucepan. Go throw your chicken on the grill, bone side down, close the lid, and set a timer for 13-15 minutes.

While the chicken is grilling, put that pan of marinade over a low burner, and let it come to a simmer. You're going to simmer it for a good five minutes, thus killing all those raw chicken germs, and making it safe to use as a finishing sauce. Now go check your chicken for flare-ups - I keep a squeeze bottle of water by the grill to keep these at bay. You want your chicken cooked, not charred!

Timer gone "ding"? Turn your chicken, using a pair of tongs. Set your timer for another 13-15 minutes. When time's up, turn it skin side up again, and pierce a piece to the bone, to make sure all the juices are running clear. If there's any pink in the juices let your chicken cook another few minutes.

When it's done, serve each piece with a little of that marinade you simmered spooned over the top. Enjoy!

6 servings, each with 5 grams of carbohydrate and 1 gram of fiber, for a usable carb count of 4 grams. 29 grams of protein.

Note: I used serious Jamaican Scotch Bonnet hot sauce in this, and it wasn't scorch your mouth hot, just nicely spicy. If you want to, you can crank the heat up or down by either using more or less hot sauce, or using hotter or less-hot sauce.

Posted by HoldTheToast at June 26, 2003 07:40 PM