Spicy Mexican Chicken Breast. Drenched in a sweet and spicy Chipotle Cream Sauce and topped with a zesty tomato salsa. This one pan cast iron chicken breast recipe, makes an easy, no fuss, chicken dinner that presents itself a bit on the fancy side.
Inspiration for Chicken Zarape
This spicy Mexican chicken breast recipe is one I’ve been wanting to make for about five years now. It’s from notes that I wrote down at a Mexican Restaurant here in Denver where I was served this dish.
The restaurant has since gone out of business but this Mexican chicken recipe lives on in my kitchen.
And having discovered Costco Bacon (delicious by the way) and given the amount I had to purchase, I’ve been on a bit of a chicken with bacon kick lately.
This is a recipe that I enjoyed several times and vowed to make in my own kitchen. What took me so long? I have no excuse really. Perhaps I finally grew tired of looking at its name staring back at me on the culinary list I’ve titled, “Must Make Soon”.
Once I made the commitment last week to actually dive in and prepare this Mexican spiced chicken,
I have to admit it took some planning. As simple as it sounds, I needed to come up with a way to make it easy for us home cooks. After all we don’t have all that restaurant equipment to push out perfectly planned chicken breast meals at the blink of an eye.
Culinary School taught me that restaurant use sous vide machines and commercial toaster/broiler ovens like a Salamander to finish dishes. A cast iron skillet and our home oven will replace those. And, by the way, if I had room I’d love to have my own personal Salamander. Loved that machine.
Recipe Development Tips From Ina
My theory for bringing recipes to life, stems from my mantra. WWID. What would Ina do?
I saw Ina Garten speak last year, and I took her advice for recipe development very seriously. As soon as a recipe comes out of Ina’s test kitchen, her and her crew always ask themselves, “How could this recipe be better?” A recipe may go through several test batches before deemed suitable to share with her fans.
This spicy chicken breast recipe took about 30 dirtied pans and three trips to our dinner table before I felt the method I had chosen was the best route.
Cast Iron Skillet Chicken Breast
Once I decided my cast iron skillet and my oven was the key to the success of this recipe, the rest of a breeze. Here’s the route to take for a no-full chicken dinner:
- Make the Creamy Chipotle Sauce and set aside.
- Make the tomato salsa. Chop a few orange and red small tomatoes. Add a bit of fine chopped jalapeno pepper and chopped onion, and a splash of red wine vinegar. A sprinkle of salt and pepper and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Wrap two sliced of bacon around two boneless skinless chicken breasts in a criss-cross pattern.
- Heat your cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Once the skillet is hot, add one tablespoon of oil. Once the oil is shimmering add the bacon wrapped chicken breasts.
- Add them with the criss-crossed side of the bacon facing up.
- Once the breasts have browned, using tongs, turn them over and sea the other side.
- Move the skillet to the oven and cook about 25 minutes, or until instant read thermometer reads an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
- In the meantime, prepare rice.
- To plate, add a good scoop of rice to each plate. Snuggle that chicken breast up against the rice. Spoon a good amount of the Creamy Chipotle Sauce over each chicken breast and top with a spoonful of the tomato salsa mixture.
Simple and oh so flavorful.
Recipe For Spicy Mexican Chicken Breast with Creamy Chipotle Sauce
I hope you give this Mexican Chicken Breast Recipe a try, and if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating and leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have a favorite spicy Mexican chicken recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Mexican Chicken Breast Recipes
- Chorizo Chile Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast
- Crispy Roasted Yucatan Chicken Breast
- Toasted Pueblo Chile Chicken Sandwich
- Chicken in Tangy Escabeche
- Ancho Chile Lime Chicken Kabobs
- Casa Grande Mexican Chicken Salad
And if you’re looking for a ton of Mexican Recipes, don’t miss my Mexican Southwest Recipes Category. You’ll find some zesty recipes to liven up your dinner plans. You’ll find the most popular Southwestern recipe on my site, Hatch Green Chile, Colorado Style.
Zarape Chicken, Spicy Mexican Chicken
Ingredients
- For The Creamy Chipotle Sauce
- ½ cup Greek yogurt whole milk
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce and 1/2 teaspoon adobo sauce
- 1 clove garlic peeled
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the salsa topping
- 5 orange tomatoes cherry tomato size
- 5 red tomatoes cherry tomato size
- 1/2 jalapeno pepper diced, seeds and veins removed to lessen heat
- 2 tablespoons sweet onion chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
- For the chicken
- 4 slices bacon thick sliced
- 2 medium chicken breasts boneless, skinless
Instructions
- For the Creamy Chipotle Sauce
- Place the yogurt, mayo, chipotle pepper, garlic, lime juice, olive oil, honey, and salt and freshly ground black pepper in to a food processor. Blend until smooth.
- For the Salsa Topping
- For the Chicken:
- Chop tomatoes, onion, jalapeno pepper and add to a small bowl. Stir in the red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap two sliced of bacon around two boneless skinless chicken breasts in a crisscross fashion.
- Heat your cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Once the skillet is hot, add 1 tablespoon of oil. Once the oil is shimmering add the bacon wrapped chicken breast. Add the chicken breast with the criss-crossed bacon facing up. Once the breasts have browned, turn them over using tongs and sear on the other side.
- Move the skillet to the oven and cook about 25 minutes or until instant read thermometer reads an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
- To serve, place the cooked chicken breast on a plate. Scoop a generous amount of the creamy chipotle sauce over the chicken. Top with a big spoonful of the Tomato Salsa. Yellow Rice for a side dish is nice here.
