Barefoot Contessa's Tequila Lime Chicken

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
GB said:
I would never use Patron for cooking. It is took good for that IMO.
My philosophy on any kind of alcohol that I'm cooking is that I won't cook with it unless I'll drink it. So any time a recipe calls for tequila, it gets Patron...any time it calls for cognac, it gets my Remy Martin XO (which never ceases to make someone's jaw drop or elicit an "are you nuts?" if they see me do it), Grey Goose or Stoli Elit for vodka, etc. etc. Don't even get me started on the wines I cook with :P.

What can I say? I've got expensive tastes in alcohol and it's what I'd like to taste in my cooked foods that call for it as well. As far as cost? Screw it, I've got the money. You only go around once--and 'sides, the great thing about running out is the liquor store always has more :P
 
Last edited:
Oh I agree I would never cook with booze that I would not drink, but a lot of flavor is lost/hidden when used in cooking. That is why I generally would not use top shelf stuff. as far as vodka goes, when used in cooking it is just being used because it is flavorless (or close to it) and alcoholic. The alcohol reactives with certain foods to release alcohol soluble flavors. Because of that I would use a cheaper vodka, but usually I only have the good stuff so that is what I cook with.

Hey if you have the money and don't mind spending it then by all means use the good stuff in your dishes. It certainly won't hurt :)
 
htc said:
Why since I am just putting raw chicken in again? And the chicken gets cooked? The liquid is put straight into the freezer?


Because the liquid is overflowing with bacteria after the first time the chicken is soaked in it and freezing doesn't kill it. Only cooking does.

So you are marinating the chicken the second and third time in what can be a salmonella (and other bad stuff) soup, which will have a high potential for cross-contamination, even if your chicken is thoroughly cooked.
 
I tried this recipe last night. It was very good but I need to try it a few times to get it down just right.

I lime flavor was a bit strong so I want to adjust the recipe with some complimenting flavors.

My wife and I don't drink so we don't have any tequila in the house (or anything else). I presume that using the gold tequila will work well with the lime flavor. I couldn't say for sure though. I don't know what tequila tastes like.

Perhaps more orange juice and less lime juice.

I put the bacon and cheese on top but my bacon bits were a bit old. The bacon flavor did seem to compliment the lime flavor very well but my bacon flavor was very weak. I think fresher bacon bits and a bit more of them might work well for next time.
 
I made this the first time following the directions exactly and the lime juice "cooked" the chicken. It was dried out and tough. After that I marinated it for about 1 hour and it had good flavor and was juicy and tender.

I would never save a marinade that has had raw anything in it. Too risky.

Mr. Dove maybe fresh bacon cooked crisply would be better than the jarred kind.d
 
lyndalou said:
I made this the first time following the directions exactly and the lime juice "cooked" the chicken. It was dried out and tough. After that I marinated it for about 1 hour and it had good flavor and was juicy and tender.

I would never save a marinade that has had raw anything in it. Too risky.

Mr. Dove maybe fresh bacon cooked crisply would be better than the jarred kind.d

I never marinated it overnight. The max.....I'd say would be 3 to 4 hours and it always was juicy and tender.
 
I will save my Quervo Gold for JB's Perfect Margaritas.

I got into making a tequila marinade one summer when I had a lot of fresh herbs in the garden. At that time, I'd never heard of a tequila marinade, but I keep Margarita ingredients on hand in the summer, and it just sounded good to have "Margarita Chicken".
I used about 2 cups of whatever herbs looked good that day (thyme, Italian Parsley, sweet basil, summer savory, celery leaves, etc) and put them in the food processor with garlic, lime juice, tequila (lower price range, but not the cheapest), Margarita salt, fresh cracked black pepper, and olive oil. Once emulsified, I put it in a Ziplock with the chicken, tossed, and let stand in fridge. I had read somewhere never to marinate chicken in a citris marinade over an hour or fish over 30 minutes, so we didn't have the tough, dry problem.
I do believe I still like the old fashioned Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix best as a marinade, though.

We're grilling 3 lbs of chicken thighs tonight, that were supposed to have been divided in separate packages before they were frozen, but got tossed, intact, into the freezer instead. I've been looking over recipes, thinking of doing something different, but since we're going to have a good amount left over, and I want the meat to have sort of an "all-purpose" flavor, as the remainder will go in other dishes. Guess we'll do the Italian dressing thing again.
We have some baby red potatoes we can toss in the same marinade (kept separate from the chicken, and put them on the grill too. Sure wish I had some corn on the cob, but HB is having trouble with some teeth (old age is the pits), and cannot eat it.
I've been trying for 3 days to get him to check on the asparagus bed out by his garage to see if we have any up, but I've had no luck yet.

Gee, I think I digress.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom