Cabo San Lucas Lime and Cilantro Grilled Grassfed Chicken

I’ve been addicted to limes ever since my youth when I took a road trip to Mexico. Twenty-some years and three children later the memory is still gloriously vivid.

It was a long, dusty and—once past Tijuana—monotonous drive from San Francisco to Cabo San Lucas. My best friend and I were on a tight budget.

After paying for gas and lodging at a charming but run-down local hotel, only a few wilted peso bills lay folded in our wallets.

We subsisted for days on equatorial sunshine, cigarettes—neither considered quite so murderous back in the day—locally grown mangoes and Tecate beer.

It was heaven.

In Baja California, beer, mangoes—and just about anything else you eat and drink—are served up with lime wedges or lime juice. Mexican limes’ tiny size and dull, yellow rind belie the fountain of fragrant, full-flavored juice that gushes forth when you cut them.

If you haven’t stashed a bag of Mexican limes in your suitcase on returning from vacation, you can substitute Florida key limes or plain old garden variety as I do in the recipe, below.

You’ll need a lot of them for this recipe.

Originally I considered calling the following “Ceviche Chicken”—but thought better of the confusing fish-poultry moniker.

Cabo San Lucas Lime and Cilantro Grilled Grassfed Chicken—feel free to call it something shorter—uses the same cool-hot ingredients as ceviche: 2 full cups of lime juice, jalapeno pepper and fresh cilantro.

Cabo San Lucas Lime and Cilantro Grilled Grassfed Chicken

2 cups lime juice—about 10-14 limes
4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped fine
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
3 scallions, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 free-range grassfed chicken, cut into serving–sized pieces

1. Juice and strain limes to yield 2 cups of juice.







2. Mince jalapenos—handle with care as they can burn if your skin is sensitive.








3. Slice scallions.




4. In a medium bowl or glass container, combine lime juice, cilantro, scallions, garlic, salt and pepper. The bowl or container should be just big enough to hold the chicken and marinade.




5. Add chicken pieces, pushing them down so they are completely submerged in marinade. Cover the container and marinate in fridge for 3 hours. If you’re a perfectionist, you can re-arrange the chicken pieces at mid-point to be sure all pieces marinate evenly. I don’t, but better cooks than me do.




6. Remove chicken from marinade and grill.





Serves 6.