Mojito Chicken

I miss living in California. Being able to drive just 30 minutes to the beach. All the beautiful sunshine and mild winters. And Trader Joe's. Yep, one of the things I really miss about living in CA is having access to Trader Joe's. They have such a great selection of food there, and at such reasonable prices. And after seeing on Peabody's blog that they have chocolate covered sunflower seeds, I am even more sad that I do not live near one. I know that they've expanded and you can now find them in several other states. In fact, after living in North Carolina for 6 years, they finally opened up a store close to where I lived... right before I moved! I was so upset that I only got to shop there once before we had to relocate, and now I am stuck again living nowhere near a Trader's Joes.


So, needless to say, whenever I am near one, I like to stock up :) I had heard some good things about their Mojito Simmer Sauce, and being that the mojito is one of my favorite drinks (a Cuban cocktail consisting of rum, sugar cane juice, lime, club soda, and mint), I knew I had to try it. I only bought two jars on my last trip, though, because I didn't want to stock up on something that I had never tried before.

Well, the sauce sat in my pantry for a short while before I figured out what I wanted to do with it. I was presented with the opportunity to use it when I came home from work late one night, with very little time on my hands and very little food in my fridge with which to cook. I had stumbled across and bookmarked this recipe from Envious Edibles, and it looked easy enough to throw together. I had some frozen corn in my freezer, some canned black beans in my pantry, and I always have onions and garlic laying around. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly this dinner came together, and how flavorful it was!


I'm wasn't sure what Caribbean seasoning was, but my mom had given me some Walkerswood Jamaican Jerk Seasoning that she picked up while in Jamaica and it seemed like it would be a good fit for this dish. I simply added a tablespoon of the seasoning to my chicken, tossed it, and then cooked it. Since the jerk seasoning is already spicy, I omitted the crushed red pepper from the recipe. In writing this blog post, I decided to do a little research to find out where you could get this jerk seasoning without buying an airline ticket to Jamaica :) Looks like you can get it not only from Walkerswood, but you can also get it on Amazon.com!

This was really good. I love that the ingredient list is simple, and that it all comes together in under 30 minutes. I will definitely be making this again (and plan to really stock up on some more Mojito Simmer Sauce the next time I'm at Trader Joe's). I went simple this time and served it with plain rice, but I think it would be great to serve this next time with some cilantro lime rice, rolled up in a burrito.

So tell me, what are your favorite items from Trader Joe's? I'd like to get a list together for the next time I'm there :)

Mojito Chicken
from Envious Edibles

1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 jar of Trader Joe's Mojito Simmer Sauce
1 can of corn, drained (I used 8 oz frozen corn)
1 can of black beans, drained
1 tablespoon of Caribbean seasoning (I used 1 tbsp of Jamaican Jerk Seasoning)
1/3 cup of Bacardi 151 Rum (or any rum of your choice) (I used Jamaican Appleton Estate)
1 pinch of crush red red pepper (I omitted this)

Salt and pepper chicken, sprinkle with Caribbean seasoning, crush red red pepper and cook until brown in small amount of olive oil. Add Rum and cook until alcohol burns off, remove from pan and set aside.

Saute onions and garlic, add corn and black beans. Simmer for just a few minutes, then add simmer sauce and add chicken back into the sauce.

Serve over rice.

Yield: 3-4 Servings.