We don’t watch sports. In fact, the only time we know which sports season it is happens when our friend, Steve, changes his phone availability from baseball to football season.
“Hey, I was working on our project, and I have a question about that thing I’m writing for you.”
“Nope, I can’t talk now. The Lions are on.”
“Oh, is it that season already?”
So, considering our lack of attentiveness to the wide world of sports, it’s kind of amazing that we’ve recently become insanely obsessed with the show Friday Night Lights. The show is about a small town high school football team in Texas and we watch at least a couple of episodes on Netflix every night.
And when I say we’re “obsessed,” it’s not a joke. I went from knowing next to nothing about football two weeks ago, to screaming, “You’ve GOT no ground game!” during a recent episode.
So, when Superbowl Sunday rolled around we couldn’t have cared less. However, our fictional Coach Taylor and the Panthers had a big game, so I made us game food for dinner.
And it was awesome. The Panthers won the championship and we ate these crunchy and spicy chicken wraps in between cheers. We hope you Super Bowl fans enjoyed your game too.
Lime and Smoked Paprika Chicken in Lettuce Cups
Makes about 20 wraps.
Ingredients:
1 large boneless chicken breast
1 small head of Boston lettuce
Shredded cheese
Marinade:
2 tablespoons of lime juice
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper
2 teaspoons of hot smoked paprika
Salsa:
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
¼ of a small red onion, diced
2 tablespoons of cilantro
1 tablespoon of pickled jalapenos
1 tablespoon of pickled jalapeno juice
¼ cup of diced yellow bell pepper
1 teaspoon of hot smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of cumin
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Poke the chicken all over with a fork and place in a resealable plastic bag. Mix together the lime juice, olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Pour the marinade over the chicken and refrigerate for 2 hours.
While the chicken is marinating, place the tomatoes, onion, yellow bell pepper, cilantro, jalapenos, pickled jalapeno juice, paprika and cumin in a blender or food processor. Blend together. Cover and refrigerate.
Pull the chicken out of the marinade and place in a baking pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until it registers as done on a meat thermometer. Dice the chicken finely and divide between the lettuce leaves. Top with salsa and cheese.
(Photo by Launie Kettler)