chicken with avocado salsa

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether a dish will be good until we try to cook it. This was another quick and easy weekday meal straight from the pages of Everyday Food magazine. Every now and then, I dig into my stack of old issues and find something worth trying out. This recipe actually turned out pretty good which only proves there's no harm in trying. It was the answer to my dilemma on what to do with ingredients I had in hand, ripe avocado and chicken breast fillets. The first step was making the fresh salsa. In a small bowl, diced ripe avocados and finely chopped red onions were combined together and sprinkled with lime juice. Refrigerate the salsa while cooking the chicken. I sliced the chicken fillets into thinner pieces to cook faster and more evenly. Aside from the cumin, salt and pepper, I added extra spices like chili powder and paprika to season the chicken. After letting the fillets marinate for about an hour, they were pan-fried in olive oil until done. Spoon some of the salsa on top of the chicken then serve the rest on the side. I must say this new recipe discovery is worth making again. I've always been fond of avocados. We used to have a big avocado tree in front of our house in the Philippines. Although it had only one single fruit in it's entire tree life, I remember it was blemish-free, very smooth and not fibrous at all. It may be surprising to know that in the Philippines, avocados are used more as a fruit for desserts rather than for something savory. When I came to the US, I was hesitant to buy avocados at first, based on my experience back in the Philippines, where the avocado variety we get is not always perfect. I must say I have never bought a bad Hass avocado here. Even when they get over ripe, the texture remains smooth and creamy but not mushy. It must be the best avocado variety around.