Mojo Chicken has a bold bright flavor that is certain to wake up dull dinnertime. Get your mojo on! 

Cooked on the grill, in the oven, or in the air fryer, this Mojo Chicken is a good and good-for-you recipe that you are going to love. Toss the ingredients together earlier in the day and let the chicken soak up the savory marinade for the best flavor.

This issue also shares

• The Best Life Living Tips: How to Break Out of a Funk!
• The Self-Care Technique: Easy Instant Tea is packed with Antioxidants
• Ideas and Inspiration: Her love of Italian cheese became a million-dollar business.

Read on for more — including this great recipe for Mojo Chicken and my favorite technique that ensures tender, moist chicken breasts. Make it Good and Good for You! 

Best Life Living Tip

Mojo, a traditional marinade from Cuba, is a blend of sour orange juice, garlic, herbs, and olive oil. Pronounced “MO HO,” it is famously used with pork shoulder, but this recipe swaps out the pork for leaner chicken breasts. My Mojo Chicken has all the flavor, but a lot less fat. 

“Mojo” also alludes to a magical charm or power. We sometimes hear it as something we need to “get back” like when you are in a funk. The modern world for “losing your mojo” is called languishing. Languishing is when you are not depressed, but you are also not happy. You are just kinda blah.  The American Psychological Association defines languishing as the absence of mental health characterized by a loss of interest in life. Most of us have been there…

Psyche magazine shares that strategies to overcome languishing can be grouped around four different types of connection: with yourself, your situation, others, and your desired future.

How to Get Your Mojo Back?

• Reach Out – Talking with someone you care about can help you feel supported and less stressed.
• Do a Good Deed – Helping others also has been shown to raise your self-esteem.
• Get Outdoors! Not only can it lift your mood, but it also can be good for your blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and stress levels
• Walk it Off – Exercise can help you re-center you to your body. You don’t have to sweat it out at the gym. A 10-minute walk will lift your spirits.

Finding and rebooting these connections means realigning with your body, brain, and spirit.

You can do it!

Self-Care Technique

Instant antioxidants? Is this a new supplement? A trendy new tik-tok? Nope! It’s matcha, an ancient type of powdered green tea.

Matcha is high in catechins, a class of antioxidants known for their powerful health benefits. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, matcha has been linked to improved cognitive health in older women. Matcha contains caffeine and L-theanine, an amino acid that can enhance cognitive function. Together, they can improve attention, memory, and reaction time while providing calm alertness without the jitters associated with coffee.

I have a secret. You don’t need that fancy precious whisk. Since matcha is powdered, it’s just as simple as shaking the powder up with water. It’s the best instant tea! I use a quart-size mason jar. Add a spritz of lemon and maybe a splash of simple syrup and you are good to go.

Ideas and Inspiration

Paula Lambert went to Italy over 50 years ago and fell in love with the food and culture. Most folks go to Italy and return home to the States to host a dinner party. Paula went back to Dallas and built a multi-million dollar cheese business called The Mozzarella Company.

She now leads tours all over the world, including Italy, but you are just as likely to find her scooting through the Panama Canal or perching in the Canary Islands.

When I first met her as a young apprentice to Nathalie Dupree she used to terrify me. She was, and still is, a formidable woman — but now instead of fear, she inspires fabulousness!

In a pinch-me moment, I was her assistant last fall for her cooking school in Chianti. That woman wore me out! She’s nearly 25 years older than I am and is an absolute inspiration for How to Age Like a Badass.

Her enthusiasm, vigor, and drive are awe-inspiring. While leading the tour through Tuscany it was apparent she had seen those sites and buildings countless times and had taken hundreds of photographs, and yet she approached every stop as if she had never seen it before. Her joy and excitement were palatable.

Paula is smart, beautiful, funny, and filled with the spirito di vita or spirit of life. Check out her IG page @paulalambertdallas where she’s often suffering miserably at an exotic resort or beautiful locale.

Count it Out

Mojo is all about flavor! Since sour oranges can be challenging to find, this Mojo Citrus Chicken uses a combination of orange and lime juice to more easily recreate its pungent pop.

I use bone-in skin off chicken breasts for this recipe for Mojo Chicken. Cooking the meat on the bone helps keep it moist and tender, but removing the skin before cooking can cut the saturated fat in half if you’re eating the breast (and by a third if you’re eating dark meat) according to Eating Well magazine. Simply purchase bone-in breasts and remove the skin with your fingers. This is so much better than boneless, skinless, boring breasts and comes in at less than 80 calories a serving. Serve it with rice and beans. 

Hope you like the Mojo Chicken. Please let me know what you think!  If you are new to this Good and Good for You newsletter, please sign up for FREE! Thanks for reading.

Bon Appétit Y’all!

Virginia Willis

(If you need more healthy chicken recipes, the big hit this summer has been my Spinach Artichoke Chicken Bake. LOVE it!) 

Print Recipe

3.67 from 3 votes

Mojo Chicken

Mojo Chicken has a bold bright flavor that is certain to wake up a dull dinnertime. Get your mojo on! Cooked on the grill or in the oven, this Mojo Chicken is a good and good-for-you recipe that you are going to love. Toss the ingredients together earlier in the day and let the chicken soak up the savory marinade for the best flavor.

This can also be prepared in the oven or air-fryer. Bake in a 400F oven until the juices run clear when pierced and an instant-read registers 165 degrees, about 30 minutes total. For the air fryer, heat it to 375 and cook for about 25 minutes.

 

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time35 minutes mins

Marinating Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course: barbecue, dinner, grilled, lunch

Cuisine: American, cuban

Keyword: chicken breasts, grilled chicken, healthy chicken recipe

Servings: 4

Calories: 80kcal

Author: Virginia Willis

Ingredients

• 2 bone-in chicken breasts, skin removed and halved
• Juice of 2 oranges (about ½ cup)
• Juice of 2 limes (about ¼ cup)
• 4 garlic cloves chopped
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• grilled limes, for serving
• grilled cherry tomatoes on the vine, for serving

Instructions

• Place the chicken in a medium bowl or sealable bag. Add the orange juice, lime
• garlic, oregano, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Seal and store in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours or leave at room temperature for up to 30 minutes if cooking immediately.
• Prepare a charcoal fire using about 6 pounds of charcoal and burn until the coals are completely covered with a thin coating of light gray ash, 20 to 30 minutes. Spread the coals evenly over the grill bottom, position the grill rack above the coals, and heat until medium-hot (when you can hold your hand 5 inches above the grill surface for no longer than 3 or 4 seconds). Or, for a gas grill, turn on all burners to high, close the lid, and heat until very hot, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Apply some oil to the grill grate. Place the chicken on the grill, leaving plenty of space between each piece. Grill until seared, 3 to 4 minutes for breasts.
• Move the chicken pieces to medium-low heat or reduce the heat to medium; continue to grill, turning occasionally and squirting with the marinade, until the juices run clear when pierced and an instant-read thermometer registers 165 degrees, about 35 minutes total.

Nutrition

Calories: 80kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 0.4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 359mg | Potassium: 276mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0.2g | Vitamin A: 126IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 59mg | Iron: 2mg