This is the marinade for grilled chicken which we served to a big crowd for Carol’s birthday to general appreciation. It is an adaptation from an old newspaper article we clipped out and taped to an index card many years ago. I am guessing it was from the old Houston Post. My hand-written comment on the card is “Like the chicken served at Ninfa’s.” This is high praise. Any long term Houstonian knows that this is a reference to Ninfa Laurenzo, who built an iconic restaurant empire on Tex-Mex cooking, especially her grilled meats.

This makes enough marinade for 3-4 lbs. of chicken. I used a mixture of thighs, drumsticks, and cut up breasts.

¼ cup olive oil

2 Tbs. red wine vinegar

¼ cup lime juice

1 tsp. crushed coriander seeds

½ tsp. ground cumin

¼ cup coarsely chopped onion

1 bay leaf, broken

½ tsp. dried thyme

¼ tsp. red pepper flakes

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp. salt

Combine all the marinade ingredients. Put the chicken and the marinade in zip lock baggies overnight in the refrigerator, and push out all the air. Flip the bags a few times to ensure that all the chicken is in good contact with the marinade. Grill the next day to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.