Purple Cactus Chicken

are you tired of having delicious chicken that just sits on your plate?!
are you sick of looking at bland, white meat?!
well than stop complaining and cook some purple cactus chicken!
no more will you have to choose between flavor and color because this recipe offers it all!

its really simple and easy to make and you don't need a whole lot of ingredients in fact all you need is:
about 5 pounds of fresh prickly pears
a tablespoon of honey
cyan powder (to taste)
lemon pepper (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
chicken meat (i used boneless skinless breasts but you could really use any meat off a chicken)
a splash of fermented cactus juice (tequila)

step one:
acquiring the ingredients: if your not from the heart of the desert like me than the act of getting prickly pears could have you dead in the water before you start. Fortunately a friend from an eastern city told me he has seen the little purple devils at a farmers market a time or two. once you have the pears you need to peel them (its hard and time consuming but it beats eating thorns). i don't know if a farmers market sales them skinned or not but a fresh, non-skinned one looks like the one in the pictures.

step two:
skinning these little monsters is a task that alot of people say isn't worth it but  trust me the flavor is amazing.
what you need to do is get some leather work gloves and wear them to avoid getting the tiny hair-like thorns in your skin becaus the are a pain to get out. if you are unfortunate enough to get skewered: *get some tape (i prefer packing tape because its so wide) and roll it around your hand sticky side out and roll over the effected area like a lint roller. oh and get a rabbits foot because that is some bad luck*
now that you have gloves grab a filet knife and go to town. there are two layers of skin on a prickly pear and the outer one is the one with thorns so you want to take only that layer off because the bottom layer has alot of meat.

step three:
now that you have your thornless pears drop them in a pot with just enough water to cover them and put them on a slow boil for a few minutes. you want the water to turn almost syrupy.
strain the juice and squeeze the fruit through a cheese cloth to get more juice and avoid getting the seeds in your marinade.
add a dash of cyan powder, lemon pepper, honey and black pepper.
now for the most important flavoring: add a splash of tequila(cue trombone solo)
now the marinade needs to cool down a bit and be put in a container with the chicken to marinade for a while (mine sat in the marinade for about six hours)

step four:
grilling. this step is pretty much straightforward and self explanatory. grill the chicken until its done

step five:
this is the most important part and it is crucial you do it right. slice a piece of the chicken off and put it in your mouth, chew, swallow, enjoy, repeat.
i made six chicken breasts this way that were all purple and delicious. they were the life of the dinner party.