A Culinary Discovery

Don't you love the smell of sizzling meat on a hot grill?  Doesn't it remind you of summertime?  I know it does me.  I love grilling.  I grill year-round, rain or shine. I was in a rush to throw something together with some chicken I had taken out of the freezer the night before.  And as we all know, chicken can be boring; I wanted to spice it up.  This started me scouring through my spice cabinet, and I came up with this delicious combination of ingredients, and will definitely be making it again...


2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. Old Western Barbecue Spice (http://www.amazon.com/Carls-Gourmet-Natural-Barbecue-Seasoning/dp/B000TQFSGQ)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme or 1 tsp. fresh thyme
2 tbsp. olive oil

Clean chicken, pat dry and place in a shallow bowl.  Combine garlic, pepper, salt, barbecue spice and thyme in a small bowl.  Whisk in olive oil until combined.  Pour mixture over chicken and move chicken around to coat both sides.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 1-2 hours.  

A half hour before grilling the chicken, sit bowl with chicken on the counter to remove some of the chill from the chicken.  

Wrap two bricks with aluminum foil.  Heat grill on high and let come up to temperature.  Once grill is heated, reduce heat to medium.  Place chicken on the grill and then place each brick on top of each piece of chicken.  Close the lid and grill for 10 minutes, without lifting the lid again.  After 10 minutes, remove bricks from atop chicken, flip chicken, replace bricks on top of each piece of chicken.  Close the lid and grill for 10 more minutes, without lifting the lid.  After those 10 minutes, remove bricks and chicken from grill.  It's done!

The chicken was paired with orzo salad, which I've made so many times.  When it's that time of year and we get invited to a barbecue, it's under the condition that only if the orzo salad comes with us. =)  Hopefully the people in your life will enjoy it as much as the people in mine, and you'll bring this dish to your next barbecue.


Orzo Salad

1 box of Orzo pasta - orzo is a small rice shaped pasta that is perfect for this salad

1 small pack of cherry or grape tomatoes

1 half medium red onion, chopped

1 regular sized cucumber or half of a long cucumber (like the Japanese ones),   

   peeled and diced

1/4 cup sliced peperoncinis

4 oz. of feta cheese, crumbled (I like the herb flavored feta cheeses)

1 tsp. Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasoning 

1/2 tsp. dried Greek oregano

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

Juice of two lemons

1/4 cup good quality white wine vinegar

1/2 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra for drizzling over pasta

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add about a tablespoon of sea salt to the water, then add the orzo.  Stir.  Cook the orzo 9 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Drain and rinse immediately with cold water to stop the cooking process.  Put in a bowl and drizzle with a little of the olive oil to keep from sticking together.

Cut the tomatoes in halves (unless they're really small, then you can leave them whole), chop the red onion and cucumber to about the same size (or whatever size you want) to keep the salad uniform.  I remove the seeds from the cucmber before chopping.  Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the pasta and toss.  Add vegetables to the bowl of pasta, along with peperoncinis, and toss.

In a mesauring cup or bowl, add the juice of one lemon, vinegar, garlic, Greek seasoning, oregano, salt and pepper.  Whisk in olive oil.  Pour over the pasta and vegetables and toss together gently.  Then add the feta cheese last and fold it into the salad.  If you like olives, add black Greek olives as well.

My husband picking tomatoes for the salad.

Enjoy!

Until next time...

Lady by the Bay