The local grocer had turkeys on clearance. They are all marked at $8 and I sorted through them until I found a smallish one at 13 lbs. So why not a turkey dinner in May?
Grilling
Dinner Menu: Spicy Lime Cilantro Chicken w/Mexican Rice
It’s been unseasonably warm here after our early snow in September, so grilling is on the menu.
On the board:
- Spicy Lime Cilantro Chicken
- Mexican Rice Medley
- Green Beans
- Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe here)
Spicy Lime Cilantro Chicken:
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4 boneless chicken breasts
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½ cup lime juice
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¼ cup chopped cilantro
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¼ cup sliced pickled jalapenos and juice
Place ingredients in a zip-lock bag and marinate 1 hour or overnight. Broil or grill for 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes, until breasts are cooked to 165 degrees. Continue reading
Chef Michael Symon’s Grilled Eggplant Parmesan
Photo Credit: Food Network/Michael Symon
Chef Michael Symon* has a new show on Food Network called Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out. It’s a fun half-hour with Symon grilling all his recipes with the help of his wife.
I wanted to share this recipe as soon as I saw the episode. Such a perfectly simple way to prepare eggplant and fresh tomatoes. As we wind up garden season, this is a perfect late summer grilling recipe.
Check out all the recipes from the show, most are simple and unique takes on popular favorites.
Grilled Eggplant Parmesan
Level: Easy
Total: 30 min
Active: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
- 2 medium eggplants
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- 4 beefsteak tomatoes, sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
- Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
- Torn fresh basil leaves, for serving
Grilling Dinner Menu: Cantanzaro Herbed Chicken
I get gifts! One I got this year was a box of assorted large bottles of spice mixes. I’ve enjoyed each unique blend, especially the Peruvian one, since it’s been a while since we have been able to frequent our favorite Peruvian restaurant here.
Tonight’s menu features the Cantanzaro spice mix. Cantanzaro is a city in Italy. So there are a lot of herbs this Italian girl recognizes: marjoram, basil, thyme, rosemary and oregano. And garlic, lots of garlic. But the kicker is the lemon and lemon peel.
It’s all very fresh for summer and great for grilling.
On the board tonight:
- Grilled Cantanzaro Herbed Chicken Breasts
- Grilled peppers and onions (toss sliced onions and favorite mix of peppers with olive oil, salt, pepper and grill in a grilling pan)
- Cucumber-Tomato Salad (recipe here)
- Gelato (recipes here)
This One Is Hot, Hot, Hot
Somehow, I made an extremely spicy Green Chile. The peppers were marked as hot, so I should have suspected because normally they just assume you know green chiles are on the hot side. These were on the super-hot side.
Someone sent me this recipe when I was asking for recommendations. It’s simple and turned out great. The only substitution I made was beef for pork. I’m not a big pork fan. Bacon, sausage and pepperoni are about it.
I used a boneless blade steak, which worked perfectly. I kinda wished I would have popped it on the grill when I roasted the chiles.
Grilled Chicken Leg Quarters
The day after Memorial Day, I braved going out into the world. I scored 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters for $4. (That’s $4, not $4 a lb). So I froze most and kept a few out to grill. I use a spicy dry rub and grill them until they are about 160 degrees F, then I coat them in a sweeter sauce (I love me some Sweet Baby Ray’s) and let them finish cooking, about 10 more minutes. That way the sauce doesn’t burn.
Other times, I’ll flip the process and use a sweet rub and coat with Sweet Baby Ray’s Spicy sauce. Either way, I get a nice sweet and spicy mix when it’s done.
And yes, those potatoes are sliced in half, coated in oil and salt and then grilled. Gives them a nice crust and they cook in half the time.
Fire Roasted Tomatoes
Since I have the very nice wood pellet grill and a counter full of tomatoes, I decided it was time to do some roasting.
I chose fire roasting over smoking because I was looking for the sweet/charred flavor vs. smoky. Smoking is at a lower temperature for a longer time. Worth the time if you want a deep smoke flavor.
For fire roasting: Continue reading
Mmm… BBQ Chicken
We fired up the grill yesterday and cooked some leg quarters and some thighs.
We also grilled sweet corn. This one is slathered with mayo, covered with parmesan, and seasoned with ground red peppers. It’s a version of Mexican elote.
