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04 November 2009

Grilled Tuscan Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon

I think I've already mentioned this, but when it comes to cooking I usually turn to one of two people--Martha or Cassie.

The other night I turned to both--Martha's Great Food Fast, a birthday gift from Ms. Cassie. (Cassie picks out the best cookbooks! It's probably because she owns an extensive collection of them herself. She and Hugh had an entire huge cabinet fall down in their house because of the thousands of pounds of cookbooks they had stored on top of the cabinet. The incident prompted them to buy an industrial-strength shelf.)

I highly recommend this cookbook. Every single recipe we've used from the book has been delicious and easy.

During Sunday night's meal planning session, Matt picked out this recipe, Grilled Tuscan Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon. ("I mean, what's not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good!")

Boil some rosemary and water together. . .
. . .and then let it steep for five minutes.

Add rosemary solution to oil and garlic, salt and pepper, and blend in a blender.
Inhale the aroma. Resist desire to drink it with a straw.

Bagock!
Coat chicken with delicious marinade. (Do not snack on Halloween candy during the waiting period, for you will lose your appetite. Lost appetite = DANGER!)
And then grill to perfection. While ours was super tasty, it was a bit, uh, crispier than Martha's*. Here's her picture of the finished product instead of ours. Next time ours will look like this.


Ingredients
Serves 4

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary or 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
1 chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds), cut into 8 or 10 serving pieces
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Directions
1.Heat grill to medium. In a small saucepan, bring 1/3 cup water and rosemary to a boil; remove from heat, cover, and let steep 5 minutes. Transfer to a blender. Add oil and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Puree until smooth; let cool.

2.Combine chicken and rosemary oil in a shallow dish or resealable plastic bag, and turn to coat. Cover, and let marinate at least 15 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator, turning chicken occasionally.

3.Remove chicken from marinade; place on grill. Discard marinade. Cook, basting frequently with lemon juice and turning as needed to prevent burning, until cooked throughout, 20 to 30 minutes.

*We grilled for 40 minutes, and ours did end up a little charred. Matt cooked to 180 degrees, which was what the chicken package recommended. But a little internet research has taught me that an internal temperature of 165 is good, and may result in less charring.

On a semi-related note, today was day four of self-improvement, and I'm still going strong. It was easy to be productive today since I didn't have to go to work, and I could dedicate my entire day to errands and shopping and cooking up a delicious, delicious meal that was. . .life changing. And you'll hear about it soon. Stay tuned!

How was your hump day?

1 comment:

  1. Hmm, you could probably bake that, too... Maybe with a little butter or stuff it with something... grape leaves or almonds or ricotta....

    I'm going to try this one of those two ways.

    I have a Rosemary plant that's growing to Little Shop of Horrors preportions, and it needs to be put in it's place.

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