Orange Honey Glazed Chicken

I have  been waiting and waiting for big sis to post this recipe for about a year now but I guess she is too busy posting graduations, planning weddings, traveling to New York City and who knows where else to post food blogs.  Not that those things aren't important but come on, we are talking about food here, the basic ingredient to life.

She introduced me to this recipe a year ago after bragging about how it was her favorite chicken recipe for

 months prior.  I got to admit it's pretty darn good and well worth a post on this blog.

There are a couple of differences from the recipe posted below.  The first being I used thighs instead of breast (a change big sis made and I continued with it) and the second is I used orange juice instead of tangerine juice because I can't find tangerine juice. 

Let's take a look at this weeks cast of characters........

First things first and we must make the glaze.  It's an easy glaze to make just combine the thyme and orange juice in a sauce pan and cook down.  Remember to leave enough time to reduce the orange juice because it took me 45 minutes or so to get the orange juice reduced to what the recipe calls for. 

Now that the hard part is done it is time to FIRE UP THE GRILL!!!!!!

It really is pretty simple from here, start by cooking the thighs, brush on some glaze and take off the thighs before they are over cooked.  If you do that and follow the directions below here is what you end up with.

A delicious chicken recipe that is so simple to make it can be cooked for a weekday dinner.  My for rating for this recipe is 4.25 forks out of 5.  The only reason it is 4.25 is I think the recipe has too much cumin (personnel preference).  The next time I will cut the cumin in half and the rating will be higher, I have no doubt about that.

So in the end it looks like big sis really did have a good chicken recipe, even if she didn't get around to sharing it with everyone, and one well worth keeping around in the recipe box.

Bobby Flay’s Winner of a Chicken Dinner

Chicken With Tangerine-Honey Glaze

(Printable Recipe)

3 cups tangerine juice or tangerine-orange juice (not from concentrate)

5 fresh thyme sprigs

1/4 cup clover honey

Kosher salt and black pepper

3 Tbsp Spanish paprika

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp dry mustard powder

2 tsp ground fennel seeds

2 Tbsp canola oil

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 8 oz. each)

2 green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish

1. Combine the juice and thyme in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to about 1/2 cup; remove the thyme stems and discard. Whisk in the honey until incorporated and season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature.

2. Heat grill to medium-high.

3. Stir together the paprika, cumin, mustard powder, fennel, and 1 teaspoon each of the kosher salt and black pepper in a small bowl. Brush both sides of the chicken with the oil, and season with salt and pepper. Rub the top of each breast with some of the spice rub and place on the grill rub-side-down. Cook, without touching, until they’re lightly golden brown and a crust has formed, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the breasts over, brush the tops liberally with some of the glaze, flip them, and continue cooking until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 155°F. Remove from the grill, brush the spice-rub side with more of the glaze, tent loosely with foil, and let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4. Per serving: 460 calories, 39g carbs, 48g protein, 12g fat, and 125mg cholesterol.

http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/food/recipes/parade/090719-bobby-flay-chicken-dinner.html

Grilled Salad

"Grilled salad?"  That's is the reaction of most people when I tell them I grill salad.  I used to grill salad as a side dish but it is so good we decided to use grilled salad as a main weeknight meal.  And why not, it so easy to make and quick too, perfect for a weeknight meal when both spouses work.

There really isn't recipe for grilled salad it is whatever you like on your salad.  As you can see the cast of characters in the photo below what I prefer on my salad.

This is pretty typical what I normally like on my salad expect this time I wanted to try the radicchio lettuce (that's the purple and white thing on the right for those of you not familiar with radicchio).  Usually I use romaine lettuce but somewhere, I think it was Bobby Flay, I watched a show about grilling salad and this is what they used.  I never used it before because it can be hard to find in the store.

I start out by cutting up the onions and peppers and tossing them into a bowl with the tomatoes.  I add extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, toss and skewer on wooden bamboo skewers.  I skewer the tomatoes by themselves because they don't take as long to grill as the onions and peppers.

You may be asking yourself "But what exactly does he grill?"  The answer is everything and yes, even the lettuce.  The heat from the grill totally transforms the lettuce into something completely different.  Any bitterness that was present in the lettuce will be gone after it hits the grill.  The heat brings the sugar out of the lettuce, or so that is the way I understand it.

I always grill a few extra onions and peppers.  They are excellent by themselves after they have been on the fire.  They are also good the next day cold, out of the frig.

Our choice of salad dressing was vidalia onion and peppercorn, salad dressing my son, John, picked out the last time he was visiting.  Overall I rate this salad 4.5 out of 5 forks for taste and 5 out of 5 crayons for color (I added the green onion because it lacked green color).  The radicchio lettuce isn't as good as the romaine, in my opinion and the wife's opinion too, but it sure does make up for it in color.

The next time you are trying to figure what to make for that weeknight meal don't forget about that grilled salad.  The recipe is simple, whatever you like, the salad dressing is simple too, again whatever you like.  This is a regular on our summer platters.

Fire Up the Grill!!!!

FIRE UP THE GRILL!!!!!!!  It feels good to be able to say that again.  I haven't been able to do that for over a year now ever since I left Wisconsin.  The wife and I have been living in an a condo, well really a two story apartment, where grilling wasn't allowed.  We decided to live there for a year so we could scout the neighborhoods here in Rockville and decide where we wanted to live.  Needless to say, the scouting is done, we're moved and thanks to my mother my grille is here in Rockville with us.  But this post isn't about my trusty Weber grill, this post is about my new Weber Smoky Mountain smoker. 

A couple of years ago Weber redesigned their smoker and decided to build it in a 22-1/2" model, the same as their every popular charcoal grill. Since I first saw the smoker online I knew someday I would have one.

This wasn't the maiden voyage for the smoker today, last week I tried a new way (at least for me) to cook a steak, which I will share in the near future, and I cooked a cranberry glazed turkey breast, which really needs to be a post for another day too.  You can see from the photo above this baby has the ability to hold a lot of charcoal for those really long smoking days.  As soon as I can find a delicious looking beef brisket recipe and a good beef brisket I am going to find out how long the charcoal will last in this baby.

But today's meal isn't about beef brisket or turkey breast, no sir, today we are talking about the number one food group, baby back ribs.  As most of you know, that take the time to actually read this blog, on my bucket list is to enter a barbecue contest and to win it.  The ribs have been a work in progress for the past 5 years with two steps forward and one back, or so it seems at times. 

Trying to hide behind the ribs are some baked beans.  The wife and I got the idea for these beans from reading the ingredient list on the back of baked beans we use to buy at a meat market in Wisconsin.  Cooking them on the smoker is from a bbq show I once watched on The Food Network.  Once everything is on the grate it is time to sit back and watch the smoke do its job........

......and watch the temperature so it stays between 225 and 250 degrees.  The extra temperature probe you see today is being used to watch the temperature on the lower rack to see how different it is from the upper thermometer.  By the way just as a note do not trust the upper thermometer as I found out when I checked the upper thermometer against my digital it was about 15 degrees off.

Two hours later it's time to pull the lid and see what we got.  Oh boy, it sure does smell good and starting to look pretty darn good too.  While the lid is off this would be a good time to mop a little sauce on the ribs. 

45 minutes later I repeat the process all over.

Oh we are so, so close now but you can't hurry perfection.  Another 45 minute wait, that's 3-1/2 hours for anyone trying to keep score, and we can finally open the lid on the smoker for the last time.  Let's get a close look this time, beans........

.....and baby back ribs.

I should note the ribs are finished off over hot coals and some of my "secret" barbecue sauce. 

On the traditional fork scale these ribs rate a 4.75 out of 5 forks.  I can't give them a 5 because they were a little saltier than I like.  I used a commercial seasoning mix, which I really like, but it contains 75% salt.  The good news is I found the recipe online and now I can start adjusting it more to my liking.  I believe this is the last item to complete for baby back rib perfection and entry into a bbq contest.  That will be one more item off my bucket list.