Grilled Citrus and Cilantro Spiced Chicken

It seems like I only cook recipes from America's Test Kitchen. I tend to get obsessed with cookbooks (and SciFi) and stick with it for a while.

Early 80's Betty Crocker Cook Book for Kids and Star Wars
Late 80' Frugal Gourmet (I own three of his cookbooks) and Star Trek the Next Generation (I was way too interested in Klingon Politics).
Early 90's Gourmet and Food and Wine Magazines and Twin Peaks (Not SciFi exactly)
Late 90's Laurel's Kitchen and the Moosewood Cookbook and the X Files
Early Millennium Food Network Website, especially Alton Brown and Harry Potter (Technically Fantasy) and Firefly.
Recently Food Blogs and America's Test Kitchen and Lost, Battlestar Galactia, and Heroes

Anyway, here's yet another recipe from America's Test Kitchen. This one comes from The New Best Recipe. Brining chicken or pork keeps it moist (especially important with pork) and flavorful. All about brining. If you have the time, you should brine chicken (and pork) for every recipe (use a salt free rub so it's not too salty). If you don't have the time to brine the chicken for this recipe, simply salt your chicken before you add the spice paste.

Chicken Thighs on a Gas Grill

INGREDIENTS
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
6 T table salt
1 quart water
1 recipe spice paste

1. Trim any overhanging fat and skin from chicken thighs. Dissolve the salt in 1 quart of cold water in a gallon zip to bag. Add the chicken; press out as much air as possible and seal. Refrigerate 1 1/2 hours.
2. Turn all your grill burners to high and close lid to heat for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, clean grill with grill brush and rub grates with oil using tongs and a paper towel. Leave one burner on high and turn the others to medium-low. Meanwhile, rinse chicken and dry with paper towels. Rub with spice paste. Rub the paste under the skin, especially if you plan to discard the skin after cooking. Cook the chicken over burner on high until seared, 1-2 minutes on each side. Then cook chicken, skin side up on cooler part of the grill for 16-20 minutes until temperature reaches 170 degrees.

CITRUS AND CILANTRO SPICE PASTE FOR CHICKEN
Makes enough 1/2 c, enough for 8 thighs or 4 breasts
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp coriander
2 T orange juice
1 T lime juice
1 T olive oil
1 garlic clove, pressed
2 T fresh cilantro, minced

Combine all ingredients. You can also skip the pressing and mincing and puree ingredients in a food processor. Rub paste over brined and dried chicken pieces before grilling. If you skip the brine, salt chicken before adding the paste.

Jambalaya

It's Mardi Gras! Laissez les bon temps rouler. Back in the 80's, when Cajun food was all the rage, my mom clipped some of Chef Paul Prudhomme's recipes from a magazine. This recipe is adapted from that one. It was made originally from white rice. I always use brown rice. There are better jambalayas in the world, but this is mine.

CHICKEN JAMBALAYA

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 LB smoked ham, diced

3/4 LB boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced

3 1/2 tsp Paul Prudohmme's Cajun poultry magic
OR
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp sage
pinch of cayenne pepper

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 1/2 cup long-grained white or brown rice

2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup tomatoes (I use one drained can)

1/2 cup tomato sauce (one small can)

If using brown rice, preheat the oven to 350. Melt butter (I add some of the butter and continue to add the rest as needed) in a Dutch oven over high heat. Add ham and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Add chicken and 3 tsp seasoning mix; brown 5 minutes, stirring. Stir in onions, celery, pepper, and garlic; cook until vegetables are tender, about 7 minutes. Stir in rice, then chicken broth, tomatoes and sauce and remaining 1/2 tsp seasoning mix. Bring to boil.

For white rice: reduce the heat, cover and simmer about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

For brown rice: after bringing the mixture to a boil, place the covered dutch oven in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until the rice is done.

Honey Mustard Chicken

O.K. Ready for the recipe?
1 part honey
1 part mustard
Pretty complicated. Mix equal parts of honey and mustard. You can use Dijon mustard if you want. I used Sandwich Pal brand horseradish mustard. I've used other flavors of sandwich pal mustard to make this too. Whatever you like. You can mix in some fresh dill if you like also. Then season and grill your chicken. Brush on the honey mustard toward the end of the grilling. If you put it on in the beginning the honey will burn. Easy, quick, and good. The honey mustard sauce is also a good dip for pretzels.

Teriyaki Marinade

This is so much better then the stuff you buy from the store. Also, this way you can just mix up what you want. I don't eat teriyaki often enough to keep a bottle around, but I always have the ingredients on hand to mix some up. I don't know what is the best way to marinade with this. I marinated the chicken a half hour and then brushed them with the marinade as they were grilling. I made chicken thighs, but I think smaller pieces of meat would work better. In the recipe in the cookbook they used this marinade on steak for kebabs. I made a stir fry on the grill to go with my chicken. After I grilled them in a grill pan, I put the warm vegetables in a bowl with the teriyaki marinade rather then trying to marinade the vegetables first. My method for cooking the stir fry still needs a lot of work. Next time I plan on adding almost all of the veggies at once. I added the broccoli and carrots first this time and they were burning before i started adding other veggies. It ended up good though. If you want to give it a shot I used broccoli, carrots, celery, onion, pineapple, water chestnuts, pea pods, zucchini, peanuts, and cilantro.

Teriyaki Marinade

INGREDIENTS

½ cup soy sauce

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsp grated ginger

2 tsp lime juice

2 tsp honey

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

¼ tsp sesame oil

Mix ingredients.

Turkey on the Grill

Yum. Smoked turkey on the grill. I made this for Thanksgiving a few years ago. A friend of mine who had been to several Thanksgivings that year said my turkey won. Woo-hoo! I won. I even had the last turkey of the day, when he should have been absolutely sick of turkey.

O.K. Here's how you do it. First, make sure you choose a turkey that fits on your grill. Small to medium turkeys are your best bet no matter how you are cooking your turkey. It's better to cook two small turkeys then one huge one. The huge one is much more likely to be dry before it's completely cooked. I have a small Weber grill. On my grill a medium size turkey fits fine. However, I like to choose one that is short from breast to back and wide from leg to leg. If it is long from breast to back there is a chance that it could hit the top of my grill. It's a weird thing to keep in mind while shopping...turkey shape. In the picture, I rubbed sage herb butter on the turkey in a attempt to make it even better. At some point the butter must have made the turkey catch on fire. The bottom of the turkey was totally charred. I don't think that was better after all. I plan on skipping that step in the future. Because of the apparent turkey fire, my turkey turned out a bit dry. It was still very good though. I had planned to have leftovers for future salads and sandwiches. I grilled this only yesterday. But, friends and family taste testers have almost cleaned me out of turkey already. I made carrots and potatoes to go with the turkey. With about 1/2 hour of the turkey cooking time left, add potatoes. I sliced my potatoes in half. Then I inserted a slice of onion, sage butter (or regular butter), and salt and pepper. I double wrapped the potatoes in foil. In a separate foil packet add sliced carrots, sage butter (or regular butter), and salt and pepper. When you take the turkey off the grill, leave the potatoes and add the carrot packet. They will finish cooking as your turkey rests. The potatoes are really good and get a bit of smokey flavor. They are almost like potatoes cooked on a campfire.

TURKEY ON THE GRILL

INGREDIENTS

1 turkey (mine was 11 lbs)

2 gallons of water

2 C table salt

sage herb butter (only if you want to set your turkey on fire)

pepper

1. Rinse the defrosted turkey inside and out. Remove neck and giblets.

2. Dissolve salt in water and place turkey in the salt water and place in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours.

OR

Place turkey in a 2 1/2 gallon Ziploc bag. Place that bag in a cooler. Mix 1/4 c salt with 1 quart of water until dissolved. Add the salt water to the turkey. Mix another 1/4 c salt with 1 quart water and add to turkey. Continue to do this until the turkey will be covered with water when the bag is closed. (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 gallons water) Add ice around the outside of the Ziploc bag until the cooler is full. Place in a cool place for 4 to 6 hours. Why should I brine my turkey and what's a brine? Note- I added more ice after I too the picture. I didn't want the ice to obscure the turkey in the bag.

3. Soak as many wood chips as will fit in a disposable Weber grill pan. About 1 quart. Make sure they are completely covered with water. They only need to soak for about 1 hour, but it is a good idea to start the wood chips soaking as soon as you finish step two so you don't forget to do it. It makes no difference if they soak longer.

4. Obsessively clean your sink.

5. Drain wood chips and place in the disposable grill pan. Place pan over the front burner, put under the grill grates. Do this before you preheat the grill. O.K. Now you can preheat your grill. If you heat the grill first, you'll be sorry. It's the voice of experience.

6. Close all your windows near your grill so your house doesn't smell like smoke for days. This is also the voice of experience.

7. Drain turkey and pat dry. Pepper the chicken, but DO NOT SALT. The brine will make the turkey salty enough.

8. Place turkey in the center of the grill. Turn the burners down until the interior temperature of the grill is 375-400 degrees. Check the temperature often at the beginning of the grilling process to make sure you are grilling at the correct temperature. You can check it every once in a while after that. DO NOT OPEN THE LID OF THE GRILL. Every time you open the grill two things happen. First you lose smoke, and therefore lose flavor. Second, the grill temperature drops and it takes longer to grill the bird. If you must open your grill, be quick. Note- my turkey had a broken wing, so I couldn't bend both of the wings toward the bottom of the bird.

9. Roast the turkey. (times are for an unstuffed turkey cooked at 350 degrees)

6-8 lbs 1 1/4-2 hours

10-12 lbs 2-3 hours

14-18 lbs 3-4 hours

10. Clean kitchen obsessively. Realize that you could have cleaned you sink a little less obsessively before, because you just have to clean it again. Make sure you wash your cooler really, really well. Clean it with disinfectant or bleach. Make sure it is absolutely completely dry before you put it away. If you are concerned about disinfectant, let it dry. After it is really, really dry, you can rinse it out.

11. When your turkey is about a half hour from being done, add the potatoes. At this point your dog will be running around the grill and whining like he's completely lost his mind. What makes you think I'm grilling for you dog? Has it ever been for you? No. Just give is a rest already. Seriously. Knock off the crazy. You're driving me nuts.

12. When the thickest part of the turkey breast reaches 165 or the thickest part of the turkey thigh reaches 170-175 the turkey is done. Transfer it to a cutting board. Add your carrot foil packet to the grill if using. Tent the turkey loosely with tinfoil and let it rest 30 minutes. Why should I let it rest?

13. Now you can carve your turkey and eat it.

Lora's Barbecue Sauce

I flirted with the idea of making this recipe my "secret recipe". I had this idea at one time that all cooks should have one secret recipe. The possibility of making this a secret recipe lasted until someone asked me for the recipe. I realized how stupid the idea of a secret recipe was. 1. The idea of keeping the recipe to myself seemed greedy. I like to share. You taught me well mom. 2. Like I can really keep a secret. This is great on barbecued chicken or mixed in with hamburger before you grill your burger.

I did some experiments this year, but it looks like the original recipe will stay the same. This recipe is from Gourmet Magazine in May 1994, page 38. (I took really good recipe notes at that time I guess.)

LORA'S BARBECUE SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup brewed coffee

1 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup cider vinegar

2 T chili powder

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup firmly packed, dark brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped canned green chilies (I use the whole can)

1 T chopped garlic

2 T salt

In a large saucepan simmer all ingredients, stirring occasionally, 25 minutes. Cool. In a blender puree sauce in BATCHES until smooth. Seriously. Warm sauce will shoot out the top of your blender. Alternatively, you can use an immersion blender to puree the sauce. Makes 4 cups.
I use this to make Barbecue Chicken Pizza on the Grill.

Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Breasts with Raita

Tandoori chicken is usually cooked on a Tandoor oven. A tandoor oven is an Indian clay oven that gets very hot. But, a grill is an acceptable substitute at home. The chicken in the picture doesn't have the skin on, because that's what I had on hand. Grilling chicken with the skin makes for much moister chicken. Toss the skin before you eat the chicken, but still grill with the skin. Serve with sliced cucumber or a cucumber salad. Making extra raita to serve with the cucumbers would be good. This recipe is from the cookbook "The Quick Recipe" from Cooks Illustrated.

Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Breasts with Raita

INGREDIENTS

RAITA

1 c whole-milk yogurt (or 1% yogurt, but preferably not fat free)

2 T chopped cilantro leaves

1 medium clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tsp)

salt

cayenne pepper

TANDOORI CHICKEN

1 T grated fresh ginger

1 T ground coriander

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne

4 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on, 10 to 12 oz each

1. Heat the grill. Oil the grill grates.

2. Meanwhile mix the yogurt, cilantro, and garlic together in a medium bowl. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste and refrigerate until needed. Mix the ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, salt and cayenne together in a small bowl.

3. Coat both sides of the chicken breasts with the spice mixture. Season under the skin if you plan to toss the skin after you cook it. Cook the chicken, uncovered, over direct heat until well browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Move the chicken to indirect heat and continue to cook for 10 minutes, grill lid down. Turn and cook for 5 minutes, grill lid down. Chicken should register at least 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Serve with Raita (yogurt/cilantro mixture).

Ginger Chicken with Peaches and Onions

This is one of my mother's favorites. She's a huge fan of fruit in her food. People tend to have strong opinions either way about fruit in their food. This is a recipe from Every Day Foods which is a cooking show on PBS and a magazine from the Martha Stewart family of magazines. Everyday foods cooking philosophy is to cook with whole food and make simple recipes. That will appeal to many moms. Their recipes are hit and miss, but I like this one. Besides being easy, the ingredients for this recipe can be kept in the freezer and pulled out on one of those "what am I going to make" days. Although my mom would disagree, I'd file this recipe under "really good" rather then "spectacular". Serve this with oven baked brown rice and sesame roasted green beans.

Ginger Chicken with Peaches and Onions

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1 bag (1 lb) frozen peaches, not thawed

2 red onions, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick (I usually use yellow)

coarse salt and ground pepper

2 T grated ginger

2 T soy sauce

1 T toasted sesame oil

1/4 to ½ tsp red pepper flakes

4 bone in chicken breast halves (10-12 oz each), (I use thighs because I like dark meat)

cooked brown rice for serving

1. Preheat oven to 450. Spray baking sheet with Pam. Place peaches and onions on a large rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes; toss to coat.

2. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Arrange chicken skin side up among peaches and onions.

3. Roast until chicken is opaque throughout. , 25-30 minutes . Serve with rice. (Fully cooked is 180 to 185 they say take out at 160. I cook the chicken 5-10 extra minutes until the temperature is 170. The temperature of the chicken will rise about 10 degrees as it rests for about 5 minutes)

Indian Chicken with tomato chutney

This is an Indian version of sweet and sour chicken. It's sweet, sour and spicy. I use thighs, because I like dark meat, but breasts will work fine too. I made this for Kyle one time. I told him what was in the recipe and he was a bit dubious. But after he took a trepidatious bite, he said it was really good. So don't be such a fraidycat. Some of you who think you won't like this recipe will. As a bonus it's easy and healthy. Serve this with Oven Baked Brown Rice.

CHICKEN WITH FRESH TOMATO CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS

For Chicken:

2 lbs skinned Chicken thighs

1T cooking oil

For Chutney:

2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 tart cooking (granny smith) apples, chopped

1-2 jalapeno peppers chopped fine and with or without seeds (seeds and ribs add extra heat), to taste

¼ cup currents or raisins

½ cup chopped red sweet pepper

¼ cup chopped onion

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 T sugar

2 tsp grated ginger root

¼ tsp salt

Brown the chicken over medium-high heat in 1 tablespoon oil. Remove chicken and wipe out skillet. (to make the recipe more low fat. optional)

Return Chicken to skillet and add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through. Remove chicken from skillet and keep warm. Boil chutney, uncovered for about 5 minutes, or until thickened. Serve with the chicken.

Roasted Chicken with Carrots and Cauliflower

This is relatively healthy (if you toss the cooked chicken skin) and easy and has very little prep time. What more could you ask? If you don’t have coriander and cumin you can use any spice mix you like and have around. Cajun works well. You can also do only carrots and use more carrots. I haven’t made this in a while and I can’t remember if you have to oil the sheet pan or not. I’ll update this recipe when I make it again. This recipe is from Everyday Foods.

ROASTED CHICKEN LEGS WITH CARROTS AND CAULIFLOWER

serves 4, prep time 10 min, total time 1 hour

INGREDIENTS

1 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 1 ½ inch-2 inch chunks (I’m guessing baby carrots would work)

1 lb cauliflower, cut into medium sized florets (4 c)

1 ½ tsp ground coriander, divided

3/4 tsp ground cumin, divided

3/4 tsp coarse salt

½ tsp ground pepper

4 whole chicken legs, skin-on (about 12 oz each) ( I used thighs)

1 T fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 475. In a 11-15-2 3/4-inch roasting pan ( I use half sheet cookie sheet pan),combine carrots, cauliflower,1 tsp coriander, ½ tsp cumin, 3/4 tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper; arrange around sides of pan.

2. Place chicken legs along center of pan, and sprinkle with remaining ½ tsp coriander and 1/4 tsp cumin; season generously with salt and pepper.

3. Roast, stirring vegetables once, until chicken is well browned and crispy and instant-read thermometer inserted in a thigh (without touching bone) registers 180, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer chicken to a platter, and let rest for 5 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, add lemon juice to pan; with a wooden spoon, stir and scrape up drippings and brown stuff on the pan, mixing with vegetables. Serve.