All of which is beside the point.
I know this is going to come as an enormous shock to you (yes, that's sarcasm), but I found a recipe I wanted to try last week for grilled chicken breast with a different flavor kick. I had the chicken all thawed out and ready to go so that we could have a quick meal on Sunday night before going to the fireworks (which we never made it to since Little Man decided he’s had a busy enough weekend and fell asleep early).
Sunday morning, the heat was oppressive when I left the house at 8:30 for breakfast at the MIL’s. While we were relaxing on her back deck over pancakes, the wind shifted and the temperature plummeted. It was wonderful. It remained that way most of the rest of the day, staying heavily overcast as though threatening to rain, but never quite following through.
Until it was time to grill.
I had been watching the skies all morning, and seeing no change over the course of the day, I had come to think of it as just an overcast day and wasn’t a bit concerned about any impending downpour. We arrived home and immediately started shucking corn (another story to be continued later in this post) and prepping the chicken for the grill. Literally, the moment the hubs put the chicken on the grill, the skies OPENED. It was so bad, I could barely reach my hand out the door to hand him the tray. I would have sworn someone had just opened a flood gate and it was pouring down the roof onto the deck.
Poor Matt, I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. If I didn’t think he would have broken my camera, I’d have taken a picture to show you. But then, as he always tells me, “A chicken has a brain the size of a pea and even it has the sense to get in out of the rain”.
Apparently the same can’t be said for husbands.
As I’ve mentioned before, he is a flipper. He can’t stand to let something sit on the grill (or in a pan, or anywhere else) and not flip it, or stir it. Repeatedly. Especially if it doesn’t need to be flipped. Or stirred. So, I say he has no one to blame but himself. It was kind of pathetic though. Looking out the screen door at him, completely drenched, while he’s standing there, holding his flipper, and looking in like a puppy that’s been kicked.
In the end, we had a very nice supper. I’ve decided this recipe needs something, but can’t quite decide what the magic ingredient will be. It was definitely a good one, though, and the hubs thought it was definitely a keeper. You can never have too many different ways to grill chicken, in my opinion.
Spicy Honey-Glazed Chicken Breasts
Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon lemon juice
8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 4 pounds)
Salt
Directions:
In a small saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until translucent and beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the honey, hot pepper sauce and chili powder and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and set aside.
Preheat a grill or large grill pan to medium-high. Rub the chicken with the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt. Grill until well marked, about 7 minutes. Flip and cook until the bottoms are well marked and the chicken is cooked through, another 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and brush with the reserved honey glaze. Cover with foil and let rest for 5 minutes.
NOTES: The recipe says to simply grill the chicken breast and then top with the glaze at the end. You cover it with foil to help the flavors absorb, and it was good. But I’m thinking that it still needs some kind of pre-grill marinade to help carry the flavor carry through the meat.
As a side dish.....we had corn. The farmer who cash rents our ground is very good to us and plants two rows of sweet corn every year, just for us. So, every year about this time, we gorge ourselves on corn until we can stand no more, and then there is still a ton leftover that we have to give away.
We didn’t know that this was the last of our corn for the season. Because it shouldn’t have been.Monday morning, we discovered that at some point between Friday night and Sunday night, someone pulled up to the field and stole all of it. Every. Single. Ear. GONE.
I’ve heard of this happening, but it really galls me that people have the nerve to do this. They wait until no one is around (like over a holiday weekend) and pull up to the field in a truck with 2-3 people. Then they clean you out. Next thing you know, your entire sweet corn crop is gone and someone is sitting on the road side somewhere selling your corn out of the bed of their truck.
I’ll tell you what, I’d sure like to know who these people are. It takes a hell of a lot of nerve. Next time you buy corn out of someone’s truck, and you don’t know who they are, think about it. It may not come from where you think.
2 comments:
I suggest the magic ingredient(s) should be paprika and cumin to add a rich smoky flavor to it to complement the spice and then sprinkle paprika on the corn as well. Of course, the secret ingredient should NOT be a deluge of rain on the "flipper". I like how father's day he was in the dog house (so to speak) and Sunday he looked like "...a puppy that's been kicked". Does the furry little bastard need a canine playmate or am I reading too much into your verbiage? The whole stealing of the corn thing happens with oranges here ALL the time. Why do people have to be so self-centered and rotten to others? Don't they know "karma can be a bitch sometimes" (sorry for the My Name is Earl reference). Glad the dinner was enjoyable. Like you always say, one can't have too many chicken recipes on hand.
That is just wrong - stealing someone's sweet corn! Next year, I will loan you my dog so he can stand guard over your crop (for a small fee of delicious sweet corn- of course!). He won't let anyone near it without waking up the dead! He is a sweetie but very protective of his turf!
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