Sunday, April 10, 2011

Grilled Chicken Breasts with Roasted Garlic Butter Mushrooms

It's been awhile since I posted. I just returned from a really nice family vacation in Florida and then I had three writing assignments due for my New York Times Food Writers School. I'm taking the 11 week course to improve my craft and I'm really excited to be learning from my instructor, Andrew Collins.

When I returned from Florida, the snow was off my deck, so time to fire up the grill. This is a really easy recipe and will work for both charcoal and gas grills as you cook over high heat on either type of grill. The trick here is to pound the breasts flat into a consistent shape so that they all cook identically on the grill.

Grilled Chicken Breasts
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons fresh cracked pepper
4 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce (I prefer Lea & Perrins)
1 gallon Zip Lock bag (or 2 pieces of plastic wrap)

  1. Place a chicken breast in the Zip Lock bag. Use the flat side of a meat mallet to pound it flat (see photo at the bottom of this post). Repeat with the other 3 breasts.
  2. Fire up your grill. If you are using a gas grill, put all burners on high. If you are using charcoal, you want your charcoals glowing white hot and spread evenly across the grate.
  3. Gently sprinkle salt and pepper on the "up" side of the breasts. Place them on the grill with the "up" side down. Grill for 4 minutes. While grilling, sprinkle the now "up" side with salt and pepper.
  4. After 4 minutes, flip the chicken breast. Splash each breast with 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce. Grill for 4 more minutes.
  5. Remove from grill and serve.

Roasted Garlic Butter Mushrooms
1 pound Cremini or white mushrooms
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons EVOO
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Toss mushrooms with capers, garlic, EVOO and salt and pepper. Place mushrooms in a shallow baking dish (see photo). 
  3. Top mushrooms with butter. Place in oven and roast, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
  4. Remove from oven, add lemon juice, stir and serve.
Wine pairing: Pinot Noir or Merlot

Your flattened chicken breasts should look like this:

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