Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Quick Grilled Lemon Chicken with Garlic Basil Butter

Let's just say...YUM!!! This turned out soooo good!! And it was so easy!! This recipe was taken from "Food to Live By" that I referenced earlier this week. Love it!

You marinate in the morning, and in the evening, you take it out of the marinade and grill. How easy is that?? I made this for a friend who came over for dinner. I was gone all day, but it was marinating, and then I had a stress free dinner to come home and grill!! Wonderful!!

With the chicken, the cookbook suggests you make grilled summer vegetables (also in the cookbook) to accompany the dish, and I'm sooo glad I did!! This may have been even better than the chicken!! You can pretty much pick whatever veggies you want, but she has you pick zucchini, onions, eggplant, and yellow summer squash (which I didn't get because I accidentally got spaghetti squash, which I didn't use but is pictured here!).


I love all the fresh ingredients that this cookbook requires you to use!!



For the vegetables, you can either make an herb-flavored oil, or you can just use regular olive oil, which I chose to do since I was making several other things. You just brush the veggies with the oil and salt and pepper them, and let them sit for about 30 minutes to soak up all the flavor of the oil, salt, and pepper. I have grilled veggies before, but letting them sit and soak in the oil for an additional 30 minutes really made a big difference! They were divine!!




You can use an outdoor grill (which we haven't fired up yet for the season) or you can just use an inside grill, which I used and it worked just fine!!! The smell was amazing!!



The marinade for the 6 chicken breasts was as follows:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup herb-flavored olive oil or regular olive oil (again, just used regular olive oil)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

2 Tablespoons minced, fresh basil, or 2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper


First, you pound out the chicken to tenderize it, to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. This really helps to chicken to cook faster as well, and to cook through when grilling.

You then whisk the above ingredients together and throw it all together in a ziploc bag. Marinate for at least 3 hours, all day, or overnight, turning it (if you are home) to evenly distribute the marinade all over the chicken.

Then you just grill it. 2-4 minutes per side.

But, oh, did I mention the Garlic Basil Butter??? Oh my!!! In the morning, I also made this amazing butter that melts ever so delicately on top of the chicken, and you can also use it on bread, corn on the cob, fish, etc.


Garlic Basil Butter

8 Tbs. unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup minced fresh basil

1 clove basil, minced

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice


Pretty much just blend all ingredients together with a fork, put it in some plastic wrap and form into a cylinder. Refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 3 days. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months. Delicious!!

To serve up, just run a knife under hot water and slice as many slices as you need. Shown below on top of the chicken!!




This is the complete dish. Served with just plain 'ole brown rice. Healthy, delicious, and fun to make!!!!!


And great for entertaining!!!

Thanks for coming over for dinner and going to a movie, Kara!!!
Another recipe is as follows: Save the leftover chicken and grilled vegetables. Place on 2 slices of Foccacia bread, and use Jalapeno Aioli (another recipe in the book) as a spread!!

Can't wait to try this with the leftovers!!!

Again, all the credit goes to Myra Goodman and her "Food to Live By," the most amazing cookbook!! If you have any questions about the recipes shown here, or want me to email more detailed recipes your way, comment here, or email me at steph4given@yahoo.com!! Thanks for coming along with me on my culinary journey!!


Oh yeah, and Happy Spring!!!









No comments:

Post a Comment