Chicken Recipes, Please?

“Grilled Chicken Breast with Cucumber and Pepper Relish” is a great tasting chicken recipe that makes a summertime cookout really special. I found this winner on AllRecipes.com, which has an overwhelming selection of recipes for just about any category of food that you could want.

The cucumber and pepper relish for this dish is a simple preparation of chopped red onion, chopped parsley, red pepper flakes, and of course, chopped cucumber and chopped yellow bell pepper. It’s a snap to make, and for me, it was a great way to use some of my garden vegetables. I made extra relish because I plan to use it on burgers and as a chip dip during the coming week.

The chicken for this dish is prepared with a simple marinade of cumin, chili powder, and olive oil, which is rubbed on the boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The chicken is allowed to marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour to absorb the flavors. I actually marinated the chicken for two and a half hours, which wasn’t planned, but I simply wasn’t ready to cook the chicken until later than I had anticipated, mostly because my guests and I enjoyed another of those extended cocktail hours that stretch on for two hours or more but seem like thirty minutes. Anyway, the extra marinating time didn’t hurt a thing in this instance.

This grilled chicken recipe was perfect for a warm late summer evening on the patio. Light and refreshing, it left everyone feeling satisfied but not stuffed—just right. I served it with green beans (also from my garden), a spicy couscous recipe (a prepackaged supermarket brand), and ciabatta with olive oil. Perfect!

I’ve never been a huge fan of traditional burgers on the grill. Although I like a good hamburger, I rarely make them on the grill, because I think hamburgers taste better when cooked on the griddle. Perhaps it’s because of my bad luck when cooking them on the grill that brings me to that conclusion. I always make the patties more than twice the diameter of the bun to allow for shrinkage, but sometimes that doesn’t even do the trick. And, for some reason, I never have much success in grilling them properly. They always end up resembling hockey pucks in both size and texture.

I have much better luck grilling any type of chicken dish, including chicken burgers. Maybe it’s my partiality to chicken that allows for this success. Anyway, before I get any deeper into analyzing why my grilled hamburgers are such a flop, let me tell you about a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. “Grilled Chicken Burgers,” submitted by Teri, is one of the best grilled chicken sandwich recipes I’ve ever tasted. The recipe features a combination of ground chicken; sautéed onions, garlic, bell pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, and carrots; eggs; and breadcrumbs. There is also a sprinkling of salt and black pepper and a tablespoon of Old Bay^TM seasoning added to the mixture. The recipe makes about eight patties, which grill up moist and toasty brown. This chicken burger reminds me of a crab cake: It isn’t quite as rich as a crab cake, but it isn’t exactly a low-cal dish either. It is, however, a truly delicious chicken burger—one that I’ll be making quite often.

I like experimenting with different marinades and rubs when grilling chicken. I think it’s enjoyable to throw together a variety of ingredients and see what happens. Sometimes, my concoctions are quite good and other times, not so good, such as the time when I used too many hot chili peppers in the marinade resulting in my sudden urge to immerse my head in a bucket of water after the first bite. Some of the other people who were daring enough to try it weren’t quite as sensitive to the heat level as I was, but they did admit that it was plenty hot and that the spiciness completely obliterated the flavor of the chicken.

Occasionally, I find an intriguing marinade on one of the many great food sites that I visit regularly, such as this one that I found on GroupRecipes.com called, “Whiskey Grilled Chicken,” by Chefmeow. This marinade includes vinegar, mustard, grated onion, crushed garlic, brown sugar, salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and of course, whiskey.

I marinated boneless chicken breasts in the mixture for exactly the time recommended in the recipe: 2 hours; then I threw them on the grill. The aroma of the chicken during the grilling process was incredible, so I hoped that it would taste as good as it smelled, and I wasn’t disappointed. It was fantastic! I also grilled some sliced onions and bell peppers to serve with the chicken, as recommended in the recipe. Grilled vegetables are such a great accompaniment for almost any type of grilled meat.

I hope you’ll give this tasty marinated grilled chicken recipe a try. Thanks, Chefmeow, for the great recipe!

It’s chicken and dumplings again. Yesterday’s rainy weather meant no outdoor grilling, so for dinner last night, I prepared this stovetop chicken dish (one of the few times I’ve used the stove this summer). I had such success with a recipe called, “Mom’s Chicken and Dumplings,” which I wrote about back on July 15, that I decided to make chicken and dumplings again; however, I used a different recipe this time. I found this one, called simply “Chicken and Dumplings,” on the terrific RecipeTips.com Website. I must say that this recipe was every bit as good as the fabulous “Mom’s” recipe.

Chicken and Dumplings

I’ve never been overly successful in preparing anything that required a dough or batter as part of the recipe, but as I mentioned, my triumph with dumplings last month eliminated my apprehension about it this time. My fear that first time was that my dumplings would become suitable replacements for hockey pucks, but they actually turned out to be quite edible. On this go-around, I think the dumplings were even better: softer, lighter, and equally delicious. (Practice makes perfect, I guess.) Perhaps the addition of the nutmeg or the parsley is what gave these dumplings their distinctive taste, but whatever it was that made them taste so good, I wouldn’t change a thing about the dumpling recipe, or for that matter, the accompanying chicken stew recipe, which was fantastic.

Now that I’ve tried two different chicken and dumpling recipes in as many months, I would be hard pressed to say which one is better, although I would probably give the nod to this recipe if it was simply a choice between the two different chicken stews. Try both of these tasty recipes and see which one you prefer.

I found this version of the recurrent favorite, “Jamaican Jerk Chicken,” on the wonderful recipe site, GroupRecipes.com. Yes, this great chicken recipe has a bit of a kick to it, but it’s not so hot that you’ll want to reach for the fire hose to quench the flames spewing from your innards. I’ve never been a fan of any dish that is so spicy that the flavor of the featured ingredient, whether it is chicken or beef or whatever, is completely lost within the overwhelming heat of the other ingredients.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

For this recipe, the chicken pieces are marinated in a tasty mixture of dark rum, malt vinegar, garlic, thyme, ground allspice, ground nutmeg, salt, black pepper, and brown sugar. The recipe also calls for green onions, scotch bonnet chilies, and vegetable oil to be included in the marinade, but I substituted one yellow onion for the ten green onions, jalapeno chilies for the scotch bonnet, and olive oil for the vegetable oil. I’m sure the heat level was reduced because of the substitution of jalapeno chilies for the scotch bonnet, which are among the hottest chilies available.

The recipe also called for the chicken to be baked, but I grilled it instead. When I prepare it again during the winter months, I’ll try it in the oven as suggested, but as usual, I like to take advantage of outdoor grilling whenever possible, and this recipe worked quite nicely on the grill.

When the chicken is ready to eat, it is served with a sauce made with ketchup, soy sauce, and two tablespoons of the jerk seasoning (the marinade). It is very important to reserve the proper amount of jerk seasoning required for the sauce prior to marinating the chicken; otherwise you risk exposure to food borne illness if you use the seasoning after it has had contact with the raw chicken.

I served this flavorful chicken dish with a simple garden salad and grilled sweet corn. I often have leftovers when I have guests for dinner because I tend to make too much of everything, but not this time. Every scrap of food was wiped out. I guess that means they liked it. I’m sure you will, too.

While browsing through the chicken recipes on RecipeTips.com, I found this quick and easy-to-make dish that was the perfect choice for a busy day. Talk about simple—this chicken recipe has four ingredients: skinless chicken breasts, onion soup mix, orange juice concentrate, and olive oil.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

To prepare this dish, you simply brown the chicken breasts in a skillet containing some olive oil, throw them in a baking dish, pour the onion soup and orange juice concentrate mixture over the chicken, and bake uncovered until done. I served it over rice, as suggested, and garnished the dish with a sprinkling of fresh herbs. It was really quite tasty. I guess recipes don’t have to be complicated or contain a lengthy list of ingredients to be delicious. I hope you enjoy “Sweet-n-Sour Chicken” as much as I did.

Last Saturday night, I made a great curried chicken dish that turned out to be a real hit with everyone. It was quick, easy to make, and really tasty. It’s called simply, “Curry Grilled Chicken,” which I found on the AllRecipes.com Web site.

The preparation begins with a simple marinade made with sugar, vinegar, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, paprika, curry powder, garlic salt, and black pepper. The recipe also called for a half teaspoon of salt, which I omitted. I also doubled the amount of curry powder, because as you might be aware if you’ve read my other entries, I love curry seasoning, so the half teaspoon just didn’t seem like enough; however, stick with the recipe if you like a more subtle curry flavor.

The amount of marinade in this recipe is enough for four boneless and skinless chicken breast halves of about four ounces each, so for the number of servings I required, it was necessary for me to triple the recipe. I also marinated the chicken about twice as long as called for in the recipe.

Now, the results: Wow! The simple marinade provides the chicken with a wonderful flavor and color. The chicken remained moist, tender, and delicious. This turned out to be another successful grilling experience, making the beautiful summer evening quite enjoyable for everyone.

Wild Rice Chicken Salad

During the warm and humid midsummer days, I often eat a rather light evening meal: grilled chicken and vegetables when I’m dining al fresco or a chicken stir-fry on stormy days or simply a cool salad on the hottest days. Since the weather has been rather hot and sultry the past few days, I was in the mood for chicken salad, which I prepared for dinner last evening. Since I had quite a bit of leftover boiled wild rice from dinner the night before, I thought I would try to find a chicken salad recipe that would allow me to use it up. My search led me to this: “Wild Rice Chicken Salad,” which I found in the Chicken Recipes Collection on RecipeTips.com. This great chicken salad recipe is easy to make, and it tastes fantastic.

I didn’t have any leftover cooked chicken to use in the salad (the recipe calls for grilled chicken), but it was no big deal to fire up the grill and cook up what I needed for the recipe. I grilled the chicken in the early morning before I went to work; then I let it cool while I ate breakfast. By the time I was finished with breakfast, the chicken was sufficiently cool so that I could chop it into bite-size pieces. The rest of the preparation required only a few minutes. Preparing this salad in the morning provided the necessary time for the flavors of the various ingredients to meld in the refrigerator before serving it that evening.

I love the combination of flavors in this chicken salad—the earthiness of the wild rice, the grilled flavor of the chicken, the sweetness of the pineapple, the distinctive taste of the mango chutney, and so on—and I like the variety of crunchy and chewy textures that all of the ingredients provide. This is a chicken salad recipe that you really must try. It was just the ticket on a hot summer day.