August 9 – August 15, 2021

Grilled Chicken with Corn and Skillet Potatoes and Zucchini

Tuk Trey Ping Poh Sauce with Pork Chops and Rice

Grilled Scallops with Chili and Sweet Peach Sauce

For the last week we have been consoling ourselves for the loss of our dear friend, TKH.  Tim was a classmate at CCHS, a graduate and fan of all things Notre Dame, a lover of golf who could hit drives like Bryson DeChambeau, and the most thoughtful of friends – always bringing a gift, usually a book and frequently a cake from Oakmont Bakery, when he dropped by.  He also had a near super-human capacity for ingratiating himself with complete strangers en route to fulfilling his annual trip to the Masters, being put up on several occasions by a group of nuns who somehow got the impression that he was a priest, being invited to dine with the Mayor of Augusta, and other exploits that, if you don’t know someone like Tim, you will think apocryphal.  I will miss his wonderful, fantastical phone calls:  “Hey Stew, pack a bag, I’m going to pick you up in 15 minutes, we’re flying to Augusta on X’s corporate jet to have breakfast with Nicklaus before he tees off.”

In recent months, Brose, Tim and I had been meeting at The Lot in Oakmont to share his favorite lunch – an omelette with crispy, roasted potatoes.  He had simple, but powerful tastes and I will never write about food without thinking of those lunches and the reminiscing and joking that, along with Tim, were at their core.

And now, as Monty Python used to say, for something entirely different.

We have hit upon a new recipe for simple, grilled chicken, that we feel compelled to add to the mountain of chicken recipes we have already shared with you.  But this is so simple, so tasty, and so quickly cooked that not to have this in your repertoire during grilling season, is like trying to drive blind-folded, sing opera when you have laryngitis, or run a marathon on the day after your operation for a complete knee replacement [I couldn’t even hobble].  And we just can’t leave you that exposed.

We’ve been cooking up a storm in the last two weeks – a delicious one-pan dish or tortellini in chicken broth with cherry tomatoes and feta, a dynamite ginger-soy chicken stir-fry, grilled scallops with a hot-sweet peach sauce, and, among other things, buckets of McElhilliny Farms corn, slightly boiled and lightly salted and irresistible.

Here’s the recipe for the chicken – I hope you have someone like Tim in your own life.

Simple Grilled Chicken

(adapted from Jenn Segal’s blog – Once Upon a Chef)

Timing:                        10 minutes active – 4 hours to marinate

Ingredients: 

2 large or three medium chicken breasts (about 1 ¾ lbs.)

4 large garlic cloves (we used one to give us a nice savory base – 4 cloves is for those who love garlic – 2 cloves are still fairly strong)

Zest from one lemon

1 teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 ¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Prep and Marinade:

Trim breasts, if necessary, then pound to an even ½-inch thickness.  (The best way to do this is to put each breast, separately, into a large plastic storage bag and pound with a meat mallet, gently so as not to tear the chicken, and working your way from the center to the outer edges.)

Set the breasts on a plate and mix all of the other ingredients in that same bag or another if the first is torn.  Now add the chicken breasts to the bag and massage the marinade into the chicken.

Place the bag in a bowl (to avoid leaks) and put into the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.  Note:  You can get away with 2 hours, but your chicken won’t be as flavorful.

Cook:

Preheat your grill to high – oil the grates and place the chicken breasts on the grill and cook, covered for 3 minutes per side.  If the chicken is still very pliant, cook for another minute or two.

Slice the chicken and serve with some of that corn we mentioned, or roasted new potatoes, or grilled tomatoes, or rice and a salad.  Sit on your patio or porch and enjoy.