Mmmmmm, grilled chicken!!!

I have been on a grilling quest for a few days now. It all started when the hubby says...."you know what sounds good....fajitas". Well the marinade I use has to sit overnight at least. So while that was soaking up the goodness the other day, I marinaded some chicken thighs (bone in with skin for the hubby) and boneless, skinless breasts for me. I also happen to make enough chicken breasts that there is enough for a sandwich for hubby and some salads for me!! I would love to show you some photos of the chicken....but it disappeared too quickly for me to do that, so here is the marinade recipe.

Marinade for chicken

2 cups water
4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1 garlic clove (of course I used two!!)
2 Tablespoons pineapple juice
1 teaspoon lime juice
Chicken (I used three thighs and six 5 ounce breasts)

In a blender, combine the water, salt, pepper, garlic. Blend on high for 15 seconds. Add pineapple juice and lime juice and blend for another 5 seconds. Marinade chicken on one side for 45 min. turn over and marinade for 30 min. more. Cook however you like.

I grilled mine on the BBQ (make sure you spray the grill with cooking spray first, there is sugar in the pineapple juice and you don't want them to stick. Or you could broil, bake, or even pan fry. However if you pan fry, you loose a little bit of the flavor, I think.

I hope you enjoy this as much as Jim and I did. In fact he's having it for a sandwich today at lunch. Mmmmm. If you make this and have any photos, go ahead and share. I would love to see them.

Crispy Lemon Chicken Thighs

Today was the first day of getting back on track and cooking every meal. I found this recipe in one of my cookbooks. The cookbook was Better Homes and Gardens Cooking for 2. It sounded really easy and quick but tasty too. I made it as instructed in the recipe but when I make it again, I will make a few changes. I will note the changes at the end of the recipe. So I won't make you wait any longer...

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning
1 tsp. dried parsley flakes
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 10 oz. total)

In a shallow dish, combine cornmeal, lemon-pepper seasoning, and parsley. In another shallow dish, combine lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the oil. Dip chicken in lemon juice mixture, then in cornmeal mixture to coat.

In a large nonstick skillet, cook chicken in remaining hot oil over medium heat for 16 to 18 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (180 degrees F), turning once.

And here it is. Sorry the photo is not the greatest, I'm getting used to a new camera. Anyway I put them in the oven to keep warm while I cooked the other two thighs. They were super moist and tender and the flavor was subtle but tasty.

The lemon-pepper seasoning I used was Weber Grill Creations Zesty Lemon Seasoning. I also ground it on a fairly coarse grind.

Now here is where I would make some changes. First I think I would boost up the amount of lemon, or better yet maybe use some lemon or citrus olive oil. The other thing I would do is to put in a little bit of lemon zest to help boost the flavor too.

As for cooking them in the skillet, well I had some issues that the cornmeal coating was not sticking well enough to the chicken. So I was thinking of baking the chicken on a wire cooling rack and to spray the chicken with either some Pam or Pam Olive Oil. That way it would get the crispy texture without the oil.

All in all, I will most definitely make this again. It was nice and light and would go nicely with just about anything. I hope you enjoy this recipe too.