Fruit, Gluten Free, Grilled, Meat, MainsPaul Shetler Fast

Honey Citrus Grilled Chicken

Fruit, Gluten Free, Grilled, Meat, MainsPaul Shetler Fast
Honey Citrus Grilled Chicken

Three cheers for the Memorial Day weekend. This week has felt long with work during the day, and preterm labor most nights. While my appetite has been weak lately, I have had an odd hankering for sweet and sour flavors. With this craving in mind, Paul has been working on this delicious and simple Honey Citrus Grilled Chicken, and it is a knock-out win for me!

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Yield: Serves 3-5

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 pounds chicken thighs and breasts
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 worchestershire sauce
  • Juice and zest of 1 lemon
  • Juice and zest of 1 orange
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Steps:

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the marinade ingredients (olive oil, worchestershire sauce, lemon juice and zest, orange juice and zest, honey, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper) until well combined.
  2. Combine the chicken and marinade in a zip-top bag, shake well to evenly coat all pieces. Allow the chicken to marinate in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours (as long as overnight) before grilling.
  3. Preheat your grill on high for 10-15 minutes. Clean the grates thoroughly and wipe with a lightly oiled rag just prior to grilling to reduce sticking.
  4. Grill on medium heat (covered) for about 7-10 minutes per side. You are looking for nice browning and the chicken to just cook through in the middle. The breasts will likely cook faster than the thighs. Your cook time will vary depending on the thickness of the pieces and the starting temperature of your meat. As you finish cooking, test a piece by cutting through the thickest part (you should not see any pink).
  5. For moist meat, allow the grilled chicken to rest for 5 minutes, covered, before serving.

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Orange Cilantro Grilled Chicken Skewers

We love the flavor of grilled food. When we moved to Haiti, we missed our decade old baby Weber grill so much that we ended up bringing it with us to Haiti -- impressively packed by Paul's Dad in his suitcase. We debated admitting this embarrassing dependence, recognizing the ridiculousness of bringing our grill to Haiti. But wow, do we love to grill. Local oranges and herbs make a lovely punchy green marinade for these Orange Cilantro Grilled Chicken Skewers. A light zesty marinade to add to your summer repertoire.

Mains, Gluten Free, Meat, GrilledPaul Shetler FastComment
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Vietnamese Chicken Soup, Phở Gà

Food has the power to connect us to people and places around the world. In 2007, Rebecca and I spent three months traveling through South East Asia together. Leaving Cambodia on the back of moto-bikes, we arrived for the night, hot and dusty, in a small village in rural Vietnam. After dropping off our packs, we sat down on the rickety plastic stools of the town's only food stand, famished. Without asking what we wanted, two pungent bowls of Phở Gà, Vietnam's famous chicken noodle soup, were plunked down in front of us. We were hooked! As we made our way north over the next several weeks, we enjoyed many local variations of Phở: from the dark, rich, and beefy to bright and spicy with shrimp. Our favorite Phở, on which our recipe is based, was eaten from steaming bowls one early morning overlooking Hạ Long Bay. This version used chicken that had been marinated and grilled, rather than boiled in the soup, giving it a crispy texture and sweet charred flavor. 

Each sip of flavorful broth reminds us also of the people and culture that created it. Phở is an aromatic and visual dish, one that we like to serve in our  Vietnamese blue petal bowls made in the Kinh family workshop in the famous pottery village of Bat Trang, Vietnam. By partnering with a local non-profit and Ten Thousand Villages, women potters are able to make a living for their families, continue a rich cultural tradition, and gain access to tools, education, training, interest-free loans, and literacy classes. We buy many of our dishes and gifts from Ten Thousand Villages each year, and appreciate their commitment to ethical partnerships with local artisans around the world. 

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North African Grilled Chicken

Without AC in the summer, our small Pittsburgh kitchen is not a place you want to be cooking with high heat. For us, summer eating often revolves around the grill, where our current go-to protein is North African Grilled Chicken. Inspired by the flavors of the famous North African spice mix known as Ras Al-Hanout (or "best of the shop"), our marinade uses a blend of warming spices, cinnamon, black pepper, turmeric, cumin, nutmeg, and cloves, balanced with punchy lemon. This fragrant combination is intoxicating. North African Grilled Chicken is a crowd pleaser on its own and an excellent light addition to sandwiches, salads, or tacos.

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Chimichurri Chicken Kabobs

Delicious meat cookery doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, with quality ingredients, it can be down-right simple. Our Chimichurri Chicken Kabobs start with moist and flavorful chicken thighs marinated and sauced with a jar of fresh and vibrant Argentinian chimichurri. Making your own chimchurri is easy. Raising your own chickens, on the other hand, and ensuring top flavor, moist meat, and ethical animal husbandry, requires a whole different level of DIY commitment. When sourcing your chicken here are my top 3 tips:

  1. Don't compromise freshness. As chicken ages under cellophane, its quality declines and the tender muscle fibers begin to lose both moisture and flavor. Similarly, each time meat is frozen and thawed, its texture and moistness is compromised. Buy the freshest meat you can find that has been stored carefully without freezing.
  2. Keep processing to a minimum. Each processing step risks compromising quality and increasing cost at the register. Try to avoid buying meat that has 'stuff' added or injected. As much as you are able, do your own processing (partitioning a whole chicken, deboning thighs, skinning breasts, doing your own grinding, etc.). Not only will this give you more control over your meat, it will give you 'extras' to freeze or use for unrivaled homemade broths and soups.
  3. Find a brand or farm you believe in. Animal husbandry is tricky business, and so is finding meat at your local grocery that you can feel good about. Understanding how each company balances issues of animal well-being, human health concerns, taste, texture, environmental impact, and cost, is generally not decipherable from the labels and buzzwords found on packaging. Do your research, it's easier than you think. 

With Rebecca out of town recently, I found myself on a quest to identify the best supermarket chicken.  I'm not even going to share how much chicken I single-handedly cooked and consumed, but a clear winner emerged. In a funny small world kind of way, it's a family business from my hometown: Miller Poultry. From classic roast chicken to smoked wings, from chicken schnitzel to Chimichurri Chicken Kabobs, this is can-do chicken! While Miller's can be found in many Whole Foods, I found that it is also available in our local Shop N'Save.

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Quick Thai Curry Drumsticks

Rebecca and I are coming up on 8 years of marriage. Crazy, I know. This week's sweltering and humid weather here in Haiti had me thinking back to our engagement in Thailand. In particular, I was remembering one late evening walk through a night market in Bangkok, snacking on delicious street foods as we talked about what a life together would look like. One stand was serving grilled chicken in an addictive, slightly sweet peanut curry sauce. Maybe it was just the romance of the moment, but that flavor combo has stuck with us, and it's one we find ourselves coming back to in the heat of summer. These Quick Thai Curry Drumsticks are simple, quick, and perfect for a hot summer evening. 

Gluten Free, Grilled, Mains, Meat, QuickPaul Shetler Fastpeanut butter, curry, fish sauce, worchestershireComment
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