Korean Grilled Chicken

Korean dinner: grilled spicy chicken, kimchi cucumber and some simple green beans

It's still grilling season and here's a delicious combination of flavors. There are a lot of ingredients in the marinade but they are all easy to find. If you can find Korean crushed red pepper - it's much milder than the stuff you shake on pizzas - use that. Rather than searingly hot, it's slightly hot and fruity. On the heat/flavor scale, I think it's close to Aleppo pepper, though that isn't much easier to locate than Korean chile! If you must, use the crushed red pepper. Or you can leave out the chile because there is a lot of flavor going on here.

This marinade is also great on veggies, such as chunks of red peppers, shiitake mushrooms, whole scallions, or spring onions.

Korean Grilled Chicken
(serves 8)

2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts

3 Tablespoons soy sauce
⅓ cup rice wine or dry vermouth
3 scallions, white and light green part, finely minced
8 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
4 walnut halves, toasted and finely chopped
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Korean red chile flakes or Aleppo pepper OR ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 ½ ground black pepper
pinch of salt

oil for greasing grill
salt

Cut the chicken breasts into 1" thick slices. Mix together the remaining ingredients in a large glass baking dish. Add the chicken and coat with marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat up your grill on high. Brush with oil to prevent sticking. Reduce heat to medium. Remove chicken from the marinade, sprinkle lightly with salt, and cook until done, about 20 minutes, flipping to get some light char on both sides. Serve as whole pieces, or slice on the bias (as in photo above).

From Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen: A Cookbook by Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall, Ten Speed Press, 2001.

Grilling Time!

View of Lake Cayuga, one of the Finger Lakes. Both Wells College and Cornell University overlook this beautiful lake.

Memorial Day officially kicks off the summer season and that means it's time to fire up the grill. Here in Colorado, we grill year round (I usually grill a turkey for Thanksgiving) but once the summer heat hits, it's the only way I cook.

The Original Wells Chicken recipe

So, to celebrate the start of grilling season, I offer "Wells Chicken." I was just back from central New York where I attended my daughter's graduation from Wells College (my alma mater, too). Cornell Chicken is sold out of shacks throughout this part of New York. Two of my college friend's decided that our little college needed its own version. This is what they came up with, and I proudly served it to friends and family last week at my daughter's graduation party. The main difference? Cornell Chicken uses apple cider vinegar and her Wells version uses red wine vinegar. Try them both this summer. Either way, it's a delicious take on grilled chicken.

The real secret ingredient in both these recipes is the egg. Egg yolks are full of lecithin, an emulsifier. It keeps the oil and vinegar from separating in the marinade. Because we eventually cook the chicken, the egg works well for this.

Someday, do try to sample Cornell Chicken in the Finger Lakes. It's a beautiful place, filled with wineries, tree-lined villages, history, and of course, stunning lakes!

Wells Chicken
(For 5 broiler halves, enough for 8-10 people)

½ cup oil

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning

¼ teaspoon white pepper

1 egg

juice of 1 lemon

2 cloves garlic, mashed 

healthy pinch of crushed red pepper

Combine everything in a big bowl, making sure to beat egg in well. Add chicken and marinate for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. Overnight is the minimum. Turn chicken a few times to makes sure all pieces are well-covered.

Grill on a slow grill to prevent flare-ups. (More tips on grilling chicken)

For traditional Cornell Chicken, replace the red wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar and don't use lemon juice, garlic, and crushed red pepper.

Caribbean Grilled Chicken

Here's a boldly flavored marinade/BBQ sauce. Most of the sauce is used to marinate the chicken. It's a quick marinade so you don't need to think far ahead to make this on a summer night. The rest of the sauce is drizzled on the cooked chicken.

You can use all lime juice, or substitute some lemon or orange juice for some of the lime juice.

Caribbean Grilled Chicken
(serves 4, costs $9.35)

¼ cup chopped fresh basil
2 Tablespoon grated or minced fresh ginger
¼ cup fresh lime juice or ½ lime and ½ lemon, or orange juice
¼ cup oil
2 Tablespoon brown sugar
¼ cup soy sauce
2-3 teaspoons Siracha or Asian chile sauce
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 to 1 ¼ pounds boneless chicken breast or thighs

Combine all the ingredients except the chicken in a 2 cup measuring cup. Mix well to dissolve the sugar. If the chicken breasts are thick, cut into 2 thinner pieces by slicing the breast in ½ horizontally. This increases the amount of marinade in contact with the chicken and speeds grilling. Place the chicken in a glass dish or plastic bag. Pour on ⅔'s of the sauce, reserving the remaining sauce to serve with the cooked chicken. Marinate the chicken for 15-30 minutes, and no longer than 1 hour (the lime juice will make the chicken mushy). While the chicken is marinating, heat up the grill on high. Just before placing the chicken on the grill, reduce the heat to medium. Grill the chicken about 5 minutes per side. Serve with remaining sauce.

Dry Rub Magic

More on grilling, this Memorial Day weekend. If you haven't spiced up your grilling with a bit of dry rub yet, I have a tip for you. Unlike marinades, dry rubs can be put on your meat close to grilling time, so using them requires no advance planning. You can rub them on in advance, if you like, but it's not absolutely necessary to impart flavor. The dry rub brings plenty of flavor in no time at all.

There are an infinite number of dry rubs, depending on where you draw your influence from. This is a traditional American BBQ style rub, a little sweet, and one that you can use on poultry or any kind of red meat, even salmon. I used it most recently on Cornish game hens, which are great on the grill. They are a bit more expensive than chicken, but they are also a bit more impressive than plain chicken. Everyone can get their own half a hen and they cook in 30 minutes if you split them in half before cooking. Another advantage of splitting them in half is you can cover the inside of the bird with the rub too.

In keeping with the quick theme, rub on the dry rub when you start your grill. By the time the coals are ready or your grill is hot, you can put the hens on. If you have more time, put the dry rub on a few hours ahead and refrigerate until you're ready to cook them. Either way, they will be delicious.

This recipe makes more rub than you will need for a single meal. Put it in a glass jar and store in a cool, dark place. You'll have it in the pantry whenever you need a quick BBQ fix. Use it up with a few months of mixing it up. For 4 Cornish game hen halves, you'll need about 6 Tablespoons.

Basic BBQ Dry Rub
(makes 1 cup)

¼ cup coarse salt, such as kosher salt
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup sweet paprika
3 Tablespoons ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon dried minced onion or onion powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix together in a bowl and store in a tightly covered jar in a cool, dry place.

Use on chicken, Cornish game hens, ribs, pork chops or roasts, salmon, or steak.

Adapted from a recipe by Steven Raichlen.

Gentlepeople, start your barbecues!

Memorial Day marks the start of grilling season, though in Colorado we definitely go for the extended season, starting whenever we don't need mittens to hold our grilling tools and going well into the fall. I have grilled my Thanksgiving turkey, for instance.

But, as this weekend is the unofficial start of summer, this is when, collectively, we start cooking everything outside.

I offer a very simple grilled zucchini salad. The method is from Jamie Oliver. He doesn't think you should ever oil up the vegetables before putting them on the grill. I've done it both ways, and I do think that the zucchini takes on more of the smokey flavor if you don't oil it. And, that's a good thing, particularly for zucchini, which is pretty blah on its own.

Grilled Warm Zucchini Salad
(serves 4)

4 medium zucchini, stem end removed
1 medium red pepper, cored, seeded and cut into quarters
3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
salt and black pepper
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, thyme, or oregano

Slice the zucchini about ½" thick the long way. Much thicker and it takes too long to cook. Much thinner and it dries out. Grill zucchini and red pepper over high heat with no oil until you get nice grill marks on both sides of the zucchini and the pepper is softened. Cut into bite-sized pieces. Dress with oil and vinegar and season with salt and black pepper. Add in chopped herbs and toss. Can be served warm or cold.

What's in Season Now: Asparagus

These are done: bright green and still slightly crisp

Asparagus isn't the cheapest vegetable out there, even when it is in season. But, it's way, way more expensive when it is out of season, so we snap it up when the price drops below $2 per pound. There is a fair amount of waste, so, definitely not a budget item. Think of it as a treat of spring, a way to lavish goodness on a loved one.

Asparagus is great hot, warm, or chilled. It cooks in no time. It is delicious prepared in the most simple way. You can eat it with your fingers!

A pound of asparagus will feed 4-5 people though we love it so much in my house, it barely feeds 3 sometimes.

Let's talk about cleaning asparagus. How you clean it up depends on the thickness of the stalks. If the stalks are thin, the best way to get rid of the woody parts is as follows:

• Hold stalk at woody end in one hand and in the middle with the other.
• Bend the stalk until it snaps
• It breaks where the woody part starts

If the stalks are big enough to peel, you can cut off about an inch of the woody end, then peel off the tough green layer, using a vegetable peeler. I prefer thick stems; I think if you are willing to go to the trouble of peeling them, you will get more asparagus for your money. But, sometimes, all you can find is thin stalks. Best to know both ways to handle your asparagus.

You can steam it, you can boil it, you can roast it, but broiling (or if you have the grill on, grilling) is the easiest, tastiest, and fastest way to cook asparagus.

If you are broiling it in the oven, place the asparagus on a cookie sheet that can handle the high temperature of the broiler. Drizzle on just a little bit of oil, maybe a teaspoon per pound. Toss the asparagus on the sheet to get it well-covered with the oil. Sprinkle on salt and pepper. Stick under the broiler for a few minutes until asparagus starts to sizzle. Toss and broil for another minute or two. How long will depend on how thick the asparagus stalks are. Even thick stalks are done in under 10 minutes. You want bright green asparagus, maybe with a little bit of brown or char (particularly if you are grilling them). Do not overcook - pull them out before they are soft and limp.

If you want to fancy it up, you can:

• Sprinkle on a spice blend like curry or jerk seasoning.
• Sprinkle on some dried herbs. I really like Penzey's Sunny Paris blend (also really tasty in tomato soup).
• Sprinkle on some fresh herbs when it comes out of the oven. 
• Sprinkle on some flavorful oil, like high quality extra virgin olive oil or walnut oil, or a squeeze of citrus juice when it comes out of the oven.

Chicken Gyro-Style

Lemon is a lovely flavor enhancer for chicken. Many marinades use lemon juice but here we use lemon zest. It has a purer lemon flavor. Lemon juice is very acidic and that tends to overpower the lemony flavor. Lemon zest gets all its flavor from the lemon oil in the skin. Just make sure to only grate off the bright yellow skin. The white underneath the skin, the pith, is exceedingly bitter and not the flavor you want to add to your chicken.

Here's a selection of tools you can use for zesting. My favorite is Microplane® but you can use the smallest holes on a box grater. You can get a box grater for a lot less money than a Microplane and it has multiple purposes (like shredding cheese). If you do spring for a Microplane, get one with a handle. They are easier to use than the handle-less variety. The citrus zester is a bit of an antique these days. Before there was a Microplane - it appeared in culinary stores in the mid 90's - the citrus zester was the tool for zesting. But, it can't compete with a Microplane which is why mine hides way in the back of the drawer these days.

Back to front: box grater, 2 different types of Mircoplane and a citrus zester

Chicken Gyro-Style
(serves 3-4, costs $4.65)

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
the zest of 1 fresh lemon
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
a couple of sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped
1 pound boneless skinless chicken, thighs or breasts
salt and black pepper

Mix together garlic, olive oil, and lemon zest in a non-reactive pan that will hold all the chicken in one layer. Crumble up the dried herbs in your palm and add to the garlic mixture. Add the parsley and mix to combine. Put the chicken in the dish and rub the herb mixture all over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Season chicken with salt and black pepper. Broil or grill until cooked all the way through, how long will depend on thickness of chicken. Thin pieces will take only 15 minutes and whole breasts can take 30 minutes.

Serve on a big salad or stuffed into a pita with lots of lettuce and tomatoes.

(Adapted from a recipe for lamb gyros from the American Lamb Association)

Grilling Peaches

It's peach season in Colorado (really! they grow peaches in Colorado) and grilling them is one of my favorite ways to dress them up. This is simple, delicious cooking at its finest.

First, you macerate (like marinate but that's the term used for fruits) the peaches in something tasty for about an hour. Then you grill them. They don't need much grilling - a few minutes per side. I like to serve them in summer main dish salads. Particularly tasty with a bit of goat cheese. They are also good on yogurt as a light dessert. Or, for a more decadent dessert, serve on ice cream.

Grilled Peaches
(serves 4-6)

3 peaches, washed and cut into halves or quarters
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh basil (see note)

Mix the lime juice, honey, and basil in a medium bowl. Add peaches and stir gently to coat them. Let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour. Grill on a hot, lightly oiled grill for 3 minutes per side until you get some grill marks. The sugar in a peaches and the honey will help them brown up quickly. Serve hot or cold.

Note: Basil is particularly good with peaches but most herbs complement this tasty fruit. Try mint, thyme, rosemary, or tarragon instead of basil.

Great Grilled Chicken

It's nearly summer time and that means grilling season is here. I love grilling. Though these days I have a gas grill, I'm a huge fan of cooking over wood or charcoal. Back in the day, I would go camping with my aunt and uncle and most dinners were cooked over a wood fire. It's hard to beat those memories.

Any grill from a little hibachi to a gas grill to a massive wood-burning combination grill/smoker can give great results. It helps to know some simple rules. Today I'm going to talk about chicken because it's the toughest thing to get right. Chicken is a flare-up just waiting to happen, if you cook it with the skin on. For this reason, chicken with the skin and on the bone needs to be grilled at a low temperature. It is not a fast cooking item. If you want fast-cooking, choose a pounded flat chicken breast, not whole parts. When you first put the chicken on the grill, you need to watch it for flare-ups and move the chicken to a non-flaming spot ASAP. If flare-ups engulf your grill when you put the chicken on, your fire is too hot. Those flames are bad, bad, bad. They create char and lots of nasty off flavors. Usually, the flare-ups die down after the first few minutes and you don't need to watch your chicken like a hawk (chicken hawk?) through the entire cooking time. Depending on the size of the pieces, they will take from 1 to 1 1½ hours to cook through (the juices will run clear when poked with a knife). Turn them halfway through cooking to get even golden crispyness but when you do the flip, make sure to be again vigilant for flare-ups.

If you are cooking skin-on chicken, the skin will keep the meat juicy. Marinade is optional here but it adds a lot of wonderful flavor. If you are cooking skinless chicken, a marinade is essential because the oil in the marinade keeps the meat moist.

To recap, grilling chicken

1. Requires longer, low temperature cooking unless you are cooking thin boneless pieces.
2. Flare-ups will occur, especially if you cook with skin on. Watch carefully to prevent charring and move if flare-ups occur.
3. Marinades add lots of interesting flavors and are essential for keeping skinless chicken moist.

Simple Grilled Chicken
(serves 4-6, total cost is $6.15)

4 leg quarters, cut into drumstick and thigh pieces (3 ½ to 4 pounds)
½ cup vegetable oil (olive oil tastes great but it will solidify in the fridge)
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 6-inch sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves stripped off stem
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
salt and pepper

Line a large bowl with a large ziploc bag. Add oil, red wine vinegar, rosemary, and crushed red pepper to the plastic bag. Squish it around a bit. Add the chicken pieces and squish around again. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.

Preheat your grill, if using gas, or get the coals going so they gray all over.

Remove chicken from plastic bag, spread the rosemary leaves on the chicken, and discard the rest of the marinade. Season chicken pieces generously with salt and pepper. Place on the grill. If flare-ups occur, immediately move chicken to a non-flaming part of the grill. If there are flames everywhere, remove the chicken, reduce the heat (if using charcoal, you'll need to push some of the coals to the side, away from the chicken) and put the chicken back on the grill. Cook for about 35 minutes on one side, flip (again, watching for flare-ups), and cook until done, another 30-50 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken pieces. Serve hot.