Easy Chicken strips, grilled

by James Channing Shaw




Grilled chicken strips Prep time: 1 - 2 hour marinade; Cook time: 10 minutes; Serves: 2 to 4

Everyone knows the problem with chicken breasts: they get too dry. This recipe is guaranteed to come out moist and tender. It is an easy summer success story. The inspiration for this dish came from out of the clear blue. There had to be a way to grill chicken breast meat without drying it out. Surprisingly, the recipe came out beautifully the first time and I’ve not made changes to the original. It’s a winner every time.

MUSIC: This can be a lazy summer thing with just the sound of the breeze in the leaves or lapping waves at the shoreline. If you are into more intensity, go all-out with Sanctuary, off Miles Davis' Bitches Brew album while you prepare the marinade.

HERE'S ALL YOU NEED:

• 2 or 3 Chicken breasts. Bone-in breasts are less expensive, but you'll be taking the meat off the bone, so boneless is also fine.
• Olive oil, extra virgin, ¼ Cup
• Dry white wine, ½ to 1 Cup approximately
• Juice of lemon and/or lime, ⅓ to ½ Cup total
• Salt, small palm (close to ½ teaspoon)
• Herbs de Provence, total approximately 4 Tablespoons
• Black pepper (or mixed peppercorn), 5 or 6 big twists of a pepper mill.

HERE'S WHAT TO DO:

1. De-bone the breasts. Remove skin but put aside. Cut chicken into strips approximately ½ inch to 1 inch wide, the full length of the breast. You must have a knife at least 10 inches long, and very sharp. You can get 4 or 5 strips per breast. Remove any tendons.


2. Slice the skin into strips, a bit wider than the chicken so they don't fall through the grill.


3. Place chicken and skin in a large mixing bowl and add olive oil, white wine to cover, lemon and lime juice, herbs, salt and pepper. Use enough herbs to lightly cover all sides of the meat. Stir to mix and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour minimum but a 2 hour marinade is better. Stir occasionally and smell how the mixture takes on a richness that goes beyond the ingredients alone.


4. Cook on a gas grill or with charcoal. Medium-hot (not the hottest) is best. The strips cook rapidly, within 5 minutes usually. Lay them across the grill, turn once or twice as needed, but monitor firmness with your tongs or cut one in half after a few minutes to determine doneness. They will not brown (except the stripes of the grill- see photo) because of the wet marinade. The goal is to have them just done, pink just fading. See photo.


5. The skin takes longer than the chicken, about 10 to 15 minutes. Cook together with the meat, but in a separate area of the grill because it will cause flames. Cook until crispy, maybe even a little carbonized (blackened). Then let cool, chop up like bacon bits and sprinkle as a garnish over the chicken when served.

CADENZA: The chicken is good plain or with a small amount of aioli or light mustard sauce* The dish (and the sauce) goes very well with grilled eggplant or, of course, sweet corn on the cob.

WINE: Red or white Burgundy, big buttery oaky chardonnay, red Bordeaux, Beaujolais, or even beer go well with this summer dish.

About marinating at room temperature: Are you worried about not refrigerating? There is enough citric acid and alcohol with the lemon/lime juice and wine that nothing will grow in the marinade, even if you left it out for days. No refrigeration is necessary while you are marinating this dish.

*About the mustard sauce: 3 parts mayonnaise, 1 part Dijon mustard.

About chicken skin: The skin, because of its fat content, absorbs many flavors. I suggest marinating the skin along with the rest, and grilling separately. The fat content from the skin of two or three breasts of chicken, chopped into bits and spinkled over the chicken, is well worth it when divided among a party of four .