Pollo al Mattone (Chicken Under a Brick)

We've been serving this to guests recently after a long period of making it for ourselves to get it right. It's frigging amazingly flavorful and delicious, in addition to being simple. There are a lot of recipes online about how to do this to an entire chicken, but this recipe calls for breasts, and I find they're a lot easier to deal with. This recipe is adapted from Steve Raichlen's How to Grill.

Gather these things:

2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp coarse salt (we prefer Kosher)
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp hot pepper flakes (less if you're sensitive to that sort of thing)
1 Tbsp chopped garlic (or just press a couple cloves)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 lemon
1/4 cup EV olive oil

You'll also want to wrap a brick in foil for each breast.

Do this:

Trim any excess fat from chx breasts, rinse and pat dry with a paper towel and place in whatever you're marinating in (we use a smallish ceramic casserole dish). Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and pepper flakes on both sides. Rub garlic and rosemary into both sides. Squeeze lemon juice over them and pour the olive oil on and stick 'em in the fridge for 30 mins to an hour.

Light your grill and get it real hot. You're going to be cooking directly over the heat; I usually pile the coals up in an even layer on one side of the grill, leaving at least a third with no coals so I have a cooler place to move them to if I need to. Brush and oil the grate thoroughly right before you put the chicken on.

When you're ready to cook, toss wood chips on if you're using them (they will up the flavor, but we've made them without wood chips and they were still amazing). Arrange the breasts at a 45 degree angle to the grill grates and put a foil wrapped brick on each one (I usually have the bricks on the grill for a few minutes prior to get them warmed up). Cover and cook for two minutes. Rotate each breast 90 degrees and replace the brick and cook for two minutes more. Flip and repeat. Each breast cooks for 4-6 mins per side. You should have beautiful golden breasts with a good crosshatch grill mark pattern. I always check them with a digital thermometer and if they need to go longer I put them on the cool side and cover the grill and just let them bake a little rather than stay directly over the searing coals. At 145 degrees F get them off the grill and loosely tent with foil to let them rest for a few minutes. This is a great opportunity to toast some bread or grill a veggie side to complete the whole meal on the grill. We like to do grilled zucchini and red onion tossed in a lemon/basil vinaigrette.

Enjoy! You can do this without the bricks, and it's still good, but something about the brick pressing down on them really adds a lot of flavor, and you've probably got a few bricks laying around anyway. That's it. This is the best grilled chicken breasts we've done.

Cheers

Caesar Salad

Adapted from The Joy of Cooking

Mash together in a small bowl until a paste is formed:
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk in:
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and black pepper to taste

Add in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Place in a salad bowl:
2 heads romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

Toss with the dressing and:
Croutons
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Cowboy Candy (candied jalapenos)

From: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/canning/candied-jalapenos-cowboy-candy/?print=1

Prep Time 15 Minutes Cook Time 30 Minutes

Servings 36

Difficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

• 3 pounds Firm, Fresh Jalapeno Peppers, Washed
• 2 cups Cider Vinegar
• 6 cups White Granulated Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Turmeric
• ½ teaspoons Celery Seed
• 3 teaspoons Granulated Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper

Preparation Instructions

Wearing gloves, remove the stems from all of the jalapeno peppers. The easiest way to do this is to slice a small disc off of the stem-end along with the stem. Discard the stems.

Slice the peppers into uniform 1/8-1/4 inch rounds. Set aside.

In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, granulated garlic and cayenne pepper to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean, sterile canning jars to within 1/4 inch of the upper rim of the jar. Turn heat up under the pot with the syrup and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 6 minutes.

Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices. Insert a cooking chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air. Adjust the level of the syrup if necessary. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp paper towel and fix on new, two-piece lids to finger-tip tightness.

If you do not want to can these to the point of shelf stable, you can simply put the jars in your refrigerator and store them there. I prefer to keep the fridge space free so I can them. If you wish to can them, follow the instructions below.

Note: If you have leftover syrup, and it is likely that you will, you may can it in half-pint or pint jars, too. It’s wonderful brushed on meat on the grill or added to potato salad or, or, or … in short, don’t toss it out!

To can, place jars in a canner and cover with water by 2-inches. Bring the water to a full rolling boil. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints. When timer goes off, use canning tongs to transfer the jars to a cooling rack. Leave them to cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. When fully cooled, wipe them with a clean, damp washcloth, then label.

Allow to mellow for at least two weeks, but preferably a month before eating. Or don’t. I won’t tell!