Boneless Chicken Thighs with Olivade on Green Salad

One of my favorite things to grill is boneless chicken thighs. They are quick and easy, similar to boneless chicken breasts but have more flavor and stay moist. Chicken thighs are tasty and best of all don’t break the budget. Olivade is a paste made of olives and spices. It’s good just by itself as a dip, but I thought it would be fun for a topping on grilled boneless chicken thighs. Put them on a salad with artichoke hearts, boiled tiny red skin potatoes and asparagus for a great summer dinner. When it’s hot out it’s nice to just have a refreshing salad. I used a lemon/ginger dressing, but your favorite dressing will work just fine.  

1 Pound boneless chicken thighs 
1 tablespoon olive oil 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Olivade: 
1 cup pitted green olives, coarsely chopped 
1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped 
Juice and zest of 1 lemon 
1 tablespoon tequila or brandy 
2 tablespoons olive oil 
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

 Salad: 
2 cups tiny red potatoes cut to bite size and boiled until tender 
3 cups young greens or your favorite torn into bite sized pieces 
1 cup artichoke hearts, drained 
½ pound asparagus, trimmed then grilled

 Dressing:
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger 
Juice of half a lemon 
1 clove garlic, finely mince 
1 teaspoon fresh mint, finely chopped 
1 tablespoon fresh basil, finely chopped 
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar 
½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Prepare a hot grill. Clean the chicken thighs, drain and lightly season with salt and pepper. Toss with olive oil. Refrigerate the thighs until ready to cook. Prepare the olivade by putting all ingredients in a blender and pulsing until you have a paste consistency.  Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes, drain and cool. Trim the woody bottom from the asparagus, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to grill.

To make the dressing, put the ginger, garlic, lemon juice and fresh herbs in a mixing bowl. Add the rice wine vinegar, and whisk to blend well. Whisk in the olive oil  and keep whisking until it is fully incorporated. When the grill is ready put the thighs on and cook for four minutes with the grill covered. Turn the thighs and cover with olivade. Cover the grill and cook for four minutes more. Check the temperature with an instant read thermometer. (It should read 160˚). Put the asparagus on the grill and cook for three minutes. Asparagus should be bright green but still slightly crunchy. Assemble the salad. Lightly toss the greens with dressing and divide between two plates.  Add the artichoke hearts, potatoes and asparagus and top with the chicken thighs cut into strips. 

 Grilled Lobster with Citrus Salad

My wife, has been wanting lobster for a while. New England lobsters are hard to find in New Mexico. We decided the best way to get a great lobster was to have it shipped from New England. Fortunately Constitution Seafood in Boston (www.lobsterclambake.com or888-767-1776) has a solution for that. They ship lobsters and complete clambakes anywhere in the continental US by overnight air. Our two-pound beauties arrived at our front door at 11:00 AM the morning we were going to cook them. They came in a cooler, with ice, packed in seaweed. I was told to keep them in a cool place until ready to cook I added a couple of icepacks from my freezer and recovered the package. I suggest ordering them the day before you want them over-nighted to be sure that they ship the day before you want to cook them. The lobsters must be cooked the day they arrive. Use the seaweed from the packaging in the pot you use to parboil the lobsters. The salad I created is perfect for a dinner on a hot summer night. If you are more of a purist, grill the lobster as directed and serve with sweet corn and boiled potatoes. You can use the water that the lobsters cooked in to boil these. The flavor will be great. This will serve two hungry eaters for dinner or four as a lighter meal.

Serves 4

2 two-pound lobsters
Seaweed from the packaging
Enough water to cover the seaweed 

Scampi Mixture
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons white wine

Prepare a hot fire in your grill. Put the seaweed and water in a large lobster or pasta pot. Bring to a boil. When the water is at a rolling boil, put the lobsters in headfirst. Cover the pan and let them cook for three minutes. Remove the lobsters from the pan and let them cool. When the lobsters have cooled enough to handle, put them on a cutting board one at a time, on their back. Using a sharp knife, cut from the head to the tail, so that the tail meat is opened up. Remove the tomalley (the green material) and the roe (dark red) and put them aside. Remove the rubber bands securing the claws and them remove the claws. Using a tenderizing hammer, crack the claws in a few places. To make the scampi mixture, put the garlic, olive oil, butter and wine in a saucepan over medium heat and heat until the butter is just melted. Brush the exposed lobster meat with the scampi mixture. Save the remaining scampi butter for the salad. Put the lobsters on the hottest part of the grill, meat side down and cook for four minutes. Turn the lobsters over and cook four minutes more. (For smaller lobsters adjust the time accordingly- about three minutes for a pound and a quarter to pound and a half lobster.) Remove the lobsters from the grill and let them cool. While the lobster is cooling make the salad.

Citrus Salad
4 cups mixed salad greens 
2 navel oranges, peeled and sectioned
1 poblano pepper, stems and seeds removed and coarsely diced 
½ cucumber, peeled seeds removed and diced to 1/4 –inch
2 Tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped
Remaining scampi butter
Juice of two limes 
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper 

Put the greens in a salad bowl. Top the greens with the orange segments, poblano pepper and diced cucumber. Remove the lobster meat from the shells and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Spread the lobster over the salad. Sprinkle the fresh basil on top of the salad. Pour the remaining scampi butter over the salad followed by the limejuice. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

 From the August 2008 issue of National BBQ News  

Peach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin With Chutney Poached Peaches

This recipe requires a bit of prep but the final result is worth the effort. I haven’t tried it yet with boneless pork loin or boneless chicken thighs but I’m sure it would work well. I guarantee you it’s fabulous with pork tenderloin. The chutney syrup and peaches can be made a day in advance and kept well sealed and refrigerated. After trimming the pork and pounding it, make sure to thoroughly clean all surfaces before doing other prep. The prepared tenderloin can be planked or cooked on the Smoker Pro.   

Serves 2

 Chutney Syrup
1 Jalapeno pepper, peeled, deveined and finely dices

Put all ingredients in the blender and pulse until smooth. Place ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook until volume is reduced to one half. Remove from heat and let cool.

 Poached Peaches
1 cup water

 Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Dissolve the sugar in te boiling water. Reduce to a simmer, add the peaches and ginger, cover and cook for 7 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove the skin and put the peaches on a plate or in a shallow baking dish, add the chutney syrup and refrigerate for up to a day.  

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
1 Pork tenderloin, cleaned of silverskin
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons shallots, finely minced
1 tablespoon jalapeno pepper, finely diced
1 small peach, pit removed and diced to ½ inch 
2 tablespoons chutney syrup
6 lengths of butcher’s twine, 8” long 

Cut the uneven parts from each end of the tenderloin. Cut this pork into ¼ inch cubes. Refrigerate until ready to make the stuffing.. Make a slit in the pork a half inch deep going the length of the tenderloin. Put the tenderloin into a large recloseable plastic bag and pound to a uniform thickness of one quarter inch. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and refrigerate until the filling is made. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the diced shallots and jalapeno and cook for five minutes. Add the diced pork and cook for five minutes. Add the peaches and cook for 3 minutes.

Add 2 tablespoons of the chutney syrup and cook for another minute. Remove from heat.

Prepare a hot fire in the grill. If using planks, soak the plank for at least one half hour. If using the Smoker Pro, fill with wood chips and have ready. Lay out the lengths of string spaced a half in apart. Put the prepared pork tenderloin on the string. Spread the filling in the center, forming a line ½ inch wide, the entire length of the tenderloin. Roll the tenderloin around the filling and tie each of the pieces of string tightly. If using a plank, place the prepared tenderloin on the plank, put the plank on the grill grate directly over the fire and cover the grill. If using the Smoker Pro, put it directly on the fire, then put the cooking grate over the Smoker Pro. Put the prepared tenderloin on the cooking grate and cover the grill. Cook for 30 minutes. A thermometer should read 160˚. Remove from the grill and let rest for 10 minutes. Cut the strings and discard. Slice the tenderloin and serve with the chutney peaches.

 From the June 2009 issue of National BBQ News