The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (215 page)
Read The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook Online
Authors: The Editors at America's Test Kitchen
Tags: #Cooking
SERVES 4 TO 6
You can use red, yellow, orange, or green bell peppers in this recipe. The chicken tenderloins can be reserved for another use or marinated and cooked along with the breasts. The chicken and vegetables have enough flavor on their own, but accompaniments (guacamole, salsa, sour cream, shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, and lime wedges) can be offered at the table.
6 | tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil |
¹⁄ | cup lime juice (3 limes) |
1 | jalapeño chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced |
4¹⁄ | teaspoons minced fresh cilantro |
3 | garlic cloves, minced |
1 | tablespoon Worcestershire sauce |
1¹⁄ | teaspoons brown sugar |
Salt and pepper | |
1¹⁄ | pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, tenderloins removed, trimmed, pounded to ¹⁄ |
1 | large red onion, peeled and cut into ¹⁄ |
2 | large bell peppers, quartered, stemmed, and seeded |
8–12 | (6-inch) flour tortillas |
1.
Whisk ¹⁄
4
cup oil, lime juice, jalapeño, cilantro, garlic, Worcestershire, sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and ³⁄
4
teaspoon pepper together in bowl. Reserve ¹⁄
4
cup marinade and set aside. Add 1 teaspoon salt to remaining marinade. Place marinade and chicken in 1-gallon zipper-lock bag and toss to coat; press out as much air as possible and seal bag. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, flipping bag halfway through marinating. Brush both sides of onion rounds and peppers with 2 tablespoons oil and season with salt and pepper.
2.
Adjust 1 oven rack to upper middle position and second rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler.
3.
Arrange onion rounds and peppers (skin sides up) in single layer on rimmed baking sheet. Wrap tortillas securely in aluminum foil in 2 packets, each containing half of tortillas.
4.
Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Place chicken in pan, smooth side down, and cook until well browned on both sides, 5 to 7 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until chicken registers 160 degrees, 3 to 5 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to carving board, tent loosely with foil, and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
5.
While chicken is cooking, place baking sheet with vegetables in oven on upper rack and place tortilla packets on lower rack. Broil vegetables until spottily charred and peppers are crisp-tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Using tongs, transfer peppers to carving board. Flip onion rounds and continue to broil until charred and tender, 2 to 4 minutes longer. Turn off broiler and remove vegetables, leaving tortillas in oven until needed.
6.
Separate onions into rings and place in medium bowl. Slice peppers into ¹⁄
4
-inch strips and place in bowl with onions. Add 2 tablespoons reserved marinade and toss to combine. Slice each breast on bias into ¹⁄
4
-inch-thick slices, place in second bowl, and toss with remaining 2 tablespoons marinade.
7.
Transfer chicken and vegetables to serving platter and serve with warmed tortillas.
There’s nothing worse than running out of fuel halfway through grilling. If your grill doesn’t have a gas gauge, use this technique to estimate how much gas is left in the tank.
1.
Bring 1 cup water to boil. Pour water over side of tank.
2.
Feel metal with your hand. Where water has succeeded in warming tank, it is empty; where tank remains cool to touch, there is still propane inside.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Skewered chicken can often turn dry and chalky on the grill. As for the flavor, that’s usually sub par, too, because by the time the barbecue flavor develops, the meat has dried out. We wanted moist chunks of well-seasoned chicken with full-on barbecued flavor. To give us a head start on the flavor we “marinated” the chicken chunks in bacon paste (made by processing bacon in a food processor) instead of oil, aromatics, and herbs. Tasters liked the smoky flavor that the bacon added, but wanted more. Smoked paprika gave the chicken the flavor tasters were after. For more depth, we also coated the chicken with sweet paprika and turbinado sugar. To keep the skewers from drying out, we turned them every two minutes. In the final minutes on the grill, we brushed the chicken with a simple barbecue sauce for a final layer of flavor.
SERVES 6
Use the large holes of a box grater to grate the onion for the sauce. We prefer flavorful dark thigh meat for these kebabs, but white meat can be used. Whichever you choose, don’t mix white and dark meat on the same skewer, since they cook at different rates. If you have thin pieces of chicken, cut them larger than 1 inch and roll or fold them into approximate 1-inch cubes. Turbinado sugar is commonly sold as Sugar in the Raw. Demerara sugar can be substituted. You will need four 12-inch metal skewers for this recipe.
SAUCE
¹⁄ | cup ketchup |
¹⁄ | cup molasses |
2 | tablespoons grated onion |
2 | tablespoons Worcestershire sauce |
2 | tablespoons Dijon mustard |
2 | tablespoons cider vinegar |
1 | tablespoon packed light brown sugar |
CHICKEN
2 | tablespoons sweet paprika |
4 | teaspoons turbinado sugar |
2 | teaspoons kosher salt |
2 | teaspoons smoked paprika |
2 | slices bacon, cut into ¹⁄ |
2 | pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, trimmed, cut into 1-inch chunks |
1. FOR THE SAUCE:
Bring all ingredients to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about 1 cup, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer ¹⁄
2
cup sauce to small bowl and set remaining sauce aside for serving.
2. FOR THE CHICKEN:
Combine sweet paprika, sugar, salt, and smoked paprika in large bowl. Process bacon in food processor until smooth paste forms, 30 to 45 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed. Add bacon paste and chicken to spice mixture and mix with hands or rubber spatula until ingredients are thoroughly blended and chicken is completely coated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Thread chicken tightly onto four 12-inch metal skewers.
3A. FOR A CHARCOAL GRILL:
Open bottom vent completely. Light large chimney starter three-quarters filled with charcoal briquettes (4¹⁄
2
quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over half of grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely. Heat grill until hot, about 5 minutes.
3B. FOR A GAS GRILL:
Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes. Turn all burners to medium-high.
4.
Clean and oil cooking grate. Place skewers on hot part of grill (if using charcoal), and cook (covered if using gas), turning kebabs every 2 to 2¹⁄
2
minutes, until well browned and slightly charred, 8 to 10 minutes. Brush top surface of skewers with ¹⁄
4
cup sauce, flip, and cook until sauce is sizzling and browning in spots, about 1 minute. Brush second side with remaining ¹⁄
4
cup sauce, flip, and continue to cook until sizzling and browning in spots, about 1 minute longer.
5.
Transfer skewers to serving platter, tent loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve, passing reserved sauce separately.
BETTER CHARCOAL GRILLING
1. Use enough charcoal. There’s no sense spending $50 on steaks and then steaming them over an inadequate fire. Follow the recipe for charcoal amounts. In the end, you want a fire that is slightly larger than the space on the cooking grate occupied by the food.
2. Make sure the coals are covered with fine gray ash before you start to grill. Fine gray ash is a sign that the coals are fully lit and hot.
3. Once the coals are ready, set the cooking grate in place and let it heat up for five minutes. Once the grate is hot, scrape it clean with a grill brush.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
We set out to create savory, robust spice rub recipes for grilled chicken that would give us deeply browned crusts filled with complex, concentrated flavors. For speed and ease, we chose preground spices (the dry heat of a grill toasts the spices right on the chicken, intensifying their flavors) and added only a modest amount of salt. We found that 1 tablespoon of spice rub was just the amount needed to coat each breast. We brined the chicken for best flavor and started the chicken over the hot side of the grill, finishing it over the cooler side for juicy, tender meat.