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There are some foods that are best during certain seasons. I'm not talking veggies here; obviously eating seasonal veggies is optimal. But there are some other foods that really just don't feel right in the wrong season. Barbecue is a good example of this: isn't it really a summer food? Does it feel right to you to eat barbecue in the winter? Another example is anything grilled. This isn't such a clear-cut example, as grilled things taste good year round, but they're really at their strongest during the summer. That's when eating something that's grilled becomes grilling something. Stews are delicious too, but don't mix that well with summer weather, am I right?
For this reason, Corbin and I have taken a liking to the Martha Stewart Everyday Food cookbook (here). Instead of being split up into chapters like Salads, Poultry, Dessert, etc., it's split into the chapters of Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall. This is seriously awesome and a stroke of pure genius. Now I don't have to scour every chapter in the book for something to eat! I can flip right to the season and it's guaranteed to be a good recipe. On Monday night, I did just that.
The dinner about which I'm going to tell you was one of the best dinners I've had in recent memory. I can cook well, but it's not often that I get everything spot-on. Maybe the veggie isn't cooked well, or the meat doesn't have enough flavor. Maybe it's just not quite what we were in the mood for that night (a la turkey sausage manicotti Sunday night) or we would have rather eaten out. But Monday.... ooooh, Monday. It started out a little dodgy because the weather was sitting on the edge of a storm and the plan was to grill every part of the meal. We got lucky, though, so I put together our dinner: garlic-marinated chicken cutlets with grilled potatoes and asparagus. And the meal is even better than it sounds.
I'm serious, if you have access to a grill, you have GOT to try this. I feel like I make meals like this all the time – meat, veggie, potatoes – but there is so much flavor in this dish. It's partly due to the chicken marinade (which is delicious) and partly due to the garlic vinaigrette in which you toss the asparagus after grilling it. Oddly enough the potatoes, though only tossed with butter, salt and pepper after grilling, are also melt-in-your-mouth fantastic.
There's really nothing tricky about this meal, either. It's very straight-forward and simple to make. I will tell a couple of things that might help, though. First of all, the recipe calls for cutlets. You may be able to find cutlets in your grocery store, but if not, buy a few boneless breasts (I bought a three-pack) and cut them horizontally through the middle to make them half as thick. It's important that they're all the same thickness so that they all cook at the same speed, so if after cutting them they are different thicknesses, put the breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound them with something heavy like a rolling pin until they're even thicknesses. I used the back of my ice cream scoop because I don't have a rolling pin.
Second of all, the recipe isn't very clear about the best way to time this, probably because it seems to be aimed for grills that aren't very big (so you'd have to cook everything separately). If you have a grill that's big enough to house all of the food at once, as my parents do, then do what I did. The potatoes go on the grill for about 25 minutes. I let them sit for 12 or 13, then I flipped them. After I flipped them, I used those last 12 minutes to cook the rest of the food. The asparagus takes about 8 minutes, and the chicken takes 4-6 minutes, so I just timed it so that they were all done at the same time. It may seem like a lot of multi-tasking, but it's not too difficult.
Anyway, enough of my blabbering. Here is the recipe, which I've also posted below, though this online version seems to be double the recipe in my book to leave you leftovers for other recipes. You can either halve everything or follow the links to the leftover recipes!
Heat grill to medium. Fold two 4-foot-long sheets of aluminum foil in half to make two separate double-layer sheets. Place half the potatoes on each double layer. Form two packets, folding foil over potatoes and crimping edges to seal. Place on grill and cook, turning over once, until potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat. Leave potatoes from one packet wrapped in foil to keep warm. Open second packet to let potatoes cool; reserve for Potato Salad. Raise grill to high; lightly oil grates.
Meanwhile, make marinade: In a large baking dish, whisk together oil, garlic, vinegar, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken; turn several times to coat. Let marinate at room temperature 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes.
Lift chicken from marinade and grill until browned and cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove from grill. Cover half of chicken with foil to keep warm. Reserve other half for Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad.
Remove warm potatoes from foil; transfer to a medium bowl, toss with butter, and season with salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, toss asparagus with vinaigrette. Serve the grilled chicken with potatoes and asparagus. Garnish with thyme sprigs, if desired.
3 pounds baby red new potatoes, halved or quartered if large
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for grates
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup white-wine vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped, plus sprigs for garnish, if desired
Coarse salt and ground pepper
3 pounds chicken cutlets (about 12)
1 tablespoon butter
Grilled asparagus, cut on the diagonal into 1 1/2-inch pieces (3 cups)
2 tablespoons garlic vinaigrette, recipe below
Vinaigrette:
¼ cup white-wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons minced garlic
¾ cup olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
In a small bowl or jar, combine white-wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and garlic; season generously with coarse salt and ground pepper. Whisk or shake to combine. Add olive oil; whisk or shake again. Store in an airtight container or jar, and refrigerate, up to 2 weeks. Shake before using.
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