My 6th-grade daughter recently asked me if the meat I cooked for our family was "lean". Propelled by lessons learned in health class, she also had questions about brown rice and whole wheat flour and if I used them. Sometimes. But first: lean meat.
Wellllllll, I replied, not really. I explained I favor dark meat chicken over light and that I only buy 80/20 ground beef. I confessed to never having cooked ground turkey and that bacon was definitely not lean. And the reason she likes those ribs so much is because of the fat.
But I defended my choices, too, noting foremost that we don't eat a lot of meat, and also that not all fat is bad. I explained that "leanness" is not the only factor to consider when evaluating what's "healthy." And I talked to her about factory versus sustainable farming. Despite my efforts, the conversation ended with a request: Can you make me a chicken breast?
Sure Sweetie Pie. I'd love to.
Sigh. As many of you know, chicken breasts do not excite me. There is one and only one chicken breast recipe on my blog, and while I love it, my children do not. Would there be any point to this endeavor? Would I make the effort only to watch them push their chicken pieces around their plate? To guess how many seconds might pass before they asked for the ketchup?
I wasn't sure, but as you can gather from the title of this letter, the exercise was a success, and it didn't take too many tries to get there. When I presented the grilled breasts aside boiled (and well-buttered) broccoli, I waited with bated breath. And when I heard mmmmms all around and requests for seconds, I danced a very happy jig.
Read on for the recipe, which includes tips from Cook's Illustrated's Cook's Science on how to keep chicken breasts moist while grilling as well as for the 4-ingredient marinade I've relied on for years.
| Simple Grilled Chicken Breasts |
5 Spring Recipes
Spring has officially arrived though without an asparagus spear or rhubarb stalk in sight (up here at least), it doesn't really feel like spring yet. If you are so lucky to already be getting some spring produce, here are 5 recipes to make right now:
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Mark Bittman's Super Asparagus-y Risotto
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PS: In Case You Missed It
- Homemade Sicilian Style Pizza
- Instant Pot (or not) Butter Chicken (or Chickpeas!)
- Simple Sautéed Greens
PPS: If you signed up for the newsletter recently hoping to get to either of my free bread-baking email courses or the free knife chopping tutorial, and you didn't receive anything in your inbox, I'm so sorry! Technical difficulties. If you're interested in any of these resources, please click here:
- Five Secrets to Foolproof Bread Baking
- Sourdough Demystified
- Free 8-Video Knife Skills Tutorial
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