Sunday, August 14, 2011

Spicy Honey Grilled Chicken

What can I say?  It’s summer and my wonderful husband has made a zen oasis out of our backyard.   Daily, I am being called out to our back porch to relax, have a beer, and grill.
Okay, that’s not really our backyard.  It’s a picture I took in Kyoto, Japan of the Shogun's backyard.  But our backyard is practically as nice…..after a beer or two….and I love it. 
I have also fallen in love with boneless, skinless, chicken thighs (the ones in the giant plastic bag in the freezer section).  I’ve always been a little snobby about my chicken.  I usually only buy breasts, and only use the fresh ones.  But, when our grocery stopped getting shipments of fresh chicken for awhile, I was forced to buy the bulk frozen chicken. 
The recipe mentions that you can use breasts but PROMISES that it will be better with the thighs.  I caved and bought some dumb thighs. To my surprise, the thighs were much juicier and tender than the breasts.   
Yay for thighs!  You beat out breasts any day!
Spicy Honey Grilled Chicken
(Recipe adapted from Our Best Bites….those girls rock!!!)

Ingredients:
·        2 tsp garlic powder
·        2 tsp chili powder
·        ½ tsp onion powder
·        ½ tsp coriander
·        1 tsp kosher salt or sea salt
·        1 tsp cumin*
·        8 boneless/skinless chicken thighs
·        2 tsps oil (I used olive)
·        ½ cup honey
·        1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
Put all the spices in small bowl and mix together.  Next, pat the thighs dry and plop them into a big bowl.  Slather them with the oil.  Yes, I said, “oil your thighs”.  (Imagine if I would have told you to oil your breasts!)  Now toss the spices into the chicken thighs until they are coated well.  It helps if you use your hand for this.
Put the thighs on the grill for about 3-5 minutes on each side.  Warm the honey a little bit in the microwave and add the vinegar.  
Before taking the thighs off the grill, marinate each side and grill for about 1 minute longer.  Reserve a couple of tablespoons of the marinade and drizzle it over the chicken after you have taken it off the grill.
Mmmmmmmmmm.   It is some good grilling.  Guaranteed to change even a breast man into a thigh man..wink wink.
*Note:  This recipe is spicy, but not too spicy, but maybe too spicy for the kiddos. (Mine thought so.)  If you need to take away some spice but keep most of the flavor, simply eliminate the cumin.

I am sharing this recipe with:
This Chick Cooks

4 comments:

  1. Gah everything you make looks so freaking delicious!

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  2. Absolutely beautiful backyard!!! It's always been a dream of mine to visit japan :)

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  3. Those look amazing! Too bad I'm the laziest cook ever, so I'll probably try just throwing some BBQ sauce on some chicken and hope it tastes ok.

    And I giggled at all your breast and thigh jokes. :)

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  4. Hi there. I was wondering whether you would like to link this in to Food on Friday: Chillies and other spicy stuff. This is the link. You did some time ago link in a great dish to Food on Friday: Bacon. I now realize that I haven't been following your blog. Sorry about that. I have signed up to follow now. It would be great if you followed Carole's Chatter back. Have a super week.

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