Monday, June 4, 2012

Quick Rosemary Garlic Chicken Marinade [Zack]

Matt serves as the inspiration to this marinade.  He's done variations of this multiple times for our grilling sessions.  He had lived in Italy for a short time and described walking out of the front door of a farmhouse and grabbing handfuls of rosemary to cook with.  With such an abundant supply of fresh herbs, Italians have a great source of inspiration for simple and flavorful cooking.

When I don't know what I want to do with a cut of meat, this my default recipe.  This marinade works best on the grill, but I had great results right out of the frying pan.


You can use this marinade on almost anything:  a rib-eye steak, pork tenderloin, lamb chops, turkey breast, chicken breast, shrimp, lobster tails, etc......

Process:

Strip the leaves off of the rosemary stems and chop.  Slice the garlic cloves and the shallot and add them to a zip-lock bag or a tupperware container.  Pour in the olive oil, and add the pepper flakes and cracked black pepper.  Mix.


Remove any undesirable or fatty parts by trimming the chicken thighs.  Add the thighs to the the bag, add the salt, and toss everything together to ensure even coating.


Let this marinate for a minimum of 2 hours, or up to one day.

Fire up your grill to medium heat or heat up your pan to medium heat.  Cook for about 10 minutes, 5 on each side (depending on thickness).


Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs
1/8 cup olive oil
2 rosemary sprigs, chopped
2 cloves sliced garlic
1/2 shallot sliced
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes (to taste)
cracked black pepper
1tsp sea salt

Creativity options:
Add 1T dijon mustard
Substitute any hearty herbs for the rosemary (thyme, tarragon, cilantro, etc)
Makes a great sandwich
Put over a nice creamy pasta dish

Song:  Robin Thicke - Love after war

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