Lemon and Garlic Chicken Marinade

I got this marinade recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It's really awesome. I love it. You can use it with so many recipes and it is so stinkin easy.

• Juice of 1 lemon, approximately 3 tablespoons
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic, about 2 medium cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 pound chicken breasts (I usually cut really thick chicken breasts down to thin them out and make the pieces a little smaller so they absorb the marinade better)

Directions

Combine all marinade ingredients. Place chicken in a ziploc bag and pour marinade over chicken. Seal bag and place in fridge overnight. Grill (or cook in frying pan). Serve with sides of your choice or cut into bite sized pieces and add to desired recipe (I’ll be sharing a few with you soon). Note: If you cut your chicken into smaller, bite-sized pieces and then marinate it, you can get away with only letting it marinate for 5 or 6 hours instead of overnight

Seriously. Eat it plain. Use in the Broccoli and Bowtie Pasta recipe I just posted. Use in the Chicken Gyro recipe. Use it however you want, it's gooooood.

Lemon and Garlic Grilled Chicken

Thanks Allison for introducing us to mykitchencafe.blogspot.com, I love it!

Lemon and Garlic Grilled Chicken

Juice of 1 lemon, approximately 3 tablespoons
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic, about 2 medium cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 pound chicken breasts (I usually cut really thick chicken breasts down to thin them out and make the pieces a little smaller so they absorb the marinade better)

Combine all marinade ingredients. Place chicken in a ziploc bag and pour marinade over chicken. Seal bag and place in fridge overnight. Grill (or cook in frying pan). Serve with sides of your choice or cut into bite sized pieces and add to desired recipe (I'll be sharing a few with you soon). Note: If you cut your chicken into smaller, bite-sized pieces and then marinate it, you can get away with only letting it marinate for 5 or 6 hours instead of overnight.


*I cubed my chicken and let it marinate for 6 hours, also since I had cubed it, I grilled it in a pan rather than on the grill. Then I used it in the lemony pasta recipe that I shall post momentarily. I loved the chicken and I made lots of extra so I can use it in some other stuff!

Grilled Mediterranean Chicken Vegetable Kabobs

I got this recipe from Emily Page. I actually never use all the (expensive) suggested ingredients (read: I don't splurge on asparagus, orzo, and feta). I usually use whatever we have around (onion, tomatoes, bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, etc.). I'm sure it would be even tastier if you actually followed the whole recipe, crumbled feta cheese and all. But even with just chicken in this marinade and whatever veggies you have around over rice, I might give this 4 stars.

Rosemary-Lemon Marinade:
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsps fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Chicken and Vegetables:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 medium bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
1 lb asparagus spears
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

In shallow glass or plastic bowl or resealable food-storage plastic bag, mix all marinade ingredients. Add chicken, stirring to coat with marinade. Cover dish or seal bag. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, at least 30 min but no longer than 6 hours.

Preheat grill. Remove chicken from marinade and reserve marinade. Thread chicken and all veggies except asparagus on skewers. Brush vegetables with marinade.

Grill kabobs covered over medium heat 10 to 15 minutes, turning and brushing frequently with marinade. (Or you could be lazy like me and just pour all the marinade over the kabobs just before you grill them and call it good... it still turns out good.) Cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add asparagus to grill for the last 5 minutes of grilling, turning occasionally, until crisp-tender. Discard any remaining marinade.

Sprinkle feta cheese over kabobs. Serve kabobs with asparagus. The recipe also suggests tossing rosamarina (orzo) pasta with chopped fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, or marjoram) for a delicious side dish.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Kabobs ***

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Kabobs

1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/4 C Cider Vinegar
2T honey
2T oil
2 Green onions minced

Bacon
Chicken cubes
Mushrooms
Green or Red Pepper
Onions
Pineapple
Cherry tomatoes

Cut chicken into cubes and marinade in the soy sauce/vinegar/honey/oil/green onion mixture for 1-2 hours. Boil bacon for 5 minutes (this prevents burning on the grill). Wrap the chicken cubes with half slice of bacon and put on skewer, add other kabob items as desired (something really yummy is to wrap a piece of chicken AND pineapple together in the bacon). Cook on grill for 15 minutes-- be careful, they overcook quickly so keep an eye on them. Be sure to boil the bacon first!

This is a very easy and delicious grill recipe. Blaine's not home tonight so I am not serving it with anything else, though I imagine some rice (with teriyaki sauce?) would be good or noodles or whatever. Very yum.

Steak Marinade

Wednesday May 21

I ran into some serious T-Bone steaks for $3.99/lb. Awesome.

Recipe From: Bassett Family cookbook

Pretty much equal parts liquid smoke, Worcestershire, and A1 (I used about 1/3 C of each). Poke holes in steaks, mix ingredients together, put everything in a baggie and marinade for 30-60 minutes. Then season with your favorite seasoning salt. They were yummy.

Three stars!