High On Poker

*** WARNING: NO POKER CONTENT ***

Several weeks ago, I mentioned in a post that I was experimenting with grilled chicken. I am a novice chef, at best, but I love cooking, and so I set about with a goal to make a grilled chicken cutlet that matched as close as possible the grilled chicken available at most any diner or deli in the New York City area.

I had experimented with different marinades and cooking styles, but last night, after a long day that included furniture shopping and some woodwork in my apartment as I tried to fix a completely different piece of furniture, I decided to give it another go. Of course, the defrosted chicken cutlets had a say in the matter; they had to be cooked yesterday or thrown out.

When I was done, I had successfully created the closest match to simple grilled chicken. Here is my recipe:

1. Brine. I have never brined anything before in my life, so this was completely new to me. I filled a Ziploc bag with 1 quart of cold water, added salt and sugar and then shook it around until the ingredients were dissolved. Once dissolved,  I added the 1 lb. of chicken cutlets. I then let the bag sit in the fridge  for a good hour while I baked some japaleno cornbread for wifey Kim’s Tex-Mex potluck tonight at one of her girlfriend’s places. For the specific ratio of water, salt and sugar, check out this nifty Brining Guide.

2. Butterfly. Once the chickens were brined, I took out each breast and butterflied them, cutting from the center into the meatiest part of the breast until I could open it up like a book. I then butterflied the other half of each breast when necessary.

3. Pound. This one I stole from my days working at the butcher shop. New York deli’s often have these relatively flat pieces of grilled chicken. No doubt, it is because the chicken cooks faster and can probably serve more people in its flattened form. Me? I am just paranoid about cooking things through. I knew that if I pounded the chicken thin, I could avoid this problem. Plus, I wanted to replicate NYC deli grilled chicken as close as possible.

I laid out a long sheet of wax paper and prepared a couple of other similarly-sized sheets. I then laid out my chicken on the paper, covered it with the additional sheet and took to the chicken with my mallet. The result? Flattened, thin chicken.

On a related note (and maybe as 3a), let the chicken sit out for a bit. You want it to be room temperature so that it cooks through easily.

4. Grease and Pre-Heat. I still need to work on my method of cooking, but I’ve found one with the best results, thus far. I have a large griddle that can be placed over two burners on my stove top. I flipped it to the grill side and preheated it. The preheating is key if you want those fine grill marks that do more for appearance than any other step. I then lightly patted down the grill with olive oil (not extra-virgin). Next time, I am going to try vegetable oil or some other oil, which I will explain momentarily.

5. Season. I suppose you can go with all sorts of seasoning, but to keep it easy, I used a mix of dried Italian seasonings that came in a grinder. I also applied a decent amount of salt and pepper. I applied all of these to one side of the chicken, then placed the chicken on the grill with the seasoned side down, and then seasoned the exposed side before flipping.

6. Cook by Sight. Once I allowed the grill-top to heat up and applied a light layer of olive oil, I spread out my flattened chicken breasts. I had 4, but could only fit 3 onto the grill-top at one time. Once placed, I basically cooked by sight, allowing a decent amount of time to pass before I made the first check. After all, to get the sweet grill marks, you need a decent amount of uninterrupted contact. I’m no food-scientist, but I also think waiting a bit helps prevent sticking. Once I’m pleased with the browning on one side, I flip and wait for it to appear cooked through. Since the chicken is pounded thin, it doesn’t take long, and there is little chance that the outside will be cooked but the inside raw.

7. Rest. Not just you. The chicken too. I never really appreciated the point of letting food like steaks rest until I got knee deep in the Food Network. Whatever the case, allowing the chicken to rest will prevent it from oozing all of its delicious juices once you finally cut into your meal.

I learned a couple of lessons from this routine. I thought the meat was too salty, so next time, I may cut down on the amount of salt in the brine or the amount of salt I used to season the meat. After the first round of chicken (3 out of 4 pieces), the grill-top started to smoke because the olive oil was burning, so I had to switch to a grill-pan for round 2. Next time, hopefully another oil will prevent premature boiling so I can cook even more at once.

Hopefully, this recipe for how to simply grill chicken will work for you. If anyone has any other tips or ideas, feel free to share. I love cooking!

Until next time, make mine poker!