Wednesday, August 12, 2009

What I Made for Dinner: August 12, 2009

Grilled whole chicken, ciabatta toast with roasted garlic, sauteed baby broccoli, tomato and arugula salad.

This is officially my favorite way to cook a whole chicken. I cut the backbone out of a whole, smallish chicken, rub the skin with olive oil and salt and pepper, and put it over very hot coals evenly spread in a Weber grill. Twenty minutes per side, skin (breast) side down on the second half of the cooking time. When it's done, squeeze the juice of a lemon over it. As much as I love oven-roasted chicken, this is better.

Josh was exhausted and beyond hungry. We went to the playground to have a picnic lunch, then swam with friends for a couple of hours, and then he had soccer practice, and by the end of it all he. had. had. enough. "I don't even like chicken," he moaned. "I don't eat broccoli." "Okay," I soothed. "I know you're tired. Just try a little."

He ate three helpings, and then life seemed more cheerful.
Both he and Alex thought it was fun to squeeze the roasted garlic in ribbons out of the little papery pods onto the toast. There was a lot of dinner conversation about how we're all vampire-proof tonight.

2 comments:

  1. jodi sounds delicious! love the picture of josh and john, too. send these wonderful foods my way!

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  2. Please, please, please - on Saturday afternoon when the kids are playing nicely, let's make a cooking video.

    What should we make? Something unusual that you specialize in. If I had a grill, I would say this chicken.

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