Fabulous Un-Grilled, Grilled Chicken Breasts

OK. I know how strange that sounds, but we can’t be the only ones with the following dilemmas: First of all, we can’t grill with a real grill where we live. Secondly, we are tired of dried out chicken breasts. Sure, we can bread and fry them, but if we are going to go that route we would certainly choose something more tantalizing than chicken to blow calories on. So…After a LOT of experimenting, may we present our solution.

Forget the electric grills. They only boil what’s inside of them, turning out rubbery food. What you need is a cast iron pan. They are wonderfully inexpensive, and can be purchased for under $20 at most large retail stores. We prefer a 12” pan, but then again, we make a lot at once. You will need to do a bit of work to season the pan, or you can buy them pre-seasoned for a few more dollars. Seasoning the pan prevents the food from sticking, and really only needs to be thoroughly done before the first use. Follow the instructions that come with your pan. Here’s what a cast iron pan looks like:

One ingredient that we recommend is dehydrated garlic. It comes chopped, or in slices. The beauty is that it doesn’t need any chopping or handling to use. This is sliced dehydrated garlic, and most dollar-type stores carry it. If you can’t find it there, try your local supermarket, or if all else fails, specialty food stores will certainly carry it.

A cooking hint for this and other recipes: When you need to fillet (cut in half, lengthwise) a piece of meat, it is much easier to do when it is SLIGHTLY frozen. Simply put the meat in the freezer for a half hour or so. The knife will go right through the meat without any sawing motions. Here’s a picture of what filleting looks like:

Now that you have your new favorite kitchen pan, and your ingredient hints, lets’ cook.

Ingredients:

5 lbs. Boneless Chicken Breasts, Filleted and pounded as thinly as you can

¼ cup Olive Oil (Most of this will stay in the bag, so don’t worry about the amount of oil.)

Juice of 1.5 Lemons (or to taste)

¼ cup Water

3 Cloves of Garlic, Sliced Thinly, or 3tbsp. Dehydrated Garlic (or to taste)

¼ Onion, Separated but not Sliced

2tbsp. parsley

.5 tsp. oregano

.5 tsp. salt

.5 tsp. pepper

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a zipper-type gallon bag. Close the bag, and mix all ingredients together. Put in refrigerator to                  marinate for at least an hour, or overnight if you have time.

2. Pre-heat seasoned pan to medium-high heat. This part is important to get that grilled taste and look. (Make sure you put on your kitchen fan when you do this)

3. Lay chicken in pan one piece at a time, being sure not to overcrowd the pan. Only take the chicken out, not   the onion or garlic, which would burn.  You can probably get about 3 pieces in at the same time. Do not cover the pan.

4. After about 2 minutes, the chicken will look almost cooked on the top. It should release easily from the bottom of the pan. Flip the piece over and let it brown on the other side for less than a minute. (If the chicken doesn’t look brown enough, turn the heat up slightly).

5. Take pieces out, and put more in the pan. You do not need to clean the pan between batches.

Nutrition Facts
10 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		293.2
Total Fat		9.4 g
	Saturated Fat	3.2 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.1 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	5.0 g
Cholesterol		130.0 mg
Sodium		81.3 mg
Potassium		6.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate		0.4 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.0 g
	Sugars	0.0 g
Protein		50.0 g

 

That’s it. You now have a lot of chicken. Use it in salads, wraps, sandwiches, dinner, or whatever else you want. Next week, I will give you the recipe for the yogurt dill sauce that I use with this recipe.

It should be noted that you can make this any style you want to. You can use whatever spices that suit your palate. We tend to like Mediterranean cuisine, but we have also enjoyed this Italian-style. Simply add basil, and substitute balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar, or red cooking wine for the lemon.

Happy Eating!

Focus and Form Fitness

 

 

• May 31, 2014
• leave comment
• Cast Iron Pan, Grilled chicken, Healthy, Low-Fat, Mediterranean, Nutrition
• by focusandform

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