Sunday, 2/27/2011

Our friend Lyle joined us for dinner and the Oscars tonight.  We served grilled chicken drumsticks, green beans, and chili/lime popcorn during the show.  For the chicken, we tried out a new marinade recipe from the book "Weber's Real Grilling" by Jamie Perviance.  Here's the recipe.

BARCELONA CHICKEN

Prep time: 15 minutes
Marinating time: 4-6 hours, or as long as 12 hours
Grilling time: 30-40 minutes

Marinade Ingredients:
5 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
3 large garlic cloves
2 serrano chile peppers, roughly chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 whole chicken, 4-5 pounds, cut into 6 pieces

Directions:

1. To make the marinade: In a food processor or blender, combine the marinade ingredients and process to a smooth paste, 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Place the chicken pieces in a large, resealable bag and pour in the marinade.  Press the air out of the bag and seal it tightly.  Turn the bag several times to distribute the marinade, place the bag in a bowl, and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours, or as long as 12 hours, turning the bag occasionally.
3. Remove the chicken pieces from the bag and discard the marinade.  Grill, skin side down, over Indirect Medium heat until fully cooked.  The breast and wing pieces will take about 30 minutes.  The leg-thigh pieces will take about 40 minutes.  During the last 10 minutes of grilling time, move the chicken over Direct Medium heat until well browned all over, turning once.  Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings

Notes: 

1. I didn't get a whole chicken.  Instead, I used 3-4 pounds of drumsticks.    

2. The flavor was really good, but the chicken would have been better if we had let it sit in the marinade longer and then stayed on the grill longer.  The recipe says to marinate the chicken for 4-6 hours or up to 12 hours.  We only gave ourselves 3.5 hours.  The recipe also said to grill for 40 minutes, but the chicken really needed 50 minutes to help the meat fall off the bones.