As the title hints, this will be a post about a recipe I created over this past weekend. On Saturday I was hosting a BBQ to celebrate the end of the fall semester and because I wanted to show friends around my place. While I may be able to get by on a charcoal grill, my skills and experience are rather lacking[1]; so I was looking forward to trying some new.
After some brainstorming and a quick trip to Costco, I decided that chicken breast would be my meat of choice. Since I don’t cook meat very often, I looked for a recipe online that seemed to blend the simple with the flavorful. The site I found was a NY Times blog post by Melissa Clark (link) for Sweet and Spicy Grilled Chicken Breasts. Looking through her recipe, I adapted it to the spice palette that I was aiming for.
My world famous Moroccan Chicken recipe:
- Chicken Breast
- Brown sugar
- Salt
- Coriander
- Cumin
- Ginger
- Cinnamon
- Pepper
- Cayenne
- Onion powder
- Olive Oil
Directions
- Pound chicken breasts flat to 1/2″ (tenderize tough areas)
- Mix 4-8 Tbs brown sugar with other spices. Quantities of spices was done by feel based on flavors I wanted. Cayenne adds the heat, salt brings out flavor, ginger+cumin+cinnamon+pepper is a generic Moroccan spice mix. Refrigerate 30-60 minutes.
- Fire up grill/get charcoal going. Want a medium-high heat for the chicken.
- Prepare grate with olive oil (chicken breast has almost no fat so important in keeping them from sticking).
- Cook chicken over direct heat 3-5 minutes a side.
- Serve with mustard sauce*
Overall it is a quick and easy recipe that makes for a flavorful addition to any meal. Spices could be readily adjusted making this an ‘international’ chicken recipe.
* Mustard sauce: Still working on this one, but what seems to work well so far is whipping brown+yellow mustard with olive oil and general Moroccan spice mix (above) to form a simple dipping sauce. I’m also interested in trying to go with a pesto base, but we’ll have to see.
- Pervious experience with grilling: hot dogs, hamburgers, corn.