Receta Grilled Chicken With Tarragon and Capers; the wonders of scaffolding
Braised chicken with tarragon is a classic French dish.
But braised chicken is winter cooking.
This is summer; we don’t braise in the summer.
I do have an abundance of tarragon, though.
I love tucking things under the skin of chicken before grilling. It lets all the flavors seep into the chicken as it cooks.
I kept the ingredients simple – I wanted the tarragon to be the star.
A light basting sauce to crisp the skin is all that’s needed to finish it.
Grilled Chicken With Tarragon and Capers
Total time: 45 minutes Prep earlier in the day
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken, cut-up, skin on, or your favorite pieces
- 6 tbs chopped fresh tarragon
- 3 tbs finely chopped capers
- 2 tbs lemon juice
- 2 tbs olive oil
- Basting Sauce:
- 2 tbs lemon juice
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1/4 tsp celery salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions:
Early in the day combine the tarragon, capers, lemon juice and olive oil.
Loosen the skin on the chicken by slowly working your fingers between the flesh and the skin. Try not to puncture the skin.
With your fingers take a bit of the herb mixture and put it under the skin, smoothing it over the flesh. Stretch the skin to cover and put in a dish of some sort, just large enough to hold all of the pieces.
Cover and refrigerate for several hours until ready to cook.
Combine lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper for basting
Cook on barbecue grill for 30 - 45 minutes, turning and basting occasionally.
Scaffolding has so many uses.
Two weeks ago it was used for drying shallots.
Last week it was used for drying onions.
I had to move the onions because mon mari needed to use it as a crane.
Last winter the big, cast iron radiator in our den started leaking.
Mon mari was not pleased.
This radiator provided a lot of heat for our house but there really wasn’t an easy way to repair it while the furnace / boiler was on.
As it was March, we decided to suck it up until summer.
It’s summer.
In order to figure out where / why it was leaking he had to get it off the wall.
Did I mention that it was cast iron?
He rigged up a pulley system to get it off the wall and lay it down, gently, on the floor.
Pretty slick, huh?
He found the leak – two, actually, cleaned them out, welded them shut and put it back.
He tested it.
We’ll be buying a new radiator.
And it won’t be cast iron.
As to the shallots…..
I braided them.
It took me a bit of research to find out how to do it. Most people / sites demonstrated tying them with string loops.
I wanted to braid them, but wasn’t sure how to make a long, staggered braid..
Then I read two words: French Braid.
Well, I’ve done that often enough on the back of my own head, I thought I could figure out how to do it in front of me.
I ended up with 25 braids of shallots.
Next week: the onions.
If you want nutrition information, try this site: Calorie Count
Last Updated on July 29, 2013