Oh, Chicken. How we love thee. Your copious amounts of deliciously lean protein and goes-great-with-everything style beguile us. You are our rock. We count on you. We know that we will have a long and fulfilling relationship with you. In chicken we never doubt. In chicken dinner shall always be waiting. Chicken, you will always be there for us.

And yet – and yet – sometimes you just seem like regular old chicken. Boring old chicken. Dear God, I can’t believe that…we have to eat…chicken…

So we set off in search of exciting new ways to add value to our relationship. Ways like Grilled Chicken Salad! Booyah!

Think about it. It’s a match made in heaven.

Chicken Salad = Good.

Grilled Chicken = Good.

Grilled Chicken + Chicken Salad = über-düper good!

Stuff:

• 2 boneless/skinless Chicken Breasts washed & trimmed, butterflied and patted dry with paper towels
• Olive Oil
• Onion Powder (we prefer the granulated stuff)
• Garlic Powder (ditto on the granulation)
• Kosher Salt & Pepper

• 1/4 cup Mayonnaise (or more, we don’t judge)
• 2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 stalk of Celery, diced
• 4 Baby Dill Pickles, diced
• 1 Tbsp Capers, minced
• Green or Red Leaf Lettuce…er…leaves
• Thinly Sliced Cucumber
• Yet more Salt & Pepper

Destructions:

• Prepare your grill and set the temperature to medium-high.
• Rub the Chicken Breast all over with Olive Oil and sprinkle it with Salt, Pepper, and a light dusting of Garlic Powder and Onion Powder
• Grill it (about 5 minutes a side)
• Cool it
• Chop it up
• Mix everything but the Lettuce and Cucumber together in a big bowl
• Spoon 1/4 cup or so of the Chicken Salad goody into a lettuce leaf, top it with Cucumber slices and Salt & Pepper
• Eat it with your hands like an animal
• Mmmmmmmm…

The best thing about this (aside from undeniable deliciousness) is that it’s purdy dang healthy. A couple of these things will easily fill you up, they’re big on flavor, small on mayonnaise, have a satisfying crunch, and they won’t leave you feeling bloated and yucky.

Seriously, this is almost Rodeo Drive spa food kinda stuff. We know this. We invented Rodeo Drive…

Seriously…

We’ve revisited our lovely little scone recipe every couple of weeks since it’s miraculous birth occurred. Typically it our process doesn’t vary much:

• Make scones
• Smother with butter & jam
• Eat
• Repeat until Scones are gone

Oh, but this time…this time. This time our CSA box had runneth over with Strawberries and Cherries that were clamoring shamelessly for our attentions. This time we were spineless pushovers and were easily seduced by their fresh-from-the-farm wiles. This time, after a brief but steamy tryst – Strawberries and Cherries wantonly comingling with abandon in a steamy cauldron of passion and delicious immorality and…and…and…wait, what? Where were we? Oh, right – this time we made a compote…

Obviously the picture fully explains our complete and total lack of fortitude and wherewithal and how we could never have been expected to resist.

Step One – Make Scones.

Step Two – Make Compote:

• 1 cup sliced Fresh Strawberries
• 1 cup sliced Fresh Cherries, pitted
• 1 Tbsp Sugar

Put the Strawberries, Cherries, and Sugar in a smallish saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer stirring frequently until thick and concentrated, about 20 minutes.

Top split Scones with butter *pant*, a spoonful or two of the Compote *gasp-pant*, and a generous dollop of whipped cream *gasp-drool-gasp*.

*Whew*, almost didn’t make it through that post.

Yes, it’s that good.

A while back we featured another of our favorite budget-friendly sparkling wines, but lately all of our love has been going to this one from Segura Viudas. It generally runs a touch higher than the Cristalino pricewise (about $7.50 a bottle or so) but we actually like it better (the Best label we gave the Cristalino notwithstanding). We think the flavor is a little more delicate (or something) and the color is a little lighter, too.

Segura Viudas has a very cool website you should go visit, which is where we found (and stole) this extremely hoity-toity description:

“A Reserve cava that accompanies any meal perfectly from start to finish. Pale straw yellow in colour, elegant and harmonious on the nose, and fresh and well balanced on the palate, where the predominance of Macabeo is evident. Ample flavours and a persistent, fine mousse.”

Well, la-tee-freakin’-da…

That little blurb is totally what we were thinking, too…totally. Obviously, we are extremely pro elegance and harmoniousness (nessness) here at The Haute Kitchen so this wine is a shoo-in for us.

Gotta git you some ‘o dat!

It may come as no surprise to anyone, but we really dig on Asparagus around here. Even the baby loves it (no kidding). For that matter, even the cat loves it…go figure.

Since it’s been so hot here lately we’ve avoided cooking anything in the kitchen (because we’re not…hmmm, what’s the word? Oh, stupid) and have instead been either eating salad or grilling stuff. This time we had a bunch of Asparagus in fridge so we decided that it needed to go on the grill, too.

We prepared it like we usually do: Lemon Juice, Rosemary, Olive Oil, Kosher Salt & Pepper. One thing we did differently this time (in addition to grilling it) was to save the big bowl we’d tossed it with the marinade in. After it came off the grill we put it back in the bowl and tossed it again with the residual goody.

This turned out to be a very good idea and has now been entered into our imaginary book of culinary commandments as something that YE SHALL DO EVERY TIME FROM HERE UNTO ETERNITY (Amen), or some such. Does this make it twice-marinated? Pre-marinated and post-dressed? Dressinated? Yes, that’s it: Dressinated. You heard it here first…

Honestly, why don’t we save veggie marinades and re-toss after cooking every time? Is there some kind of rule or weird cultural norm that dictates that all marinade shall be dumped ASAP regardless of use? Nay, say we. Granted, whole ‘icky meat-juice marinade’ yuckiness should be tossed after the meat’s been removed but veggies are another matter entirely.

So, here it is: Grilled Lemon & Rosemary Dressinated Asparagus Spears.

Fixin’s:

• 1lb fresh Asparagus, tough ends snapped off
• Juice of half a Lemon
• 2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp minced Rosemary
• Kosher Salt & Pepper to taste

Cook it:

• Preheat the grill to high
• In a gigantic bowl using tongs or your hands or whatever toss the Asparagus with all the other stuff
• Lay the Asparagus across the grill so they don’t all fall into the bottom…
• after about 2-3 minutes turn them all over or roll them around so they can cook on the other side, they should be golden and just a bit charred in spots
• Cook them for another couple of minutes and then pull them off and put them back into the big bowl.
• Toss them around again until they absorb the residual dressinade and then serve them to your very classy friends and family on fine china using crystal utensils. Or, alternatively, eat them right out of the bowl with your fingers while sitting on the deck drinking beer.

Mmmmmmmmm…

If there is a better way to cook a pizza than on the grill then we haven’t seen it (which is probably because a better way doesn’t actually exist and whoever says anything different is a dirty, filthy liar…right?) Just imagine it: the perfect crispy-on-the outside-and-soft-and-steamy-on-the-inside crust smothered in gooey bubbling Mozzarella and all of your favorite toppings. Now imagine it with an awesome slightly-smokey fresh-off-the-grill flavor. Now imagine that it only took about 5 minutes (seriously! 5 minutes!!) to cook. See where we’re going with this?

As usual we were a little late jumping on this particular culinary bandwagon but we’ve definitely been making up for lost time. Over the past couple of weeks there have been several incarnations of our take on Grilled Pizza – some vastly more successful than others.

The photo at the top there is of our first foray into the dark and murky world of pizza grilling. The extreme close-up is the by-product of the rather rustic (Julie’s word) condition of the crust which was oblong and generously charred. We stuck with the basic tomato sauce for this one and then added some leftover grilled chicken, fresh Basil, and mozzarella. We finished the whole thing off with a drizzle of Olive Oil. All rusticness aside it turned out pretty darn good, we thought.

The perfectly prepared number you see below here is from pizza grilling day #2, is the work of she-who-shall-forever-be-named-Grillmaster Julie, and handily put to shame the disastrous turn Gavin had taken at the grill just minutes before (oh, the shame…). We’ll spare you the gruesome story and gory photos of that particular train wreck.

This one here is topped with Olive Oil, Fresh Mozzarella, some shredded Rotisserie Chicken and some fresh Basil leaves. The crust we used is the fresh Spelt Pizza Dough from LifeSource Natural Foods. We chose it for no other reason than they were out of the regular kind. The Spelt variety was nummy but we discovered that we had to handle it very gently lest we poke numerous holes in it (hence the aforementioned train wreck).

While the recipes we found online varied in their levels of commitment to the dough-from-scratch scenario, we finally opted for the dough-from-the store scenario and found that the quality of our pizzas have suffered nary a bit. Yes, making dough from scratch is earthy and satisfying (and messy, and time-consuming) but – trust us on this – go to the store…buy the dough.

Also, you may be tempted after reading this recipe to augment the plain-sounding tomato sauce in one way or another which obviously is your prerogative. However, we would like to urge you to give it a go as we have suggested instead. The mashed up canned Italian Tomatoes are shockingly good and pack tons of bright, authentic tomatoey flavor. Divert your creative energies to the toppings and leave the sauce as a base flavor – you won’t regret it, we promise…

What you’ll need:

• Dough: 1 lb purchased fresh pizza dough – probably enough for 2 to 4 9inch pizzas.

• Sauce: Olive Oil, or 1 14oz can of Italian Plum Tomatoes (LifeSource again) dumped into a bowl and thorough mushed up with your hand, or all of the above…

• Toppings: Sliced Cooked Chicken, Fresh Mozzarella, Fresh Basil Leaves, Crushed Red Chili Flakes, Grated Parmesan, Roasted Veggies, Pepperoni, Salami, etc.

How to do it:

• Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. We have a gas grill so we just turned the knob to medium-high. Those of you with charcoal will have to fend for yourselves…
• On a generously floured surface (like a largish cutting board, something portable is a big help we found), separate the dough into grapefruit sized balls, dust them with flour, and wrap them with plastic wrap. Working with one dough ball at a time and using your fingers, a rolling pin, an empty wine bottle, etc. roll out the dough into a roughly 8 to 9 inch round and about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch thick. Make sure that there’s enough flour under the dough round to let it slide around a little so you can get it on the grill.
• Gather up all your ingredients and your prepared round and take them out to the grill.
• Without burning yourself – or setting the cutting board on fire- in one smooth motion slide the pizza dough off of the cutting board and onto the grill.
• Wait about a minute. The dough should just start to crisp up quickly and scorch a little around the edges. When that happens brush some Olive Oil on the top side and then flip it over.
• Working quickly add your sauce and toppings and then close the lid for about 2 minutes. Once the Mozzarella is all bubbly and wonderful the pizza is done. Use a spatula or two to transfer it to a pizza pan or another cutting board or whatever.

Thoughts:

We found that it was best to just work with one ball of dough at a time. We couldn’t find any reliable train-wreck-mitigating way to keep the prepared rounds from sticking to each other if you made them all at once and stacked them up. If there’s more than one of you working on this then your pizza buddy can start working on the next round while you’re tending the one on the fire.

Also, this is FANTASTIC party food: it’s really cheap to make, produces vast quantities of vittles, and is really, really fun. Plus, everyone is going to be standing around the grill oohing and ahhing anyway so you can easily put them to work rolling out dough and such.

Have fun!