I like Chicken. It’s is my go-to source for protein. Having said that it can make for some pretty boring meals. So I decided to create my own take, heavily inspired from this Zaatar and Lemon Grilled Chicken recipe.
Goals for this Recipe
In order for me to consider this endeavor a success I wanted to accomplish certain goals…
- It couldn’t be boring
- It couldn’t be difficult (or hard to remember).
- It needed to be relatively healthy.
Making it not so clucking boring
When looking for inspiration I found that not-boring-chicken often contradicted ease . For example, much of the recipes I came across throwing chicken into the oven to save time, but the words “bake” and “chicken” in itself sounded off-putting. Grilling, on the other hand, sounded fun and flavorful. Even the imagery makes my head nod like Jack Nicholson.
Easy Chicken
Grilling definitely makes cleaning and time to focus, so this is my least met goal. Nevertheless with experience and note taking I’m sure this will become second nature. In fact, this entire blog post is my attempt to meet this goal. By annotating what worked, I am less likely to make time consuming mistakes, and remember exactly how I liked this dish. It also gives me space to improve on the recipe over time.
A Healthy Bird
When it came to a leaner bird grilling seem to come out on top (que the George Foreman lean mean grilling machine). I also wanted to make sure I cooked it appropriately. According to the USDA Chicken should be cooked to 165 degrees. To Measure the temperature I got a food thermometer, but the challenge for me was learning to hit 165 without making the bird too dry. So far, I’ve found two things that helped…
- Making the cut not too thick (or too lean)
- Letting the chicken marinate in its ingredients (inside a ziplock bag)…
So what are the Ingredients and Instructions?
Meet the team involved in making this bird so special!
Note: the instructions are based on roughly 3.5 pounds of chicken.
Trader Joe’s Habanero Hot Sauce
Amount: x2 tablespoons
Traditional Tunisian Harissa
Amount: x1 teaspoon
Za`taar
Amount: x2 tablespoons
Amount: x1 teaspoon
Cayenne Pepper
Amount: x1 teaspoon
Sea Salt
Amount: x1 teaspoon
Lemon Juice
Amount: x2 tablespoon
Cooking
I’ll probably do this on a traditional grill, but since we got a Ninja – Foodi XL Pro Indoor 7-1 Grill and Griddle for Christmas, I felt I should put it to use!
Cooking Time
I really didn’t go off time, but temperature. At 400 degrees, it took roughly 12 minutes. At the 8 minute mark I flipped the chicken, and then cooked until the internal temperature hit 165 degrees. Cooking 3.5 pounds of Chicken took roughly 40 minutes on this grill. An outdoor grill will handle this much faster.
Quick version of the instructions
- Take 3.5 pounds of chicken, and a larger zip lock bag
- Cut the chicken into moderately thin pieces (not too thin, not too thick)
- x2 tablespoon of Habanero Hot Sauce
- x1 teaspoon of Harissa
- x2 tablespoon of Za’taar
- x1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
- x1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
- x1 teaspoon of Sea Salt
- x2 tablespoon of Lemon Juice
- Let it sit and marinate in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours
- Set the Ninja Foodi Grill (or traditional grill) to 400 degrees
- cook on one side for roughly 8 minutes, flip
- Cook until chicken reaches 165 degrees at its thickest point
- Enjoy!
Final thoughts
I am by no means a cooking expert. As always please be careful utilizing the content on this site. You can consider it my personal archive of notes that I keep in public for others to utilize or correct me. Should you find this information useful and you want to connect, or you want to correct or comment on a particular component that caught your attention, you are always free to contact me here.