Nutrition 1/11-17

Dish of the Week: Grilled Chicken with a Simple Salad

Food preparation doesn’t have to be hard to produce nutritional, beautiful and flavorful results. Start with a 5 ounce, boneless, skinless chicken breast. Grill it.

Ok, “grill it” is not really enough if you don’t already know how to get those sear marks. And you want them because they seal in the natural juices.

Get your grill hot. Really hot. Like 15 minutes with the top closed hot. Put a little (not a lot, not even more than a little) canola oil on one side of the chicken, salt and pepper on both sides. Then put the chicken on the grill and let it go until you can lift the chicken off without tugging. If you have to pull even a little bit, leave it. Once you turn it, don’t worry about sear marks on the other side—if you do, you’ll overcook the breast. You’re not going to look at the bottom once it’s on the plate. And I don’t worry about cross-hatch sear marks—that just increases my chances of overcooking. The time-honored test for doneness is “when the juices run clear.” If it’s thick enough to get a meat thermometer in sideways, so that you’re in the very center of the breast, you want it to read 165 F.

The salad here is simple but very good.

1 cup Bibb lettuce

1 small sweet potato, cubed

2 tablespoons chopped red onion

Half cup cooked quinoa

1 tablespoon dried cranberries

Dress with juice of half a lime, other half dresses the chicken breast

475 calories

50 grams of protein

40 grams of carbohydrates

10 grams of fat

Full RDA of Vitamins A and B3

Sometimes, when we’ve had a really satisfying meal that takes something “good” and makes it “extraordinary” in some way, my wife will put her fork down and say, “All day long!” The combination of bright and substantial flavor here can get that reaction. All day long!