I love grilled food. Anything really…pizza, meats, fruit, veggies…you name it I will grill it.
This weekend I was cooking for a church retreat at Cal-Wood. Columbine Unity Youth Group. What an absolutely charming group of teenagers. No less than 8 of these great kids asked me if I needed any help in the kitchen. They were so eager to lend a hand. While these teenagers were visiting Cal-Wood half of the group stayed on site to help our forestry manager Angie with some physically taxing outside volunteer work while the other half went to one of our neighbor camps Colorado Mountain Ranch to help with the ongoing clean up from the devastating 4 Mile Canyon Fire. This was the most destructive forest fire in Colorado history. Colorado Mountain Ranch lost many cabins and much of their land was burned during the fire. The clean up will go on for years.
The volunteer work done by the kids of Columbine Unity Youth Group was not easy and when they came back to camp they were tired and hungry!
Since the weather was as warm as a summer day I decided to dust off the grill and make some bbq chicken.
I wanted to make sure the menu was both filling and healthy. I was making my famous baked mac and cheese and wanted to lighten up the rest of the meal.
I used boneless skinless chicken breasts for the bbq and grilled up a bunch of fresh veggies.
For the chicken I made sure to paillard the chicken breasts and marinate them in balsamic vinegar, garlic, sea salt, cracked pepper and canola oil. This deeply flavors the bland chicken breast and helps to caramelize the chicken for more flavor during grilling. I made my own bbq sauce that simmered most of the afternoon on the stove.
I cut my zucchini lengthwise down the center, toss in some sweet red bell peppers cut down the center in halves and de-seeded and large red onion slices. I used the same marinade as the chicken and let the veggies marinate for most of the afternoon. I tossed them on the grill first and then chilled the grilled veggies before cutting.
I blanched broccoli spears separately on the stove and let them chill for at least 1 hour
For the chicken I grilled it until I had good grill marks on the meat and finished it in the oven. Often when you cook chicken breasts on the grill they dry out before they reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. When I finish the chicken in the oven it helps keep the moisture in and lets the meat cook slowly without drying.
When the teenagers of Columbine Youth Group tucked into this meal there is very little left over. Nearly everything was devoured from the green salad, veggies, mac and cheese and chicken.
Grilling Tender Chicken Breasts
4-6 boneless skinless chicken breast
1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar (I use Costco Balsamic)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 minced garlic clove
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
Paillard your chicken breasts to flatten them out and make sure the meat is evenly flattened. This will ensure that the chicken will cook quickly and not dry out. If you pound the chicken thin you may not even need to use the oven to finish it.
Marinated the chicken in balsamic, canola, sea salt, pepper and minced garlic for at least 1 hour.
While your chicken is marinating prep your veggies for the grill.
Grilled Balsamic Marinated Veggies
4 zucchini cut lengthwise into 2 pieces
4 sweet red bell peppers cut in half and de-seeded
2 sweet red onions cut into third horizontally with the skin removed.
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (again I used Costco Balsamic)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme (I used my lovely French Thyme from Savory Spice Shop)
Marinate veggies for 15 minutes and cook on the grill until slightly charred. I usually take the zucchini off a little under done as they finish cooking after removing from the grill. I like my veggies to have a slight crunch and not be soggy.
Reserve the marinade and pour back over the veggies. Never do this with meat marinade but you can with clean veggies.
To add another element to the salad I blanched 1 head of broccoli in salty boiling water until al dente. Chill and add to grilled veggie before adding marinade.
Chill veggie for 1/2 an hour to 45 minutes. Cut and serve.
Pre-heat the grill and when it is hot place the chicken on the grill. It will only take about 4-5 minutes for each side of chicken to be cooked. The balsamic vinegar will help create nice grill marks and caramelization on the chicken adding great flavor. This step can be omitted if you are using bbq sauce but I feel it makes the chicken much more flavorful.
Coat with BBQ sauce and put back on the grill for 3-4 minutes.
Let chicken rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Those veggies are gorgeous! Sounds like a great group of kids.
They worked very hard!
Agreed – the veggies are gorgeous! I can’t wait for summer!!!
I’m impressed by the dedication of this young group of kids.. they’re well deserving of your excellent food! I’m looking forward to more grilled dinners this summer and it was great to learn how to paillard chicken from your link! Thanks!
I am so glad you visited the link. I use that technique frequently! It makes grilling simple and easy.
I know that the group worked up an appetite but I think the meal would have been enthusiastically eaten anyway. It sounds delicious.
Thank you, they were starving!
I’ve just cleaned off my grill and this will be a good recipe to start with. Thanks!
Yay! Have fun.
What a fun time and a great looking dish! I love all the veggies!
It was very fun!
I love grilled veggies. And those kids sound amazing.
Those kids were fabulous!
What a wonderful thing you are doing for these teens! And what a divine marinade for the chicken. Definitely using this next time I fire up my grill. Wishing you all the best!
I use balsamic for a marinade frequently as the sugars caramelize nicely. Have a wonderful weekend!
I love all things grilled too. I am a big fan of smoking too….mmm must be time for dinner!
Yum…smoking…
I read this yesterday morning in my email and I enjoyed it so much, but I forgot to tell you how much I enjoyed it. I liked what you said about the charming campers. Thanks for the tips on grilling chicken breasts. I will definitely pass that on to Yes!Chef!
Thanks Karen. On the last day we had a late Sunday breakfast and the teenaged boys literally ran to the buffet. It was great. A little nerve racking to see large teenage boys running at a steam table full of food but it made me smile.
I also love grilling food, especially veggies!
We have vowed to grill every weekend. This is the second post I have seen about grilling veggies (as I catch up on my reading today). Think I will see what looks good at the FM tomorrow!
One of the things I love about grilling is you can literally grill anything. Well most things. In the summer we grill strawberries and the pound cake for strawberries and cake. It is delicious.
I love grilled pound cake!
I love grilled food too , those balsamic veggies look extra delicious!!
Two of my favorite things in God’s wonderful world…..Grilling & BBQ sauce……
That is one fantastic looking grilled dish. Love all the veggies!
Thank you for following my blog. Reciprocated! I love this use of balsamic – I shall give it a try.
It’s lovely to hear good stuff about teenagers! I taught young people for many years and always leapt to their defence when they were spoken of as if they were all the same and all bad!
All the best from Cornwall
I hope the kids enjoyed the food and appreciated your effort to have them eat healthy. That can, indeed, be a challenge since there are so many temptations in the food world. Love your grilled veggies.
Yes. They showed great appreciation.
Fantastic! Just a touch of balsamic really does wonders for veggies. I’d try to snap up that whole batch in one sitting if I could.
I perhaps over use balsamic but….I mean really, can you over use balsamic???
Yummy!! I probably should get balsamic now, been meaning to for a long time.
I really like the balsamic vinegar from Costco. It is a good high quality imported balsamic and a great price.
Wow, a job cooking for groups of hungry kids in a beautiful outdoor setting? I’m sure it’s really hard work, but it sounds amazing. Thank you for visiting my site- I’m humbled that a professional chef would come to my little corner of the food blog world! Can’t wait to read up on your recipes and learn lots from you!