Recipe for Raging Grilled Chicken

Watching the first episode of Top Chef Masters just now put me in a foodie mood. It's nice to see openly queer people on the show this season -- Susan Feniger of Border Grill/Ciudad/Street and Jerry Traunfeld of Poppy in Seattle. In fact, Jerry is playing for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Don't you just love Bravo?

Last night Pedro and I hosted a friend for a casual grilled dinner to start off the week. The menu was relatively easy to prepare and unified by Asian ingredients and flavors: soy, miso (brushed onto grilled eggplant), sriracha hot sauce. I played around with a butter glaze for grilled chicken breasts that had first been brined, and it worked out nicely. Here's the recipe for what I'm calling "Raging Grilled Chicken."

- 2 chicken breasts (about ~1 lb.), scored lightly in a cross-hatch pattern
- Ground black pepper

Brine:
- Half lemon, cut into 4 pieces
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups hot water (microwaved is fine)
- 1 quart cold water

Butter glaze:
- 3 Tbs butter, melted
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- Dash of sriracha hot sauce to taste

Dissolve the salt and sugar in the hot water, and mix in with the cold water, garlic, and lemon. Making sure that the brine is chilled (refrigerate it for a few minutes to get it down to temperature), slip in the chicken breasts and let sit for at least one hour (per pound). Pedro and I used the time to take a run along the Charles.

Take the chicken breasts out after brining, and sprinkle with black pepper. Build a hot fire, and brush one side of the chicken breasts with the butter glaze. Put the chicken glazed side down on the grill and cook for 3 minutes. Apply the glaze on the top side of the breast, and flip to cook for 3 minutes. Apply glaze and cook for 3 more minutes again on each side until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees. Remove the chicken from the grill and cover with foil for 10 minutes before slicing for serving.

Serve with grilled vegetables and steamed rice. We finished the meal with banana-Thin-Mints-nutella-sundaes with our friends' homemade chocolate sauce. But that's another recipe for another day.