Gluttons Club

The other night I was cruising to whole foods across the street from work to pick up some stuff for my lonesome gourmet dinner. As I entered, I did an inventory of what I had in the fridge that needed to be used. I remembered some bacon, some cherry tomatoes and not much else. The weather was as warm as a fat persons armpit so I was looking to avoid indoor cooking if possible. By the time I reached the meat counter, I had decided to wrap the bacon around some bone-in split chicken breasts and grill 'em. The tomatoes would go nicely with some feta, herbs and red wine vinegar in a salad and some bread toasted on the grill would provide a starch.

The chicken ended up the star of the show. I put a mixture of chopped sage and garlic combined them with salt and pepper and put it all under the skin and wrapped the chicken with bacon using toothpicks. When the coals were ready, I had another revelation: use smoke and indirect heat instead of searing them. So I did. the result was saltimbocca gone mad in a house fire. After about half an hour on the medium hot part of the grill with hickory chips on the coals and the lid on, I had mildly smoked chicken with beautiful herb and bacony flavors. When I cut into the breast, it was literally bursting with juicy goodness. I have never seen such a thing, not even even after a proper brining.

I admit, the recipe needs tweaking. Next time I'll use pancetta instead of maple cured bacon to let the smoke from the fire alone provide that element and I'll season the bird with more salt and pepper and less fresh herb than I did. A little paprika might be just the trick. The second breast was my leftover meal tonight and it was still damn good. I think I'll replicate it for a crowd next time to see what they think.