Summer Grilling and Bread Baking

Russ and I went to the Pepper Place Farmer’s Market for the first time this season on Saturday. We really enjoy going and getting some of the wonderful produce there. This was Cash’s first time to the market and he loved it! Russ and I got lots of peaches and some fresh corn on the cob. I decided to try another new recipe out of the June CL to go with the corn and peaches. It is Marinated Chicken Cooked Under a Brick.

This recipe calls for using a whole chicken. Last year I decided to try roasting a whole chicken and was pleasantly surprised how easy it is. It sounds intimidating (at least it did to me) because I think of people talking about cooking whole turkeys and how much work it is, time it takes etc. Well a whole chicken is a lot smaller and very manageable to cook even for a weeknight dinner. I highly recommend you try cooking a whole chicken if you haven’t done it before. We have now roasted and grilled them on with great results. Not only are whole chickens very inexpensive to buy, but we have always had them turn out to be very moist and flavorful. Roasting a whole chicken is especially easy and a good way to cook your first chicken.

You use a whole chicken in this recipe and it has to marinate for 8 hours or overnight. I had intended to prepare the marinade and get it going last night, but I got too tired and did it this morning. It took a little longer than I expected though, so I would recommend doing it the night before if possible. The marinade has minced garlic, chopped shallots, honey, dijon mustard, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and chopped fresh rosemary and thyme. The part that took a little longer than when I normally marinate chicken is that you also have to prepare the chicken. I skinned it this morning and Russ cut the wings off and cut it so it laid flat prior to grilling it. Russ grilled it on low heat for an hour with the bricks (wrapped in foil) on top.

The chicken smelled and tasted fantastic. The marinade gave the chicken great flavor and cooking it for an hour made it very tender. It was moist, but Russ said next time we'll just served the breasts whole (he sliced it) to keep them even more moist. I think we will repeat this chicken again this summer. The only thing I will do differently is to prepare it the night before and let it marinate overnight. I think marinating it for a little longer will only enhance the flavor and not overpower it and it won't make my morning as rushed. Russ rates the chicken a 9.

While the chicken was grilling I had some spare time on my hands, so I decided to do a little baking with the peaches instead of serving them as a side with the chicken. I have been wanting to try more recipes out of my King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook, but have not found time to bake recently. My peaches from the market were ripe, so I decided to try the Peach Oatmeal Bread.

The recipe is a simple one for bread since you just mix the dry ingredients together and then add the oats and sliced peaches to it. Then you mix the wet ingredients together and I did this by hand with a whisk and add it to the flour / peach mixture. I did drain the peaches as the recipe stated, however, next time with fresh peaches I won't bother draining them. Despite the juiciness of the peaches very little juice drained out and to be honest I would have rather had the juice in the bread. If you used canned peaches (which I wouldn't recommend) then do drain them. The only changes I made to the recipe was that I made 4 smaller loaves instead of 1 larger one and I sifted the dry mixture before adding the peaches and oats.

Russ and I both liked this bread. I think I could have taken it out a couple minutes sooner as I thought it was a little dry. I really liked the oatmeal / peach flavor combination, however, I think the bread as a whole could have been a little better. Next time I will add more peaches though as I would have liked to have more in there and cook it a little less time. I think I may even bump it up from 2 to 3 cups leaving everything else the same. I may also bump up the almond extract just a pinch as it adds a nice little extra flavor. I liked that this recipe doesn't use any butter, uses not a lot of sugar, very little oil, and does use whole grain flour. I am anxious to try the bread again today as usually whole grain baked goods are better the next day. This recipe did not call for any resting during the baking process, so I am thinking that sitting overnight has probably only enhanced its flavor. Russ rates the Peach Oatmeal Bread a 8.

* Pictures of the Peach Oatmeal Bread and the recipe will be posted shortly.