Milk Poached Chicken, Grilled Apricots and Swiss Chard & Mixed Greens Salad with Feta

The first time I ever grilled chicken, all by myself, was probably 1992, after buying my first gas grill. I was living in this great brick apartment house on N Meridian Street, in Tallahassee, FL. It had a fully bricked back courtyard and picnic table and I proudly placed my grill there, but had no idea what to do with the chicken breasts or how to know when they're done.

Naturally, I called my mommy.

I'll never forget her reply. She said, in all sincerity "If it looks done it's ok. I've never worried about that." Hmm. I wasn't a genius, but that didn't sound right. And I had this sinking suspicion that my mother's ignorance could have killed the whole family! I was years away from attending culinary school, didn't own a meat thermometer, but I was dubious. And thankfully so. Every year people end up in the emergency room (or morgue) because they don't practice food safety. Like using old sponges and dirty hand towels to cross contaminate, not washing their hands properly or under cooking meat. Yikes, it is a miracle that I live to tell this tale.

So, using good sense, my foray into grilled chicken produced a barely edible meat that was charred on the outside and dry on the inside. But, by god, it was cooked. Through the years, I've gotten much better on the grill. When I worked in professional kitchens I prided myself on grill work (often the domain of the boys and so I made it my business to be as good or better). Plus I own several thermometers. But, my real chicken issue is no longer grilling technique or temperature. It's that I just don't like chicken. I'll eat it but, for me, it's the polyester of meat. I would never order it in a restaurant, unless I was dieting. And white meat is the worst. It's so bland and boring. I always chuckle when someone orders "all white meat" or worse "boneless, skinless white meat," like they're some connoisseur. Ugh. Fat and bone is the only thing saving chicken. Ok, that was snarky and chicken is cheap available and therefore, easy. So, yes, I do make it, more often that I'd like.

My compromise is breast tenderloins, which are smaller and easier to grill and tend to be a bit less dry. They aren't very sexy on a plate, but they taste better. Tonight I poached the chicken on the grill, which is easy and produces a much juicier result. No grill marks, no char (which I like), but cooked through, tender and wet.

The menu came together as I perused my refrigerator: I had about 5 each of apricots and plums past their prime, a zucchini from my garden and some Bulgarian feta. Thus, tonight's dinner: poached chicken with apricots, a salad of garden greens and the rest of the fig ice cream with roasted plums.

My garden is like a jungle, so every meal has to include produce from the garden. After working on my patio flowers this morning, I walked over to work the P-Patch. The bok choy has bolted, so I harvested all of it, shared what I could and chopped and froze the rest for some fall soups. I needed to make more room for the cucumber, zucchini and watermelon, which are threatening to take over. I picked herbs for my poaching liquid and chard and lettuce for the salad. My tomato plants are heavy with fruit, but nothing is ripe. If it gets cooler before they ripen, I'll definitely fry up some green tomatoes. Chris has never had them, can you believe that? Poor guy is Canadian and has had limited exposure to fine southern cuisine. My husband is an ice cream lover, so tomorrow I'll make him a new batch. I saw big, fat local blackberries at Trader Joe's yesterday and I'm thinking I should employ a pint or 2 in the next ice cream experiment. Maybe with cardamom. Well, until then.

I want to share a salad dressing technique that will never fail you. I learned this about 25 years ago from my first Moosewood cookbook, so the credit goes to Mollie Katzen. My version is less complicated, but I promise you, the results have pleased a plethora of vegetarians through the years.

The big secret is to place all of your greens and veg in a mixing bowl. Drizzle with oil and add your herbs, spices, s/p, etc. Toss it up and then add your acid, mix and serve. If you want to include cheese, do that last. Use tongs. By adding the oil first, you cover each leaf and veg and it allows the herbs and s/p to stick to everything before adding the watery acid. Another plus about this method is that you can really control your oil use, if that's important to you. You'll never have a puddle of dressing in the bottom of the bowl and every bite will taste perfectly seasoned. When you mix the dressing separately you tend to use much more oil (and dressing in general) than needed and the the emulsified dressing washes over the leaves and makes a soggy mess before supper is over. I can Pack Chris a leftover salad for work the next day and it's still pretty damned good. If you you want a dressing with mustard, garlic, buttermilk, mayo, yogurt or anything like that, just add it after the oil but, before the acid. Sometimes, I'll mix mustard or yogurt with a bit of acid, to loosen it up. But that's only when I don't mind dirtying another dish. Yet another reason to praise this technique: no extra bowl or whisk. Brilliant.

So the dinner was really excellent. Chris said, "I really like the apricots with the chicken," and that dinner was, "good." With his last spoonful of fig ice cream came his oft repeated compliment, "this is really good." Before I give you the recipes I want to tell you about a spice blend I found called African Fusion, from a local company in Issaquah, WA called

Something South African. I used this blend on the chicken, apricots and in the salad. It's quite aromatic but, subtle and I wanted to carry the flavor throughout the meal. Sometimes

that's overkill, but it was lovely with these dishes.

Shopping List

Chicken breast tenders (or whatever cut you like)

Milk (whole, or whatever you have)

1/2 sweet onion, quartered (Vidalia or Walla Walla)

1 zucchini, sliced

1 spring tarragon

3 springs mint

1 clove garlic

Spices, to taste

5 apricots, stone removed, halved

2 C mixed greens (I used chard, romaine and red leaf)

Handful of tomatoes

1/4 C red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 celery, chopped

1/4 C Bulgarian feta cheese, crumbled (or Greek, if you prefer)

Fresh herbs, to taste (whatever you have)

5 plums, stone removed, chopped

Sugar, to taste

Olive oil

1 lemon

S/P, to taste

African Fusion spice blend: coriander, garlic, crushed red pepper, fenugreek, black pepper, cumin and yellow mustard (I bought this blend, not sure how African it is, but it's a very tasty combination of dried spices)

Preparation

Marinate the chicken in milk for at least 1 hour. I added the raw meat to a zip-lock bag, poured in milk to cover and added salt, a garlic clove and an about 1 T of the African Spice blend.

Pre-heat the grill on high for at least 5 mins. Take 2 long sheets of foil and fashion a basket. Pour the chicken mixture into the foil, add the zucchini and onions. Wrap the foil loosely to form a pouch, seal. Turn the grill down to low and place pouch on the grill. In large mixing bowl tear your greens into bite-sized pieces (don't use a knife on lettuce, the metal causes discoloration), add your veg, herbs and s/p and drizzle with oil. You have to eyeball this. You can always add more, so go light. Toss it up and if you can see a sheen on the leaves, you have enough oil. Squeeze lemon directly over salad. Taste it to adjust seasoning and crumble the feta over the top.

In a small bowl place the apricots and toss with olive oil and s/p. Put them on the top grate. They won't take more than 10

mins to get grill marks and start to breakdown, so put them on the grill just before the chicken is ready. Now take a med-sized piece of foil and toss in plums. Cover with sugar and wrap tightly to seal. Through the plums on the top grate of the grill and let them cook while you have dinner.

The chicken will need to be checked, but not turned. The steam and milk will poach the meat quickly and it won't take long. I had 6 tenderloins and it took about 20-30 mins. You'll have to make the perilous decision of "done" for yourself, but your chicken breasts are edible at 170 degrees. Hope you like it!