Marinated Chicken Thighs on a George Foreman Grill

Lemon does wonders for chicken!  This extremely simple marinade improves chicken, no matter what you plan to do with it. Try it next time you barbecue!

Chicken thighs in a lemon marinade

2.25 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 cup water

1 tsp. salt
Juice of 1 lemon


Marinate for a day, chilled.

There were 10 thighs.  As our George Foreman Grill is a small one, we grilled twice, 3 pieces at a time. (The final four along with all the drippings and marinade and some tomatoes became spaghetti sauce, not shown here.)

Spray the grill with non-stick spray and plug it in.

Slice up an onion.  Arrange a layer of onion on the grill.  Arrange a layer of chicken over the onion, then another layer of onion over the chicken.  Lower the grill cover.

Give it a quick check after 2 minutes. If the top layer of onions are starting to scorch, turn them over.

Chicken thighs on a George Foreman Grill

After another 2 minutes, open the grill again and rearrange the pieces. (The small grill has hot spots and cooler spots; move the less done parts of the chicken into the hotter corners.)  Rearrange onions also as needed, then close the grill again. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes, then open the grill and turn all the contents over, replacing everything again so that the less done parts are on the hotter parts of the grill.

Open once more; this time remove and set aside the onions,  turn over the chicken again, and grill for 2 more minutes.

The chicken is ready to be served!  It took about 10 minutes, with all the adjusting, but less than that actual cooking time.  If you are grilling chicken breasts the time will be less.  Thigh meat is both thicker and denser than breast meat, but it has more flavor, and is less expensive as well.

If you want to take this recipe in an ethnic direction, you can add spices, herbs, or sauce in the last minutes of cooking or in some cases to the marinade.  Beware of sweet sauces, like barbecue sauce, on the grill because the sugar will scorch in a hurry.  A sauce like that should be a last-minute addition.

Grilled chicken thighs

To clean the grill:  My secret weapon for this chore is a stack of saturated paper towels in the hot grill.  Most of the stuck parts and grease will steam off immediately and run out into the drip tray.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This recipe is #78 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.

Carne Picada in Lemon-Tomato Sauce

This recipe is delicious, fragrant - and serendipitous.  I found a package of "Carne Picada", whatever that might be, at Walmart.  It was last day of sale and marked down so I took it home to experiment with.  It seems to be very thinly sliced scraps of beef, with a bit of fat and gristle attached.  If nothing else it could be a welcome change of texture from the usual hamburger.  There are just under 3 pounds of meat (and "marinade") in the package.

Browned Carne Picada in a 2-quart slow cooker

Brown the meat in a large pan, in batches as it is a bit wet.

Lift the browned meat from the pan with a slotted spoon and put it into a 2-quart slow cooker

Skim the fat from remaining liquids and then add drippings to the crockpot.

Add:

1 onion, chopped and sauteed
1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
2 slices lemon
1 diced carrot
1 tsp. salt
1 Tb Demerara sugar

Simmer on "low"  for several hours.  When your whole house smells like lemon, it's ready!

Serve over rice with a garnish of cilantro leaves

Carne Picada in lemon-tomato sauce over rice

 To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This recipe is #96 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.

Lemons