Spicy Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Kabobs

I found out through my Chicken Tikka Masala recipe that yogurt is a great marinade for chicken. It sounds gross, right? Cooking dairy? It's actually not gross at all - quite the opposite. The enzymes in the yogurt really tenderize the chicken and the tang adds a lot of flavor. Of course, you need to add way more flavor to the yogurt to season the chicken and this recipe does just that. The recipe comes from Bon Appetit and is a great reason to fire up the grill. You might chop of some veggies, toss them around with olive oil, salt and pepper, skewer them and grill alongside this chicken.

Grilled Green Chile Chicken Kabobs

This is a family recipe that I adapted a little in honor of the Hatch Chile festival at Central Market. My mom usually makes these with jalapenos so you could easily do that if you don't have Hatch chiles available. The marinade for the chicken is great for other preparations like chicken fajitas or grilled chicken for a salad or anything else so hang on to this one. I served these with Hatch chile cheese grits and grilled zucchini.

Grilled Zucchini

We love zucchini. It's easy to find year round and adaptable to many different preparations. These take almost no time to cook so they're a great side dish for anything else you might be grilling. My mother-in-law did these recently and added some parmesan cheese to the top just after grilling so I'd suggest that as an add-on if it sounds good with your meal. This recipe is my own.

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

This is a great way to use up leftover veggies. Once grilled, the veggies will keep for several days in the fridge and can be used for sandwiches, pizza, pasta, frittatas or omelets. These sandwiches were the first thing I made from our grilled veggies and we had enough leftover to make some yummy veggie pizzas (see pic below). I went all out and made some slow-roasted tomatoes and caramelized onions to go with mine but you could easily cut down on the cooking time by just doing the grilled veggies. This recipe is one of my own.

Rosemary Garlic Grilled Pork Chops

It surprised me how much we enjoyed this recipe. I've only made pork chops one other time before and we didn't like them. But, my in-laws do these grilled, barbecue pork chops that I really love so I thought I'd give them another try. As you can see from my post topics, chicken gets a lot of attention around here. We'd actually had 2 chicken meals the week before this and I was determined to go a week without it. The pork chops I found were boneless and not super thick - really nothing special. The combination of the brown sugar, rosemary and cumin in the marinade really made them special though. I found this recipe on The Kitchn though I modified it a little bit. If you don't have a grill, I bet you could do these under your broiler too. You'd just preheat your broiler for about 5 minutes, then broil the chops on an upper rack for 5 minutes on each side. Enjoy!

Grilled Asparagus

I saw these beautiful, pencil-thin asparagus at the grocery the other day and couldn't pass them up. I've heard some tv chefs say that the thick asparagus is the best but I've always preferred the skinny ones. You just have to be careful not to overcook them. This method for grilling on top of foil worked well for me. Try out some different seasonings and spices too. And, if you have any leftover, warm it in the oven with some parmesan cheese on top, all topped with a fried or poached egg. This recipe is my own.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza on the Grill

Here's a leftover idea and a method for making pizza on the grill. As I mentioned before, we love pizza but summer is not the time to be cranking up your oven as high as it will go and preheating a pizza stone. It took us a few tries cooking it on the grill but I think we've really got it down now. Many recipes have you put the dough right on the grill but this one is a little simpler I think. It also gives you as much time as you need to make sure your cheese is melted and brown and your toppings crispy. Let's call this recipe a collaboration since Chris definitely helped perfect it.

Barbecue Chicken

Barbecue chicken can be really good if it's cooked properly and I think I found a way to do just that. This method of cooking bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts on the grill can also be adapted to many other preparations so you may see a repeat appearance on the blog before summer is over. The cooking time is a bit long but the prep is short and it's a really low maintenance recipe. I got this one from Use Real Butter and I think it's a winner. I did make the sauce in the recipe but I cheated and used some I had leftover and frozen so I don't have any pics of that. I highly recommend the sauce if you have time. Otherwise, Cattleman's is my favorite bottled sauce. As for the rub, I had pre-made that too. I use the one from Joy of Cooking but the one in the recipe is probably just as good if not better than that. The chicken breasts I used were huge so we had plenty of leftovers. To freeze, I pulled the chicken off the bone, shredding it and stored in a ziploc.

Chicken-Stuffed Poblano Peppers

One of our favorite Mexican food restaurants is Lupe Tortilla in Houston, Texas. Chris always orders the Poblano Chicken and this is my attempt at recreating that. It is a really yummy version of a chile relleno minus the deep frying. The tender chicken is key and this method really works. I did these on the grill but have included instructions for doing these in the oven too.

Mexican Chicken Sandwiches with Grilled Peppers and Onions

Halfway into June it's about time I post some grill-friendly recipes. We got a gas grill a couple of years ago and use it all the time. It's especially nice to not have to heat up our oven or stove during the summer. This meal was Chris's idea but the recipe is all mine. There's apparently a Mexican hamburger place near his office where he gets a great version of this and he was hoping I could recreate it. Sometimes I think he just looks for excuses for me to make homemade salsa but that's alright - I liked this meal too. Plus, this is a great meal for leftovers. Look for a post on that to come soon.