Grilled Chicken & Eggplant

As I posted the other day, you bloggers have an uncanny knack of posting recipes just when I need them and it happened again for the second and third time in a few days.  We had a couple of eggplant that we needed to use and I wanted to grill them, and up comes a recipe for grilled eggplant from Joanne over at Eats Well With Others - so the side dish was in place. 

Later as we discussed dinner, Bev said she’d just like something simple, such as grilled chicken with BBQ sauce on it.  I said that would be fine, but she should read the recipe for Jalapeno Pesto Chicken from Robyn at Grill Grrrl.  She read it, we asked Pat to bring us some cilantro – she was in town – and we got the chicken thighs in for a 3 hour marinade.  Being unsure if Pat would like the pesto, especially with a little heat (which I held back on), we also did 2 thighs with Tennessee River Cranberry Delight BBQ sauce.

I had in mind, just using the grilled eggplant part of Joanne’s recipe, but Bev decided to make up a tomato salsa as well.  I don’t remember ever making infused oil before and it turned out very nice with both the garlic and rosemary flavors obvious.  For the salsa, she started with the infused oil and onion then she used some paste tomatoes and squeezed the seeds and water out prior to chopping them to reduce the amount of liquid, then she added some garlic salt, a jalapeno and two tablespoons of the chicken marinade.  As Joanne suggested, I just added the infused oil and S&P to the eggplant then topped with a slice of baby Swiss cheese as that’s what we had on hand.

Since the chicken pieces were pretty large, I grilled them over medium heat to give the inside time to cook and still moved them between direct and indirect to get them all done at the same time.  I pulled them at 170*, but they could have gone another 5 degrees or so – for some reason I always have to pull thighs a little early – they were plenty done and moist but would have been a little more tender closer to 180*.  Here’s the platter headed for the kitchen and my plate. 

I’ve eaten eggplant several ways and like it okay but much prefer it as eggplant parmesan verses the grilled version – seems I always prefer the most fattening dish.  I loved the chicken and will make it again – it had just a little heat (I'll amp it up more for next time), a nice tang, and lots of flavor.  Like the chicken piccata the other night,  it might be a little too tangy for some tastes, which can be changed by cutting back on the lime amount.  Thanks ladies for a very nice dinner.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Our Stuff From New Orleans And Shrimp Stock

Two years ago:  Nothing

Larry