Chicken Marsala

I love a good Chicken Marsala.  There is nothing like that wood-fired chicken, seasoned to perfection, all topped off with a rich Marsala wine sauce.  It's making me hungry just talking about it, so enough!  On with the food!

Chicken Breasts rubbed in olive oil, seasoned and grilled over direct heat on the Yoder Pellet Grill

Grilled to perfection!  Check out those grill marks, courtesy of the Grill Grates product

All plated up with Marsala sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, and peas.  We like a few extra mushrooms in ours ;-)

And here's the recipe:

Marsala Sauce:

1/3 cup butter
2 slices prosciutto, diced
2 teaspoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup marsala wine
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Chicken Spice:
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
4 chicken breasts
olive oil

Melt butter over low heat in a medium saucepan.  Turn heat up to medium/high to saute the prosciutto in the melted butter for about 2 - 3 minutes (be careful not to burn butter), add shallots and garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Add marsala wine, simmer for another 30 seconds or so, then add mushrooms and black pepper. Simmer over medium/high heat for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked down. Dissolve corn starch in chicken stock. Add stock to the saucepan and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Add parsley and cream to the sauce and simmer for 3 - 4 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat, cover until needed. 

Set up your pellet grill for direct heat or preheat your gas/charcoal grill if that is your weapon of choice. Combine ingredients for the chicken spice in a small bowl. Use your thumb and fingers to crush the spices in the bowl to make a finer blend. Brush each chicken breast generously with olive oil. Rub on spices and grill until chicken is done. Top off the chicken with some Marsala sauce and you are in food heaven!

Oktoberfest Burgers

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been able to share some good BBQ recipes with you all! Not to worry.  I'm still alive, and still smokin' and grillin' up a storm!  With the hustle and bustle of fall winding down and the Thanksgiving and Christmas Seasonings fast approaching, I've been able to sneak in a few cooks.

We finished off the month of October in true Oktoberfest fashion, Dark Side BBQ style with my version of an Oktoberfest Burger!

My version of the Oktoberfest Burger uses a homemade pretzel bun (recipe below), a half pound patty of ground chuck, melted smoked Gouda cheese, all topped off with onions sauteed in Free State Brewery's Octoberfest, and finished off with some Inglehoffer  Stone Ground Mustard.

Stay tuned as I have a laundry list of good food for the grill to share for the holiday season.  Next, I've got a great Chicken Marsala recipe to share for the grill using the Grill Grates product for direct cooking on your pellet grill.  Until then, keep on smokin'!

Here's the recipe for the homemade pretzel buns (definitely a labor of love, but worth the effort!):

1 1/3 cups warm water (105 degrees or so; just warm enough to activate the yeast
2 T warm milk
2 1/2 t active dry yeast
1/3 c brown sugar
2 T butter, melted
4 cups of all purpose flour

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine 1/3 cup of the water with the the yeast.  Let that stand until foamy so we know the yeast is activated.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, add the yeast mixture, additional cup of water, milk, sugar, and butter.  Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Add the flour, a little at time, and mix until it forms a pliable dough ball.

Turn the dough out on to  a lightly floured surface and need for about two minutes or so.  Roll this out into a log, approximately two feet in length and cut into twelve pieces.  Place the rolls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Cover the dough with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Form the dough into rolls, and cover them again with a towel and let them rest for 30 more minutes.

At this point, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  In a large stock pot, bring 2 quarts of water to boil, and add half a cup of baking soda.  Make sure your stock pot is big enough, so when you add the baking soda to the water, it doesn't foam over the pot and all over your stove.

Drop one or two rolls into the boiling water for 30 seconds, turning once.  Return to your cookie sheet.  Sprinkle the rolls with a healthy amount of kosher salt.  Bake them for 8 minutes or more, until they are nice an brown, like a pretzel.

Let them cool, slice and pile on your burger toppings.  These are very versatile rolls, so you could come up an endless number of possibilities of burgers or sandwiches.