Grilled Chicken Thigh, Mushroom and Zucchini with a Balsamic-Soy Glaze
I am a big fan of grilling in the summer. We don’t have central air conditioning in our house, so using the oven makes way too much heat. Our grill is used year round, but especially gets a work out in the summer. I had some musrhrooms and squash in the refrigerator so thought it would be a tasty change to make a balsamic-soy marinade for the veggies. Once I had marinated the veggies and skewered them, the marinade smelled so good that I thought “I bet this would taste good on the chicken” so I made another quick bactch and then just brused it on the chicken during the last five minutes of cooking to get a little caramelized flavor on the chicken. It turned out so great!
As you may remember, I am not a big recipe follower. I usually just see a recipe I think our family will like and piece it together on my own. I remembered seeing a recipe for a balsamic marinade for mushrooms and googled to get a few ideas of what ingredients were used in the recipe. There are A LOT of variations. After reading several, I decided the ingredients most compatible for my famlies tastes were balsamic, soy and garlic. We keep a bottle of balsamic reduction in the house as a staple My boys love balsamic, and it’s nothing for them to grab some of the reduction, add a little olice oil, and dip hunks of Italian bread into it as a snack. You can use plain balsamic vinegar, but I would recommend a good aged balsamic, like Balsamico de Modena, which can be a little more expensive, but the flavor is outstanding. Using a reduction adds a bit of thickness that makes it easier to baste the chicken.
Balsamic Reduction: Take one cup of balsamic vinegar and pour it into a non-reactive pot. Stainless steel, ceramic, glass and metal cookware with enamel coating are nonfactive. Heat the vinegar slowly until it starts to simmer. Lower the heat to keep the vinegar at a simmer and watch. The vinegar will begin to thicken. Stir occasionaly to make sure it is not sticking to the bottom of your pan. The reduction process can take 30 minutes or more. The vinegar will thicken after you remove it from the heat, so be sure not to let it get too thick during the cooking process. Once it is cooled, you can store it in a jar. It should yield about 1/4 a cup. It does not need refrigerated.
Balsamic Soy Marinade:
5 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
2-3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (depends on how much you like soy)
3 cloves garlic minced (I cheat and used minced garlic in oil from a jar)
Whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl, then pour over mushrooms and squash (or whatever veg you have around) in a large resealable bag and smoosh it around to help coat the vegetables. I had 8 oz of white mushrooms and 2 medium yellow squash on hand. I did not skewer them until after the veg had been in the marinade for a few hours, just before grilling. I recently saw a “life hack” (#HurricaneHattie is obsessed with life hack videos on youtube) which showed skewering vegetables to keep them from falling through the grill grates. Brilliant I never seem to be able to get those grill baskets clean! Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
I am not alwasys the best at estimating cooking times either. My general approach is “cook until it is cooked.” While this philosophy is not helpful for follks who are new to cooking, the reality is that everyone has different preferences on how they like things cooked. For meats, I highly suggest using a meat thermometer to ensure the proper cooking time. For vegetables, some people like their veggies crisper, some softer. Personal preference is imporant in cooking . . . as long as the meat is cooked thoroughly. In my experience, every grill is different and on my grill, one o fthe burners does not get as hot as the other side, so I have to watch and rotate my proteins so they don’t over cook, undercook or cause flare ups, but I’d say these vegetables needed 7-10 minutes with a flip about halfway through to grill both sides.
Internal Temperature chart for meat
I doubled the marinade recipe to make the glaze for the chicken. Once the chicken was about five minutes from being cooked thoroughly I started basting the thighs. Again, cooking time varies based on your grill, but if you want precision, start basting when the chicken reads 150 degrees on a thermometer. Unfortunatley, my kids were starving so I never got a photo of the finished product. But all the plates were clean, so I guess it was a hit!
Come back and visit soon,
Jennie