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This grilled chicken recipe has bright flavors, a wonderful color, and it’s incredibly healthy. Fire up your grill and get this one on your plate soon!
My husband gets a few things given to him from clients every year that we obviously appreciate but sometimes wonder what we are going to do with it. One year we got a crystal sherry decanter. It was lovely but it had a tacky plastic ‘brass’ name plate on it bearing the companies logo. I tried to pry it off…ya, that didn’t work. Plus, I mean…who drinks sherry anyway? Who, these days, has decanters sitting on a cart in the parlor (no judgement)? Nobody, unless you are in a Soap Opera ???? I appreciate that they went to the expense and time to give him something but some of this stuff obviously came from the ‘re-gift shelf’ !
Come on now…you all know you have one. You don’t? OK, I guess it’s just me.
Well, moving on. We were given a few boxes of citrus from family and co-workers. A lot of it actually. This came at the right time and I have been eating a ton of it. I am trying to tell myself that it will help me get over this…whatever..I have. I have made a cake, smoothies, a salad and this orange basil grilled chicken recipe with our mother lode!
This is a great dish to make in the winter when oranges and lemons are ripe and fresh and when you just need a bit of sunshine in your life. I do make this more in warmer months because it is so light and healthy, though. BUT, if you need to add a healthy yet easy meal to your winter rotation then I have one for you. Plus, I bet we all need a vitamin C boost!
I grilled this chicken because I am a bit odd..I grill in the winter. Really, as long as it’s not pouring rain I will use the grill. We have even been known to wheel it near the garage just to get out of the elements. I only recommend this if you have a big garage with good ventilation like we do but back to the food…I digress ????
I hope you love this grilled chicken recipe as much as I do!
Total Servings 6
Side suggestions: cooked sugar snap peas and whole wheat couscous: prepare as per package instructions
10 minPrep (inc. refrigeration & rest time)
20 minCook Time
30 minTotal Time
Ingredients
- 1 large navel orange
- 2 lemons
- 1/2 to 3/4 C of fresh basil, chopped
- a few TB of olive oil
- 4 large boneless skinless chicken breast halves, about 1 1/2 lbs
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
- From the orange zest off 2 tsp of the peel and squeeze 4 TB of juice.
- From the lemons zest 2 tsp of peel and squeeze 1/3 C of the juice.
- In a medium bowl, combine 1 tsp of each peel and 1 TB of the orange juice with half of the basil, 1 TB of olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp fresh black pepper.
- Flatten each chicken breast between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper, to a 1/2 inch thickness. Add the chicken to the citrus mixture, set aside.
- In a small pitcher or bowl, combine sugar, a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper, and all of the remaining zests, juices, olive oil (1 TB) and basil.
- You can make all of this up to this point up to 8 hours ahead!
- Pre-heat an outdoor grill or grill pan on the stove and cook the chicken until just done.
- Place the chicken over the finished couscous and cooked snap peas (if you make them) on a large serving dish.
- Pour the sauce from the pitcher over the finished food and garnish with slices of leftover lemon and orange as well as a few torn leaves of basil, if you want to.
Important Notes
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light January 2012
