Marinade Enhances Flavor Of Chicken Before Grilling

If boneless chicken breasts haven’t overtaken ground beef as the favorite meat for the grill, it may be that not enough cooks have discovered their versatility.

Because of the white meat’s mildness, it soaks up whatever flavors it is matched with.

Chicken processors discovered the secret and created a best-selling supermarket category of seasoned chicken breasts.

You can do the same thing at home, tailoring chicken to your taste. It’s economical and quick, as it doesn’t take long for chicken to take on a new personality.

The two ways to enhance chicken are with a marinade or with a sauce. The following recipe uses both.

The ginger, honey and orange juice marinade gives a sweet-citrus tang to the chicken. The orange juice will also tenderize the meat, but don’t let the chicken stay in the mixture too long or it will become mushy. The peach, ginger and chili jam puts heat in every mouthful.

Serve the grilled breasts with a side dish of rice tossed with pistachios and mint or in a bun, using the jam in place of ketchup.

Grilled Chicken Breast with Hot Ginger-Peach Jam

2 large or 4 small boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1 teaspoon grated ginger root

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup orange juice

Hot Ginger-Peach Jam (recipe follows) Oil

Place chicken in glass bowl. Stir together ginger root, honey and orange juice in small cup. Pour over chicken. Set aside at room temperature 30 minutes or up to 2 hours in refrigerator.

Meanwhile, prepare Hot GingerPeach Jam.

Heat grill. Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry. Pour marinade into small pan and boil 3 minutes.

Brush chicken lightly with oil. Place on grill about 4 inches from coals and grill 3 to 5 minutes. Turn breasts over. Brush top sides with cooked marinade and grill another 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink when center is pierced.

Remove chicken to 2 plates. Brush again with marinade. Spoon half the jam onto each plate alongside chicken.

Yield: 2 servings.

Note: Chicken can also be cooked on stove-top grill pan or broiled in oven.

Hot Ginger-Peach Jam

2 medium ripe peaches (see note)

1 to 2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons grated ginger root

1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon minced jalapeno (1 small chili)

Bring medium pan of water to boil. Drop in peaches for 1 minute; remove and slip skins off. Pit and dice.

Place peaches in saucepan with 1 tablespoon sugar, grated ginger root, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and minced chile. Simmer and stir 30 minutes or until pulpy.

Taste jam. If it isn’t sweet, hot and tart, adjust sugar and lemon juice, adding more of one or both.

Note: Unless peaches are ripe, juicy and sweet, this jam isn’t going to be flavorful. Nectarines can be substituted.