Okay, it’s not really parmesan, but you get the idea… Grilled chicken with BBQ sauce and cheese.  It tastes every bit as good as it sounds!

Ever since making the BBQ sauce last night I’ve been thinking of how good melted cheese would taste on top of it – and a few thick slices of havarti proved me right!

I just salted and peppered the chicken and placed it on the grill.  When it was about 3/4 cooked, I liberally (great word, liberal!)  doused the breasts with BBQ sauce and when they were done, added the cheese and let it melt a bit.  The cheese slid all over the grill and made a nice mess.  But it really did taste good!

The rice is a throw-together rice and orzo rice-a-roni-type-dish.  Rice and orzo browned in butter and cooked in chicken stock.  Simple.

The other star of the show was a Fresh Corn Salad.

Cherry tomatoes, bell pepper, basil, rosemary, and parsley from the garden.  Lovin’ the goodies from the garden!

Fresh Corn Salad

  • Corn kernels cut from 2 ears of corn
  • 1 small bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 yellow zucchini (or other squash) diced
  • Cherry tomatoes, sliced
  • Fresh herbs (basil, rosemary, parsley, whatever)
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tbsp while balsamic vinegar
  • garlic
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Blanch corn kernels and plunge into ice water to quickly cool.  Drain.

Add all vegetables and herbs to bowl and lightly todd to combine.

Add mayonnaise and vinegar.  Mix well.

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, to taste.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Really simple.  The vegetables can be switched out to whatever you have on hand.  It’s a great clean-out-the-refrigerator salad.

The BBQ sauce was really good, but as I said yesterday, just doesn’t have the pronounced root beer flavor I’m looking for.

What I finally realized is I have to construct the recipe backwards.  I have to start with the reduced root beer, treat it as my base and add my ingredients to it instead of the other way around.  It’s hard to believe I used to get paid do this stuff.  I need a refresher course in Recipe Development 101.

Oh well.  I’m not in a huge hurry to get it done.  I have two BBQ sauces in the ‘fridge right now that will keep us going for a while…

I’m just glad I finally realized where I was making my mistake.  Things are a lot different when you’re in a  commercial kitchen with (more or less) unlimited supplies and all day  – or longer – to do something.  It’s really a lot easier to stop midway and toss and start over.

And over.

And over.