Grilled Chicken with Chipotle-Orange Glaze

Alright folks I'm finally doing my first new blog post!  My husband and I have been trying to eat healthier so I have been trying to do all of our cooking during the week at home.  I was looking through some cookbooks that I have and I found a recipe that sounded delicious in the cookbook "Eating Well Serves Two".  This is a really great cookbook for those of you who don't know about it; it has a large variety of recipes and it's also great for beginners if you're nervous about getting in the kitchen.  It has the calorie counts for the meals, appendices with cooking tips, and all of the recipes are normal portion sizes compared to most cookbooks.  I followed the recipe pretty for the most part, but of course I had to change a few things to make it my own.  If you are new to cooking and aren't comfortable playing around with recipes just take it slow.  You'll get more comfortable once you get used to playing with different spices and flavors, and once you learn that cooking really isn't all that scary!

For those of you that followed my last blog you know that I like to get all of my ingredients out and prepped before I begin cooking.  I highly recommend this to beginners because you won't be running around your kitchen looking for things while you're cooking.  For this recipe I needed the following.

Salt, Balsamic Vinegar, Molasses, Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce,
OJ concentrate, Dijon, and Chicken Breast

One more word of advice from me is to make sure you are picking the correct brands when you are preparing for a meal.  A lot of times it is completely acceptable to buy the store brand (sometimes they are better), however, if your ingredients are the main flavor of the dish I recommend going with the best available.  I bought, in my opinion, the best flavored brands out there.  You can't see the label on the balsamic but it is a little gem that I picked up from the local Italian deli, DiPasquales (look for a post on this place in the future).  It's the best balsamic I've ever had (no lie), the brand is Ariston and it's straight from Italy.  It is so smooth that I pour it on my salads by itself, nothing else is needed!  It's a little pricey but I highly recommend it if you run across it.

Okay, on to the actual cooking.  The original recipe for this meal calls for you to make a glaze and grill or broil the chicken.  I find one of the biggest problems with health foods is the lack of flavor so I doubled the glaze recipe and divided it.  I used one batch to marinate the chicken for an hour and saved the second half to brush on the chicken as it is grilled.  I will include the exact measurements below when I post the full recipe.

For the glaze/marinade you combine thawed orange juice concentrate, balsamic vinegar, molasses, dijon mustard, and your chopped chipotle peppers.  I also added red pepper flakes to my glaze/marinade because we like a little more kick with our meals, feel free to do the same.  Whisk these ingredients together and set aside.

Finished marinade/glaze

Now it's time to prep your chicken.  Rinse the chicken breasts and remove all of the fat.  Place the prepped chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag and add half of the mixture you just made.  Place in the refrigerator until you are ready to grill along with the extra mixture you have left.  As you can see the recipe below calls for 2 chicken breasts, I cooked 3 instead so there would be enough for my husband to take to work for lunch the next day.  I try to do this with every meal that I make in order to save a little money during the week.  

Chicken with marinade

Once you're ready to cook the chicken it's time to prep your grill.  I like to use PAM grilling spray before I grill anything, it keeps the mess to a minimum and also keeps your meat from sticking (this isn't a problem for the experienced grill master but if you are new to grilling it will really help).  One other variation to the recipe that I made was taking the remaining thawed orange juice concentrate and pouring it in the pan in the bottom of my grill.  This isn't a requirement if your grill doesn't have a pan, but if your grill does have one I highly recommend it.  Not only will this add more flavor to the chicken but it keeps it extremely moist.  You will need to add a little water to thin it out so it doesn't burn or cook off too quickly.

Orange Juice and water mixture

Once your grill has reached temperature place your chicken breasts on the grates.  Use a brush and the glaze mixture you set aside to keep the chicken coated.  I coated with the glaze every couple minutes, making sure to flip the chicken so it was even on both sides.  Once your chicken is fully cooked remove from the grill and serve.  For a side I steamed some broccoli and cauliflower to keep with the healthy theme.  Here is a picture of the finished product.

Finished product

I like to grill out as much as possible in the summer time.  Not only is it relaxing (at least I think it is) but I think grilling provides the best flavors.  Oh, and not to mention that grilling is a very healthy way to cook!  Another reason that I like to grill as much as possible is seen in the attached picture.  It's also another reason that I love living in this city.

My grill station on the roof, Baltimore skyline in the background

As promised here is the recipe from the cookbook.  This recipe is for ONE serving so make sure you double it if you would like to make a marinade as well.

• 1 T orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1 1/2 tsp finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp molasses
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
• 1/8 tsp salt

1. Preheat grill or broiler to high.  Lightly oil the rack.
2. Whisk orange juice concentrate, chipotles, vinegar, molasses and mustard in a small bowl.
3. Sprinkle chicken with salt.  Grill or broil the chicken for 2 minutes.  Turn the chicken, brush with the chipotle-orange glaze, and cook, brushing occasionally with more of the glaze, 4 minutes more.  Turn the chicken again, brush with the glaze, and cook until no longer pink in the middle, 2 to 5 minutes more.

• Per Serving: 152 calories, 3 g fat, 63 mg cholesterol, 7 g carbs, 23 g protein, 0 g fiber, 251 mg sodium, 302 mg potassium

Enjoy!