Good morning. You can make blackened chicken breasts (above) in your kitchen if you like, but really only if you have a good exhaust fan above your stove. If you don’t, you’ll be opening windows soon enough, and balancing on top of a chair to reach the shrieking smoke alarm.
I prefer the outdoor method, cooking on a steel griddle set over the burners on my gas grill. (Lodge makes one version, small; Steelmade another, large; you could always fabricate your own by buying some carbon steel and placing it over your grill grates.) Using a griddle is a reminder that a gas grill is as much a stove and oven as it is a place to grill things — and a way to keep smoke and grease and heat out of your home. Invest in a griddle this weekend, and you’ll be paid dividends all summer long.
First with that chicken, coated in smoked paprika, salt, cayenne, thyme, oregano and garlic, onion and mustard powders. The spices seize tight and blacken on the oil-slicked surface, releasing a powerful smoke and an incredible depth of flavor in the crust. (You could use the mixture on shrimp or fish instead, if you like, or on a steak or pressed planks of tofu.) Serve with a grilled Caesar salad, and you’ll be happy as a clam.
Featured Recipe
Blackened Chicken Breasts
Then, the following morning? Return to the griddle to fry bacon for breakfast, to cook eggs or buttermilk pancakes. There’s a lot of surface area, and you could add some sliced apples to the mix, tossing them with some of the fat left over from the bacon until they go soft and fragrant and begin to pick up some color. It’s nice to cook outside in the morning, accompanied by birdsong.
