EASY RECIPE
This week rather than an easy recipe, I thought I would do an easy cooking technique. Here’ a pretty easy technique for doing a butterfly cut.
I got a couple wonderful air dried boneless skinless chicken breasts the other day. Only problem was the breasts were pretty thick on one side. And, only problem with that is cooking with a BBQ could result in the thinner portions getting dried out while at the same time the thicker portion could still be bloody. What’s a good solution? The butterfly cut is just the thing to solve this uneven cooking time issue.
Here are the simple steps:
1. Make certain your knife is sharp. For real sharp.
2. Place the boneless skinless chicken breast half on the butcher paper it came in.
3. Place the palm of your non-dominate hand on top of the breast to keep it steady.
4. With the thick part of the breast toward the knife, find the middle and carefully slice the breast down the middle until just short of the far side.
5. Open the breast like a book to form one large similarly sized piece. To get it flat you may want to delicately slice the seam in the middle a little closer to the edge.
6. Fold some of the butcher paper over the butterfly cut breast and with a meat hammer lightly hammer it to uniformly thin the meat.
Repeat above steps with remaining half breasts, if any.
Cooking Butterfly Cut Boneless Chicken
1. Preheat BBQ.
2. Rub a little olive oil on all sides of the breasts.
3. Have small bowls of your choice of BBA sauce or marinades and a brush.
4. With only the olive oil on the breasts, BBQ it on each side for 5 minutes on medium high heat (as BBQ heat differs with each unit times and temperature can vary).
5. Next brush sauce onto one side of breast and turn it to the fire for 2 minutes.
6. Brush the side facing up and then turn it toward the flame for 2 minutes.
7. Check to make sure the breasts are cooked through (small slice to make sure center is not red or bloody).
AND STUFF
I was reading an outdoors type magazine while on the elliptical at the gym this morning. Everything was fun and light until I came to an article about grizzly bear attacks in Yellowstone. I read about a couple who were simply hiking on a marked trail when they stumbled upon a mother grizzly and her cubs. The story sadly ended very badly.
In my earlier years I lived in Bozeman, MT. It is a lovely college town quite near Yellowstone and the ski resort Big Sky. I’ve probably been to Yellowstone a dozen times.
On the northern end of Montana is Glacier National Park. I have been to Glacier at least as many times as Yellowstone.
While I am by no stretch of the imagination an outdoors-man, I do love the out doors. My idea of camping is the kind of local little motel you find in such areas. I do not hike into the interior of the park and sleep in a sleeping bag under the stars. Nothing that extreme, ever.
So, until this morning, I had thought I was pretty safe taking day hikes on marked trails. I guess my thought process was pretty naive. Fact is, when you enter say Yellowstone, and pass through the cool wood fence and gate, basically you’re entering the animals world. Or from broader perspective a million acre cage full of wonderful wild animals.
I walk around, and they walk around, in their beautiful habitat. For me a lark in the park, for the animal just another day of survival. Very bad when the two paradigms meet.
Many years ago my friend Bob and I were taking a short hike along a gorgeous rapid in Glacier Park. It had rained earlier. The air was so fresh and the ground still a little slippery and wet on the path. We came to a more muddy spot and froze. In the mud were gigantic paw prints. Not being as dumb as I look I suggested it might be time to walk back up stream to the car. We did and I’m here to recall the story.
What does all this mean? At the end of the day there is always risk. You can minimize risk by staying alert and remembering that bears in the wild are significantly different than those jesters on the big screen cartoon . But, odds are the drive to the park is more dangerous. So follow the Ranger’s safe hiking recommendations and enjoy the splendor.
Still though, kinda wish I hadn’t read that story.
Good Eating and Table Talk,
Roger
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