The Memorial Day Grill-O-Rama

I have just the thing for you to grill this Memorial Day weekend: Grilled Spiced Chicken Brochettes, inspired by tips I learned years ago from Boston chef Steve Johnson. I must admit, I was never really a kebab fan. Cumbersome to cook (why does everything spin around on the skewer?) with odd ingredient pairings that practically guaranteed over- or undercooking (those hunks of green pepper!), they didn’t wow me.

Steve’s approach to the art of skewering changed my mind. First, he stuck with one main ingredient. Then he cut it into large pieces. (In the case of chicken, he cut fat strips and folded them over so that each piece was essentially skewered twice). Instead of heavy marinades, he seasoned with spices before cooking and sauces after grilling (no burnt teriyaki sauce here).

I remembered his approach when I found some metal skewers in the back of my utensil drawer last week. I made up a quick spice rub based on one I’d done for Barbecued Chicken Thighs (below), but with some Middle Eastern spices added in. And in no time, we had perfectly cooked (still moist) chicken brochettes which we ate drizzled with a creamy, limey sauce atop Quick Limey Slaw with cilantro from the garden. Super tasty.

It occurred to me that the brochette recipe, as well as the sauce and slaw, could easily be doubled or tripled to feed the guests you may have this weekend.

There’s some nice Napa cabbage around the Island now, too.

It’s a grill-o-rama at my house, so we’re on the hunt for ways to dress up grilled meat. This week we made Vineyard Rhubarb Chutney to go with grilled pork tenderloin. I harvested a few rhubarb stalks from my small patch to make the first batch. We liked it so much I went to Cronig’s for more rhubarb to make another round.

I bought too many stalks so will now just have to make a rhubarb rustic tart!)

Want to grill fish this weekend? Follow the recipe for Grilled Swordfish With Tomato-Peach Salsa Salad and tweak the topping for the season.

Instead of fish, I think we’ll do Clams alla Griglia this weekend. We’ll serve them with ciabatta we’re picking up today from our Vineyard Bread Project CSA.

If you’ve got veg-heads in the house this weekend, you could turn ciabatta plus local farm stand finds (greens, MV Mycological mushrooms, even some freshly dug carrots) into Ciabatta Toasts with Lemony Chickpea Hummus.