Thursday, May 21, 2009

Grill season is back


Orange-Ginger Grilled Chicken Thighs
Southern Living 1996 Annual Recipes Copyright 2006

1/3 cup orange juice
3 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
3 Tbsp. lite soy sauce
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
8 (4-ounce) skinned and boned chicken thighs

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a shallow dish or large zip-top freezer bag; add chicken. Cover or seal, and chill at least 1 hour, turning chicken occasionally. I left them in the marinade overnight.
2. Remove chicken thighs from marinade, and discard marinade.
3. Grill, covered with grill lid, over medium-high (350 to 400 degrees) 4 minutes on each side or until done.

Makes 8 servings. 148 cal, 5.1 g fat, 22.5 g protein, .8 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 94 mg chol, 161 mg sodium
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I don't tend to grill outside during cold weather. Why stand there shivering when I have my handy Cuisinart Griddler inside? While I love the Griddler, it doesn't give you that flame-grilled taste that I love. I was happy to be cooking on the gas grill once again.

This was the first time I grilled chicken thighs and although they don't look as pretty as chicken breasts, they certainly are more flavorful than breasts. I'm not going to give up the breasts but I will be working in thighs more often. This was a nice light marinade that was light on oil and had no sugar outside of what is in the orange juice. It has less sodium than other marinades. It still managed to have plenty enough flavor.

These thighs were boneless. I'm always confused when I see 'boned' which should mean 'having the bones removed' but I think it can sometimes mean 'having bones'. I prefer the terms boneless and bone-in for clarity - boned always stumps me. I can usually distinguish by cooking time - I think bone-in thighs would take longer than 4 minutes per side (I think the boneless thighs took longer than 4 minutes per side.)

P.S. Yesterday I noticed the font on some of my old posts had gone all wonky (very small). I'm not sure how long it's been this way but I tried to fix it and I think I did. If you see anything weird, let me know.

Question of the Day: Do you think the word boned means boneless or bone-in?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would think it means boneless. I usually only see "bone-in" or "boneless" specified. I agree that "boned" is confusing. This recipe sounds really good. I've gotten to like dark meat so much better than white. When using thighs, though, I take a lot of time de-yucking them. Once that's done, they're good to go.

Jan

Mrs. L said...

Should mean boneless in my opinion.

Chicken thighs are wonderful. I tend to cook with them more than breasts because of the flavor, though breasts are certainly healthier.

Randi said...

boned could also mean something entirely different. LOL ( I'm thinking back to my high school days). LOLOLOL

Jen said...

I bought some chicken thighs because they were cheap and I thought I'd have company over that would eat them. They never showed up so I was stuck with them so I searched for recipes and found your list of recipes. I tried this one, and marinated the chicken for about 2 hours, and when I went to get ready to light the grill I walked outside and it was raining! (boo!) So I ended up baking them in the oven (I left the marinade in the pan and added one chopped onion and one chopped zucchini). I haven't eaten it yet but it smells delicious! And I think that when they say boned that means that the meat is boneless. I'd rather work with boneless meat anyway.

Val said...

Making these now! I have an adunbance of thighs in the freezer and wanted to try something new. Boned means without bones. Deboneing them yourself creates a lot of waste. ( I know from experience) I will report back if the family approves:)