Saturday, July 30, 2011

Pesto grilled chicken and Caprese salad

I was having some good friends over for dinner on Friday night after work, I only had about 1/2 hour prep time and I am trying to eat low fat so what  could I cook? On Thursday on the the way home I stopped in to "The Red Apple" on Hastings for inspiration, and they had wonderful fresh boccoccini, so I decided on Italian.



They also had some wonderful looking local new potatoes and tomatoes on the vine and had some chicken breasts in the freezer. Obviously I had to make caprese salad slices of tomato layered with the cheese sprinkled with salt, pepper a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I served this on a dish that I had bought in Capri last year which had caprese salad on one end rather cute.  I love buying serving dishes when I travel they make the best souvenirs, though I think I really should not buy any more I have run out of storage.

While we were sitting on the deck enjoying a pre dinner glass of wine we had hummus and carrot sticks, again with the healthy low fat food.  I served hummus in an adorable little pig dish I bought in Seattle last year.

How could you resist this little pig
I defrosted the chicken during the day while I was at work and then marinaded them in a form of pesto.

To feed 4

Large bunch of basil
3 garlic cloves
Juice of one lemon
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes
1 teaspoon of salt
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts



Place all the ingredients except the chicken into a food processor.

I processed until I had a green sludge but still showing some pieces of basil.


I placed the chicken breasts in a large plastic bag and added the marinade, smooshed it around and marinaded it in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Marinaded chicken breasts
I placed them on the barbecue which I had preheated on high then turned off the side with the chicken on.


These cooked with the lid down for about 15 minutes turning once.  It is so important with skinless chicken breasts not to overcook as they can be so dry, but you do not want pink chicken.


The chicken was very tasty and low fat, I will make this again and freeze the chicken breasts in ziploc bags to pull out of the freezer for a quick week night dinner.  We had a wonderful dinner catching up with every ones travels and enjoying a rare warm summer evening.

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