We have a special dinner planned for tomorrow, so this morning I told Margy that tonight's meal would be a meager affair. Why stuff ourselves two nights in a row?
But then my plan just kept getting more and more ambitious, to the point where we had something of a feast on our hands. Oops.
Basically, I was going to grill chicken breasts, period. (I figured skinless, boneless breasts are the last thing we'd ever order at a good restaurant, right after sweetbreads, so there was no danger of repeating ourselves. Then again, a good restaurant wouldn't even have skinless, boneless breasts on the menu.) So I made a marinade a few hours before dinner, to give those bland little pieces of white meat a flavor boost. Into a Ziploc bag they went, along with ground chipotle, lime juice, garlic, ginger, some assorted spices, and a splash of sake.
And then, to go with the chicken, I made guacamole, using amazing sweet red onions that we found at the farmers' market. The more I think about it, this wasn't so much a true feast as it was simply a more full-flavored meal than I'd initially planned. Our critical mistake was eating a bag of tortilla chips with the guac before the chicken was even done. Double oops.
In the end the full-flavored Tex-Mex-style marinade opened my eyes to the potential pleasures of chicken breasts, which we usually use only for breaded cutlets. I was impressed that they remained juicy after coming off the grill, and I look forward to slicing up the leftovers and making chicken sandwiches.
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