Chicken Spiedini Salad *Recipe #36 - Page 156*

I have been so sidetracked with baking and other new recipes that I have neglected Tyler! I made this recipe from Stirring the Pot about two weeks ago when I had leftover Caesar dressing. The chicken spiedini are kabobs with cubed chicken and sausage and Tyler serves them with his Caesar salad on the side.

This is a recipe in the grill section of the cookbook. It is not featured yet on the Food Network. Here are the ingredients for the chicken spiedini:

1 crusty baguette, sliced into rounds
2 medium boneless, skin-on chicken breast halves, cut into 4 pieces each
4 links sweet Italian pork sausage, halved crosswise
12 fresh bay leaves
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons, juice only

Thread the components, alternating bread, chicken, sausage, and bay leaves, until skewer is full. Baste the kabobs with the 1/2 cup olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Preheat grill to medium. Place on hot grill; cook for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown, basting with lemon juice and turning to ensure even color on all sides. Serve alongside Caesar Salad and grilled lemons. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

We had to pitch our old outdoor grill and we have not replaced it yet. Meanwhile, I've been reduced to my indoor electric grill. I pulled out my indoor grill and rubbed it down with olive oil. I went to turn the knob that adjusts the heat and the knob broke off. Fabulous!! I screamed for my husband because he can almost always fix everything. He came in and kept turning the knob on and off. On and off. It went on and on. Lord knows that I am not a patient person. It was driving me crazy. I was trying to explain to him that I needed that grill to be really hot so that I could get that good sear on my meat. He was looking at me like I was crazy. I had one of those moments where I lost it and starting saying that the whole dish was ruined.

Sometime during the on and off sequence the knob completely broke. And, when I say completely..... I mean completely. The knob shattered into hundreds of little black plastic pieces all over my kitchen counter. I totally freaked out. I can't stand it when something goes wrong like that in the middle of a recipe. We tried turning the knob with a piece of the broken plastic but that gauge was hot!! It was too hot to touch. It was impossible to tell what setting the grill was on. I was so hot (from standing over the grill) and angry that I put a skewer next to the salad and snapped a picture. After the picture was taken, I pulled everything off the skewers and threw it in a skillet so that I could finish cooking, Apparently that grill had touched a nerve with me!!

The chicken spiedini turned out well considering. I thought the flavors added to the meat were terrific, but my husband thought there was too much lemon. I served the dish with the caesar salad and couscous. This is the first time that I have used a skewer in cooking. I will say that this was both new and fun for me. I learned that if you want to skewer meat then you should cook it on an outdoor grill so that the flames can rise up and cook all the meat evenly.

Later that night, the grill took a trip to the trashcan outside. In the end I really felt like I won the battle with that grill. I didn't even clean it off before I threw it away : )