Make Marinade as the Sun Fades
By David Martin
It’s a quintessential Fall day. The sky is clear, the sun shining through the stratos at that candid Fall angle that makes Golden Hour last for three, and the refreshing breeze is revitalizing to your dormant senses. It’s euphoric.
But this idyllic weather and paradisiacal picture come at the greatest cost. The death of summer. Dear reader, this recipe is a last hurrah–a salute to summer’s sultry sensations, its supine-sensed sunshine, and sagacious self-sacrifice for those ignorant and brash enough to prefer the cold.
Dear reader, get your grill ripping hot and prepare to grill the deuce out of any culinary summer memoirs you have at your disposal.
About 95 percent of my love for this recipe is for the chicken thigh marinade, not to mention the chicken thighs themselves. Dear, ignorant reader, your host, until recently, was just as ignorant as yourselves whilst shopping for poultry! No one thought to tell a poor, tasteless man that chicken breasts are fickle, prone to drying out and get tough and chewy like an old rag. So much time wasted! Such pleasure gone to waste! Woe is me!
But have hope, dear reader, for this marinade of the gods is the perfect complement to our supple chicken thighs. It begins with olfactorally pleasing and fragrant fresh (or dried if you must) oregano. Pair it with garlic, lemon juice, coriander, and olive oil, and you’ve got yourself a marinade worthy of basting yourself.
Dunk your fowl femurs into a vat of this marinade, and let them soak in the tantalizing flavors for at least 30 minutes.
Slap the thighs on a medium-high grill, reserving some of the marinade for basting. As those tell-tale grill marks begin to appear, continue to baste the chicken with the sultry marinade.
Looking for an appropriate adult beverage to quaff in memoriam of summer? Resurrection Ale by The Brewer’s Art will not only tenderly guide you through the five stages of grief, carrying you on its brawny backbone of malts, but also inspires a poet’s verbiage as you salute the sunset of summer with tears streaming. Packed with Belgian yeast, fruity esters, and caramel malts, this Belgian Dubbel’s bittersweet profile is the perfect conduit from summer to autumn.
If so desired, grill some veggies to complete your meal.
Here’s the recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
½ cup olive oil
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp fresh oregano leaves
INSTRUCTIONS:
– Remove chicken thighs from packaging and cut off any excess fat. Place chicken thighs in a ziploc bag or deep dish.
– Combine olive oil, lemon juice, garlic cloves, and fresh oregano leaves and stir together to combine.
– Pour marinade over chicken thighs and let sit for at least 1 hour, up to 24 hours.
– Grill chicken thighs at medium heat (350-400 degrees Fahrenheit) for 4-6 minutes per side, or until cooked through at the thickest point. Internal temperature should reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
– Remove chicken thighs from grill and cover with foil for at least five minutes before cutting and serving.
David Martin is a writer and photographer living in Mt. Vernon, Baltimore. Bored by traditional food blogs, he created Bombastic Bites to entertain, educate, and feed the culinarily-inept humans of the world.
