Greek-inspired Grilled Chicken

This marinade comes together in a snap and only gets better the longer it sits (1 hour to overnight). The result is a delightfully savory main dish with the right amount of lemon for an acidic brightness.

Fresh rosemary, lemon, and garlic.

Sometimes you come home from the grocery store with half of a plan for dinner. We bought chicken wings and knew we wanted to grill them, but hadn't thought about how to season them. Outside our front door there is a rosemary bush and a large lemon tree that is heavily weighed down with lemons (even in winter!). As we walked up to the front door, I decided that we would be having a Greek-inspired marinade. I coarsely chopped the rosemary, diced a few cloves of garlic, juiced two lemons, added S & P and olive oil and we were in business. An hour later our chicken was on the grill and smelled absolutely heavenly! We knew immediately that this quick marinade was a keeper. Just a little bit later, the chicken came off the grill and, holy yum! This impromptu plan was a success!

Greek-inspired grilled chicken.

Between the night we cooked the chicken and the very next morning, I had trouble sleeping and spent a good bit of time reading up on how to improve my iPhone food photography skills (or lack thereof). The result is the top picture of this post which I am pretty stinkin' proud of! I can't wait to start planning and photographing our next post!

There's not much more to say about this recipe other than that you should try it out, and soon! We plan to test it on some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the very near future and will post an update when we do. Happy grilling!

Greek-inspired Grilled Chicken Recipe

by Smoke & Vanilla


This recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, etc. to accommodate more hungry mouths. Also, if you're feeling fancy, remove the wing tips prior to marinating and/or separate the wings at each joint. We usually go for quick and informal so we leave them as is.

Yield: 2 servings
Prep time: 00:05
Cook time: 00:25
Total time: 00:30

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized lemons, juiced (*see tip below)
3-4 cloves of garlic, diced
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary stems removed, coarsely chopped (~1T)
¼c olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
3-4lbs chicken wings (usually ~10 wings)

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients in large zip top plastic bag and marinate in the fridge for at least one hour (up to overnight).
2. Heat your grill of choice. Go here for step-by-step instructions for starting a charcoal grill.
3. Grill the wings over indirect heat, turning occasionally until chicken is nicely browned and no longer pink inside, approximately 25-30 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and enjoy!

Tips:

• Microwave each lemon for 10 seconds or so before juicing for the best results. 
• I prefer to use a manual citrus juicer, like this one.

Are you excited to try this recipe? or have you already tried it? We'd love to hear from you in the comments!