Golden Door BBQ Chicken
Chef Michel Stroot, author of the best-selling Golden Door Cookbook, uses Golden Door’s own four-acre organic garden for his mostly vegetarian dishes, and he adorns the menu with classic summer fare, like this low-fat recipe for Golden Door BBQ Chicken that he calls “an outstanding example of a simple American favorite.”
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons canola oil
- ½ cup diced onions
- 1 tablespoon garlic finely minced
- ¼ cup cider vinegar
- ¼ cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (or Brown Sugar)
- 1-3/4 cups tomato puree - canned or fresh
- ¾ cup freshly brewed strong coffee
- ½ cup vegetable broth - or water
- ⅓ cup dark molasses
- 1 dried chili - such as ancho, softened in water, drained and chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary - chopped
- ¼ cinnamon stick
- 1 whole clove
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 4 ounce chicken breasts - skinless, boneless, and trimmed of fat
- 1 to 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice - or lemon juice, if you prefer
- Pinch freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pinch Chives or Scallions - per person
Instructions
- The ancho chiles should be stemmed and seeded, then soaked in hot water for about 15 minutes. Longer soaking time will drain the anchos of their flavor; less time won't soften them enough.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a charcoal or gas grill or preheat a stove-top grill.
- In a small saucepan, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil over medium heat. Saute the onions and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring until the onions are translucent. Add the vinegar and brown sugar and simmer, stirring, for 5 minutes, until the sugar dissolves.
- Stir in the tomato puree, coffee, broth, molasses, chili, rosemary, cinnamon stick, clove, and bay leaf. Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until slightly thickened.
- Strain and set aside. Reserve to use immediately or cover and refrigerate.
- Spray the grill with vegetable-oil spray.
- Rub the chicken breasts with the remaining teaspoon of oil and the lime juice and sprinkle with the pepper. Grill the chicken breasts just long enough so that diamond or square grill marks appear, about 5 minutes on each side. We'll be finishing these in the oven!
- Transfer to a shallow baking pan just large enough to contain the breasts. Bake for about 5 minutes, or until the juices run clear.
- Place a chicken breast on each plate. Serve the sauce on the side, with fresh lemon or lime to squeeze. Sprinkle with chives or scallions.
Spa Index Kitchen Notes
Nutrition
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Simple. Good sauce.
Pretty tasty and easy. Thank you.
I didn’t quite “get” the point of using both molasses AND Splenda Brown Sugar. Means it isn’t sugar free, but it DOES mean reduced sugar I guess? Nevertheless, it was a good sauce, thank you. We wanted a better sauce than the “sugarless version” by STubbs in our grocery store, which tastes like chemicals. This one was good.
When my husband makes this (we agree the sauce is excellent) he only makes two little changes. He soaks the chili peppers in water with a few splashes of Tequila in it. It bakes off, but it’s a tangy flavor. And then when he grills the chicken, he brushes on a small amount of the sauce right at the end, to grill it in, and then we serve the rest on the side. This gives the chicken a more caramelized taste and look which we like.
very good all you need are grilled vegetables on the side, on skewers, which go right from the grill to the baking pan with the chicken and it’s all done at once