Grilled Pesto Chicken Tenders
As you all know I am all about basic, fast and easy cooking. I want my food to taste good and look good, all cooked on a grill or in a Dutch oven. But sometimes I am even more lazy than ever so my mindgoes a searching for fast and this dish is fast if you don't count the marinating time. You only need three items – Pesto, Bamboo skewers and Chicken tenders, well a ZipLoc bag will help also.
Grilled Pesto Chicken Tenders
Anything skewered is going to be fast and easy, it's a complete cooking style and requires very little experience to cook this way. It's also known a Kabab which is Arabic and is usualy a meat dish and is spelled several different ways: kebap, kabab, kebob, kabob, kibob, kebhav, kephav, but anything cooked on a skewer (shish in Turkish) may also be called a kebab. The most common kebabs include lamb and beef, although others use goat, squid, chicken, fish, or shellfish.
The simplicity of this dish will make you want to try many different versions of this, for sure!
Lets start with the Chicken tenders, buy them fresh or frozen – no matter, wash and pat them dry. Place Chicken tenders in a ZipLoc bag with 1 cup of pesto sauce and marinate for at least 1 hour.
Thread onto your Bamboo skewers, about two per skewer. Don't forget to soak those Bamboo skewers first! I place mine in a tall glass of water and soak them for about twenty minutes. This will prevent them from burning, of course you could wrap the ends will foil also. This will give you a nice handle to hold on to when you flip them. Here is a previous article showing this technique: Skewered Shrimp .
Now you'll want to grill these over direct med-high heat, fast cooking helps seal in those juices. Watch out for flare ups, and cook till the thickest part of the Chicken reaches 180° F. Trying to only turn once or twice.
I served mine over noodles but rice would be awesome or even some flat bread with your favorite sauce! Give it a try and let me know how it worked for you.
Your comments are always welcome!
