Grilled Lemon Chicken

Here's a summer recipe that uses healthy techniques to grill chicken. It's also good for grilling vegetables. I cooked this last week when the weather was so hot here that I couldn't even think about cooking inside. Everything was cooked on the grill - keeping the heat outside.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus two tablespoons lemon salad dressing
zest of one lemon
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced with ribs and seeds removed
1 onion, sliced
1/2 lemon, cut in half, then sliced

Directions:

Mix the 1/2 cup lemon salad dressing along with the zest and pour into a glass bowl. Add the chicken breasts, then cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate until ready to grill. The chicken can be marinated for just a few hours or up to 12 hours. The longer the chicken marinates, the better the taste.

Heat a gas or charcoal grill. Add the chicken to the grill first, as they will take about 10 minutes per side to cook through. While the chicken cooks, brush the pineapple, pepper slices, and onion with the remaining two tablespoons of lemon dressing. Add the pineapple and vegetables to the grill when about 6 minutes of cooking time remains, turning them after they have cooked for about 3 minutes per side. Remove chicken, pineapple, and vegetables from the grill and serve with slices of lemon.

Serves 4

Stealthy Cooking Tip: If you grill frequently, consider investing in a digital meat thermometer. Chicken needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 180 degrees. While undercooked chicken is unhealthy, overcooked chicken can be tough. An easy way to check if chicken is done is to press on the meat, if any red juices run out, the chicken isn't done. However, many cooks tend to cut the meat to see if any red remains. While this does give a good read on the "doneness" of the meat, all off the moist juices run out resulting in dry meat. Digital meat thermometers read internal temperatures and make a tiny hole in the meat, allowing correct cooking temperatures without sacrificing a tender meal.