Seriously, the most amazing grilled chicken sandwich ever!

I recently received Guy Fieri’s new cookbook in the mail, it’s called Guy Fieri Food: Cookin’ It, Livin’ It, Lovin’ It. I’m going to have to be honest with you, I flipped through it and then put it down. My husband however, picked it up, flipped through it and bookmarked the page for the Red Rocker Margarita Chicken recipe and then persuaded me over several weeks to make it. Well, I’m glad I did. This is one moment I can say, honey, you were right with a straight face.

The book is huge, it’s over 400 pages long with over 150 recipes. Guy laces different stories with each recipe, which makes it kind of neat. The Red Rocker Margarita Chicken is a sandwich inspired by Sammy Hagar, I think that’s really cool! I love the show Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives but I really thought this book wouldn’t be my kind of thing but I was wrong. There are some other dishes I want to try in the book including Chicken & Seafood Paella, Steak Diane and Fire-Roasted Shrimp Cocktail.

Dry Ingredients for Marinade

This tequila marinated chicken sandwich is an easy dish to make. Marinate the chicken in the seasonings, cilantro, roasted red bell peppers, tequila, etc. for 4-8 hours and you end up with a very moist grilled chicken.

Tequila Marinade

I placed the zippered plastic bag in a casserole dish before adding the marinade.

I put the bag in a casserole dish to be cautious, just in case the bag leaked or just in case I spilled the marinade.

Chicken Marinating

The chicken after marinating for 5 hours

The marinade smelled so good! This is the first time I cooked with tequila and it won’t be the last!

The chicken is very moist and the pop of flavor from the fried roasted red peppers makes this sandwich a winner!

I can’t wait to make this tequila-marinated grilled chicken sandwich again! The flavorful marinade and the fried roasted red peppers were so good! I got yelled at for eating too many of the fried roasted red peppers before we put our sandwiches together. They are addictive, the tequila flavor popped in your mouth when you bit into it.

Have you cooked with tequila before? I want to hear all about it if you have.

Red Rocker Margarita Chicken

Ingredients:

2 jalapenos, cut into thin rounds
3 Tbsp cilantro leaves
1/4 cup tequila
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp dried oregano
Juice of 2 limes (about 1/4 cup)
2 tsp kosher salt
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 roasted red bell peppers, cut into thin strips
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp granulated garlic
2 cups canola oil
4 kaiser rolls
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 green cabbage head, very thinly sliced
4 oz. thinly sliced provolone

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the jalapenos, cilantro, tequila, minced garlic, chili flakes, cumin, oregano, lime juice and 1 tsp of salt. Place the chicken and bell peppers in a resealable 1-gallon plastic bag and pour in the marinade. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for 4 to 8 hours.
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, the remaining 1 tsp salt and the granulated garlic.
3. Preheat a grill to high. In a medium heavy-bottomed pot, heat the canola oil to 350 degrees F.
4. Remove the chicken from the marinade. (Leave the roasted red peppers in the marinade.) Grill the chicken until cooked through, turning several times to prevent burning, about 12 minutes in all. Cover the cooked chicken and let sit for 5 minutes. Thinly slice the chicken across the grain.
5. Remove the roasted peppers from the marinade, dredge them in the flour mixture, and fry in the oil until crispy, 2 to 3 minutes, working in batches as needed. Drain on paper towels.
6. Split and lightly toast the rolls. Spread mayonnaise on the bottom halves. Stack each roll evenly with the cabbage, onion, chicken breast, fried peppers and cheese.

*Roast bell peppers over an open flame or under the broiler, turning to char on all sides. Skin and seed them.

Notes:

• I cheated a little and used jarred roasted red bell peppers.
• I ended up using 3 limes
• We toasted the kaiser rolls on the grill just for a minute or two on each side so they didn't burn.

From Guy Fieri Food: Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin' It by Guy Fieri, 2011. Reprinted with permission from William Morrow (an Imprint of Harper Collins).

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book from the publisher. I was not asked to post about it but after making this dish, I just had to! There are affiliate links in this post.

Guy Fieri’s Red Rocker Margarita Chicken © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

Okay if you know me personally or follow me on twitter, you know that I love love Kerrygold cheese and butter and my favorite is their Dubliner cheese. I can eat it plain or in an omelette, on salads, whatever…I love it!

I have been wanting to make a cheese sauce to go with steak so when Emily challenged me, it just pushed me to go ahead and try this. I was going to do it with whole steaks but my husband saw an ad for a restaurant that had filet pieces on skewers with tomatoes and wanted to try this.

And since we’re in Florida and are very fortunate to be able to grill almost year-round, I said alright let’s do it. It turned out so good…I don’t have a lot of luck grilling whole tenderloin filet steaks. I usually overcook them on the grill. So cutting them into 1 1/2 to 2 inch pieces really sped up the cooking time and then add the rich Dubliner cheese sauce…divine! This meal is going to go into our regular rotation (for when we can splurge a little and get tenderloin filets, of course).

Be sure to check out Emily’s post. She made Roasted Asparagus Salad and a Kerrygold Roast Chicken!

These are cut into 1 1/2 to 2 inch size pieces.

Can you see the ones covered in bacon?

The sauce is really easy to make with dubliner cheese, heavy cream, salted butter, salt and pepper.

And how about a salad topped with Dubliner cheese to go with the skewers? I made a very simple salad dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard, salt and pepper and topped with dubliner cheese (I grated the cheese with a vegetable peeler). I love simple salads with just lettuce, tomato, boiled eggs and cheese. The cheese lends a little sweetness to the dressing that has lemon juice and djion mustard.

Beef Tenderloin Filet Skewers with Dubliner Cheese Sauce Recipe & Simple Salad with Dubliner Cheese

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds of filet of beef tenderloin
1 container of cherry tomatoes
bacon slices cut into thirds, optional
salt and pepper
4.5 oz of shredded Dubliner cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp of salted butter, I used Kerrygold

Salad
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
Your favorite greens (I used romaine hearts and baby spinach)
Tomatoes cut into wedges
boiled eggs, cut into wedges
grated Dubliner cheese, I used a vegetable peeler

Directions:

1. Allow the beef to sit outside of the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes. Rinse the beef and pat dry with paper towels. Cut into 1 1/2 to 2 inch pieces. Put onto metal skewers (if wrapping with bacon, wrap them first) alternating between beef and tomatoes.
2. Heat heavy cream and butter on low to medium heat for about 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and add a little bit of salt.
3. Heat gas grill on high heat for at least 10 minutes. Turn down to about medium heat and oil the grates using a paper towel and tongs. Grill the skewers for about 3-4 minutes on each side. And then grill again on each side for about 1-2 minutes. (This depends on how thick you cut them as well as how you like the meat, ours came out at a perfect medium.)
4. Remove from grill and allow the beef to rest under a piece of loosely tented foil for at least 5 minutes.
5. Return cream to low heat and add Dubliner cheese to the heavy cream. Stir to incorporate and allow the cheese to melt faster. When it's completely melted, add pepper to taste and leave on warm.
6. Serve beef with cheese drizzled on top over rice.

Salad
Whisk olive oil, lemon juice and mustard together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle over salad and add Dubliner cheese.

Seriously, this sauce is amazing. It's not too rich and it's sweetness and butteriness brings the tenderness of the beef to another level.

It’s so good, I can’t wait to make this dish again! I did wrap some of the filet pieces in bacon at my husband’s suggestion. I don’t eat pork so those were all for him. He loved this meal too and can’t wait for me to make it again. You can’t go wrong with grilled tomatoes either, you could even add this to your salad if you wanted to.

Disclosure: I won a year’s supply of Kerrygold cheese and butter last year and this facilitated making the recipe in this post. Kerrygold is sponsoring my attendance to BlogHer Food this year. It doesn’t matter though, I love Kerrygold products and would write this post even if they weren’t. The post, the recipes and the opinions are my own.

Kerrygold Throwdown – Beef Tenderloin Filet Skewers with Dubliner Cheese Sauce © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

I have been playing around with my iPhone and Hipstamatic…I love taking pictures with this app!

Then I turned them in grilled shrimp, mango and guacamole fajitas!!!

This recipe is going into my list of favorite recipes, I’m so glad I tried it! Thanks to Casey of Kitchen-Play, Sur la Table this month’s sponsor and Kitchen Runway for sharing this awesome recipe.

Disclosure: I want to win one of the wonderful prizes being offered by Kitchen-Play and Sur la Table. You can enter too! Go to Kitchen-Play to see how to enter. Crossing my fingers!

Kitchen-Play and wonderful Grilled Shrimp, Mango & Guacamole Bites © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

Be sure to use a clean piece of foil for your cooked shrimp.

Grilled Shrimp

Ingredients:

1 pound of medium-sized or large easy peel shrimp, deveined and peeled except for the tail
@ 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lemon halved

Directions:

1. Heat your gas grill at high heat.
2. Skewer the shrimp on metal or wooden skewers (be sure to soak wooden skewers in water ahead of time).
3. Drizzle olive oil on both sides of the shrimp. Salt and pepper generously.
4. Place the shrimp on the grill for 1-2 minutes on each side. Add the lemon to the grill as well.
5. Take the shrimp and lemon off the grill and squeeze the lemon over the shrimp before serving.

From modified from Rachael Ray's recipe on foodnetwork.com

Serve with your favorite rice and vegetables and enjoy! Do you have any grilled shrimp or shrimp recipe you would like to share with me?

Don’t forget about the special giveaway I’m doing that’s going on right now!

Grilled Shrimp © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

I guess these sandwiches are served with the sauce and served plain. My husband doesn’t like sauces so he eats them out without and adds provolone cheese, lettuce and tomato. He loves these sandwiches. I have even had the grilled chicken (not on a sandwich) but with couscous complete with the sauce.

This dish is in my top 10 list right now. Hope you enjoy them! If you make them, I’ll bet they will rank high on your list too!

Chicken Spiedies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
3 Tbsp mayo
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (trimmed)
6 (6-inch) sub rolls

Directions:

1. Mix the oil, garlic, basil, oregano, lemon zest, salt, pepper and pepper flakes in a large bowl.
2. Take 2 Tbsp of the oil mixture and place into another bowl and set aside.
3. Prick the chicken breasts with a fork all over on each side. Cut into 1 1/4 inch chunks. Add to large (first) bowl of marinade. Refrigerate and marinate for at least 30 minutes and no longer than 3 hours.
4. Whisk together mayo, vinegar and lemon juice with the 2 Tbsp of oil mixture set aside earlier.
5. Remove the chicken and thread onto metal skewers.
6. Heat your gril for 10 minutes on high.
7. Clean and oil your cooking grate. Place the skewers on the grill, turning frequently. Cook for 10-15 mintues.
8. Remove from grill and allow chicken to rest for at least 5 minutes.
9. Grill the rolls on grill for a few seconds each. Remove quickly or they will burn.
10. Remove the chicken from the skewers directly on the rolls. Drizzle with mayo sauce mixture.

from The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2010 Cookbook, published 2009

Spiedies © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

Click here for the Grilled Lemon Chicken Recipe

The chicken is cut into thin cutlets and I usually only marinate the chicken for 10-15 minutes. **Update: My sister, Connie, told me that you’re not supposed to marinate meats with vegetable. Thanks, Connie!**

Tips:

• I usually cut the chicken into cutlets (length-wise) so it grills even faster.
• I take the leftover red pepper (unchopped) and marinate them with the chicken. These pieces get grilled and become a side dish.
• I only use about 1/4 cup of the lemon mixture to marinate the chicken in. Reserve the 1/4 cup to brush while the chicken on the grill. The rest I use as a sauce to poor over the chicken before I serve (be sure to split the mixture up BEFORE marinating the chicken).
• Allow the chicken to rest at least 5 minutes after grilling.
• I serve this chicken with a vegetable or salad and rice pilaf.

Grilled Lemon Chicken © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.