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Lemony Chicken Paillards with Asparagus and Feta

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Makes 4 servings 1x

Time 20 to 25 minutes

Units Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 pound thin asparagus
  • 1 tablespoon good-quality olive oil, plus more for brushing
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut and pounded into paillards (see below)
  • 1/2cup crumbled feta cheese
  • Lemon wedges for serving

Instructions

  1. Start the coals or heat a gas grill for hot direct cooking. Make sure the grates are clean
  2. Cut off the bottoms of the asparagus, then toss the spears with 1 tablespoon oil and sprinkle with salt. Put them on the grill directly over the fire, perpendicular to the grate, close the lid, and cook, turning once, until browned and crisp-tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate
  3. Brush the paillards with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Put them on the grill directly over the fire. Close the lid and cook, turning once, until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, 1 to 2 minutes per side. (Nick with a small knife and peek inside.) Transfer to individual plates, top with the asparagus, sprinkle with feta, and serve with the lemon wedges.

—Recipe from How to Grill Everything

Recipe variations

Paillards Lots of different cuts of poultry or meat can become the super thin, broad cutlets known as paillards. However, pounding alone usually won’t get you there. Chicken breasts, for example, must be butterflied— cut almost all the way through horizontally so they can be opened like a book—so the pounding will get the meat flat and even. This technique also works for pork (fatty bone less pork sirloin steaks especially, or split pork tenderloins), turkey breast (start by thinly slicing across a whole boneless breast, or use turkey cutlets), and veal cutlets. A heavy, round, flat pounder is my favorite tool for the job but you can also use a meat mallet, rolling pin, the bottom of a cast iron skillet, or a sturdy potato masher. To avoid tearing up the meat, put a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper on top before pounding. The shortcut to paillards is to buy thinly sliced chicken breast or whole tenders and then, with less fuss, pound them until thin and even. They might not have the same surface area (and you probably will pay a little more) but you hardly need to do much.