Last Saturday's Barbecue

I was hungry last Saturday. Usually when I’m hungry that means I want to make something that would taste good. Well, that has turned out to be the main reason I grill. The solution for last Saturday’s problem was a grilled chicken sandwich concoction.

Since I was really hungry, I decided to grill two things at the same time. One was the buffalo wings I have mentioned before. The other was what I call chicken cordon bleu, but I have no idea if that is an accurate title.

I prepared 25 chicken wings with olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, and a bit of cayenne pepper and put them in the fridge. I got the barbecue out, set it up, and lit the chimney with only about 3/4 the normal amount of briquettes. I knew that I needed only a medium heat fire, so no sense in using more Kingsford than needed.

While the fire was getting ready, I prepared the chicken breasts. I was hungry for wings and my chicken sandwich, but Wendy informed me that she wanted caesar salad with chicken. Three completely separate dinners? How to do that?

The wings were already started and easy enough to do. I decided to do double duty for the caesar salad and sandwiches by preparing the chicken breasts the same for each. I made a paste by mixing equal parts dijon mustard with olive oil, then added chili powder and black pepper. I smothered this paste all over eight chicken breasts and let them sit until the fire was ready.

I poured out the briquettes from the chimney and arranged the fire in the grill for two-zone heat. Then I grilled all the wings and breasts over medium heat with the lid closed as much as possible and only turning everything once.

I wrapped a bunch of bacon in foil and threw it on the grill when I pulled off the chicken. By this time the grill was at low heat, but it was enough to cook the bacon while I made the wings sauce. Wendy cut up a bunch of romaine lettuce and Chase set the table.

Once the bacon was done, we all prayed and began adding food to our plates. Wendy cut up some of the dijon-mustardy chicken into her caesar salad. Amazingly the hint of dijon on the chicken added a subtle taste to the caesar salad. Quite good.

For my chicken cordon bleu sandwich, I put a chicken breast on some tuscan bread, added bacon and swiss cheese. Then I slathered some dijon mustard on one side of the bread and toasted it all in the oven.

It was excellent. Sorry I don't have any pictures. You will just have to trust me.

By the way, if you are an astute reader, you will notice how much dijon mustard I used in preparing last Saturday's dinner. I am really enjoying dijon mustard lately and have found it be a very tasty ingredient.

If you read this far, you are either my mother, or a very nice person. Or both, of course. Hi, mom! But your main reward for reading this far, is to understand why I attempted to barbecue what we had tonight. Since my concocted sandwiches last week were a success, we tried to make panini sandwiches worthy of competition with Paneras.