Monday, January 13, 2014

Brick Grilled Chicken Wrap

Things are staying stupid busy around here. 

And when your schedule is chaotic you need something quick and easy for lunch.  Tortillas are fantastic for beating the clock, just throw a bunch of good stuff in a tortilla and you have a quick meal on the go.  In this case, I went with chicken, avocado, and the stuff for a BLT.


Brick grilling chicken is a good technique for evenly and quickly cooking a butterflied chicken breast.  You can use the same technique inside on a skillet and topping the chicken with a bacon press, a cast iron skillet or something heavy. 


Brick Grilled Chicken Wrap
www.nibblemethis.com

Ingredients
  • 2 chicken breast halves, boneless,skinless
  • 2 tsp NMT Barbecue Rub or other all purpose seasoning
  • 4 large flour tortillas
  • 8 slices ultra thin provolone cheese
  • 2 leaves green leaf lettuce
  • 4 slices tomato
  • 1 avocado, peeled and cut into slices
  • 4 strips bacon, cooked
  • 4 tsp fire roasted chile ranch dressing

Instructions
  1. Wrap each brick in a 12" x 18" piece of aluminum foil.
  2. Put the bricks in your grill and preheat your grill to 400f with the lid closed
  3. Butterfly the chicken breast halves.  Place one on a cutting board and press down lightly on it.  Use a sharp boning knife to slice through the middle from one side to about 1/2" from the other side.  You should be able to open it like a book and lay it flat.
  4. Season both sides of the butterflied chicken.
  5. Lightly wipe your grill grates with oil, place chicken on the grate and top with the brick.
  6. Grill, flipping once, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160f.  This should take 4 minutes per side.  Remove and reduce heat to medium low (see step 9).
  7. Remove the chicken and slice thinly.
  8. Assemble the wraps in the following order, from tortilla up.  Tortilla, 2 slices cheese, 1/2 piece of lettuce, slices of tomato, avocado, bacon, 1/4th of the chicken, and hearty drizzle of ranch dressing.
  9. Roll it all up "burrito style" in the tortilla.  If desired, you can put it back on the grill for 30 seconds per side.  
Warning:  I have "heard" that standard bricks can "explode" on the grill due to residual moisture in the brick.  It must be true because it's on the Internet.  I have never met anyone that experienced this and I have used the same brick for 4 or 5 years.  But to be on the safe side, you can get fire bricks from the hardware store.  Or just use a heavy cast iron pot instead of a brick.  

Help!  This brick has fallen on me and I can't get up!

It may seem a little tall as you build it but right before wrapping, I press it down to flatten it a bit.
This part is a little embarrassing.  I accidentally turned off my grill and didn't realize it until I went back outside.  The grates still had some residual heat so I just stuck it on there for a minute to warm through instead of starting the grill back up and waiting for it to get hot again. It got the tortilla crispy enough but it took longer and didn't get the grill marks on it.


If you don't have time to make the Fire Roasted Chile Ranch Dressing, you can just buy a bottle of ranch dressing and soup it up with some red pepper flakes, chipotle powder, and/or whatever spices/herbs float your boat.  


Char-Broil All-Stars
I got two new grills this past week.   I cooked this one on my Char-Broil TRU-Infrared three burner gas grill.


Yeah, I know.  It's a sickness.  I collect grills and smokers like a coon dog collects ticks in August.    I'll have a review post in the near future but I want to put it through it's paces first.  It is definitely different than any gas grill I've ever used, it has no open flame in the main cooking area, just the infrared emitter. 

I'm proud to be added to the Char-Broil All-Stars team for 2014.  In addition to getting to work with a fantastic company like Char-Broil, I'll be collaborating with some of my favorite bloggers as team members including:
Curt McAdams

David Olsen

Danielle Dimovski

Julie Reinhardt

Scott Thomas

Jane Bonacci

Chef Christo

Catherine Mayhew

Cowgirl Jeanie

I am thrilled to be on board with this crew and look forward to a fun 2014!