Greek-style Grilled Chicken Paillard Recipe
I like to plan ahead, even if things don’t always work out that way. Sometimes half the fun is in the planning, such as a vacation or an upcoming weekend. And sometimes the anticipation is better than the reality LOL! I do a lot of food planning – classes, family meals for the week, and holidays, for example. It’s truly one of my favorite things to do and I love thinking about how everyone will enjoy a particular meal or recipe.
Something happens to me when a new season begins on the calendar. I really shift my perspective and think about how I can adapt to become more in tune with nature’s new energy. The easiest way to do this is to change the foods that I buy and eat. We used to put on weight during the winter because we intentionally needed to pad ourselves with extra fat to keep ourselves warm. I did the same but by unintentionally eating too much chocolate over the holidays. How’s that for staying in synch with nature?? Ooops!
The first day of Spring just passed and I feel like it’s a new year, which it is in nature. So much growth, rebirth, cleaning out, detoxing is all happening. I am dusting off my grill and looking forward to inviting friends over and eating outdoors. I aways have one “safe” spring/summer entertaining recipe up my sleeve and here’s my latest.
I’m calling it a Greek-style Grilled Chicken Paillard. Chicken paillard is a pounded piece of protein, in this case chicken. It is the first chicken dish I taught my older daughter how to make because it’s quick and easy and really versatile. Normally I serve it over arugula with parmesan, lemon and olive oil. Very classic and simple. But everyone I know loves Mediterranean flavors and a good Greek salad, so I thought I would combine the two and this was a HUGE hit in my house with my kids and me. I also made it for a couple of girlfriends and they deemed it “the perfect meal.” Wow! It kind is — very flavorful with garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, oregano and olive oil PLUS all the juiciness from tomatoes, olives and onions. I am so looking forward to serving this in the coming months and beyond.
“You never know if you’re going to like something until you try it” is an expression I use all the time in my kitchen with both my picky son and my adult students. I tried a Moink Box for the first time last fall and I was very impressed. You can read up about the inspiring story behind Moink here. The company is both a source for humanely-raised and ethically-sourced meats and fish for the consumer, as well as an outlet for grass-based farmers to sell their proteins. I really struggle with the idea of buying organic meat and poultry from the supermarket when I know it’s from a mega farm. But I also don’t have time to run around visiting local farms as much as I love the idea of that. But I have been so happy with the quality of the proteins in the Moink Box, that I have continued to subscribe.
Moink boxes are customizable which is key for me since we don’t eat pork or lamb. So I was easily able to swap those out for wild salmon, which is my favorite animal protein. Everything comes frozen, which is awesome for working mamas, like me. No time to run to the grocery store? Pull it out of the freezer. But the most important thing is that all the proteins are grass-fed/pastured/wild, humanely-raised without antibiotics on small farms. You can see the contents of one of my Moink Boxes above. I used the boneless, skinless chicken breasts in this recipe, but I have tried multiple types of beef and salmon. All high quality! A Moink Box would make a great housewarming gift or Father’s Day gift. Use SPRING18 to get $15 off your first box order! And grilling season is just around the corner, so even if your grill is covered in snow right now, it won’t be for long!
I love love love seeing your creations. Please tag me @pamelasalzman #pamelasalzman !
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Greek-style Grilled Chicken Paillard
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons unrefined extra-virgin olive oil plus extra for drizzling
- 4 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice about 2 large lemons
- 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Tablespoons dried oregano plus extra for sprinkling
- 1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt or sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 bone-less skin-less chicken breasts
- 2 Persian cucumbers or ½ English cucumber diced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes quartered
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red onion or pickled onion there's a recipe for pickled shallots in my book on page 109
- 2 Tablespoons roughly chopped kalamata olives
- ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese or avocado or both
Instructions
- Heat the grill to medium. In a screw-top jar combine the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Shake until combined. Measure 2 Tablespoons for the salad and set aside the remainder for the marinade.
- Place the chicken breasts one at a time in between two pieces of plastic wrap or in a large ziploc bag and pound to a ¼-inch thickness on a cutting board. You can use a meat mallet or a rolling pin. The idea is to get the chicken to an even thickness all around. Remove from the plastic and place in a glass baking dish and add the reserved marinade. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.
- Make the Greek salad topping. In a medium bowl, combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, kalamata olives and toss with the reserved 2 Tablespoons of dressing. Top with the feta (or avocado, if using) and set aside.
- Grill the chicken until grill marks appear and the chicken releases easily from the grill, about 3-4 minutes. Turn the chicken and grill the other side until cooked through, about 2 minutes longer.
- Place the chicken on a platter and top with salad.
Notes
19 Comments
Hi Pamela – I noticed that you sort of already answered this question above but wanted to see if you have any additional thoughts…just wondering if there is another way to cook the grilled chicken paillard besides grilling on a grill since we don’t have one. Can I broil it?
So if you’re going to broil it, which is totally fine, I would recommend a broiler pan and broil as I wrote out in the other comment. If you want to do on the stovetop, no problem. Just get a really big skillet and heat it to medium high. Drain the chicken from the marinade and place in the skillet and brown on both sides for about 3-4 minutes. You’ll probably have to do this in batches if you’re making a lot.
This was so wonderful. I love Greek seasoning and the salad was perfect with the chicken. I’m going to double the dressing and use it for my regular salads. Love, love, love.
SO much flavor for so little, right?? 🙂
Pamela, This was so delicious!! Thank you, as always, for another crowd pleaser. This will definitely be added to the regular rotation. xx
So glad, Jenny! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
I’m all about “quick and easy.” The weeks are busy and doing meal prep ahead of time makes things a little easier. Will have to try this one.
Quick and easy are the best! Let me know what you think if you try it. Thanks, Nick!
Hello and thank you for all your delicious recipes. I cannot grill the meat. Would you recommend broiling or roasting the pounded marinated chicken? I would probably put the chicken on a rack in the pan with either cooking method.
Funny, I just made this at my sister’s house last week and when we went out to grill the chicken, there was no propane left in the grill! Soooo, I had to improvise. I put them on a broiler pan and broiled them for a few minutes on both sides about 5 inches from the heat. Do not roast this chicken. It will not brown, but instead it will poach in the oven. Let me know if you have any other questions. Enjoy!
I broiled as you did at your sister-in- laws house. My oven does not have broil temps just Hi/Lo. I did Lo the first 5 minutes and then flipped and placed back on Hi for the remaining 5 minutes. It was perfect! Moist,browned on some edges and delicious. Thank you again.
Oh,and I served your Brocolli, Celery root soup from your cookbook as a side. It was so good. I was sure my boys were going to complain about the green purée in their bowl. The little cheese enticed them enough to try it and they ate the entire bowl without one complaint. Success.
Oh my gosh, well done, Nicole!! So happy you pulled off such a great meal with success! 🙂
Tried this for dinner last night! Delicious! So easy and the ingredients are usually those that we have on hand. Thanks for another great meal Pamela!
SO glad you enjoyed it! I made it at my sister’s house last night and we threw everything together in minutes! 🙂
Made this for dinner last night – it was a hit!
So glad you gave it a go so quickly! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
The moink box link didn’t work but I have to say, that $159 for so little meat leaves me speechless because only the rich can afford that overpriced luxury. The grassfed producers are really ripping off people. Sorry to say…..
Sorry, the link was missing a letter. It is working now. These small farmers work really hard and it is more expensive to raise animals outdoors. That said, the price of this box with all this protein is absolutely competitive with the protein at Whole Foods which comes from big farms. This box contains a lot.