{"id":110669,"date":"2021-06-15T09:39:35","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110669"},"modified":"2021-06-15T09:39:35","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:39:35","slug":"mojito-marinated-grilled-chicken-w-2019-vista-sauvignon-blanc-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110669","title":{"rendered":"Mojito Marinated Grilled Chicken w\/ 2019 Vista Sauvignon Blanc Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KISS. Keep it simple stupid!\u00a0 Do you know how many times I heard that when I was in Basic Training at FT. Jackson, SC.?\u00a0 Let me spare you the mystery.\u00a0 The Army was\/is\u00a0world class<\/em>\u00a0in dropping its instruction to the lowest common denominator! Enter this recipe.\u00a0 No need for fancy\u00a0bells & whistles<\/em>.\u00a0 No obscure ingredients.\u00a0 No elaborate prep.\u00a0 No detailed cooking steps with intricate heat levels. Assemble the marinade, put the key ingredient (chicken breasts) into a storage bag. Throw it in the fridge.\u00a0 Done. \u00a0\u00a0In short, what are we looking at here?\u00a0 It\u2019s the perfect\u00a0I\u2019ve-played-18-holes-today,-had-a-swim-and-what\u2019s-for-dinner?<\/em>\u00a0recipe! Meaning?\u00a0 Put the marinade together in the morning and forget about it.\u00a0 Go about what you do.\u00a0 Tend to the roses.\u00a0 Walk the 7 mile loop in your town.\u00a0 Visit your bank account.\u00a0 Take a hot shower as necessary. Give 5 minutes of thought to the choice of sides — in my case it\u2019s grilled sweet corn and a tomato & cucumber salad!\u00a0 It\u2019s summer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though my first allegiance is to White Burgundy, my go-to white wine is Sauvignon Blanc.  I love the wine on its own merit, but  more importantly, Sauvignon Blanc is the \u201cSwiss army knife\u201d of wine when it comes to putting a glass alongside a diversity of food.  Fish? Check! Salads? Check! Veggie dishes? Check! Grilled chicken? Check!! For Sauvignon Blanc I lean to the Loire Valley\u2019s Sancerre or Pouilly Fum\u00e9.  But I wanted to give the Vista Reserve from Napa a test drive.  Why?  Because Vista\u2019s Grant Long is a gifted winemaker!  I have greatly enjoyed any number of his Pinot Noirs and Cabernets.  And the 2019 Reserve doesn\u2019t disappoint.  Fresh.  Flavorful without being opulent. Clean, dry finish.  Perfect with my grilled chicken.  And, P.S. a fabulous value at the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vista Sauvignon Blanc Reserve \u201919 (Napa, CA)
<\/u><\/strong>This Sauvignon Blanc opens with alluring aromas of melon, boxwood, gooseberry, citrus and guava. A full and lively palate of green apple and lemongrass balances this wine\u2019s tropical and lime zest notes with crisp acidity that gives way to a soft landing  finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{For the video take on the wine, copy into your browser http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110663<\/a>}<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MOJITO MARINATED GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST
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 Ingredients<\/strong>
6 ounces of Tanqueray Gin
\u00bd ounce of Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth
3 blue cheese stuffed olives
2 chicken breasts
1\/3 cup white rum
1\/3 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp pretzel salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
Fresh lime juice
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Directions
<\/strong>1. Put gin and vermouth into a glass pitcher, fill with ice, stir vigorously while incanting, \u201cYou who know all, thank you for providing us juniper and all the other obscure ingredients responsible for creating this sacred liquid!\u201d Strain into a pre-frozen Martini glass of admirable size.  Skewer the olives on one of those tacky cocktail swords, place in glass. Immediately begin consuming.  Now you can begin the food prep, and the cooking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Pound the hell out of the chicken breasts to a uniform thickness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Put all the ingredients (with a good squeeze of fresh lime juice added) into a ziplock bag and with great vigor, stir them up so that all the chicken is coated with the marinade. Put it into the fridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Marinate for at least 4 hours.  Or overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. For grilling, 5-7 minutes on each side should do, depending on the thickness of the breasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Plate, add a squeeze of fresh lime juice and garnish with mint leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

n.b.\u00a0<\/u><\/strong>For my grilled corn, I husk the corn, apply a serious coating of garlic butter, and wrap the cob in tin foil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KISS. Keep it simple stupid!\u00a0 Do you know how many times I heard that when I was in Basic Training at FT. Jackson, SC.?\u00a0 Let me spare you the mystery.\u00a0 The Army was\/is\u00a0world class\u00a0in dropping its instruction to the lowest … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sandys-table"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110671,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110669\/revisions\/110671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}