Scofflaw in the Kitchen: Grilled Saltimbocca

Chicken Saltimbocca is a favorite dinner of mine. Chicken breast is seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, and prosciutto and then sauteed to a lovely golden brown and served with a barely-there sauce of lemon and white wine. It is a light, lovely, piquant entree.

The word "saltimbocca", roughly translated from Italian means "jumps in your mouth." Indeed, the interplay of flavors with lemon, sage, and prosciutto is a real treat on the tongue.

I had planned on making saltimbocca this week, but the 80-degree, sunshiney weather yesterday evening practically forbade me from turning on the cooktop in the kitchen. THIS was grilling weather. So I gave the recipe a detour.

I made a slap-dash beurre blanc and threw in plenty of lemon juice, white wine, chopped sage, and a liberal amount of salt and marinated the chicken breasts in the components that would normally be used to create a sauce. Also, it's worth noting that when I don't have a lot of time to allow meat to marinate, I actually heat the marinade in the microwave and pierce the meat a couple of times with a fork. The warm marinade seems to penetrate just a little better that way, but you have to be careful that the liquid is not hot, or you will start to cook the meat! After marinating for about a half hour, I wrapped the chicken breasts in bacon and threw them on a hot grill. As it grilled I basted the chicken frequently with the marinade (Please note to use caution and a long handled baster...the fat in the marinade creates a lot of flame). I gave the meat about 2 five-minute sessions per side, for a total grilling time of about 20 minutes.

Before serving, I sprinkled each chicken breast with a little more chopped sage and gave them each a squeeze of some more fresh lemon juice. I served this with couscous and fresh, young green beans. Saltimbocca was as lovely grilled as it is sauteed.

A big part of cooking is making adaptations. Sometimes you've forgotten an ingredient at the market, sometimes what is called for is out-of-season, and sometimes you'd prefer trying another cooking method (i.e. grilling versus cooking indoors). It is perfectly acceptable to disobey recipes. Of course there are cases where deviating from the instructions will not work out so perfectly, but in many cases, you can actually control your grocery budget, eat the freshest items at the peak of their season, or create new dishes by using your recipes as an inspiration rather than a rulebook.

If you are cooking, then let it always be inspiring and seldom a chore. If bending the rules helps toward this goal, then I fully encourage you to be a scofflaw in the kitchen.