Orchid Melon "Caprese" Salad with Balsamic Grilled Chicken

Oh middle of the week....

This week has been very busy. With friends in town, jury duty and deadlines at work I was worried I may not have a middle of the week post but I made it!!!!! A quick and simple dinner for 5 people on a Wednesday night!!!! I'm delighted.

Orchid Melon "Caprese" Salad with Balsamic Grilled Chicken

I must say there is nothing better than having an outdoor grill. But for those of you who are small apartment dwellers such as myself a kitchen must have is a cast iron stove top grill/griddle. 

If you don't know, now you know :)

Man, I love this thing. We make so many great items on it and they all have that great grilled flavor and those pretty little grill marks.

Now on to the recipe :)

Chicken Marinade Recipe :

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (however many will feed your family I was feeding 5 so this was the perfect amount of marinade)

1 cup Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tbsp. Worscheschire Sauce 

2 Tbsp. Honey 

2 cloves garlic 

1 lemon quartered

1 stem rosemary

Mix all ingredients together (don't worry keep mixing the honey will dissolve) 

place in a plastic container, bowl or plastic zip lock bag

Add chicken, cover and let marinate in the fridge for at least 30 min.

Next for the salad.....my favorite.

You may be wondering about the Orchid Melon. I had no idea what they were either but leave it to a trip to the farmer's market to teach me something new. The orchid melon is a tiny little heirloom watermelon and it is delish! Please buy this melon if it is available to you, but if not a regular mini seedless watermelon would certainly do the trick.

Salad Recipe:                                                              

1 orchid melon

1 bunch fresh basil 

8 ounces fresh mozzarella

2 cups balsamic vinegar                              

Look at how juicy this baby is.

Now for the fun part!!!! The construction of the salad. I thought it was a clever method. I was attempting a new take on an old salad so the point was to turn this melon into "tomatoes"

Cut melon into.  As shown in the picture above.

Try and slice the melon into 10 slices (again I was feeding 5)  Use a toothpick to remove some of the seeds. 

Now let's turn this melon into some "tomatoes"!!!! You will need one mid sized drinking glass. You will use the glass to cut out circles from the melon slices.

I found this part of preparing the meal to be fun. So if you have kids this step may be the one for them.

While the kids are cutting the melon, remove chicken from marinade sprinkle with salt and pepper and place chicken on grill sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Grill chicken 5-6 minutes per side depending on the size of the chicken.

Bring the 2 cups of balsamic to a simmer let it reduce by half.

PADRON PEPPERS!

Look at those grill marks! I love cast iron.

OOOOOOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOO I forgot we ate these!!!!!!!!! These little padron peppers make a great appetizer. Put a tiny bit of oil in a pan, blister them and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt. They are not hot and have the best flavor. Mmmmmmmm just like Spain. Or so I hear ;)

Remove basil leaves from stems and slice the mozzarella to match the size of the melon circles.

Begin constructing the salad, I think the fan method I used is nice but you can also stack them for a nice presentation. Get creative with it!!! Drizzle balsamic reduction over salad. (be gentle you are already having balsamic chicken, too)

At this point your chicken should be cooked and rested. Plate it up and eat it up!!!!!!!

Yummy Yummy Yummy

We all made it as members of the clean plate club!!!!!!

Our friends from out of town.

 Matthew (the hubs) David from Britain, Jen and Ben from Asheville, NC ;)

I hope you find this a simple easy meal to make for your family or guests any night of the week.

Bye for now!!!!!!!