Riesling Italian Chicken Breasts

There are very few things as satisfying than a slightly chilled glass of wine after a VERY long day.   Be it hours in the garden, dealing with that one co-worker that everyone wonders when they are going to fire, or just chasing three kids with an unlimited amount of energy, that glass can help all the stress melt away.  Liz and I have our favorite wine, the Chateau Ste Michele Riesling.  It's a perfect blend of sweetness and dryness, with all sorts of body.  Don't ask me about the undertones or hints of other flavors.  I may have an adventurous palette, but it's not that pretentious.  I  just know we love the taste of it and the way it makes the two of us feel afterwards, if you know what I mean.  Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more...

What I love to do is to sacrifice one glass worth of this nectar of the gods and cook with it.  The cardinal rule of cooking with wine: If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.  So instead of using that awful "cooking" wine from the store, use some good stuff.  Don't use that "It's a lot cheaper" excuse with me!  Let's price-check.  A bottle of "cooking" wine is around $4.29 for 12 ounces. A 24 ounce bottle of the Chateau Ste Michele Riesling is $8.99 in Utah, the state with the highest alcohol tax in the nation.  So when you compare equal amounts of wine, the difference is 40 cents.  You still want the "cooking" wine?  Go ahead, I DARE you to drink a full glass the cooking wine.  Just pick up a bottle of the good stuff instead.

I like how this wine tastes with a lighter meat, like chicken breasts, especially during the summer on the barbecue.  But here's the problem with chicken breasts on the barbecue.  They tend to dry out... quickly.  There's a ton of dry high heat in there and breasts can shrivel like a worm on an August Arizona sidewalk.  So we need to push as much liquid into the meat as we can to maintain its moisture.  The best way I've found to do it is to do a brine/marinade.  We've brined our Thanksgiving turkey and we've marinaded lots of things from flank steak to fajitas.  In this case, we're creating a soaking material that's a marriage of the two techniques and adding all sorts of additional flavors as well.

I'm a sucker for the Italian flavors, so this recipe uses some classic Italian herbs and a light olive oil. An alcoholic beverage marinade works well when some oil is mixed in.  My philosophy on why it works is that every flavor breaks down and is enhanced when they are soaked in one of three liquids; water, fat or alcohol.  Therefore, since we have all three here when we use wine and a light olive oil, everything gets a boost.  Also, I'm adding some extra salt into the mix.  Why?  Well, we want the marinade to act like a brine and force the meat to soak up more liquid.  Think back to your science class... remember Osmosis? 

Osmosis is "the net movement of solvent molecules through a partially permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in order to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides."  In other words, if you soak meat in a salt water solution, it will naturally soak that salt water through the outer wall into the meat and into the tissue (along with the other flavors too).  That way, when you cook the breasts, they'll only lose the excess water you've forced into it.  The natural moisture will stay inside and keep them nice and juicy.

Riesling Italian Chicken Breasts

Serves 4-6, 1 breast for each person

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup Riesling wine
1/4 cup olive oil (your choice of type)
2 teaspoons basil
1 teaspoon oregano
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the wine, oil, basil, oregano, garlic, salt and red pepper flakes into a gallon ziploc bag.  Seal and shake or squish the bag to mix the ingredients.  Reopen the bag and add the chicken.  Seal again and squish the chicken around, making sure each breast is coated with the marinade.  Place the bag into another ziploc bag or a baking dish and place back in the fridge for at least 4 hours, all day or even overnight is better.

When ready, fire up the grill to medium heat.  If you don't have a barbecue, a large skillet over medium heat will work all right.  Add the chicken and cook until the internal temperature reading on your digital thermometer reaches 165 degrees. Allow the breasts to rest for 5 minutes before serving.  I suggest slicing them widthwise and fanning the pieces out over rice or linguine pasta.