SEVEN OR LESS
Honey-mustard marinade can also be sauce

By Thayer Wine
Nashville Tennessean

Honey-mustard is one of the most popular flavors for a salad dressing. It also makes a fine chicken marinade.

The following recipe is crazy easy and also quite versatile.

You can double the recipe and use part of it to dress a salad to serve with the chicken. A nice touch is to scatter greens on the plate, top with the hot chicken, then drizzle dressing over all. Caution: The actual marinade that has been used on the chicken should be discarded or brought to a boil and thoroughly cooked; raw chicken juices can make you ill.

You can serve the chicken with vegetables and a starch and use the marinade as a sauce. To do this, grill the chicken and steam rice or boil or roast potatoes; steam or stir-fry summer vegetables. Bring marinade to a boil and simmer until slightly thickened. Arrange starch, chicken, and vegetables on plate. Drizzle hot sauce over all.

HONEY-MUSTARD GRILLED CHICKEN

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

In a shallow glass or ceramic container whisk together the olive oil, mustard, vinegar and honey for marinade.

Trim all visible fat off chicken, rinse under cool water and pat dry. Place chicken in marinade, turning it to coat all sides. Cover and marinate for 10 minutes, or until grill is ready.

Allow grill's coals to burn down until there's a gray ash on top or preheat a gas grill on high for 10 minutes. When grill is hot, use a long-handled stiff wire brush to scrape off any old cooking residue. With long tongs, dip a folded piece of paper towel in vegetable oil and quickly wipe the grate with oil.

Place the chicken on the grill. Cook about two minutes and gently lift and shift the chicken about 45 degrees. Continue cooking on the same side about two more minutes, reducing the heat a bit or moving it to a cooler part of the grill if the marinade is getting too brown. Baste with the marinade, if desired.

Turn the breasts over and continue cooking until done and the juices run clear, about 3-4 minutes. Be sure to reduce the heat or move to a cooler part of the grill if the chicken begins to brown too much.

Heat the reserved marinade in a small skillet until it just comes to a boil. Pour 1 teaspoon over each chicken breast half and serve. Serves 4.

Per serving: 219 calories, 27 g protein, 3 g carbohydrate, 0 fiber, 10 g fat, 74 mg cholesterol, 79 mg sodium.