This is Crispy Capon Breast with Cuban Barbeque Sauce from Boy Gets Grill (page 194). Capon? I learned that Capon is a large male chicken that is older than a roaster or a fryer. My store didn't have any, but Bobby does allow a substitution - I used the largest chicken breast I could find. The Cuban barbeque sauce used just about everything in the fridge and pantry. It had Orange juice, Orange zest, red and white wine vinegar, sugar, onion, garlic, canola oil, habanero chilies, tomatoes, ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, honey, Dijon mustard, ancho chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt and ground pepper. I mixed all that together in stages over the grill in a long pan until it was bubbling. It stayed on the grill, with lower heat and frequent stirring, for another half hour. You can see that it reduced down to a very think sauce. I basted the chicken with some of the sauce while it was grilling and then later when it was on the plate I spooned on more. That sauce was terrific - it was tangy and sweet (from the OJ and honey) but also had a kick (from the habaneros and ancho). That was a lot of ingredients. I wasn't sure they would all come together into one flavor, but it worked.
I started watching the evening news as I was pulling out all the ingredients. Have you ever noticed that the only commercials on the evening news are for retirement plans and drugs for heart attacks, high blood pressure and a whole host of "made up" aliments. Drug companies like to tell us we have something wrong -get us all worried - then sell us the drug to fix it. We didn't even know there was a problem until they let us know - how thoughtful of them. I think that Restless Leg Syndrome was even too silly for the drug companies, so they stopped advertising that one. And for some marketing reason all these drugs must have names that contain a letter from the end of the alphabet (x, q, y, z). You know the ones I mean. Doctors are supposed to tell you what is wrong, we shouldn't be telling the doctors our own diagnosis and suggesting the drug we want to take - but how many times have you heard "ask your doctor about..." And the side effects that they are required to report are far worse than the original problem. But here is the overriding problem. I guess the advertisers figure that the only people still watching the evening news are retired people who need these financial plans drugs. Eventually these old, poor, sick people will die off and nobody will watch news at a predetermined time anymore. Have you ever seen an ipod advertisement on the eveningg news? No. These drug commercials are the first sign of the death of the evening news. My kids are as informed about the world as anyone, but they get their news on the internet when and where they want. When they are my age the retirement plans and made-up drug commercials will have to be on Facebook or YouTube or whatever it will be called then. Growing up my father watched the Huntley-Brinkley report every night - "Good night Chet." We were not a Walter Kronkite family - "That's the way it is.." Since I grew up getting news only between 5:30 and 6:00 central time, I still do it. But I'm the last of this news breed - but I must pay the price for being last by enduring those made-up drug commercials.
No commercials on the grill!
Paul
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