Recipe : Thyme & Garlic Grilled Chicken

Found some fresh thyme in the store yesterday and wanted it to be the star flavor in the dish. Also its easier to grill a dish in the oven, than stand around a hot gas stove cooking in this heat. (Its about 44C out here already)

Ingredients:
4 pieces of boneless chicken (about a pound - half kilo) cleaned and patted dry
1/2 pod garlic (use less if you are not a garlic fan)
Juice of one lemon
Thyme leaves - about 3 level tbsp (if using dried thyme you will need less)
salt to taste
a little olive oil

Method:
You can pound the chicken breasts with a mallet to flatten or make slits in the chicken to let the marinade reach further.

Smash together the garlic and 2tbsps thyme leaves.
Add salt to taste and the lemon juice and mix well
This is the marinade.

Apply marinade to the chicken and keep for at least 4 hours. I left it for about a day. -Marinated one night and made for next nights dinner.
If you have made slits, make sure you stuff some marinade into the slits too.

Bring the marinated chicken close to room temperature (never cook meat when its very cold, it will turn tough) and lightly toss or baste with some olive oil.
Since I was grilling it on a rack in the oven it needed something to seal in the natural moisture. The olive oil will do the trick.
(If you are baking it covered, you will not need the olive oil)

Arrange on the wire rack, sprinkle (a total of) half a tbsp of thyme on the top of each  piece

Grilled it in the preheated oven at 220C for 40 mins.
Turn each piece over at half time and sprinkle the rest of the thyme on this side.

Serve hot with veggies, bread or Pasta.

If you are feeling indulgent, you can add some grated cheese on top.

This recipe will work well with fish, but don't marinate it for too long. It can be pan fried on a stove top.
This marinade will not work well with red meat, the flavors are too subtle for stronger meats.