300+ Recipe Digital Cookbook
"I spent 10 years creating and testing recipes for this cookbook, it's my proudest creation!"
300+ Recipe Digital Cookbook
"I spent 10 years creating and testing 1000's of recipes for this cookbook, it's my proudest creation!"
- Mariel, Author & Founder
Grilled chicken. We all like it. We all make it. We all eat it. But frankly, we all can get a little bored of it.
If you’re anything like me, and feel like you’re in great need of spicing up your grilled chicken recipe, then this Arabian Inspired Grilled Chicken blog post is for you! I love the way this recipe turned out. It is SO flavorful; I really think you will like it too.
Here’s a little backstory of how this recipe came to be:
My husband was coming home yesterday from a business trip, and I wanted to make sure I had something delicious waiting for him at home in time for lunch (he was arriving at noon.) He told me he had been eating a lot of Southern food while in Texas, and also mentioned it wasn’t the healthiest — he didn’t go into any specifics, but if he said “it wasn’t the healthiest”, I knew it had to be bad. He had been eating super clean and healthy at home, so I can only imagine how freaked-out his poor digestive system must’ve felt!
Keeping in mind that he was arriving home around lunchtime and that I wanted to feed him something filling, healthy, and delicious…I decided to BBQ some epic protein goodness for him. I had chicken in my freezer, so I took it out to let it un-thaw and then went to my pantry to look around for inspiration. The last thing I wanted was to feed him another boring piece of grilled chicken breast, so I knew I had to give it a fun twist.
Since I had just returned from Ecuador, I was heavily feeling that “international” cuisine vibe. I checked out my spice rack and saw that I had some pretty great ones on hand. The spices that were speaking to me at the moment were cardamom, coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper. And then and there, I realized that I was being heavily pulled by the Middle Eastern cuisine for this little recipe. And oh man, did that sound yummy!
I was going to prepare some Arabian Inspired Grilled Chicken for the win. YES! I liked the sound of that.
I got my apron on and started preparing my marinade (this was done a night before grilling the chicken by the way). The marinade took over my sense of smell; I kept closing my eyes and taking deep breaths… I wanted to take all the goodness in. It smelled amazing.
Once the chicken was 100% un-thawed and ready, I rinsed it under cold water, pat dried it with paper towels, and placed it on a baking dish. Then, I grabbed the marinade and used my hands to make sure every inch of chicken breast was covered in it. Once this was done, I covered the baking dish with plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge to sit overnight. The chicken ended up marinating for 24 hours, but that worked out super well as this helped the chicken absorb the flavors extremely well.
The next day, I picked up my husband from the airport and brought him home. He was starving (and so was I)! We started the grill and BBQ’d that chicken under medium heat for about 4-5 minutes each side. Oh the smell!
I served the chicken on top of this Baby Arugula Salad. SO GOOD.
- 4 chicken breasts
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- Juice of 1 meyer lemon
- 3 tbsp grape seed oil
- 1 ½ tsp cardamom
- 1 ½ tsp cumin
- 1 ½ tsp coriander
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- Place chicken on a baking dish. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, mix spices, garlic, fresh lemon juice and oil. Pour over chicken and distribute it evenly. Cover with a plastic wrap and allow to marinade overnight.
- Grill on medium heat for a total of 8-10 minutes, flipping once half way.
- Allow to cool slightly, slice and serve with preferred side dish or on top of a salad.
