Grilling Indoors!

This grilled chicken recipe has been a favorite of mine since the first time I made it. Actually, it may be the first thing I ever grilled! Here is the recipe for "Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Fresh Sage and Mozzarella" from the Williams-Sonoma Grilling cookbook.

Ingredients

For the Chicken:
Olive oil or Canola oil for coating
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
4 slices fresh mozzarella cheese
8 fresh sage leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Butter:
1 cup (2 whole sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Note: I doubled the butter recipe so I'd have some to toss with pasta, at the recommendation of the recipe!

Sides
3/4 lb. long noodled pasta (I used angel hair)
fresh vine ripened tomatoes

Prepare

Slice tomatoes or cut them into wedges. Place in a shallow dish. Drizzle with Italian dressing or olive oil and red wine vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Let marinade in the fridge until it's time to eat.

Get the pasta water going. Don't forget to season with salt after you add the pasta to the boiling water. This is your only opportunity to flavor the actual pasta itself. Cook according to instructions and then toss with half of the sage butter (see directly below).

Make the butter. With a fork, mix together the butter, sage, garlic, and cayenne in a small bowl and blend well. Set aside or form into a log in waxed paper and refrigerate until ready to use.

Cook

Prepare a charchoal or gas grill for direct grilling over medium-high heat and oil the grill rack. (I actually used a grill pan indoors, but have found in the past that gas grills work great for this recipe, though I have never tried charcoal.)

Using a long, thin, sharp knife, butterfly the chicken breasts: Cut horizontally into the thickest part of each breast to within 1/2 inch of the other side. Open the breast like a book and place it between sheets of plastic wrap and lay 1 slice of cheese and 2 sage leaves on one half of the flattened breast. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and fold the chicken over the cheese. Coat with oil and sprinkle both sides with salt and black pepper. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts and filling.

Grill the chicken on one side directly over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes, then turn carefully with a spatula. Grill on the second side for 3 minutes. Check for doneness by cutting into the center of one of the breasts. There should be no pink showing. Cook longer if necessary, but be careful not to overcook them, as chicken breasts dry out and toughen if cooked too long. (This chicken is actually pretty hard to dry out, due to the cheese. For larger breasts, 5 minutes a side worked pretty good on the grill pan. Also, using a grill pan, make sure to make a foil tent; this time around it took me forever to grill, until I realized that when I grill outside, I use the lid, and I had no lid, so I made one!)

Top each breast with 1 tbsp or more of the sage butter and serve with pasta and tomatoes.

Enjoy!