Grilled Paprika Chicken

Last year Martha Stewart's Living Magazine did an entire section in its June issue on grilling chicken.

Martha's recipes can be a bit hit or miss. A number of her culinary creations can be rather labor intensive and on the expensive side with spotty results.

Just recently I made Martha's Chocolate-Caramel Cream Pie from the recipe published in Living's June 2008 issue. Thankfully I was doing a test run because in addtion to the ingredients being costly and its preparation taking most of a Sunday afternoon, the final product was tasty but visually a disaster, unservable.

But what Stewart sometimes lacks in understanding the home cook, especially the home baker, is made up for with recipes like the Smoky Grilled Butterflied Chicken or what I like to call Grilled Paprika Chicken.

The recipe is simple and inexpensive. And in my experience, a crowd pleaser.

Serves 4

Total cost - $5.80 (appox. $1.45/person)

1/4 cup red wine or sherry vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon coarse salt
3-4lbs. skin-on, bone-in chicken, rinsed (I use chicken breasts, but use any combo you like)

Combine vinegar, oil, garlic, paprika, and salt in a nonreactive baking dish or large resealable plastic bag.

Add rinsed chicken to the marinade. Cover dish or seal bag, and refrigerate at least 1 - 4 hours (or overnight), turning occasionally.

Preheat grill to medium. (If you are using a charcoal grill, coals are ready when you can hold your hand 5 inches above grill for just 5 or 6 seconds.)

Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Place chicken, skin side down, on grill. Close cover, and grill 15 minutes.

Flip chicken, and close cover. Grill until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of the breast registers 165 degrees, about 20 minutes more.

* You can use either sweet or hot paprika. I use the hot variety and it gives the dish quite a kick. Stores most often carry the sweet version, which contrary to the name is not sweet at all, but merely milder in heat compared to its hot counterpart.

I like to serve this chicken with Red Pepper Rice (recipe follows).