Smoked chicken, asparagus, wild garlic leaf pesto sauce pasta (with pics)

Stormbringer

Wild garlic is in season at the moment, and I’m fortunate enough to have parents-in-law with this wonderful herb growing in their back garden. My wife picked some and used it to make a tasty, fresh wild garlic leaf pesto sauce. We had this with some pappardelle pasta, which was served with smoked chicken and asparagus. Utterly delicious.

I smoked and cooked the chicken breasts indirect at 120°C/250°F using dried grape vines (from our “vineyard” … three vines creeping up the side fence) until the internal temperature of the breasts was 65°C/150°F. The platesetter was removed, Egg raised to 300°C/615°F for direct cooking/searing. The breasts were then seared for 1 minute each side, covered and left to rest, carved when the internal temperature was 74°C/165°F (pretty much straight after they were seared).

At the same time as searing the chicken breast I also chargrilled the cooked asparagus to give it a nice, slightly crisp coating.

The wild garlic leaf pesto sauce is dead easy to make, recipe is here:

https://www.thecooksdigest.co.uk/2017/04/28/wild-garlic-leaf-pesto-sauce/

The pesto sauce:

From whence it came:


Chicken breasts searing in the Minimax after smoking, with the asparagus added. Kicking myself for not using the CI grid:


Plated and ready, with some spinach added for good measure. The pappardelle pasta is coated with the wild garlic leaf pesto sauce:

Ima_good_egg

That's a beautiful meal!

Legume

Damn.  Very nice.

Carolina Q

I always enjoy your cook posts. Nicely done. Again.

pgprescott

This belongs in a food mag!

evie1370

Damn that looks good! Great job! I have never cooked chicken that way, definitely doing that soon.  I am trying that pesto for sure.

six_egg

Nice looking food. We  eat a ton of chicken and we all still like it.

northGAcock

Gawjus.....just gawjus.

JohnnyTarheel

Excellent!!!

bgebrent

Very nice!

tarheelmatt

Great post and great looking grub my friend.  

Stormbringer

Thanks folks. I was as happy with the photograph of the pesto as I was with the meal.

@evie1370 this is the first time I've cooked chicken breast like this. I normally just do it direct and raised into the dome, but I wanted to do something more low and slow to get the smoke in. It worked, a bit of a blend of luck and judgement.

@northGAcock I had to read that a couple of times to work out what you were saying. SWMBO sighed at me.

Foghorn

Holy crap that looks good.  Awesome cook and pics.

SaintJohnsEgger

I'm no fan of asparagus but you make even that look good.  Great looking cook. 

lousubcap

Magazine quality pics right there.  Great cook and result.  Dang-  Nailed it across the board.  

jollygreenegg

Great pics and food!  That's the most green I've seen on plate here!

SciAggie

The pesto looks excellent. Beautiful meal. 

flatwounds

That looks fantastic!

Stormbringer

SaintJohnsEgger said:

I'm no fan of asparagus but you make even that look good.  Great looking cook. 

Tbh neither am I normally, but the combination of slight chargrilling and garlic pesto made it ... well, slightly more than palatable. Which is a boon because it's one of SWMBO's favourites.

acolle

@Stormbringer  What roll did the dried grape vines play? Not sure how you folded those into your porcess here...

Stormbringer

acolle said:

@Stormbringer  What roll did the dried grape vines play? Not sure how you folded those into your porcess here...

@acolle - I got the coals in the MM glowing and then added some dried grape vine twigs on top to generate smoke whilst cooking the chicken. It's a trick I learned in Bordeaux, several of the top chateaux there entertain guests and smoke meats over dried grape vines from their vineyards.

acolle

Stormbringer said:

acolle said:

@Stormbringer  What roll did the dried grape vines play? Not sure how you folded those into your porcess here...

@acolle - I got the coals in the MM glowing and then added some dried grape vine twigs on top to generate smoke whilst cooking the chicken. It's a trick I learned in Bordeaux, several of the top chateaux there entertain guests and smoke meats over dried grape vines from their vineyards.

 

Interesting. 

I would never have thought of this... And I have more grape vine than I know what to do with. Do you dry the twigs till they are snappable? Or do you leave moisture in them? And I assume you discard the leaves right? 

Thank you Stormbringer. Always into new ideas. Appreciate your input!

Stormbringer

acolle said:

Stormbringer said:

acolle said:

@Stormbringer  What roll did the dried grape vines play? Not sure how you folded those into your porcess here...

@acolle - I got the coals in the MM glowing and then added some dried grape vine twigs on top to generate smoke whilst cooking the chicken. It's a trick I learned in Bordeaux, several of the top chateaux there entertain guests and smoke meats over dried grape vines from their vineyards.

 

Interesting. 

I would never have thought of this... And I have more grape vine than I know what to do with. Do you dry the twigs till they are snappable? Or do you leave moisture in them? And I assume you discard the leaves right? 

Thank you Stormbringer. Always into new ideas. Appreciate your input!

@acolle they are dried until they are bendy and snap with very little effort. Vine that are completely bone dry just smoke, whereas if there's a very small amount of moisture (sap? whatever it is) in them, it gives an extra flavour. We learned this from the owner of Ch. Haut Bailly when we had dinner there a few years ago. And you're right, just the twigs, no leaves.

I'd love to try this with the vines at Ch. Gruaud Larose. Their terroir invariably produces wines that have a jambon fume note, the most recent classic example being the 2001. Given that flavour comes from the grape which comes from the vine, there must be something in their soils that's doing this. Smoking over some of their old vines would be most interesting.