NY Times Sweet & Spicy Grilled Chicken Breasts

I've made this recipe 3 times, now, and it's been a huge hit.  Everyone in my family loved it, and my wife and one of my grandsons said it had instantly become their favorite chicken dish.

Melissa Clark had an interesting article, I thought, in which she said,

The upshot is that grilling juicy, well-cooked chicken breasts involves three basic steps: pounding the breasts to even out the thickness, marinating them aggressively with salt and aromatics, then grilling them hot and fast.

The pounding, a technique I picked up from the grilling guru Steven Raichlen, is probably the least intuitive, but solves the problem of their uneven shape. Chicken breasts bulge at their middles and taper at the edges, making them hard to cook evenly over a direct hot fire. But constantly moving them around back and forth between direct and indirect heat (another option for uneven or large pieces of meat) can compromise the char because they cook so quickly.

The trick is to pound the chicken breasts, but not too thin, which could dry them out. Aim for about a thickness of about ½ to ¾ inch.

She then offered 3 recipes that followed that approach:

• Sweet and Spicy Grilled Chicken Breasts
• Grilled Sesame Lime Chicken Breasts
• Grilled Lemon and Thyme Grilled Chicken Breasts

I haven't tried the second two, yet, but the first one is really simple, but very tasty.  The odd shaped pieces in the picture are half of a boneless, skinless chicken breast, pounded about 1/2" thin (plus a tender that fell off).  I also grilled romaine for the first time, and it was good, but I think the grill was too hot, and longer but slower would have been better.