Got Poultry and Melon?

Last night we had our regular Wednesday dinner and drinks at a local bar -- something we try to continue through the summer despite the suspension of the Wednesday Immunology Seminar Series at Harvard Medical School. We usually end up at The Mission, a place that is doing its part to revitalize the Brigham Circle area. The wait staff is friendly and attentive, the atmosphere is comfortable and sophisticated, and the veal osso bucco special last night was particularly good.

Speaking of wonderful food, Melissa was yet again inspired by things we needed to use or lose in our fridge, and with a little help from Google she put together an exciting dish that I hope to see again in one incarnation or another. Very nice with a Leffe Blonde Belgian Ale. Check it out...

Bloody Mary Chicken with Cantaloupe Salsa

Evan brought a wonderfully ripe cantaloupe to Polo last Saturday and in our over-stuffed state we weren’t even able to break into it. We ended up with it in our fridge after we got back, and I got to thinking -- I’m not much of a melon person. I don’t mind it when it’s wrapped in prosciutto, or the odd slice here and there, but I wasn’t quite sure what Matt and I would do with a whole one. So I got to thinking that maybe some sort of chicken dish with a melon-made-savory-salsa might be quite good. Google knows everything, so a search of Chicken and Cantaloupe (excluding salad) yielded this recipe:

Bloody Mary Chicken Breasts with Cantaloupe Salsa

Shauna Struessel, Security, CO

Ingredients:
4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 Tb. Celery salt
2 Limes
2 Tb. Freshly ground horseradish
1 Tb. Worcestershire sauce
1 Rocky Ford Cantaloupe
1 Jalapeno
1 Red Onion
¼ c. Cilantro
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions:
In glass bowl, combine; tomato sauce, celery salt, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce and the zest and juice of one lime and mix well. Marinate chicken breasts at least one hour, but up to 6. In small bowl, combine; 2 c. diced cleaned, and seeded cantaloupe (approximately 1 cantaloupe), 1 jalapeno diced finely with seeds and membranes removed, 1 c. red onion diced, ¼ c. cilantro chopped, juice of one lime and salt and pepper to taste. Let set covered in refrigerator at least two hours. Preheat grill to medium. Remove excess marinade from chicken and grill until done. Serve topped with fresh Cantaloupe Salsa. To complement this meal perfectly, serve with either Ptarmigan Vineyards 2004 Late Harvest Muscat OR Fat Tire Sunshine Wheat, both made proudly in Colorado.


I like bloody Marys, and while I didn’t have exactly all the ingredients I thought I could make do. Here’s my variation.

3 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 lime
2 tbsp of horseradish paste
1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp diced fennel stalk (to replace celery taste from celery salt)
1 tsp of chili flakes (I like my bloody mary’s spicy)

½ Cantaloupe
¼ cup of fresh tomato salsa (Trader Joes that we had left over in the fridge)
1 tbsp of cilantro sauce….. (unfortunately I broke the container pulling it out of the fridge, so then I really had to improvise)
1 Shallot (in place of the red onion)
½ tsp of chili flakes (no fresh jalapeno peppers in the house)
1 tbsp of chopped fresh basil leaves (to make up for the lost cilantro)
Salt and pepper to taste

First, blend the diced tomatoes to make “tomato juice.” When I read the recipe above I thought tomato sauce might be a ketchup-like product but the high vinegar content probably wouldn’t go so well so I replaced it with the can of diced tomatoes. After talking to Matt, though, I think the author of the original recipe probably meant something along the lines of a fairly plain tomato pasta sauce (no vinegar) rather than what Kiwis (like myself) would think of (Wattie's tomato sauce). So to the blended tomatoes, add the juice of one lime, horseradish, fennel, and chili. I might be tempted to throw in a shot or two of vodka here *wink*. I divided the bloody Mary mix at this point to marinate the chicken with one half and reserve the other half for garnish. From previous experience, I’ve found the horseradish loses its edge as soon as it hits the heat, so I wanted to preserve this in the finished dish.

While the chicken was marinating I diced the cantaloupe and mixed it with the remaining ingredients, then left it to steep in the juices to combine all the flavours.

The chicken was grilled on the BBQ after the requisite marinating time. To plate, I covered one half of the chicken with the cantaloupe salsa and spooned some remaining bloody Mary mix around the chicken (of course don’t use any bloody Mary mix that came in contact with raw chicken for this part), and then topped the dish with a single basil leaf.

Thoughts on next time….

I forgot that I had thought about putting peach in it before I did the Google search (Evan also left us with some peaches that were perfectly ripe). I got Matt to dice a little peach into the left over salsa, and it was really quite good and added an extra dimension to the flavour which could make it quite special.

As I was making the bloody Mary marinade, I was also reminded of a recipe for bloody Mary fish ceviche that I got from Cuisine Magazine (http://www.cuisine.co.nz/). I think that replacing the chicken with fresh snapper would make a delectable meal.