Grilled Saffron Chicken Breasts

My sister gave me some saffron from Indonesia and I’ve been wondering how to use it since it’s not a familiar ingredient to me. The local newspaper published a recipe for Persian Grilled Quail that uses saffron, lime juice, and olive oil as a marinade before grilling, which can also be used for chicken. I adapted the recipe to also use saffron as the brining spice before marinating and grilling the chicken. Cook’s Illustrated has a good guide for brining, where I used the high-heat grilling instructions for the quantity of water, kosher salt, and sugar. I used enough brine to fill a glass bowl with the chicken breasts.

Enjoy!

Brining Ingredients

4-5 lbs. Chicken Breasts with ribs attached

6 cups Cold Water

⅜ cup Kosher Salt

3 Tbs. Sugar

3 pinches of Saffron

Marinade Ingredients

2 cup boiling Water

8 Limes, juiced

4 Tbs. Olive Oil

2 pinches of Saffron

Ground Pepper

Brining Instructions

Follow the instructions in the Cook’s Illustrated, The Basics of Brining, for high-heat grilling. While I didn’t exactly follow the instructions for the quantity of brine solution, I did follow the time recommendation. Since the chicken breasts were a little over 1 lb. each and I was using a 4 quart glass bowl to hold the brine and chicken, I used 1½ times the recommended quantity for the brine (which was enough to cover the chicken in the bowl) and 1½ hours of brining time.

1. Boil water and add it to a bowl containing the saffron, kosher salt, and sugar. Mix the ingredients together and allow the saffron to steep for one hour.
2. Add boiling water (2 cups in this case) to another bowl with the saffron for the marinade and allow it to steep for one hour before cooling the solution with ice.
3. Ice may also be added after one hour to cool the brining solution. You want to end up with enough (in this case 6 cups) water in which to brine the chicken.
4. Add the chicken to the brining solution for 1½ hours.

Grill Preparation Instructions

1. Prepare the charcoal or gas grill for direct and indirect cooking following the manufacturer’s instructions. Light the charcoal or preheat the gas grill accordingly. Adding wood for smoking is not recommended since you just want the grilled flavor of the saffron chicken.
2. If using a charcoal grill, arrange the lighted coals to one-half of the kettle (as opposed to dividing the coals on two sides of the grill) leaving enough room to cook the chicken breasts on the half that has no coals. For a gas grill, follow the manufacturer’s instructions as to which burners to leave on for indirect cooking.

Marinating Instructions

I doubled the marinating quantity for the chicken breasts. You’ll have to judge the right amount for the quantity of chicken you’ll be marinating. 15-20 minutes is the limit for leaving the chicken in the marinade as you don’t want the lime juice to cook the chicken before grilling. You want the end of the marinating time to coincide with the grill being ready.

1. Discard the brining solution and wash the chicken under cold water.
2. Place the washed chicken into the marinating bowl with the saffron solution.
3. Juice the limes and add to the marinating bowl.
4. Add the olive oil to the marinating bowl.
5. Marinate the chicken for no more than 15-20 minutes before grilling.

Grilling Instructions

1. Place the chicken breasts, skin side down, on the hot side of the grill and allow the skin to brown for 5-8 minutes. Cover the grill to minimize flare-ups.
2. Turn the chicken breasts over and allow the bone side to brown for 5-8 minutes on the hot side of the grill. Cover the grill to minimize flare-ups.
3. Move the chicken breasts (still skin side up) to the cool side of the grill. Cover the grill and allow to cook for 10-15 minutes.
4. Uncover the grill and remove the chicken breasts.
5. Allow the chicken breasts to sit for 5 minutes before serving.