Grilled Chicken

Montesierra Moristel Somontano ($8).This medium-bodied Spanish red has the racy zing of a Beaujolais but far different flavors. There are nuances of smoked meat and black currant, but the wine is most notable for its sheer liveliness. Too bad it's not the grilling season, because this would be perfect with grilled chicken or burgers.

Adam Eagan, managing partner at the Empire Brewing Co. in Syracuse, N.Y., knows a thing or two about good food and beer. It is, after all, what he does for a living. At least four or five times during the football season he packs up his car and makes the 51/2-hour trek from upstate New York to Baltimore, where he lived for 28 years, to join some of his buddies for a "killer" tailgate in Lot H1 at M&T Bank Stadium. He was introduced to this group of foodie fans some years ago by his best friend from high school, Mark Maloney, and was impressed with what they were putting together for food and beverage at their tailgate.

1998 Murphy-Goode Barrel Fermented Pinot Blanc, Russian River Valley ($13.50). This well-made dry white wine is an exceptionally food-friendly alternative to chardonnay. Its crisp fruit flavors come through dramatically, with only a little bit of oak influence. It offers nuances of lemon, nuts, peach, melon and minerals. There's a lightness to it, but it's no lightweight. It has all it takes to be matched with salmon, ham or grilled chicken.

Dyann Shaver from Madras, Ore., was looking for a recipe she has lost for making a nontraditional type of barbecue chicken that used concentrated lemonade in the sauce. She said that she found the recipe in an article about barbequing in Better Homes and Garden magazine in the 1970s. Steve Newman from Santa Rosa, Calif., shared his recipe for making barbequed chicken with lemonade concentrate. He said that while concentrated lemonade may seem like a surprising ingredient this chicken never fails to please.

This red table wine blend from the Basignani winery in Baltimore County has been winning a loyal following in this area with its bright, lively, racy flavors. Out of an assortment of trashy red hybrid grapes and a few classier varietals, Bert Basignani has fashioned a mighty convincing knock-off of a good Beaujolais. That's serious alchemy, as well as a bargain. It's perfect with grilled chicken or fish.

1996 Saintsbury Garnet Carneros Pinot Noir ($14).This junior member of the Saintsbury pinot noir team has emerged as one of California's most reliable names in pinot noir. Year in and year out -- and 1996 is no different -- it offers lively, bright, black cherry fruit in a medium-light package. It has the Burgundian spirit, though not the exact flavors of fine Burgundy. Try it with grilled chicken or tuna.Pub Date: 11/9/97

Easy Sauce tops grilled chickenFrom Lauren Chattman's "Cool Kitchen: No Oven, No Stove, No Sweat!" (William Morrow, 1998, $22) comes this easy sauce. Use it on grilled chicken and vegetables, or tossed with noodles, scallions and cucumbers.1/2 cup smooth peanut butter1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil2 tablespoons soy sauce2 tablespoons lemon juice1/4 cup water1 small garlic clove, peeled1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste1 teaspoon sugarCombine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

2002 Woop Woop Shiraz, Australia ($13). Here's a different take on Australian shiraz. This isn't one of those rustic, earthy red wines that have become so common in this market. It's a medium-bodied wine with youthful, high-toned fruit. It offers engaging blackberry and smoked-meat flavors and an intensity that goes beyond its modest weight. You could serve this in much the same circumstances you would serve a fine Beaujolais. Grilled chicken would be a perfect match. And who could resist the name?

2005 Napa Ridge Chardonnay From: Napa Valley, Calif. Price: $12 Serve with: Salmon, grilled chicken Kudos to Napa Ridge for producing a good, inexpensive chardonnay that's actually from the Napa Valley. (There was a time when the only thing Napa about it was the name.) This is an entirely credible value for the money. It's not overly oaked and, while it's not exceptionally complex, everything is in balance. It has the predictable but quite enjoyable California chardonnay flavors of apple, lemon, vanilla and nuts.

1999 Montpellier Vineyards Syrah ($7). This California red wine won't dazzle you with its complexity, but it's off the charts in terms of value. It's chunky, ripe and bright -- without the roughness you often get from reds costing about this much. It offers straightforward black currant, blackberry and plum fruit in a medium-bodied style with a touch of smoked meat and herbs. This wine shows more of the true syrah character than most Australian shirazes (same grape). Serve this with hamburgers, pasta, grilled chicken, steaks or anything that will stand up to a flavorful red.

A grilled cheese sandwich is not exactly high cuisine, but it can be satisfying. The crew at Grilled Cheese & Co. in Catonsville makes several versions of the sandwich, most on toasted ciabatta bread and made in a panini press. It is Mom food, if Mom had a panini press. The interiors of these crusty sandwiches contain — what else? — cheese. But in many varieties, and with any number of accompaniments: cheddar with the bacon, cheese and tomato; pepper jack on the grilled chicken; mozzarella in the pepper and pesto sandwich and also in the Italian sausage and pepper sandwich.

Nadine Taylor of Ellicott City lost one of her favorite recipes for making grilled or roasted chicken gremolata. She took the recipe card with her to the grocery store and left it in her cart by mistake. She says she has been unable to re-create the chicken dish that was so well liked by her family and friends. Carol Anne Cassady of Bel Air e-mailed me a recipe she had from Gourmet magazine for lemon pepper chicken with thyme gremolata that she has used for years. A gremolata is a classic Italian garnish most commonly made with minced parsley or thyme, lemon peel and garlic.

Charcoal Grill 8535 Old Harford Road, Parkville; 410-668-9212. Open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. After "turkey day," you might think you have had your fill of bird. But once you sample the Chesapeake chicken sandwich at the Charcoal Grill in Parkville, you will happily rejoin the ranks of poultry partisans. This Charcoal Grill (there is an affiliated restaurant in Perry Hall) is a simple structure on the corner of Old Harford Road and Putty Hill Avenue that shares a parking lot with a liquor store.

In the deepening dusk of a chilly Sunday, I was drawn to a crackling fire. The flames came not from a fireplace, a traditional source of winter warmth, but from my backyard kettle cooker. It was not ideal weather for outdoor activity; the temperature hovered in the 40s and rain loomed on the horizon. But a griller has gotta do what a griller has gotta do, and I had some skewers of meat and vegetables that needed the kind of searing that only a hot, outdoor fire could produce. Moreover, like a moth is drawn to the flame, I was drawn toward the embers by the allure of grilling in December.

Airline food has gotten so bad that Padma Lakshmi, cookbook author and host of Top Chef on Bravo, often heads to the airport with a container full of spinach leaves and leftovers such as grilled chicken, along with a separate container of dressing. Once on the plane, "I put it together and shake it up," she said. And Nina Zagat, co-founder of the Zagat restaurant survey, travels with her own pepper mill and the fixings for an elegant sandwich. "I usually bring the best smoked salmon I can find and very thinly sliced whole-grain bread, and I put that together on the flight," she said.

Baltimoreans loved Tabrizi's, a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurant, when it was located on South Charles Street in Federal Hill where Corks now is. Owner Michael Tabrizi sold it at the height of its success to his partner, got out of the food business and moved on to the dot.com industry. Tabrizi's closed in the '90s. Now he's back in the kitchen, and it will be interesting to see if the new Tabrizi's will flourish at 500 Harborview Drive. "The desire for cooking was always itching," he said.

Grilled chicken may be the easiest of all dinner solutions in warm weather. To make great, moist, juicy and safe grilled chicken, you need a meat thermometer (don't judge doneness by color; it isn't accurate or safe), and to understand the basic differences in techniques depending on whether it is dark or light meat and bone-in or boneless. Grill boneless cuts directly over the fire. Breasts should be cooked to 160 degrees; thighs to 180 degrees. Bone-in cuts get cooked to the same temperature but take longer.

2005 Napa Ridge Chardonnay From: Napa Valley, Calif. Price: $12 Serve with: Salmon, grilled chicken Kudos to Napa Ridge for producing a good, inexpensive chardonnay that's actually from the Napa Valley. (There was a time when the only thing Napa about it was the name.) This is an entirely credible value for the money. It's not overly oaked and, while it's not exceptionally complex, everything is in balance. It has the predictable but quite enjoyable California chardonnay flavors of apple, lemon, vanilla and nuts.

Whether you order chicken spiedini at an Italian mom-and-pop ristorante or the Olive Garden, chances are good the benefits of grilling lean chunks of meat over an open flame will be overshadowed by the dish's overall fat content. The culprit? Typically the skewered, breaded kebabs are served drowning in a puddle of olive oil. For instance, one recipe on cdkitchen.com calls for 1/2 cup olive oil. Another on recipezaar.com lists 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter. This Grilled Chicken Spiedini adds more zesty lemon and spicy pepperoncini, a mixture that balances flavor with a more modest tablespoon of olive oil. Shopping tip: Look for pickled pepperoncini in the condiment aisle with salad dressings, pickles and peppers.