Honey BBQ chicken breast & Grilled Pears w/ vanilla mascarpone sauce

This is not a food blog, but I am a big fan of food. I read my friend Josh's & his wife's blog here and they are cooking freaks. I like to cook, but today's credit goes to Alene.

I've been VERY busy with work since Friday, putting in 12 hour days friday/saturday and having to go into work today for a few hours as well. Alene had this free grilling pamphlet from Wild Oats that she had been wanting to try out a few things from. This stuff was AMAZING. The BBQ sauce really candied up to the chicken breast well and the pears were surprisingly good. One thing I learned from this about chicken is that you don't add the BBQ sauce until the end of cooking them (I'm embarrassed to admit I never knew that). I was always big on marinating my chicken in the sauce for a while, but the booklet said that it makes the sauce burn, rather than candy up to the meat. While I was working Alene prepared the chicken, the sauces and the pears and all I had to do was grill when I walked in.

The pears were amazing too. You cut them in half and scoop out the insides, then you grill them with this great butter/honey/cinnamon sauce. Then you grill them and when they come off the grill, you top them with some amazing mascarpone.

Here are a few more pictures and the recipe (if anyone is interested).

The honey BBQ sauce (There was WAY too much left over, so we'll use it for future BBQing; likely enough for 10 chicken breasts really)




RECIPES

Honey BBQ chicken

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups of ketchup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup honey
1 tbsp chile powder
1 tbsp black pepper
6 chicken breast halves, bone-in & skin on (we just did regular skinless chicken breasts)
1 tbsp coarse kosher salt
1/2 tbsp black pepper

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the next seven ingredients. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook slowly for 20 minutes; until the sauce thickens. Prepare a medium-hot fire on the grill. Mix salt and pepper together. Sprinkle over chicken breasts and under the skin. grill chicken about 10 minutes per side or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. Reserve 1 cup BBQ sauce (There was PLENTY, so not sure what the reserve is for). Brush chicken lightly with remaining sauce and cook for 2 minutes each side.

Grilled pears with vanilla mascarpone

6 ripe but firm pears, halved and cored
4 tbsp un-salted butter
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz mascarpone cheese (we used ricotta cheese because we couldn't find mascarpone)
1 vanilla bean
1 tbsp honey
1 pint fresh raspberries (I don't like raspberries, so Alene didn't add any for this. I feel bad because I know she likes them)

Prepare a medium-hot fire in the grill. Slice vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape out seeds' stir into mascarpone. Mix in 1 tsp vanilla extract and honey. Chill until needed. Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in cinnamon, sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Brush over pears. Place pears cut side down on grill. Grill 4 minutes per side (we ended up doing about 5 minutes per side). Remove and spoon a dollop of mascarpone onto each pear. Garnish with rasperries or cherry sauce.