As the great Julia Child said, “The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.” In today’s circumstance I am switching out steak for BBQ Chicken but I am wrapping the asparagus with pancetta in hoping to stay true to Julia.

I did a lot of research on the best way to grill chicken and each recipe that I read said to brine the chicken.  Today I decided to take the experts advice and try a brine.  I brined the chicken in water, salt, brown sugar, whole peppercorn, salt, fresh thyme sprigs and crushed garlic cloves.  The results were fantastic and I ate one of the juiciest pieces of chicken that I have ever made!

For today’s menu I grilled up BBQ chicken, pancetta wrapped asparagus and grilled eggplant.  Each of these dishes will have their own smokey flavor and enough of a salty bite to keep things interesting.