GRILLED CHICKEN SICILIAN STYLE

A little bored with our usual summer speciality of straightforward grilled chicken, I threw a Sicilian twist on the standard tonight to come up with a mighty tasty Southern Italian rendition.

I pulled the skin from a half-dozen chicken breasts (bone in), rinsed and dried them, and put them on a shallow plate. Sprinkled them with salt, black pepper, a light touch of cayenne and a medium touch of cinnamon. Mixed 3 tablespoons tomato paste, 3 tablespoons warm water and 1 tablespoon lemon vodka, and poured this liquid over the chicken breasts; left them to marinate, turning occasionally, for a couple of hours.

Fire up Weber grill for direct/indirect cooking (coals on one side, lava rocks on the other). Put marinated breasts over direct heat, bone down, for five minutes. Flip over, still on direct heat, for five more minutes. Move to indirect side of grill (over lava rocks) for 10 minutes on each side, a total of 30 minutes all together, basting occasionally with the leftover marinade. Move them back over direct heat briefly if they don't look browned and crunchy enough.

Mangia! Delicious flavor, subtly but not outrageously influenced by the dry rub and marinade ingredients. The spicy cayenne and cinnamon made it a particularly good match with a decent Napa Cabernet (Pine Ridge '92).