Chicken thighs and peaches are tossed on the grill, smothered in tangy BBQ sauce and served over cauliflower rice. Lazy summer dining at its finest.
Summer peaches are in and we can’t stop buying them. A good peach is hard to resist biting into and letting the juices drip down your face so I won’t judge if that’s all you can do with the first bushel. But once that is finished promise me that you will grill some this year!
A quick brush of olive oil on the peaches and chickens helps with sticking. Kevin swears by cooking the chicken thighs without the sauce first and then adding the bbq sauce for the last 5 minutes. But he also isn’t a huge fan of charred bbq chicken skin which I could gobble it up like a fat kid eating popcorn. Num num num. If you are a char addict like me brush it on a good 10-15 minutes before they are finished cooking.
And then we serve it over cauliflower rice for an easy lighter but still glorious dinner. I’ll have to write up a post soon on making cauliflower rice but for now all I can say is that this stuff is off the hook! I laughed at it at first and told Kevin it couldn’t possibly actually taste like rice. But when those shorts were fitting just a little too snug one evening I decided it was time to give it a shot. When I found out 1 cup of rice is 45 grams of carbs and an ENTIRE head of cauliflower is only 29 grams, well….I figured it was worth attacking a cauliflower and seeing if we could make it tasty.
I chop it up to bite size, whirl it in the blender or food processor until it looks like large rice grains and saute it with a splash of olive oil and some minced garlic for 5-8 minutes. It’s seriously that easy and we all happily eat it as a rice substitute…I wouldn’t go so far as to call it our vegetable for the dinner but pair this with a nice green salad and a fabulous glass of Rosé (<–gotta get your fruits in of course) and soak up your summer friends!
Grilled BBQ Peach Chicken with Cauliflower Rice
Ingredients
- 4 chicken thighs
- 4 peaches cut in half pits removed
- 1 cup favorite bbq sauce plus extra for serving
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- 1 head cauliflower
- 1-2 tablespoons minced garlic
Instructions
1. Preheat grill.2. Brush chicken and peaches with olive oil and season chicken with salt and pepper.3. Cook chicken on indirect heat for 20-25 minutes. Baste with bbq sauce 5-15 minutes before the chicken is finished depending on how charred you prefer your chicken (the longer the sauce is on the more charring will occur when the sugars are caramelized by the fire).4. Chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees or the juices run clear when cut. Depending on the size of the chicken and your grill setup this may happen faster or slower than these times.5. Baste chicken again (with a fresh bowl/brush) with the sauce just before serving.6. Grill peaches, turning once, for about 15 minutes. Cut peaches up into bite-sized pieces.To Make Cauliflower Rice:
- 1. Cut head up into bite-sized pieces.
2. Pulse in a food processor or blender until it is the size of rice grains. Remove any unprocessed pieces.
3. Saute in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil or butter. If you prefer it more steamed you can use a lid and cook it over medium heat. If you want it drier and fried rice kind of mouthfeel leave the lid off and stir it frequently. Either method takes about 6-8 minutes.
Oh this sounds SO good. You know what, however? I’m completely devastated lately at the hybrid produce we are offered. I have not bought a peach fresh in a couple of years, for the ones in the store are NOT fuzzy, not good in the least way. Hard, tasteless. Why are they foisting these on us? Only fit for hog food.
I want the old fashioned super fuzzy juice peaches back.
So agree! We have decent luck with farmers markets or the produce stands here but I have yet to find peaches like what I remember as a kid getting right off the peach stands next to my grandparents. Peaches as big as my head it felt like and drippy all over your clothes.