Blackstone Griddled Chicken with Fresh Pineapple Jalapeño Salsa
Chicken Breast with Pineapple Jalapeño Salsa - we used a Pina Colada variety of pineapple which has a whiter interior than regular pineapple and is a touch sweeter. Found ours at Trader Joe’s!
The dinner that saved us from turning on the oven in August
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There’s a moment every late summer, somewhere around the third week of relentless heat, when the thought of preheating an oven feels like a personal attack.
That’s one of the many moments where our Blackstone has earned its keep.
Welcome to Beau Rêve, by the way. This is where we share the parts of our life that are not photography. The cooking, the travel, the things we love enough to tell you about. Today it’s dinner.
Our kids gave us our Blackstone flat top griddle as a gift, and I am going to say something that will make them insufferable at the next family dinner: it might be the best gift we have ever gotten. We cook on it four or five times a week. Jeff’s incredible fried rice, with tons of fresh veggies stir-fried to perfection. Whole pounds of bacon at once. Pancakes for everybody, at the same time, all hot. Burgers for the entire crowd without playing the "who wants theirs first" game. Steaks that come off with a crust worth photographing.
We use our Blackstone four to five times a week - it’s definitely earned its keep!
And on the hottest nights, this: butter-basted chicken pounded thin, hit with Creole seasoning, and buried under a pile of pineapple jalapeño salsa so fresh it practically counts as air conditioning.
Here is the recipe I’ve been making for many years. Then stick around, because we are going to be sharing more Blackstone cooking in this space.
Here is the Blackstone we use.
Why pounded flat chicken is the whole trick
Most people who say they hate chicken breast do not hate chicken breast. They hate dry chicken breast, which is what happens when you throw a piece of meat that is two inches thick on one end and half an inch on the other onto high heat and hope.
The thin end hits done. Then it keeps going. By the time the thick end is safe, the thin end is a chew toy.
Pound it flat and the whole thing cooks at the same rate. Even thickness means even cooking, and even cooking on a screaming hot griddle means you are off the heat in six or seven minutes total. Less time on the fire equals more moisture in the meat. That is the entire secret and it costs you ninety seconds of hammering.
Bonus: it is deeply satisfying after a long day.
Blackstone Creole Chicken with Pineapple Jalapeño Salsa
Note: We also love this chicken with a fresh mango and papaya salsa, just substitute those fruits for the pineapple!
Serves 6 | Prep 20 minutes | Cook about 8 minutes
For the salsa
3 cups fresh pineapple, small dice (fresh, not canned, this is the one place to be stubborn)
2 jalapeños, seeded and minced fine
1 small red onion, minced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of 2 limes
Pinch of kosher salt
Optional: 2 teaspoons honey if your pineapple is on the tart side
For the chicken
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning
Neutral oil for the griddle - we use avocado oil spray
Make the salsa first
Combine everything in a bowl and let it sit while you do the rest. Twenty minutes on the counter is the difference between "chopped fruit in a bowl" and "salsa." The salt pulls juice from the pineapple, the lime softens the onion's bite, and it all becomes one thing instead of several things. Put your salsa in the fridge to chill and blend while you do the chicken.
Jalapeños don’t seem to be as hot as they once were so we leave a few seeds in for a healthy kick
Heat control note: the seeds and white membrane carry most of the jalapeño's heat. Seed them for a crowd with kids. Leave a few in if your people like to sweat a little.
I use gloves so the oil from the chile doesn’t get on my skin or under my nails - essential if you are a contact lens wearer!
Pound the chicken
Put one breast at a time between two sheets of parchment. Using the flat side of a meat pounder or the bottom of a heavy skillet, work from the center outward until the whole piece is an even half inch thick. Do not attack it. Firm and steady beats violent, and violent tears the meat.
Nitrile gloves on my hands because I hate touching raw chicken, and parchment paper to keep the chicken contained while pounding it flat.
Season it
Whisk the melted butter and Tony Chachere's together, then brush it over both sides of every piece with a silicone basting brush. The butter is not just flavor. It is glue, it carries the seasoning into every corner, and it helps build that gorgeous crust on the griddle.
The melted butter makes all the difference in creating a great dish
Fire up the Blackstone
Preheat your Blackstone to medium high, roughly 400 to 425 degrees on the surface. Add a thin film of oil and let it shimmer. A pair of griddle spatulas makes the next eight minutes a lot easier than tongs will.
This recipe is on the table fast - such a great weeknight play!
Lay the chicken down and leave it alone for 2 to 3 minutes. Resist the urge to poke, move, peek, or otherwise parent it. Flip once, cook another 2 to 3 minutes. Using an instant read thermometer check the temperature at the thickest part of the chicken. Keep flipping and checking until it comes up to temp. Pull it when the thickest part reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit. That number isn’t ours, it is the USDA's minimum safe internal temperature for all poultry, and 165 is the point where salmonella is destroyed. Don’t eyeball it. Color is a terrible indicator of doneness and a thermometer costs less than one ruined dinner.
Make sure your chicken is up to a safe temp at the thickest part - 165 degrees Fahrenheit for poultry
Rest, then pile it on
Five minutes under loose foil. Then spoon the pineapple jalapeño salsa over the top, generously, so the juice runs down into the chicken.
Serve with a big green salad and whatever cold side you love. We keep it light on purpose. The whole point of this meal is that nobody is standing over a hot stove and nobody leaves the table feeling like they need a nap.
What else lives on our griddle
The reason we reach for the Blackstone four or five nights a week is not that it does one thing perfectly. It is that it does almost everything well.
Bacon. A full pound, flat, all at once, no splatter on the stovetop, no batches.
Pancakes. Everyone eats at the same time. If you have ever run a single griddle pan for a family of six, you understand why this is emotional for me.
Burgers. Smash them thin and the edges get lacy and crisp in a way a grill grate cannot do.
Steaks. We use the Just Keep Flipping method from meat scientist Jess Pryles, who flips the steak every 20 to 30 seconds through the entire cook rather than the old once-and-done rule. It sounds wrong. It is not. Constant flipping builds a deep, even crust while the interior comes up gently, so you get char and a perfect medium rare instead of choosing between them. Pull at your target temp, rest 5 to 10 minutes, and try not to gloat. Her Hardcore Carnivore Black seasoning is what we reach for on steak nights.
More Blackstone recipes are coming to Beau Rêve. Consider this the first of many.
Everything we used to make this dinner
We get asked about our setup constantly, so here it is in one place. These are affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission if you buy through them at no extra cost to you. Every single one of these lives in our kitchen or on our patio.
The Blackstone flat top griddle (the gift that started all of this)
Instant read thermometer (the single most important tool on this list)
Basting dome (traps heat over the chicken, speeds the cook, helps with melting cheese on burger night)
Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning (the only one we buy)
Hardcore Carnivore Black - the activated charcoal in this blend gives it an extra dark appearance
Why a portrait studio is talking about chicken
Fair question. Beau Rêve means beautiful dream, and it turns out the beautiful dream is mostly made of ordinary weeknights.
Because the pictures we love making most are the ones that look like this feels. People crowded around a table. Somebody's kid stealing pineapple out of the bowl before it hits the plate. The gift your children gave you that turned into a Tuesday night ritual you did not see coming.
That is what a real family portrait is. Not stiff poses in matching outfits. The actual texture of your life, made permanent, so that in twenty years you remember what that summer smelled like.
If you are ready for photographs that feel like your family instead of somebody's idea of a family, let's talk.
And if you just came for the chicken and salsa, that’s completely fine too. Make it tonight. It’s that good.
Made this one? Tell us how it went. Tag us and show us your griddle.