Today was one of those days where I play- “use what’s already in the fridge”. I de-thawed some juicy chicken breasts, had Aaron fire up the grill (for the first time this grilling season- so excited!) and began to rummage through the crisper to see what I could pair as a side.
I first chose the beets-they’ve been in the fridge for a bit and while the beet greens were wilted, the roots themselves were still good. A bit more rummaging produced some thick-cut Applewood smoked bacon (a refrigerator STAPLE people, c’mon!), a Spanish onion and red pear. I thought the pear would go nicely with the hint of sweet in the beets and wanted to top it all off with a little Gorgonzola to tie all the ingredients together.
Not gonna lie, Aaron is the grill master in this house- so while I did marinate the chicken (not a hard task) Aaron is the one who knows how to get that perfect char from the grill.
While this side dish isn’t the healthiest (I used the bacon grease to caramelize the onions and as a dressing- #sorryimnotsorry #fatkidstatus #icanthelpit), we kept talking about how it would go great with some brisket or pork. . .any hearty meat really!! AND, I will definitely make this again. The juiciness of the pears and a bit of honey mixed with the smoky bacon and sharp Gorgonzola were just perfect!
The chicken was marinated in a little Greek yogurt, lemon, garlic, Frank’s Red Hot and a dab of rice vinegar and seasoned with rotisserie chicken seasoning and salt and pepper. Pretty damn good!
- 1 c matchstick sliced pear
- 1 c sliced (or cubed) golden beets
- 1 large Spanish onion, sliced
- 4 slices thick-cut Applewood smoked bacon- save the grease!
- 1 tsp raw honey
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1.5 oz crumbled or shaved Gorgonzola
- Peel, cook and slice/cube beets. Set aside.
- Cook bacon slices in skillet. Pour half the grease out and set aside along with bacon.
- Add sliced onion to skilled with 1/2 the bacon grease.
- Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until caramelized.
- Add pears, beets, chopped bacon slices, honey and the rest of bacon grease as dressing.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Let simmer and mix well over heat.
- Add Gorgonzola on top just before serving.
- If you've never cooked beets before, I've found the easiest way is to peel them as you would a potato with a vegetable peeler and wrap them up in a foil packet with a little olive oil at about 350 for 45 minutes or longer depending on how large your beets are, or if you cubed them first.) For this recipe I used my pressure cooker and it only took 6 minutes, and then I sliced them on the mandolin.
I hope y’all enjoy this as much as we did!
CHEERS! Kelli