Cooking with Troy: Meredith Grills Chicken and Vegetables

Troy Guard, chef/owner of TAG Restaurant Group, works with Morgridge Academy student Meredith to create Grilled Chicken with Garden Vegetables.

Alright, how are you guys doing today? I'm Troy Gard from TAG Restaurant Group and this is Meredith Best. Are you excited to cook today? Here at TAG Restaurant Group, we're super excited to be raising money and awareness for the Mortgage Academy at National Jewish Health through our awesome eat, drink, and donate campaign. Mortgage Academy is a free school for kids kindergarten through 8th who have been diagnosed with chronic illness. Mortgage Academy provides these students with the health care and academic support they need to thrive. We are proud to provide a real life example that teaches the importance of healthy eating with fresh foods. This is the chicken thigh. This is kind of like the backside of the bird. Put a little sprinkle of salt on there for me. I'll show you a little trick that I learned in the kitchen. So if you go like this, it kind of just hits right there. But if you go higher, it kind of sprinkles all over the place. Alright, now we've got our nice hot grill over there.You want to make sure your grill is hot at home. Ooh, look at that. What's one of your go-to dishes that you like to cook? Popcorn? Cereal? I like to bake a lot. Bake? Cookies? Muffins? Sweet things, huh? Now we're going to take the chicken, and I'm going to take half of this, and the other half is you. So however you want to cut your chicken for your plate, you can cut or you can leave it whole like that. I want you to be creative now. And all these items are going to be right here in this plate. Everything as you can see is really fresh. Isn't that the most fun part is like plating everything, right? Making it look cool and pretty. I just love the colors on here. Now for a little bit of the sauce, I just use a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of white balsamic. It's got a really nice flavor. Taste that? Kind of tangy? A little too tangy? Here we have our grilled chicken with summer garden vegetables. I really like the colors. It's really pretty, huh? How's that chicken? Bueno? Like it? You did a great job today. Thanks for your help, Meredith. We'll see you guys all soon.

Troy Guard, chef/owner of TAG Restaurant Group, has made it his mission to help chronically ill students at Morgridge Academy learn about why healthy food is important for growing bodies. Through a series of Cooking with Troy videos featuring Morgridge Academy students he shares his passion for cooking with fresh garden produce.

He also created the Eat. Drink. Donate. campaign to raise critical funds and awareness for the school. During the campaign, TAG Restaurant Group customers will have the option to add a donation to their bill, and on the first Tuesday of the month, 15 percent of all sales will be donated to the school. The Eat. Drink. Donate. campaign rotates monthly at Troy Guard’s family of restaurants.

To recognize Chef Troy’s generosity, students recently dedicated the school’s garden in his name. Learn more about the Guard Garden.

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Recipe: Grilled Chicken with Garden Vegetables

Impress your guests with this colorful and healthy combination of colorful garden vegetables and grilled chicken.

Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

4 six-ounce portions of chicken thighs

2 Tbsp. olive oil

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

Vegetables

Ingredients:
4 ounces green beans, rough chop, blanched

4 ounces cucumber, rough chop

4 ounces fresh corn, off cob after cooked

2 Tbsp. Italian parsley

Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste

Sauce

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh tomatoes, cut your choice

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp. chives (if you like) or some type of fresh herb

Method:

Season all chicken, toss in bowl.
Heat skillet or grill, medium high heat.
Place chicken on skillet or grill, and cook 6-7 minutes each side.
Arrange fresh vegetables on each plate, and place the chicken (whole or sliced) on top. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and top with tomatoes and chives.

Enjoy!