On expertise and learning from mistakes through grilled chicken

You might think the combination of expertise and learning from mistakes is a bit counterintuitive, but the dinner I made last night might just prove you wrong.

It was a busy day yesterday with a tight timeframe for dinner.  I got home and found very large bone-in chicken breasts sitting in a puddle of Gazebo room salad dressing, and the gas grill preheating outside (in the wind) 1.  I had half and hour to make dinner out of this 2.

I threw some salt and pepper on the chicken (Gazebo room is fine, but no substitute for good seasoning), then decided to butterfly it to help it cook more quickly 3.  I threw the chicken on the grill and proceeded to now consider side dishes 4. 

Potatoes - washed and cut into steak fry-size chunks, and thrown into the microwave with a dash of salt, olive oil, and red wine vinegar for 5-7 minutes until pretty much cooked through.

  

Asparagus - Now, I started snapping the asparagus bottoms 5.  Having checked the chicken a few times by now, but not checked the temperature yet 6, I still had an idea that they were almost done, and I had raw asparagus before me.  So, I quickly boiled some water in a shallow pan and threw the asparagus in.  

Potatoes - while the asparagus partially cooked, I microwaved some butter, salt, pepper, garlic, and red wine vinegar in a small bowl in the microwave 7 then tossed this on the drained potatoes, which went out onto the grill.  By now, having checked the temperature of the chicken, I found it was not only cooked but slightly overcooked 8, so I removed it from the grill.

Asparagus - Now it was desperate.  I drained the asparagus, threw it into a pan, and tossed it with my usual olive oil, salt and pepper 9.  Then it went onto the grill.

Having flipped the asparagus and potatoes once, I removed them from the grill and we ate.  The chicken was bland and a little dry, but still edible, the potatoes were a little overcharred, and the asparagus a little undercooked.  It was also 15 minutes later than anticipated.

I think anyone can see the mistakes, but here comes the expertise.  Anyone, when faced with these obstacles (for more on the mistakes and how I'd fix them next time, follow the numbers above to the list below), could have produced a dinner that was in some way inedible, incomplete, or frustratingly replaced by take out.  Were my solutions perfect? No.  But did they make something we could eat and mostly enjoy?  Sure enough.  

That's what I like to call a certain level of expertise.  Coping with environmental pressures, curve balls thrown at you by others, your own accidental oversights, and all sorts of other issues and still producing a product that meets the needs of the group.  Now, I'm no cooking expert in any real sense, but I'm closer to being one than I've ever been before.  I know where I'm going, what it will look like when I get there, and I embrace the mistakes I make along the way as the stepping stones to getting there.

1. Grilling in the wind is always a challenge.  It lowers the temperature of your grill and makes it even more difficult to regain heat after opening the lid.
2. Considering the problem of #1, and the fact that I was working with large, bone-in pieces of chicken, half an hour was really unrealistic.
3. Butterflying a piece of meat covered in oil can be slick and therefore challenging.  Try to do this before marinating your meat.
4. Long cooking side dishes should be considered before starting to cook the meal.  At this point, I probably should have opened a can of peas or something.
5. This type of prep should really have been done while the grill was heating, or somewhere earlier in the process.
6. I usually rely heavily on my instant read thermometer to see how quickly my food is cooking.  This oversight was due to being in a rush.  
7. So, having microwaved this on high under plastic wrap for 60 seconds, it exploded.  I think 10 second intervals would have been better.
8. Chicken should be taken off the grill at 160 degrees F in my opinion (and most cooks).  Mine was already 170 when it came off.  Again, thermometer - earlier.
9. Several issues here - first, when blanching, the food should go into an ice water bath before proceeding further.  Second, it should be dried before being tossed in oil.  The water really impeded the asparagus' ability to brown and cook (the water steams and prevents the food from rising above the temperature at which water boils).