Making my own melt

After more than a year in Seattle, one of my chief complaints is that we haven't managed to find a good restaurant that sticks to simple, delicious and inexpensive comfort food. Or bar food, if you will. In Northeast Ohio, this need was best filled by the Winking Lizard, but there were other places we'd drop into now and then as well for breakfast buffets, pizza and what not. And for the world's best grilled cheese, we had Melt Bar and Grilled, as seen on TV. I honestly don't think a better sandwich exists anywhere in the universe. It's that good.

Being a restauranteur is actually one of my inner fantasies (along with hair and makeup stylist... don't judge). I can't cook for shit, but I know what I like to eat, and I love loading spices and seasonings on food. If I had money to invest in something, and the rent around here wasn't too damn high, I'd probably open a restaurant to fill the obvious gap in comfort bar food coverage.

Melt is 2,000 miles away, so getting the blackened chicken, without the peppers and onions, or the slaw (they fill that space with more delicious fries), is not an option. So tonight, we attempted to duplicate this delicacy. We just happened to have all of the goodies to make it happen, with some adjustments.

I busted out a couple of chicken breasts and lubed them up with some olive oil, then rubbed them down with some Penzey's cajun spice and some ground salt. I didn't quite get the coverage to the level I should have, because I wasn't sure how well it would stick since I can't get a consistent grill temperature. The wind has made grilling difficult up here, and some days I can barely keep the thing over 300 degrees. As it turned out, the wind died down a bit, and I got a nice blackening in some places. I realize that most people blacken chicken in a cast iron pan, but I've had good results doing it on the grill over high initial heat, then backing it off to cook through. Less work, less cleaning, similar texture.

The local Safeway makes a killer loaf of sourdough, so we used that as our bread. I cut some big thick slices and buttered them up. We use Earth Balance because it tastes very buttery, but is less likely to kill you. It costs more, but I find it to be delicious. We dropped the chicken on the bread and applied cheese. We didn't have any provolone, so I used some shredded pepper jack blend and popped it into the oven for a few minutes.

The finished product was a lot less greasy, and a more reasonable portion, and still quite delicious. Considering we didn't have time for a proper marinade, and I cheated on the blackening process, it was really good. It was matched with roasted potatoes, a specialty of Diana's where she half cooks them with foil, then without so they crisp up a little.

I was pleased with myself, and felt a little bit of Lakewood, Ohio in Snoqualmie, Washington. Sure, there wasn't cider on tap or cute waitresses with piercings and tattoos, but the food was super tasty. We'll definitely do this again!