When I first decided to make a Romeo and Juliet menu, I knew I wanted to include the fateful dagger and poison, but finding a way to do it was tricky. Then I took my cue from our Robber Stakes from last year’s Dracula menu and decided to make dagger kabobs. The preparation is super simple, and the “poison” dipping sauce adds a fun punch of color and flavor. It’s reminiscent of two classic Italian recipes (Caprese salad and Margherita pizza), but I swapped out the tomatoes for red peppers, which are more grill-friendly.
Poison-Tipped Daggers
“And say’st thou yet that exile is not death?
Hadst thou no poison mix’d, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean,
But ‘banished’ to kill me?–‘banished’?
O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
Howlings attend it: how hast thou the heart,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver, and my friend profess’d,
To mangle me with that word ‘banished’?”
— Romeo and Juliet
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 unseasoned, precooked chicken tenderloins
- 1 cup of your favorite pesto (I used this recipe)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped into strips (the strips should be approximately 1/2″x3″ in size)
- 8 ciliegine mozzarella balls
- salt and pepper to taste
- 7″ kabob skewers
Makes 4 daggers
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Sprinkle the chicken tenderloins and red pepper strips with salt and pepper.
- On a George Foreman classic plate grill
, sear the chicken and peppers for 1 1/2 minutes or until you achieve grill marks.
You can cook these on a regular grill if you want, but it was a little cold for that where I live. I recommend cooking for 2 minutes on each side for a conventional grill. - On each skewer, slide two mozzarella balls, a pepper slice, and a chicken tender. Be sure to slide the pepper on width-wise, so that it looks like the hilt of a dagger.
The reason you want to assemble them after grilling is that the mozzarella balls can melt away if you leave them on the grill too long. - Throw the daggers back on the grill for about 30 seconds (just long enough to warm the cheese). If some of your mozzarella balls develop strings as you pull them away from the grill, just trim the strings away with some kitchen scissors.
- Dip the tips of your daggers in pesto for that poison-tipped look.
- Serve with the extra pesto while while enjoying a Shakespeare play…or if the original play is too long for you, you can get Rowan Atkinson to shorten it (NOTE: Video in the link contains some swearing).
This is another recipe you’ll want to eat right after preparing. The mozzarella balls melt easily, so reheating them can be tricky. However, you can grill and refrigerate the chicken and peppers up to 8 hours ahead of time. Then you can assemble your daggers and leave them on the grill just long enough to heat through.
Here’s the Yummly printable!
Ingredients
- 4 unseasoned, precooked chicken tenderloins
- 1 cup of your favorite pesto
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped into strips (the strips should be approximately 1/2"x3" in size)
- 8 ciliegine mozzarella balls
- salt and pepper to taste
- 7" kabob skewers
Instructions
- Sprinkle the chicken tenderloins and red pepper strips with salt and pepper.
- On a George Foreman classic plate grill, sear the chicken and peppers for 1 1/2 minutes or until you achieve grill marks.
- On each skewer, slide two mozzarella balls, a pepper slice, and a piece of chicken. Be sure to slide the pepper on width-wise, so that it looks like the hilt of a dagger.
- Throw the daggers back on the grill for about 30 seconds (just long enough to warm the cheese). If some of your mozzarella balls develop strings as you pull them away from the grill, just trim the strings away with some kitchen scissors.
- Dip the tips of your daggers in pesto for that poison-tipped look.
- Serve with the extra pesto while while enjoying a Shakespeare play.
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