Grilled Chicken with Spinach

Wesley Dean Gilmore

Grilled chicken with spinach is a juicy and healthy main course that has been a family favorite for many generations. It is usually cooked for Gilmore, Smith, and Strickland family dinners during Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and various family gatherings such as birthdays or family reunions. It even shows up at a few potluck suppers at church on Sunday nights.

My grandmother and mother make this dish. The younger girls in the family, including my sister Brenna, also gather in the kitchen to help so one day they will be able to cook this dish for their family. Women in my family have been known for their ability to cook. The people who enjoy the dish the most are the very hungry men of my family. My family likes to eat health foods but likes to eat at every family gathering. That is why this dish is a favorite.

Sometimes my mother will cook the dish on special request. I was lucky over my first Spring Break from college because, the first night I was home, my mom asked me what I would like to eat for dinner. I requested the ever-famous grilled chicken and spinach.

The origin of this recipe, according to my mother and grandmother, is my mom's great-grandmother's recipe box. My grandmother has a little wooden box at her house in her kitchen full of little brittle pieces of paper. On these pieces of paper are original Strickland family recipes. Each piece of paper includes the ingredients, instructions, and who created the recipe or where it came from. The grilled chicken and spinach dish was created by my great, great grandmother, Sue Ellen Strickland. The box has many other recipes that have been used over the years but for as long as I can remember this dish has been the family favorite.

Even though my grandmother has the original recipe, she says, "I have memorized how to make the chicken, but I add my own special touch each time." She never makes the dish the same every time. She uses the amount of ingredients she feels is fit instead of measuring. She also was the one who added the carrots to the spinach topping. Now that she has improved the dish, she rewrote the original recipe and put it back in the box. My mother is the next person in line to get the family famous wooden recipe box.

I have never had the pleasure of preparing this dish but hope one day that my wife will prepare it for me and my family. I can barely contain my excitement and hope for the next time this dish is prepared.