Chicken dish with a hint of mint

Anyone who has ever had a patch of peppermint or spearmint as part of a yard herb garden knows it doesn’t take long before the patch quickly spreads into the expansive territory of an aroma-filled field.

Grown using rootstock, any variety of mint is invasive and chokes out other surrounding plants and flowers.

Around 1988, my dad’s oldest brother, my Uncle Joe, and his wife Aunt Rose wanted some of our farm roots for spearmint plants to take home for the tiny backyard of their house in Chicago. Not only did the mint overtake the corner of their garden, today — 30 years later — the same spearmint roots are still sprouting in the same garden corner, as well as along the garage, in the alley and under the fence line of the neighbor’s yard.

Today, mint varieties extend to much more than just peppermint and spearmint. Most garden centers now sell “pineapple mint,” “chocolate mint,” “apple mint,” “grapefruit mint” and even “licorice mint.”

While judging this year’s “Cooking with Mint” contest last weekend at our town of North Judson’s 43rd annual Mint Festival, I shared the scoring duties with certified chef Julie Dalrymple of Marion, Ind. My culinary colleague had one request for this year’s contestants, which numbered nearly two dozen hopefuls. Her urge was that next year’s participants would dream up recipes using more exotic varieties of mint plants such as those mentioned earlier.

Contest categories included desserts, main dishes, appetizers/side dishes, young cooks up to 12th grade and “men only.” As in most years while judging this competition, there was only one lone entry in the “men only” category.

The contest requires not only clever and imaginative recipes incorporating the mint theme, but also the key skill of deciding how “minty” the flavor should be for the recipes created so that the flavor and aroma remain distinct and inviting, but not overpowering.

Cathy Carlisle of North Judson was a dual winner this year. Her main dish recipe for “Honey Mint Glazed Chicken with Pineapple Salsa” earned top honors as did her “Minty Black Bean and Corn Salad” in the side dish category.

Congratulations to all of this year’s recipe contest winners and thank you to all of the participants.

PHILIP POTEMPA/POST-TRIBUNE PHOTOS Winners of the 2019 Cooking with Mint Contest are Cathy Carlisle, of North Judson, second from left, Nathan Upchurch, of Knox, Cari Spaulding, of Lafayette, and Catherine Linderman, of North Judson, all framed by royalty with Mint Festival Queen Maggie Emery, far left and Miss Indiana State Festival Queen Madison Millick of Linton, Indiana, far right.

A layered cake crafted with a royal icing gown in homage to the annual North Judson Mint Festival Queen pageant was one of the sweet contenders in the dessert category for the 2019 Cooking with Mint Contest.