With the weather starting to warm up, It's becoming that time of the year. I know we did this on the old board and I got a few great recipes from there (that I should have written down).
Steak, Hanburgers and especially my favourite Beer Can Chicken. Is there a greater trifecta to go with beer on this earth? Remember to put lots of FRESH rosemary (grow some, it's easy) and garlic cloves in the beer can before you stuff the chicken's ass end. The more the better, believe me. Then, wreath the bottom of the chicken's standing plate with more rosemary (making sure the barbecue flames won't lick them and set them ablaze), and dump a little beer over the whole thing. Perfection PERFECTION.
My go-to burger method Buy 3 pounds of ground beef. If you buy frozen burgers from the grocery store, just skip this whole post, because you clearly have no soul. Put all of the beef in a large mixing bowl. Add one raw egg, a liberal amount of A1 steak sauce, Montreal Grille Mates Steak Seasoning to taste (spicy version if you wish--which I do), minced onions and garlic. Knead together with your hands until everything is mixed really well. Take a pad of butter (either stolen from a restaurant or 1 TBS from the stick) and cut it into four cubes. Then, roll the little cube of butter into the middle of each palm-sized burger as you form them (note: make sure it's encapsulated in the meat, and not pressed through one of the sides). Then make an indent in the middle of each burger so that when you cook them, the top rises and ends up flat, not curved, to facilitate toppings--it should look like a large, meaty blood cell. Lay the patties on a wax paper-covered baking sheet. Cook 4 minutes per side on Medium Heat (if you have a grille with three burners, go Medium, Off, Medium), then toss the cheese on for another minute and you're good to go. The butter makes a little flavor explosion pocket in each burger and they're fucking delicious. You can easily freeze these as well if you don't end up eating them all. Though, I must warn you, every time these hit the grille, I eat about four of them.
I used my grill for the first time this week to try and get some smoke into a pork roast I was turning into pulled pork. It worked mildly well; the problem is that you need to get the element hot enough (it's electric) to get the wood chips to combust, but you want the temperature low to slow-cook the pork. I brined a pork shoulder for ~6 hrs in salt in maple syrup, then applied a rub of chili powder, paprika, cumin, garlic powder and some brown sugar. Put it on the grill for 2-3 hrs, and then into the oven inside a roasting bag for another 2-3 hrs at 200 degrees until the meat is tender enough to easily be pulled apart. The nice thing about the roasting bag is that you can pull the pork apart inside the bag and let the meat soak up its own juices. I'm also discovering the finer points of making your own burgers. For $1 a patty, plain ground beef, salt, pepper and worcestershire sauce makes the best damn burger you'll ever find, and they only take a few minutes to make. I'm also hoping to get some buddies over tonight for a night on my balcony. There will be weissbier. My grill, by the way, is a piece of crap $90 electric grill from Canadian Tire that has maybe 200-300 square inches of space. Best $90 I ever spent. There is nothing like throwing some wood chips in there and taking in the smell while drinking beer on a sunny afternoon.
You can basically put any combination of liquids and herbs in your beer can and as long as they are palatable, you won't be able to tell the difference at all. I've tried quite a few different beers/sodas/spices and have never noticed a significant difference in the flavor of the chicken. The main thing is the vertical roasting action which keeps the meat moister than traditional barbequed chicken.
I did this for my sister once and she went out and bought me this the next day. It's fucking awesome and makes the whole process amazingly easy if you're not trying to balance a chicken on it's own.
Those are a necessity. When it comes to Beer Can Chicken, ther's no need to be manly and do it "the old fashioned way" because you run a fair risk of scorching the entire chicken black without doing anything wrong. These things are smart, easy and it's guaranteed to go perfect every blissful try. The thing I love best about it is that (like said above) it's endlessly experimental with flavourful liquids, fresh herbs and dry herbs, as well as veggies too. It's worked out well every time so far. I want to experiment with less traditional things on the BBQ this season, since it's shaping up to be a long summer so far (hee-hee!). Anybody have any guaranteed obscure (food and otherwise) but hidden gem recipes?
What's the verdict on propane Vs charcoal. I need a bbq, and have been looking at the Weber charcoal. Seems like a steak on those things would be excellent. My favorite recipe is a salmon filet. You brush it with honey and honey mustard and place it on the bbq. It'll taste almost the same as if you had used maple syrup, but for a lot cheaper.
I like to use apple, hickory or mesquite woods to smoke with. Doing a beef brisket this weekend. Charcoal for all other applications. Propane is good for high heat and no added smokiness.
I plan on inviting some of my close Jewish friends over for a Bacon Explosion. http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion/
Great way to do brats/sausages that I saw on the old board. Stick the sausages in a frying pan, and poor enough beer in to completely submerge them. Throw some chopped up garlic in with them, poke some holes in the sausages and let them soak for a few hours. After soaking them for as long as you want, boil them in the beer and garlic for about 10 - 15 minutes. After they're cooked to as far along as you want, throw them onto the grill. Cook them until they're fully cooked and grilled to your preferred done-ness. Works amazing with hot italian sausages.
We lost ours that looked exactly like the one you posted (it got left in a cabinet at our last house I think) so hubby went to Home Depot and bought a new one. The new one is not nearly as good. The section you put the can into is much shorter and the feet are all funky now. It still worked but not quite as comfortably. SIL stayed with us for a week shortly after baby was born. We puffed her up about this awesome chicken we were going to make for her, etc. Hubby accidentally bought a hen instead of a common chicken and it was NAST-E! All gray and rubbery and synthetic tasting. It was horrible. I will never forget it. Focus: For an awesome in-a-pinch bottled marinade, Kikkoman's Garlic Teriyaki is some great stuff! For some reason, I suddenly can't find it in my local grocery stores anymore and it isn't on the Kikkoman website. I have emailed them to ask why but have not gotten a response. Dammit. We only really use it on steak. We tried it on chicken and pork and it just didn't have the same oomph.
The first year we did this on the RMMB I printed the entire thread. It included methods of determining the "doneness" of a steak without piercing it. For a small fee I'll mail it to you.
Soaking a chicken in a Saltwater Brine before cooking it will make it juicier and plumper. Then set your Weber BBQ up to cook with indirect heat with a aluminum water pan in the middle of the grill. Fill the water pan with apple juice. Give the chicken a rubdown with a dry rub (I like Stubb's) and BBQ it on Low until done. I like to add Apple wood chips to the coals to get a Sweet smoked flavor (especially when combined with the apple juice steam). DO NOT SOAK YOUR WOOD CHIPS!!! This will make the smoke flavor too heavy and ruin the bird. I don't try to guess the whether the bird is done by cooking it for a specified amount of time, I bought a Meat probe temperature sensor at Wal-Mart for 10 bucks. You stick the probe in the bird's thigh, set it to 160 degrees, and when the internal temperature reaches 160, I take it off the grill. Cover it with tin foil and let it sit for 20 minutes. The internal temperature will rise an additional 10 degrees. Once it hits 170 degrees, it's ready to eat. You can do all this with a Beer Can chicken also...........
Cheese stuffed burgers. It's amazing what a little pepper jack or dill havarti melted nicely inside a burger does for not only the taste but the "wow" factor. The simplest way to do these without the burger falling apart is to make patties half the thickness that you usually do. Take one patty and lay it out, make a small depression in the middle (1/2 inch from edge) then shave the cheese into the depression. Slices or cubes of chess with cause the burger to fall apart but shavings work. Then take another thin patty and put it on top. A little warm water on your finger tips and push the edges of the patties together sealing in the cheese. Toss em on the grill but limit flipping to ONCE (which should be the rule for all red meat cooked on the grill) or you'll run the risk of it falling apart.
Special Potatoes Double up a large sheet of tinfoil and coat it with PAM, or some sort of spray-on anti-stick cooking oil. On top of the tinfoil, layer the following ingredients: - bacon. I typically lay down about 6 strips, not overlapping but as tight together as possible. - 1 large, sliced russet potato - 1/2 medium sliced onion (I prefer purple ones) - salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese - 1/2 each of sliced green and red bell peppers - 6-10 sliced white mushrooms (depending on their size) - 1/2 sliced onion - 1 large sliced russet potato - bacon. Again, about 6 strips, or enough to cover the mound of food you've just created. Cover the whole thing with another layer of greased tinfoil and seal the edges very tightly. Put it on the upper grill of your barbecue and cook until you feel the potatoes are done (some people like them cooked way more than others). Typically I leave it for about 45 minutes on medium heat, flipping the package every 15 minutes or so. The bacon will crispen and the fat will drip down through the layers of food to flavour it and keep it moist. Salmon with Ginger and Garlic In a bowl, whisk the following ingredients: 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/3 cup honey 2-3 tbsp lime juice 1 diced jalapeno pepper Set aside. Grate 3 large knuckles of fresh ginger (remove the skin first), and 4-5 garlic cloves. Retain the husks (or whatever you want to call it when you've grated something and you're left with the shredded outside). Take 2 salmon steaks and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Then, take a greased sheet of tinfoil and lay the remnants of the grated ginger and garlic on the bottom. Lay the salmon on the husks. Rub the grated garlic onto the salmon, then pack the grated ginger on top of it. Lastly, pour the soy mixture over top of everything. Take another greased tinfoil sheet, cover the salmon and seal the edges very well. Grill the package until salmon is cooked to your desired level of doneness. I find the best way to check is to poke a sharp knife through the package, into the steak, and then touch the tip of the knife to your tongue. If the tip is warm, it's a good indication the meat is done. Obviously, be careful doing that.
You and your schemes. I'm cutting this off at the knees right now. Mostly because I didn't think of it first. The Finger Test
So Spring is shitting the bed in Chicago right now, and Old Man Winter is seizing the day by dropping a couple inches of snow and ice. I have a a pork sirloin roast I was planning on roasting but instead decided to braise it all day today low and slow. There's not a lot of connective tissue in this cut, though there is a fair strip of fat on the top of the roast. I put on a rub of garlic, salt, olive oil, rosemary, paprika, and prepackaged mesquite rub, and am braising it in a mixture of pale ale, canned whole tomatoes, a bit of apple vinegar, and a few drops of liquid smoke. I know the liquid smoke is cheating, but hey, its fucking snowing outside. I'm hoping I'll be able to cook it all day while I'm at the bar watching basketball, and come home to something resembling pulled pork. As long as the house doesn't burn down - seriously what can combust at 200 degrees? If anything it'll just dry out and suck. I'll let you know how this goes and refine the recipe a bit to see if it is worth repeating. Wish me luck.