Okay – if you read the previous post, you know I’m rocking’ like Dokken with my grill, my thermometers and my bad self. You also know I have a freezer full of great meats that are going to be the fodder for the next round of grilling and culinary adventures.
Now, most of my grilling time has been on the weekends. Reserving an entire Saturday or Sunday to accommodate the slow and low schedule that a rack of good ribs requires. This is not one of those recipes. This was the “Thursday night I’m tired as f*** and I don’t really want to be doing this” cookout. So I grabbed a frozen 2″(!) pork chop from my freezer and threw it in the microwave to defrost. Here’s what happened next.
Heated the grill up to 375F. Which really means I had it down to about one notch above “Low”. Made a smoker pack out of a handful of apple chips and tinfoil, threw that on the grate.
While that was getting happy, I coated the thawed chop with the Myron Mixon “Basic BBQ Rub” (I told you to get his book…if I put his recipe on here, he’d kick my ass for sure.) While the grill temped up, I put the meat in a little foil pan to rest up.
After the grill was heated up and the smoke pack was smoking, I put the pan on the grill and closed it up for 15 minutes. After my timer went off, I flipped the chop, stuck the thermometer probe into the meat and closed it back up for another 15-20 minutes, or until the internal temperature reached 145F.
At this point, I turned off the grill, mopped both sides of the chop with pork glaze (Again – gotta get that book, yo. Dude’s got lawyers.) and let it sit in the cooling smoker for ten minutes.
Pull it out, let it rest for about 5 minutes, and serve. Like my little garnish there? Yeah, that was my “salad”. This thing was A. Mazing. Super juicy and perfectly done. I might try an injection in the future, but this didn’t really need it.
Spring has definitely sprung, and the BBQ grill is getting a great workout. I’ve learned an awful lot the past couple months, smoking ribs or some kind of meat each weekend – now on my little Weber Gas Grill.
Yes, you can use a gas grill as a smoker. There’s a couple methods to doing this. First, get some good wood chips. I went to Armand’s BBQ supply store in Culver City and picked up a bag of Apple wood chips for about $12 that should last me all summer. The fast/simple method is to soak a small handful of chips in a bowl of water for about five minutes. (Some folks say overnight, but I haven’t seen any negative effects) Strain the chips out of the bowl and put them onto a sheet of heavy duty foil. Fold it into a packet, sealing the edges well, and poke holes in the top with a knife. Slap that on the grate and you’re good to go. Alternatively – for larger meats like rib racks, I bought a little stainless steel smoker box, which is basically the same thing but a little larger.
Finally, and probably the most important – get a good thermometer. I got a great one in that it comes with TWO sensors: one for the meat and one for the ambient temperature of the grill. It also transmits these settings to another handheld unit that I can keep with me inside. Set alarms for hi/lo temperatures and all that kind of jazz as well. Really a good piece of gear that is invaluable.
One thing I have learned about my gas grill is that at the lowest setting, cranked all the way down, it still runs too hot for many “low and slow” methods. I’m going to either have to figure out how to reliably bring the temp down to around 250/275F consistently or calculate reduced cook times. As it stands, “low” is about 360F.
That said, I’ve had some great successes on the grill using these methods and tools, and only a few disappointments. The latter failed experiments stemmed from the higher temperature overcooking the meat. I highly recommend you watch BBQ Pitmasters if you have Netflix instant streaming, or pick up Myron Mixon’s book, which has detail on a lot of his techniques. Finally, there’s some great forums and video podcasts online that can round out your knowledge base. Like I said in a prior post, I’m going to keep practicing to get my basic techniques down pat, and then I’m going to experiment with other flavors/ingredients.
Oh – one more thing. If you have a big box store like Sam’s Club or CostCo near you – that’s the place to get your meats. The grocery store is overpriced, skimpy and anemic by comparison.
Having watched the first couple seasons of BBQ Pitmasters on TLC, you can count me among the fans. Also count me among the inspired. Really admired the stylings of Johnny Trigg and Myron Mixon, so I’ve spent the past few weekends researching and experimenting with making the perfect rack of ribs. Now my little secret that will likely cause these BBQ greats to have heart attacks is that my preliminary experiments have involved cooking the ribs in the oven. I know, heresy I say. I’m just getting the hang of it, and have yet to bring it to the grill, which will likely happen after the next round. I’ve been too lazy to get my grill cleaned up for the spring. Once I get the grill in good shape, and pick up a decent thermometer, we’ll go for six hours over the flame.
In the meantime, I’ll share some of the early results. They were pretty darn awesome. If you’re wanting to give this a shot, watch a few episodes of BBQ Pitmasters on Netflix and pick up Mixon’s book. Let me know how yours turn out.
Forgot where I originally saw this tip, so if this is yours, give me a shout and I will attribute you.
Cut an onion and pop out a couple rings to use as “molds” for the eggs. Lay them in a buttered skillet for a minute, then crack an egg in each. Cook until the eggs set and now you’ve got this neat little circle of onion and eggs. I’ve also seen this with rings cut from red or green peppers too, which I’m sure is pretty awesome as well. These turned out pretty good; will try some other variants sometime soon.
Got home tonight and really didn’t feel like doing anything too complicated for dinner. But then again, there’s very few nights that I come home from work and feel like prepping a lasagna from scratch. So I found a can of chili in the pantry and thought I’d just spike it a little. Turned out OK, and spicy enough to require a Brawny paper towel for a Kleenex.
- can of chili
- hot sauce
- 1/8 cup diced sweet onion
- French’s French fried onions
- 1 ts sour cream
Heat the chili with a squirt of the hot sauce. Once hot, stir in the onion, top with the French fried onions and sour cream. Sucks much less than just the chili by itself. Give it a shot.
If you’re not watching Sam The Cooking Guy’s Livecast several times a week, you really should give it a shot. They shoot three times a week, and cook every dish to completion completely live. The crew really engages the audience during the show, but they post the shows for viewing anytime.
This chicken wing dish is super fast, and is ready 30 minutes from the start using frozen wings! Crazy!
Link to the full recipe and even a video of Sam telling you what to do is right here. These wings were spicy enough to clear my sinuses, but sweet enough to keep them from being painfully hot. Definitely make these for dinner or a party. The sauce I have on the side is a chipotle ranch dressing. Fantastic!
So what’s happening, folks? Just hosted a beautiful lady for a nice day-after Valentine’s Day meal. Here’s what was on the menu:
Boneless lamb chops, with an herbs de Provence and mint rub
Butternut squash soup
Warm winter green salad with roasted walnuts and dried cherries
Chocolate covered strawberries
Good red wine
It was magnificent. Smiles all round! So, what was on your menu? Also, I’m posting from my phone, so no recipes on this post. Want recipes for any of these? Hit me up!
Just a quick gallery of some of the action the Kitchen has seen in the past week.
If you’re like me, you feel all rustic and bohemian when leaving a store with a loaf of French bread sticking out the top of your bag. Then you get it home, carve off a few slices that night, and by the time you check out the loaf the next day, you could hit a freaking fastball with it. Nothing goes bad faster than French bread. It is right up there with cilantro and strawberries.
Had an opportunity to use the French bread last night, making a couple of the Best. Burgers. Ever. for a lovely lady. This morning, I could pound nails with the loaf. Having a good serrated knife, I decided to make some French, nay Freedom Toast with what I could saw off the end. Think of it as freedom from having to throw this lead pipe in the trash. Now everyone has a recipe for French bread. Mine is equally simple, and just plain works. You’ll need:
- Hot cast iron skillet
- Knob of butter
- 6-8 slices of French bread, cut on the diagonal to get a lot of surface area, about 1/2 inch thick
- 3 eggs
- Slug of milk
- Nutmeg nut
- Maple syrup
- Powdered sugar
Pan on the heat, melt the butter. Let the butter sit until it gets browned, but not burnt. Break the eggs into a bowl and grate a nutmeg nut about ten times over the bowl. Pour in a slug (1/8 cup?) of milk. Stir until well incorporated. Dunk your bread slices into the mixture and shake off excess before laying them in the skillet. Cook until nicely browned, flip and brown the other side. Remove, plate, drizzle with syrup and powdered sugar. Good stuff.
I am a great artist. I steal pretty much everything I make from other sources. Good thing the US Copyright Office has bigger fish to fry than…well, the fish I’m frying.
Wanted to try grilling a pizza. I’ve done pizza before on a pizza stone in the oven, but grilling one sounded pretty badass. So when a lovely lady recently requested grilled pizza, I took that as the catalyst to start hunting for a recipe. Bam. Found one.
Not going to bore you with repeating the details you can read on the link above, but will offer some observations and tips from my attempt at the recipe.
1. Just buy a wad of pre-made pizza dough at the store. It’s fine, and you’re not impressing anyone with your dough-making skills. It’s the pizza itself that counts.
2. Clear off your kitchen counter and just do the flour and rolling thing right on the surface. My cutting board was too small, and it quickly became obvious this wasn’t going to be a neat-freak operation.
3. Remember the grill and flip. Brown the dough on one side, then bring it inside for toppings.
4. Less is best. I just did a simple pizza of sauce, basil leaves and mozzarella. If you put more on it, you run the risk of making it soggy.
Going to try this again soon. Thinking of throwing some meat on there, but for this recipe, I recommend not putting more than three toppings per pizza, just to keep it simple. Here’s a couple I thought up:
BBQ Sauce, Chicken and red peppers
Bacon, spinach and feta cheese
What will you make?
