This was the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever made.  Hands down.  Everything turned out great and came together perfectly.  The chicken was moist, ’cause I followed the basic instructions for grilling chicken breasts.  And then my first attempt at making a balsamic vinegar reduction turned out great (other than stinking up the whole house).  The reduction melding with the goat cheese and the mild flavor from the sautéed red onions was the perfect combination.  It’s good.  Damn good.   And follow that with a nice cold beer….aaah, heaven.

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 buns
6 tablespoons goat cheese
1 small red onion, sliced in thin rings
handful of spring mix lettuce
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar reduction
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions

1. Sauté red onion with olive oil in pan over low heat until translucent and tender.  Remove from heat.
2. Fire up the grill to high for direct heat grilling. Clean and oil your grates.
3. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
4. Place the breast on the hottest part of the grill 2 minutes.
5. Using tongs, lift each breast, rotate 45 degrees and then place them back on the grill.
6. After 2 to 4 minutes, lift the chicken breasts with tongs and flip them over.
7. Grill for 2 more minutes and then rotate again 45 degrees to make our grill marks on this side.
8. Continue grilling for another 1 to 2 minutes until juices run clear and then add the cheese.  Cook until cheese is melted, about 1 minute.  Remove from grill and let rest.
9. Toast buns over direct heat until brown.
10. Assemble sandwich with spring mix on the buns, then add chicken and onions.  Add reduced balsamic vinegar as a final touch.

For the balsamic vinegar reduction:

Place three cups balsamic vinegar to a non-reactive,  heavy-bottomed pot, preferably stainless steal.  Heat on low, until it just begins to simmer.  Reduce until it thickens to the consistency of chocolate syrup, or to desired consistency, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  Be careful not to burn near the end of the thickening process.

To test the consistency, drizzle a bit onto a plate and then check how sticky it is.  If  it is too thick, add a little water to the pot, stir it up, and retest.

If you have a side burner on the grill, this is a great item for outdoor cooking.  Otherwise, it will likely stink up the whole house.  But it is worth it.  This stuff is the nectar of the vinegar gods.  Enjoy.

Man cannot live by pork chop alone.  Every now and then you must sauce it up a bit.  This smokey green sauce blends great with a pork chop.  The combination of roasted poblano peppers, tomatillos and garlic make a savory sauce.  This might also make a great base for a roasted corn and black bean salsa, which I might have to try some day soon.  I’ll let you know when I do.

It’s best to cook this recipe on a charcoal grill, so that the smokey flavor gets infused into the peppers and tomatillos.

Ingredients

10 to 12 tomatillos
2 poblano peppers
2 cloves of garlic
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 medium onion
2 tablespoons olive oil

2 4oz boneless pork chops

Directions

1. Peel outer husks (paper like wrapper) off of the tomatillos and wash them.  Slice into quarters.

2. Slice onion into quarters.

3. Remove the stem from the peppers.   Slice in half such that the halves are as flat as possible. Remove the seeds.

4. Add peppers, sliced tomatillos, onion and garlic cloves to a bowl, drizzle with oil and stir to cover.

5. Grill the peppers over direct heat, making sure the skin side is charred.  This will allow the skins to be easily peeled.  Roast for 4 to 6 minutes on each side.

6. Either skewer the tomatillos, onions and garlic on skewers, or use a basket (I recommend the Weber grilling basket).  Cook them over direct heat for 7 to 15 minutes, occasionally stirring or turning, until the tomatillos and onions are tender and slightly charred.  Remove them from the heat and let cool.

7. After peppers have cooled, peel the charred skin from the peppers.  This skin is almost plastic-like and isn’t too appealing (ha!) to have in your sauce.

8. Add tomatillos, onions, garlic and peppers to a blender and blend until smooth.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Optionally you can add a bit of quality olive oil while blending to smooth out the mixture as well, about a teaspoon will work.

9. Salt and pepper the chops and grill over direct medium high heat for 4 to 6 minutes per side.

10. Remove chops from grill, slather in the sauce and enjoy!

I love the detachable handles and the lid.  Nice design.

They are on sale here for a few more days.

Up until this point, we have only covered a few dessert recipe on GrillingCompanion.  Let me reassure you, we haven’t purposely been ignoring desserts.   I certainly haven’t excluded them from my daily consumption, so I wouldn’t  propose we not cover desserts on the site!  It’s just that we spend so much time grilling, taking photos and writing up other grilling recipes that we never seem to get to dessert.  Well, that is changing today!

The inspiration for this recipe came from one of our readers, Bill from Atlanta.  Bill suggested we try grilling pineapple and also suggested that we fire up some Rum to finish it off once it comes off the grill.  I will definitely be trying that, but I didn’t have any Rum and my back yard is pretty dry these days from lack of rain.  I can just see me setting the whole thing on fire while trying to burn off the Rum.  I promise I will get the courage up and try it though Bill, sounds delicious.  Keep the suggestions coming!

For this grilled pineapple recipe, I decided to throw together a quick glaze that I could use to baste the pineapple while it cooked on the grill.  The idea was to create a great layer of brown sugar and cinnamon to really bring out the sweetness of the pineapple.  There are few better ways to enjoy grilled fruit than to serve them with ice cream, so I used this as an excuse to eat some vanilla ice cream in the middle of a Sunday afternoon (why do I feel I have to wait until after dinner all the time??).  Enough with the intro, the ice cream’s melting…

Ingredients

3 – 4 tablespoons unsalted Butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Fresh pineapple (rings or slivers, whatever you want to cut)

Vanilla Ice Cream

Glazed Grilled Pineapple Over Ice Cream

1. Preheat the grill to medium heat for direct grilling.  I found that high heat created a little too much burn caramelization, so stick with medium…
2. Combine the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small pot on the side burner of your grill (or stove inside).
3. Heat the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon over medium-low heat stirring constantly until all of the brown sugar has melted and then turn down to the lowest temperature.  You can even turn the burner off at this point, we can warm it up when we are ready to brush onto the pineapple.
4. Place the pineapple slices or rings on the grill.  Do not put the glaze on yet, we want to grill them just a bit first.
5. Grill the pineapple for about 2 minutes and then flip over to the other side.
6. At this point, warm up your glaze if it has solidified, stirring well to combine.
7. Now brush some of the glaze onto the pineapple slivers and close the grill’s lid and grill for 2 minutes.
8. After 2 minutes, flip the pineapple over to the other side and again brush with glaze and close the lid for another 2 minutes.
9. Remove the pineapple from the grill and transfer to a bowl (a BIG bowl that will hold a lot of ice cream!).
10. Scope some of your favorite vanilla ice cream right on top of the warm pineapple and enjoy!

Tank Nanny

Keeps your groceries, kids and pets safe from those crazy rolling tanks.

Do you find yourself trying to convince people that “a little char never hurt anybody”?  Or maybe you stick to grilling meats with removable skins, so that you can peal off the burnt and fossilized skin and reveal the perfectly grilled meat?  If this sounds like you, you probably have a problem with grill flare ups.  It’s ok, it happens to everybody.  Flare ups are especially common when grilling hamburgers or grilling chicken wings, or any other meat that is especially fatty.  While it’s almost impossible to prevent flare ups from happening, you can prevent prolonged flare ups (that keep burning) by more thoroughly cleaning your grill.

Prolonged flare ups are caused when fat drips off the meat and sticks to a hot surface.  Add a little fire from the burner and you’ve got flame.  Dirty surfaces provide a perfect environment for these flames to keep burning by giving that fat a place to stick around.  Ah, but you use one of those grill brushes every time you grill, right?  Well, that’s great, but you are only cleaning off the surface of the grates.  A lot of flare ups occur when there is grease left over on the bottom of the grates.  When the next fat runs down onto the bottom of the grate, it adheres to the old grease and in a lot of cases ignites.

So to really prevent flare ups you need to roll up your sleeves and do a little more thorough cleaning.  Remove those grill grates and use warm soapy water and a brush to clean them thoroughly.  When you are done, rinse with clean water and you are all set.  While the grates are off, go ahead and remove the shield over the burner and give them a good scrub.  This will remove another potential fire-causing-fat-trap.

With just a little more effort, even you can help prevent grill fires.  Again, you can’t eliminate all flare ups, but a through cleaning will help prevent flare ups from continuing to burn.  The warm soapy water is a lot more gentle than that steel brush on your grates, prolonging it’s life as well…

My wife, obviously delirious from toddle-induced insomnia, decided to challenge me to a salsa competition this morning.  It is Labor Day and we had a cook-out to go to later in the day, so we knew we would have some impartial judges available in the afternoon.  I can’t pass up a good challenge, so I had my flip flops on and was out the door to the vegetable stand before she was done with her coffee.  It’s on!

My wife makes a delicious fresh salsa, so I knew I couldn’t compete unless I came with something a little different.  Being the grilling fanatic that I am, I decided to smoke my ingredients on the grill.  It’s 199 degrees outside, so why not stand around a hot grill?  I must be crazy.  Anyway, I have roasted tomatoes in the oven before and made great tomato sauce, but this is the first time I have attempted to roast tomatoes on the grill.  I decided to also rig up a little smoking setup using my Weber vegetable basket to get some great flavor quickly from the smoke.  By using two bricks, I was able to roast the tomatoes and peppers over a smoke pouch.  The results were awesome and having the vegetables directly over the smoke really allowed me to get some great flavor in a relatively short amount of time (in smoking terms).  Here’s a photo of the setup, it’s not pretty, but it works:

Just a little warning before I get started with the “how”.  This salsa is a little spicy.  Feel free to cut back on the peppers if you prefer a more mild salsa.  Sugar can always be used to cut the heat a little, just be sure to counter-balance with a little salt if it starts to get too sweet.

Ingredients

12 plum tomatoes

1 Red bell pepper

1 Jalapeno pepper (1/2 of a pepper if you are scared…)

1 – 2 Pablano peppers (how hot do you want it?)

1 handful of fresh cilantro

Zest from 1 lime

Juice from 1 lime

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon sugar (cuts the acidity)

How to Make a Great Salsa on the Grill

1. Wash the tomatoes, cut them in half and then remove the seeds with a small spoon.
2. Cut the peppers in half and remove their seeds as well.
3. Prepare a smoke pouch.
4. Fire up the grill on high and place the smoke pouch on the hottest part of the grill, close the lid.
5. Once the smoke pouch is smoking, turn off the middle burner(s) and set the grill up for roasting, similar to what is shown above.  The key here is to get the vegetables up into the smoke from the smoke pouch, over the cooler part of the grill.  We are going to roast and smoke the vegetables at about 350 degrees.
6. Place the tomatoes and peppers cut side up on the basket and close the lid.
7. Roast the vegetables for about an hour at around 350 degrees.  Turn the vegetables every 15 minutes or so to evenly roast the vegetables.  Times may vary, but we want to blister the skins of the peppers and tomatoes.
8. Once the tomatoes and peppers have been charred (again, about an hour), remove them from the grill and allow to cool.
9. Peel the skins off of the red bell peppers.
10. Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse to chop to your desired consistency.

The spice from the Pablanos and Jalapenos, combined with the smoke flavor made for an awesome salsa.  The lime and cilantro add great citrus and that “fresh” flavor to finish it off nicely.  As for the contest, turns out my wife scared the majority of the judges away from my salsa because it was (in her opinion) too spicy.  I actually thought it could use some more heat myself, but that’s just me.  For those attendees who appreciate some good heat, well, I like to think the choice was obvious…

My relationship with split chicken breasts has always been a love/hate relationship though, since they are somewhat challenging to get right!  When the bones are still attached to the breast, they form an insulation layer that makes it difficult to cook thoroughly without drying.  If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up with a dry outer layer of chicken and a pink (yuck!) middle.  Fear not though, I finally wrote up instructions on how to grill split chicken breasts, using a 2 heat zone technique.  Let me also say before you try this.  One of the most common things that happens to me is that the skin gets burned because I wasn’t paying close enough attention.  If this is the worst thing that happens to your fowl while cooking, just peel off the burnt stuff, who cares?  Grilling doesn’t have to be perfect to be delicious…

Ingredients for the Marinade
Juice from 2 lemons
Zest from 1 lemon
1/4 Cup Fresh Basil leaves (packed)
1/4 cup dry White Wine
2 tablespoons Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Place all marinade ingredients in a food processor (or blender) and blend well.
2. Place the chicken breasts in a sealable bag (careful with the ribs so they don’t poke through) and pour in the marinade.
3. Work the marinade around to cover the chicken breasts and then squeeze as much air out of the bag as you can and seal it.
4. Place the bag in a bowl (in case the ribs made a hole in the bag) and place the bag in the refrigerator.
5. Marinate the chicken for around 4 – 6 hours, turning the bag a few times throughout so that the chicken gets equal love from the marinade.
6. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and place the bag of marinating chicken on the kitchen counter about 30 minutes before grilling, just to warm the breasts up a little.
7. Follow these directions to grill your chicken.

That’s all there is to an easy marinated chicken that comes out awesome.  The basil and lemon combo is amazing on chicken.  I didn’t even make a dent in my garden though, so I need to come up with a few more ideas for the weekend.  The rest of my garden needs some space to stretch out…

Well this Labor Day, I vow to not make wine and after thought.  I will put just as much time into picking a good bottle for my guests as I do picking out the meat to throw on the grill.  If you are with me on this quest and don’t really have a good starting point, here’s a great article to get your juices (pun intended) flowing…

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20278247,00.html

I agree with most of this advice.  I could live without a sink in my outdoor kitchen (not so sure about using a “hose sink”).  But the idea of building my own outdoor fireplace scares me a bit.  Unless they are making bricks that work like Legos, I can’t see my brickwork turning out very well.

I love the site WikiHow.  I always stop by their place on my daily wandering around the World Wide Webernet.  My son and I have done a couple of cool projects based on their ideas and I think I just found another good reason to visit Lowes for materials.  This article demonstrates how to make your own barbecue mop.  Mops are great for all kinds of barbeque (like barbeque chicken), but are also great for basting meat with thinner sauces while grilling.  The mops hold onto the thinner sauces a lot better than your typical brush.  The other thing I love about this particular design (other than it’s cheap to make a few at a time) is that you can remove the mop for cleaning.  Mops are one of those things my wife likes to make disappear while I am at work, usually because they are pretty nasty looking after a few rounds of use.  With this design, I can remove the mop for a more thorough cleaning or just replace the string!

Meander on over to wikihow for the step by step directions here.

The most interesting example for us grillers in the test they performed last year on the Broil King Signet 90.  They were doing a flare up test that they perform on all of the grills they test (those poor, beautiful ribeyes!).  Most high end grills will flare up, but then the flame goes away.  The Broil King actually kept burning long enough to MELT THE FIREBOX.  Subsequent tests on other Signet 90′s produced intermitten results, but they were able to get some fireboxes to crack and others to deform. As an0ther example of how thorough their testing is, the actually tested the replacement kit Broil King sent as part of the recall and found that they could STILL deform the firebox with the new kit in place.

I don’t know about you, but this is a good example of a grill I would stay away from, based on Consumer Report’s testing.  Yeah, there’s a lemon in every bunch, but intermitten molten metal is enough to ruin an otherwise fine day of grilling!  As an aside, how cool would it be to be a tester at Consumer Reports??

Ingredients
1 bag of Red potatoes (about 3 pounds)
1 package of bacon (you’ll only need about 8 strips)
1 bottle of Ranch dressing
1 bunch of green onions, diced
Olive Oil
Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Grilled Red Potato Salad and Ranch

1. What goes better with potatoes and Ranch than bacon?  Not many things.  Start by cooking about 8 strips of bacon using your favorite method.  We want them to be crisp since we are going to crumble the bacon into our salad.
2. While the bacon is cooking, wash and then cut the potatoes into even quarters.  When I say even quarters, I mean you want all of the pieces to be about the same size so that they all cook evenly.  Don’t make them too small thought because they will be a pain to handle on the grill!
3. Boil the potatoes in a pot of water until just about cooked.  You don’t want them too mushy, but you want them just about cooked all the way through.
4. At this point, go ahead and light the grill and preheat to medium-high.
5. Remove the potatoes from the water and drain.
6. Toss the red potatoes in some olive oil and fresh ground black pepper.
7. Pour the potatoes right onto the now hot grate of the grill.  The point here is to mark or char the potatoes so that we get that great grill taste.
8. Using tongs, a spoon or a spatula (bring them all out, one might work better than others depending on the size of your red potatoes) turn the potatoes every few minutes to create char marks on all sides.  Keeping the grill closed will speed up this process and keep the grill hot.
9. Once all sides of the potatoes are marked with grill marks, transfer the potatoes to a large bowl.
10. Add about 1/4 cup of the Ranch dressing (add more if you like), crumbled bacon and chopped green onions.
11. Stir well to combine.

That’s all there is to a great last minute grilled potato salad! The grilled bits from the potatoes adds a great flavor to this recipe.  The Ranch dressing makes it easy to throw together at the last minute.  The hardest part to this recipe, in my opinion, is cooking the bacon.  I’d say try bacon bits, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere.  Bacon bits to me aren’t nearly the same as real bacon.  Not saying I wouldn’t try it if I were in a pinch though…

Since I screwed up dinner tonight, I wanted to do a little public service announcement about brining.  Here are some pointers so you don’t repeat my mistake:

1. NEVER attempt to brine a meat that has been “enhanced”.  Enhanced meats (some turkey breasts) have been soaked in a saline solution.  Check out the sodium content on the package, elevated sodium is a good indicator that the meat has been “enhanced”.
2. NEVER brine a kosher chicken.  Kosher chickens are already salty, the result would be like my dinner tonight.
3. NEVER salt a meat that has been brined (for obvious reasons).
4. Add brown sugar to the brine solution to counter-act the saltiness.  Note, I did that tonight, but leaving the meat in the brine too long counter-acts the counter-acting brown sugar, apparently.
5. Keep the meat’s thickness and density in mind when determining how long you are brining your meat.  A thick/dense meat like pork loin roast can take a longer brine.  Thin cuts of chicken and turkey, not so much.  Whole chickens and turkeys, on the other hand, can tolerate brining for up to 24 hours.  I always brine my Thanksgiving turkey for 24 hours.

So there’s just a few pointers to keep in mind.  Just remember, it is possible to have too much of a good thing.  I need to go get another glass of water now, and some aspirin for my wife.

Oh, the garlicky deliciousness (is garlicky a word?)!  Someone asked me the other day what seasoning I like best.  There are so many great seasonings out there that go well with different meats and vegetables.  I have a cupboard full of them, but my “go-to seasoning” right now if Badia Complete Seasoning.  It goes great with a lot of different grilling recipes, but I especially like it with grilled chicken breasts and grilled pork chops.

So don’t have any idea what to do with that meat you thawed out for dinner?  Don’t over-think it, just rub it down with some delicious Badia!  She won’t treat you wrong, I promise…

]]> http://www.grillingcompanion.com/in-praise-of-badia-my-default-seasoning/feed/ 1 http://www.grillingcompanion.com/home-depot-propane-robot/ http://www.grillingcompanion.com/home-depot-propane-robot/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:31:09 +0000 admin http://www.grillingcompanion.com/?p=1226 I had my first experience with Home Depots automatic propane exchange center today.  It felt like a cross between a game show where I had to guess which storage chamber would open, and a jail break where I freed the tank from its cell.  If you haven’t tried it, it is a bizarre use of technology.  Not sure how much it saves Home Depot (they had an attendant standing there to help), or how much it improves the customer experience.  I eventually had to manually type in the 23 digit barcode number since the barcode reader wasn’t working.

As an update to Less Propane, Same cost, these 15 pound tanks from AmeriGas came with a Mail-in Rebate for $2.50.  My exchanges tanks had been 17 pounds.  Thats from $1.03/pound to $1.17/pound, or a 13.6% increase.  Not that I blame them with the prices of gas going up, but I would have prefered an increase in price so I can make less trips to the store.

I like grilled fish for my fish tacos, as opposed to what many consider the more traditional tempura style of fried fish tacos.  I feel that marinating the fish, combined with the added taste from the grill really pushes the fish tacos over the top.  I’ll be borrowing from the cilantro lime grilled fish marinade recipe we have covered in the past for the fish.  While the fish grills, we’ll throw together a really easy cream sauce that goes great with the grilled fish and toasted flour tortillas!  Let’s get started…

Marinating the Fish
This marinade takes only about an hour to work it’s magic, do it doesn’t take a whole lot of forethought to get some great taste.  The lime flavor and a little bit of kick from the jalapenos really sets off the tacos so trust me, it’s worth the time and effort!  Here’s all we need:
Juice from 2 limes
1 clove garlic
1 jalapeno
1 handful of fresh Cilantro
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Cooking Oil

Place all of the marinade ingredients in a food processor and pulse until everything is finely chopped. Place the fish fillets in a glass casserole dish and pour on the marinade. Put the dish with the marinating fillets in the refrigerator for an hour.

The Cream Sauce
This sauce goes great with the marinated and grilled mahi and it is really easy to throw together.  Here’s how to do it:
3 tablespoons sour cream
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
The zest from 1/2 lime
The Juice from 1/2 lime
1 finely chopped jalapeno
1 teaspoon salt

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl and refrigerate until you are ready!  Told ya it was easy…

Grilling the Mahi

Now that we have marinated the Mahi for about an hour, we’ve got our cream sauce ready, so now it’s time to hit the grill and build those tacos!

1. Remove the dish containing the mainated Mahi from the regrigerator and place on the counter.
2. Preheat the grill to high for direct grilling.
3. If you have a fish basket, now is the time to use it!  Otherwise, oil your grill grates with a folded up paper towel dipped in some cooking oil.
4. Once the grill is heated, place the Mahi over the hottest part of the grill.
5. Once the Mahi starts to become opaque on the top, it’s time to flip it over.
6. After you flip the fish over, place a few tortillas on the grill to toast.  This only takes about a minute per side, so check them quickly.  We just want to toast them on each side a little.  A little bit or charring is fine (and delicious!).
7. Once the fish is cooked through, remove from the grill.

Now all that’s left is assembling a few fish tacos!  Load up a tortilla with some of that delicious grilled Mahi, some cream sauce and a little shredded lettuce or cabbage.  That’s it!  Go on, build some tacos (and make sure you don’t get any of that cream sauce on your keyboard)…

http://www.kalamazoogourmet.com/literature/KOG_Kitchens.pdf

They have some pretty cool outdoor kitchen components too.

Did you know you have been paying the same amount for less propane than you were getting last year?  If you use the popular tank exchange method for getting gas, you probably have been.  Two to three pounds less, to be exact!  I guess I never paid attention to how much was in the tank and I bet I am not alone. My naive self just exchanges the tank whenever it runs out (and I keep an extra on hand).  Ok, ok, less product for the same price shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us these days, but I somehow feel cheated.

How about you, do you feel cheated as well?  Comment here and let us know.

Read more about what the citizens of Philadelphia are doing about it (good luck with that).

Can’t find an apron that captures your true BBQ style?  How about making your own?  While you are at it, make a matching hat, why not??  WikiHow has an article with step by step directions on how to make both.  This looks like an awful lot of work to me and I can’t see myself wearing the hat for more than 2 minutes before it’s covered in sweat, but some people might be into this sort of thing.  So if you have been trying to figure out what to do with those old Star Wars drapes, this is a project for you!

Read the detailed instructions on how to make your own BBQ apron and hat.

Paul Teutul Jr. of Orange County Chopper fame has apparently signed on with Coleman to customize their portable RoadTrip grill.  According to reports, he approached Coleman since he wants to branch out from motorcycles and do something completely different.  The RoadTrip’s 10th birthday is coming up, so sounds like good timing to me.  Should be interesting to see what he comes up with!

Really into coffee?  Starbucks just not cutting it for you anymore?  Why not roast your own beans on the grill?  This drum allows you to do just that, on the rotisserie.  I have no idea how the thing works, but seems like another good use for that rotisserie you never seem to get around using!  Read more about it here.

The other thing I took away from this video has nothing to do with grilling.  Steven mentions “harpooned swordfish” (which over an open flame sounds awesome, invite me over Steven!).  I immediately flashed back to some fake YouTube video I saw of a guy jumping onto the back of a marlin.  Turns out, harpooning swordfish is an actual activity.  Apparently they must have a habit of sleep-swimming or something, because the video I found had a huge boat idle right up to one while a guy threw a harpoon into his back.  No wonder they were pretty much wiped out from some regions…

But I digress , check out the videos here on Weber’s site!

1. ALWAYS use a grill outside and in a well ventilated area.  Enclosed areas can get really hot and possibly melt the hose from the gas to the grill.
2. Use soapy water to check for leaks.  Do this at least every time you change the propane tank.  Squirt soapy water all over the hose and connections right after you replace the tank.  Turn on the grill as usual and look for bubbles that might indicate a leak.
3. Always turn off the gas at the tank itself, in addition to the grill controls, when you are done grilling.
4. Open the grill before turning on the gas when you are lighting the grill.  If gas accumulates in the closed lid before the grill is lit, it might go BOOM.

Read more here…

You may be asking, don’t lean meats tend to dry out? The answer is yes, but you can take precautions by using methods such as brining or marinating your meats before cooking. Using high heat to sear and cook thinner cuts of meat quickly is another way to keep the meat from drying out. Use high heat when grilling steaks, for example.

Here’s a good article with more details on lean versus fatty meats. Too much charring is supposed to cause cancer as well. I know it’s bad for you, but I won’t ever be caught using lean ground beef when I am grilling hamburgers. You have to draw the line somewhere…

If you have never brined your meats before cooking, you don’t know what juicy and tender is all about! Brining is the trick many professional cooks use to produce tender and juicy meats. I first tried brining with my last Thanksgiving turkey and I felt like immediately calling every former Thanksgiving guest to apologize for cheating them on past turkeys. Well this week, I wanted to cook a pork loin roast on the grill. Pork loin is very lean and lean meats have a tendency to dry out if not cooked properly. To counter-act this tendency, I decided the roast would be a good candidate for brining. I am so glad I decided to brine this pork loin roast because the result was awesome! Most of our simple grilling recipes don’t require a lot of prep time, but this one requires a little more planning. Plan on at least 12 hours of brining, overnight and up to 24 hours is optimal. Trust me on this one though, it is worth it!

What is brining?
Brining is the unsung hero of meat cooking, in my opinion. The actual brining process is similar to marinating. Both processes submerge the meat in a solution and allow is to absorb for some period of time. Unlike marinating though, brining actually packs the cells of the meat full of moisture. In other words, brining actually hydrates the meat. We all know that the opposite of hydration is dehydration, which unless we are making jerky, is a griller’s worst nightmare! The result is an extra juicy and extra tender hunk of meat!

The most common and most important component of brining is salt. In many cases brown sugar is also used to offset some of the saltiness of the brine solution. Once you have the main components (salt, water and sugar), you can pretty much throw any herb in there you want. Here’s my basic brining solution (good for about a 4 pound pork loin roast in this case):

Ingredients and Directions for Making the Brine:
4 – 5 pound pork loin roast (ask the butcher, you want the nice fat layer on the top as well!)
6 cups water
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 Bay leaves
1 handful of peppercorns
4 sprigs of Thyme
2 sprigs of Rosemary

1. Combine the brown sugar and salt in the water and bring to a boil.
2. Stir until dissolved and then add the rest of the brine ingredients.
3. Lower heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat and allow to cool completely to room temperature.
5. Once the solution has completely cooled (we don’t want to start cooking the meat!), add the pork loin roast and brine solution to a Ziplock type bag. Seal and squeeze out as much air as possible.
6. Put the sealed bag with the now brining pork roast into a pot or large bowl, one that can hold all of the liquid in case something happens to the bag (speaking from experience here!). Place the bowl containing the brining meat into a refrigerator for at least 12 hours, up to 24 hours.

How to Cook a Pork Loin Roast on a Gas Grill:
Ok, so now we know about brining and we have soaked that pork loin roast in the brining solution for at least 12 hours. It’s time to start thinking about how to cook this bad boy on the grill. Given the fact that these roasts are a little on the large side, we definitely want to cook them over indirect heat for a longer ammount of time. The process of roasting a pork loin on the grill is similar to roasting one in the oven, except for the smoke! So don’t forget about the smoke pouches for this one! Let’s take a look at the process in detail:

1. Remove the pork roast from the refrigerator at least 45 minute prior to cooking. We want to give it a little time to warm to room temperature, so remove it from the brining solution and leave it on a platter on the kitchen counter while we prep the grill and smoke pouches.
2. Prepare at least 2 smoke pouches worth of wood chips by soaking them in water for about 30 minutes. Once soaked, form the smoke pouches as detailed in this article.
3. After about 45 minutes, rinse and pat the pork roast dry.
4. Rub the pork loin with fresh ground black pepper.
5. Light the grill to high.
6. Once the grill is heated up, add the smoke pouches to the sides of the grill so they can start to smolder.
7. Sear the pork loin roast on all sides and create some of those nice grill marks that make us look like we know what we are doing!
8. Once the pork roast is seared, turn off the middle burner(s) on your grill to prepare for indirect grilling.
9. We want to elevate the pork roast a little so that we can place a drip pan underneath. If you are able to fit one under the grates, go ahead and do so. My grill doesn’t have a separate middle grate, so I use a rack (from a roasting pan) to elevate the roast. As you’ll notice in the photo, I didn’t have an aluminum drip pan so I made one out of aluminum foil .
10. Place the seared pork loin on the grate (or rack) fat side up! Roasting meats fat side up also aides in keeping them juicy!
11. We have mentioned this before, but don’t trust your grill’s built in thermometer. We want to roast this pork loin at around 300 degrees, so go ahead and place the thermometer right next to the pork loin on the grill.
12. Now close the lid and your job is done for at least an hour! Make sure you monitor the thermometer for the first 20 minutes or so to get the temperature right. Adjust the “on” burners to get the thermometer to 300 degrees. Also, keep an eye on the smoke pouches and add more if needed to keep that smoke going!
13. After about an hour, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast and then close the lid.
14. Continue cooking until the meat thermometer measures around 150 degrees.  This is where a good instant read meat thermometer comes in handy.  This Thermapen from ThermaWorks is the Cadillac. They also make a less expensive thermometer that works pretty good.
15. Remove the pork loin roast from the grill, place on a platter and cover with a tent of aluminum foil and allow to rest for about 15 minutes before carving.

I have done my share of grilling pork and I seriously do not recall ever eating a more delicious pork roast. The brining definitely kicked up the juiciness and tenderness of the pork loin. Taking the time to cook the pork slow over smoke adds just that much more flavor to this grill recipe. I made a lot in this case and I was happy to eat pork leftovers for about a week. I had sandwiches and even pork quesadillas and was upset to come home and find that my wife had thrown the rest of the roast away. I know it was getting old, I just didn’t want to let go!

Ingredients:
1 – 2 pounds pork tenderloin (2 tenderloins)
1/2 cup Soy sauce
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
4 cloves garlic (minced)
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Mix all of the marinade ingredients together and pour into a large Ziplock type bag.  Place the tenderloins in the bag and squeeze out as much air as possible before sealing.  Place the bag in the refrigerator and marinade for at least an hour, up to 24 hours.
2. Remove the tenderloins from the marinade about 30 minutes before you are ready to grill and allow to gently warm up on the counter.
3. Heat the grill to medium-high heat.
4. Now we have a tenderloin that has been soaked in some great flavors, we need to make sure we don’t screw it up on the grill!  The key to properly grilling a pork tenderloin is to evenly cook the pork through by grilling each of the four sides.  This cut of pork is tubular, so we want to roll it to each of the four sides while we grill.
5. Once the grill is heated, place the tenderloin on the grill and grill the first side for around 5 minutes (times vary per grill, you are looking for a nice crust to form like shown in the photo, but not too much charring!).
6. After 5 minutes, roll the tenderloin onto the the next side and grill for another 5 minutes.
7. You know the drill now, 5 minutes per side, until an instant thermometer reads around 150 degrees.
8. Allow the tenderloin to rest on a platter for about 10 minutes before you slice into it, we want those juices to redistribute.

Pork tenderloin is an awesome, lean cut of pork.  If you don’t have time to marinade, no sweat, it will be delicious with some Kosher salt and black pepper.  The key is to grill it properly, over high heat and turning often so you don’t dry it out.  If you do have the time though, try it marinated, it’s well worth the wait!

Get the kids involved in grilling

It’s Father’s Day and my wife says I am not allowed to cook.  For some reason, she thinks this is work for me, so my nightly act of “ug, I guess I’ll go out to the porch and get dinner going” seems to be working.  I’ve successfully made the porch, with it’s 36 inch TV with full cable, mini-refrigerator and grill seem like a BAD place to be.  My Fatherly and manly duty each night is to prepare our meal over an open flame, whether or not I can find a good game to watch.  Pure torture!

Well, today that impression my wife has of grilling has back-fired on me so I guess I am going to have to do some “back seat grilling”.  One way I am planning on getting around her not letting me grill is to get my son involved.  If he’s helping, seems like a pretty good bonding experience for Father’s Day, right?  The truth is, my little man is a great first mate around the grill.  He’s only 4 so I don’t let him get close enough to burn himself, but that doesn’t mean he can’t help.  So today I wanted to give you a couple of quick ideas to kids the kids involved in the grilling for this Father’s Day cookout.

1. Have them play Firefighter.  We all know to be vigilant when grilling certain meats that are more fatty than others.  Some grilled chicken recipes flare up quite a bit, grilled chicken wings is a good example.   Have the kids stand on a stool at a SAFE DISTANCE away from the grill.  Give him or her the squirt bottle, or even let them use a squirt gun with some fresh water.  When the flare-ups occur, they can squirt them down!
2. Have them build their own pizzas.  I don’t think I have ever met a child that didn’t like pizza.  Everyone wants their own toppings on a pizza, so why not have the kids make their own? All you have to do is man the grill like normal and they add the toppings.  If you don’t have a Villaware pizza grill that’s ok, just grill your pizza right on the grate.  You can’t even get fancy and make a gourmet pizza on the grill for the adults.
3. Help with the appetizers and sides.  As we all know, a good grilling meal needs a great supporting cast.  There are even more ways to get the kids involved in creating these side dishes to go along with your favorite grill recipes.  For example, have them mix all of the topping ingredients together for bruschetta while you toast the bread on the grill.  Kids love to mix stuff together, so just put all of the ingredients in separate bowls and have the kid combine them in a larger bowl and mix.  Coleslaw is another example of a side dish they can help prepare by mixing together the ingredients.

So there are 3 quick examples to get the kids involved in grilling.  If you are like me and you’d rather just cook this Father’s Day, say you need the bonding time with the kids.  Make sure you make it sound really painful though so you can continue to “escape” to the porch in the evenings to do your “job”.  Happy Father’s Day!

My wife was excited when I came home and asked if she wanted Mongolian Beef for dinner.  She thought I had read her mind, since she had evidently been craving Chinese.  Her mood suddenly shifted when I said I was going to cook it.  You see, I have never made Chinese food before and she knows that.  The moment I threw in the detail that I was going to try and cook my first Chinese food meal on the grill is the moment she started dialing the Chinese food restaurant.  A little coaxing and one glass of wine later, she started trusting me and let me get to work on the marinade.

I had been wanting to try to cook Mongolian Beef ever since I saw a recipe for it on blogchef.net.  I had a feeling that marinating and grilling the flank steak instead of frying would add a little different flavor to one of my favorite Chinese dishes.  Flank steak is the perfect cut of meat for marinating.  It tends to take on a lot of great taste from the marinade, more so than other cuts of meats.  Long story short, my theory was correct.  The Mongolian beef sauce made an excellent marinade and the grilled flank steak combined to make it the best Mongolian beef I have ever had (and probably healthiest as well).  Boiling the marinade for about 10 minutes removes any bacteria (thought there really shouldn’t be any as long as it is refrigerated) and allows us to reuse it as a sauce, so DON’T throw it out after you are done marinating!  Let’s take a look…

Ingredients:
1 pound Flank Steak
1/2 cup Soy sauce
Olive Oil
1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
3 tablespoons dry white wine
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tablespoon Ginger paste
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper flakes
1 bunch Green Onions (sliced into 1 inch pieces)
2 medium onions (sliced)

Directions:

1. Saute the garlic and ginger paste in about a tablespoon of Olive oil until fragrant (meaning until you smell the garlic cooking, but before it becomes a dark brown, bitter and burned).
2. Add the Soy sauce, wine, brown sugar and red pepper flakes and bring to a simmer, stirring until all of the brown sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat and allow to cool completely to room temperature.
3. Once the marinade is cooled completely to room temperature, place the flank steak into a resealable bag, pour in the marinade and place in the refrigerator.  Allow to marinate for at least 2 hours, flipping the bag over at least once.
4. Remove the flank steak from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you start the grill.  We want to let the flank steak heat up to room temperature before we put it on the grill.  DON’T throw away the marinade, we’re not done with it yet…
5. Light the grill and prepare to grill over direct, high heat.
6. While the grill is heating up, pour the marinade into a pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and simmer the marinade for at least 10 minutes to remove any bacteria.
7. Once the grill is hot, place the flank steak on the hottest part of the grill and let it go for about 5 minutes.
8. Heat 2 tablespoons of Olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat, preferably on a side burner so you can keep an eye on the flank steak.
9. Once the oil is hot, add the green and regular onions, stirring constantly.
10. After the first 5 minutes of grilling the flank steak, rotate 45 degrees so we can get those nice grill marks.
11. After another 3 – 4 minutes, flip the flank steak over and grill for another 3 – 4 minutes.
12. While the flank steak is grilling, keep stirring those onions so they don’t burn!  We want to get them to the point they are starting to caramelize but not burnt, reduce the heat as needed.
13. After the first 3 – 4 minutes of grilling the steak on the second side, rotate 45 degrees and grill for a final 3 – 4 minutes and remove from the grill.  Let the steak rest for 5 minutes.
14. While the steak is taking a break, add the sauce to the now caramelized onions and bring to a simmer.
15. Slice the steak AGAINST the grain into thin strips and then bite-sized pieces.
16. Add the sliced steak to the onions and sauce and continue to simmer for about 10 minutes to thicken. Combine a few teaspoons of corn starch with just enough water to dissolve and then stir into the sauce if it doesn’t seem to be thickening.
17. Server over some white rice and enjoy!

Chinese food on a gas grill?  You better believe it!  Give it a shot, my family was pleasantly surprised.  I’m now inspired and looking for other “traditional” Chinese dishes I can grill.  Got some inspiration?  Leave a comment.  I’ll throw it on the grill and take some photos along the way…