Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Hey all!

The wife will only eat so much beef – eventually the beef gauge reads full and I am charged with cooking something ‘poultryish’. When in doubt, I turned to my newest favorite grilling book – ‘Mastering the Grill’ - for something new and different.

Started the day off putting together the dry rub - parsley, salt, minced garlic, black pepper and dried rosemary. It made a bit to much for just one bird, but may have other uses, I will try it on some grilled potatoes this evening (as I have paid my penance, we are having steak and ‘taters tonight!)

Instead of a beer can stuffed up it’s, ah-hum, bottom to keep the bird moist, this one has the dry rub mixed in 2 tbs of butter. Once combined, the mixture is placed under the skin to keep the meat moist and tasty. Of course, everything tastes better with butter on it . . . .

While the recipe calls for grilling the bird for 90 minutes at 350 degrees F, I have ample experience in the realm of poultry cremation in the making of ‘Beer Can Chicken’ and decided to use the smoker instead. I kept the temp right at 220 degrees F for the entire time, the chicken came up to a temperature of 170 degrees in approximately 3 and a half hours.

Once the bird came to temp, I glazed if for the last 20 min of smoking. Hoisen sauce, garlic, chili paste, sesame oil and agave nectar are combined to make the glaze, which the authors called ‘Peking Crackle’. It is also brushed on the pears while grilling them. The pears were cut in quarters, cored and stems removed, placed on the grill and brushed with glaze until soft.

To complete the meal, we had foil pouch asparagus. Asparagus spears seasoned with butter, salt and pepper. They taste great and only needs about 10 min on the grill.

While we didn’t eat the whole chicken, it was delicious. The glazed pears were the perfect counterpoint to the basted chicken.

Laters,

Been a While - However, the Word of the Day is 'Beet'.

I have found a new, bestest grilling book evah!  It called 'Mastering the Grill' by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim. It is not just a collection of recipes but also has guides on how to select a grill, cut up a chicken (and no, it does not involve yelling "Lorie, come here!") and descriptions of the various types of fish or game commonly available.

The book is catagorized into two parts. Part One has 4 subdivisions: Grilling Equipment; Grilling Techniques; Typical Grilling Proteins; Typical Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades. Part Two is the collection of recipes. The authors have thoughtfully divided the recipes, not only by the protein, but also by the average grilling length.

Of course there are vegetable recipes included as well - which brings us back to the Word of the Day, 'Beets'. No, I do not mean the pickled beets used to color up a salad - real, raw, with leaves and stems still attached, beets. I was browsing through the vegetables section (okay, okay, so even I get tired of Ranch Beans once in a while) and saw the recipe for 'Barbequed Beets with Orange Honey Butter'. Thought what the heck, even if I don't like the beets, I can probably use the butter during breakfast.

So, off to the store, and come home with all the ingredients; all the while getting the 'Have you lost your ever loving mind' looks from someone who shall remain nameless (starts with an 'L'). Cleaned 'em up, made the butter, salted and peppered the beets and put them on the grill.

Forty minutes later, they really were soft and squishy. I pull them off, leave the skins on, slice 'em up and serve with the butter. Fan,fricking,tastic. If fact the beets tasted better than the Orange Honey Butter. Either I put to much of the orange zest in it, or I just don't really care for orange zest that much. Next time, it will be honey butter with maybe some orange juice.

Anyway, I'll try to update a bit more often.

Laters.