Mamma Mia! Ok, This isn’t going to be some Italiano marinara sauce chicken dish with fancy regional spices.  This is a simple marinade alternative using Italian dressing for chicken breasts.   It’s also my second simple marinade recipe within a month, so check out my post on Chops with Lawry’s Marinade.  Wow, I must be running short on time these days.

Just add chicken breasts to a bowl full of Italian dressing, or even use a Ziploc bag.  Let it marinade in the refrigerator for about 8 hours.

For chicken, I like to oil my grill first to help keep the chicken from sticking.  You can do this with a paper towel and vegetable oil, or using Pam grill spray.  Cook on medium heat for about 7-8 minutes per side.

Serve up with some easy sides like black beans and fruit cocktail.  Frozen veggies are always easy and are still healthy.  Broccoli makes for good brain food.

-GrillDude

Today, I am here to share some grilling woes with my Grill”Dud” Kabobs.  Man, is it tempting to just grab that pre-made kabob from the meat section.  All the meat and veggies are skewered nicely and seasoned to make these things ready to slap on the grill.  In fact, for the the novice, they even come with brief cooking instructions on the sticker.   And finally, the buy-one-get-one-free offer sealed the deal for me (this red sticker should have been the RED FLAG).

We bought chicken kabobs and beef kabobs.  Throwing the chicken kabobs on the grill a few minutes before the beef helped me get things off the grill at the same time.  The timing would make Chef Ramsey proud.

The great thing about cooking kabobs is that you can cheat by eating a chunk of meat to check for doneness.  Never admit that you are cheating though…..just claim that you are sampling your creation.  Before you know it, you will have eaten a whole kabob!  So, in the spirit of sampling my creation, my second sign of trouble was the slightly chewy beef. 

The wooden skewers did get a little burnt, so if you were preparing the kabobs yourself, you should soak the wooden skewers for about 1 hour prior to using them.

These kabobs had big chunks of meat on them and I was pretty proud that they were cooked to perfection and ready to head to the table.  At this point, I am not sure if I am lucky or unlucky to not have Chef Ramsey in my kitchen.  Going from the serving station to the table would have sent him into a frenzy of censored bleeps and the chewy, tasteless kabobs would have never made it to the table.  But….they did.

The best (or at least the most honest) critics are two kids under 7 and a hungry wife.  I didn’t get any censored bleeps from my diners, but their tired jaws were still able to flap out their disapproval.  No amount of A1 was going to save this one.  

After weeks of no blogging, and this is what you get?  Sorry….if you were looking for something inspirational today, check out a totally unrelated video “The Last Lecture“. It is over an hour, so you can check out the Wall Street Journal 5 minute overview.

-GrillDude

Two Dollar Dinner!  Well, 6 chicken legs for $1.93 ain’t bad.  Throw in some canned black beans and a grocery store fruit bowl and you have a family meal while the wife is out for girl’s night out.   And what kid doesn’t like chicken legs? Today, I didn’t want to mess with some extravagant recipe, so here ya have Simple Chicken Legs.  This gave me a chance to throw the football with my son and babysit the chicken every once in a while.

Ingredients

• 6 Chicken Legs
• 2 tsp Sea salt
• 2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• olive oil
• 2 tsp brown sugar

Lightly coat the legs with olive oil.  Sprinkle the remaining ingredients over the legs and shake them in a plastic bag or just work them around in a bowl.  Fire up a hot grill and throw the legs on the grill.  I usually cook them for about 40 minutes, turning them a quarter turn every 10 min.  Cook until about 175 degrees (don’t let the thermometer touch the bone).  Let them set for about 10-15 minutes before serving.

You may have started noticing that I normally don’t put a log of thought into side dishes.  I think the main reason for this is that this is how we usually eat.  It isn’t often that we plan some special recipe for the main entree, plus something artsy fartsy for the side dishes too.  And frankly, sometimes my side dishes may be not be a “culinarily” correct match to the entree.  Did I mention I am not a chef?

-GrillDude

A Super Bowl Sunday meal is all about those all-American favorites like hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, wings, chips and dip!  Leave it to GrillDude to do something non-traditional (but, still all-American).   And today, you get my first Brined Turkey, and of course, it’s on the Grill. I have to thank dubya for his comments on my Grilled Turkey blog, otherwise, I wouldn’t have tried this.

Here is the lowdown adapted from Alton Brown.

Brine Ingredients

• One 15 pound turkey thawed
• 1 cup sea salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon corriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

For the turkey cavity “soup”

• 1 sliced red apple
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cups water
• 4 garlic cloves

Other Ingredients

• Vegetable oil
• Fresh ground pepper

Combine all the Brine ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil.  Make sure the salt and sugar are dissolved.  Bring the temperature down by adding 1 gallon of cold water and chill it in the fridge for about 2 hours.

Find yourelf a large 5 gallon bucket or large pot (I used the pot that I used to make my wort in).  If you have been following along, it will need to be able to hold the 2 gallons of brine plus the turkey.  The turkey should be immersed completely fo about 10 hours.  If it is not immersed completely, flip it over halfway through.

While you get your grill warming up with indirect heat, combine all of the turkey cavity “soup” ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil and let it boil for for about 2 more minutes.

Take the turkey out of the brine and rinse with cold water.  Put it on a roasting rack and pour the cavity soup into…..you guessed it….the cavity!  Coat the turkey with vegetable oil and season the outside liberally with salt and pepper.

Put about a quart of water in the roasting pan to help keep the bird moist.  Throw the roasting pan on the grill for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours until the breast reaches 170 degrees.  Let the turkey sit about 20 minutes before carving.

I got great compliments from my Super Bowl guests on the flavor (not that they would tell me it was lame).   Ahhh….turkey sandwiches for lunch!

I think next time I might try smoking it with apple wood.

 -GrillDude

Sometimes I will tear up the chicken meat and make chicken fajitas with black beans, salsa, cheese, lettuce, etc.  Other times, I will just cut up the chicken with kitchen scissors into drumsticks, thighs, breasts, and wings.  The kids always love the drumsticks.

Depending on ingredients that I have around the house, I might switch a few ingredients and/or leave out the smoked wood chips but, here is a good recipe you can work from. 

 Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• ½ white onion, chopped
• 1 can of beer
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• ½ stick of butter
• 1-2 cups of wood chips soaked in water for an hour (hickory or mesquite)
• 1 cup of chicken broth

Other Items (see my post on Top Grilling Accessories)

• Beer Butt Chicken Holder
• Injector

Cooking Instructions:

Create the chicken rub with 1 tablespoon of freshly ground pepper, 1 tablespoon sea salt, 1 tablespoon paprika, and optional 1 tablespoon brown sugar.

Create the injector sauce with 1 cup of chicken broth and 1 tablespoon of the chicken rub.

Clean the thawed chicken with cold water and remove neck, giblets and all the other junk inside.  Drink ½ of the beer.  Put chopped onion and ½ of the garlic in the can of beer and put beer can in the beer butt chicken rack. 

Rub 1 tablespoon of butter inside chicken, then rub 1 tablespoon of rub inside chicken.  Pull the chicken over the beer can.  Liberally coat the chicken with butter using the stick of butter over the chicken.  Rub the rest of the chicken rub on the chicken.  If there is any butter left, I just set it on top of the neck cavity so that the butter can melt in and on the chicken as it cooks.

Inject the chicken in the breasts, thighs, and drumsticks.  I usually end up throwing out ½ of the injector sauce…..but having this much makes it easier to draw the sauce into the injector since mine has a whole about an inch up the needle.  I have a hard time trying to draw the sauce into the needle if there isn’t much sauce left.

Create a foil packet of wood chips, poke a few holes and place directly on the burner.

Cook on indirect heat for about 1 ½ to 2 hours.  I usually maintain a 310-330 degree heat. The lid should remain closed for the duration of the cooking.  Once the thigh reaches 180 degrees, it should be done cooking.  You should notice clear juices dripping from the chicken.  This is the point where I start my veggies over the fire.  The chicken can remain on the grill to keep it warm, but it shouldn’t cook much now that the lid is open.

Side Options

For fajitas, you can cook up some bell peppers.  I usually will use about 3 (1 yellow, 1 red, and 1 green), each cut into 6 pieces so that they don’t fall thru the grill.  Grill these for about 15 minutes on high, flipping once so that you get a good browning on both sides.

Again, for fajitas, you can cut a white onion into thick ½ inch thick disks.  It makes it easier to turn them on the grill without them falling apart if they are thick.  Cook for about 15 minutes, turning once. 

You can also cook corn on the cob in the husks. Soak them in water for about an hour before cooking so the husks don’t easily burn.  Cook on high for about 15-20 minutes…rotating occasionally.

Notes

To spice things up, you can add 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the rub.

If you have more chicken broth left over (after using the 1 cup), save it for leftovers.  If you reheat the chicken in the microwave, add some chicken broth to help keep it moist.

-GrillDude

Gobble, Gobble! 

Great timing for this topic.  Each year, Thanksgiving dinner rotates between family members which means that I don’t cook the turkey very often (and don’t get leftovers).  This has given me the chance to try to perfect my grilled turkey on my household without risking a catastrophe on a larger family event…..AND, I have an entire turkey’s worth of leftovers.

Below is an adaptation from several recipe sources and some trial and error:

Injector Sauce:

• 1.5 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons rub (recipe follows)

For the Turkey:

• 1 turkey, thawed (I usually try to get a 15 lb fresh bird)
• 4 tablespoons rub (recipe follows)
• 1 tablespoon butter

Rub

• 3 tablespoons kosher or sea salt (finely ground)
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 3 tablespoons ground pepper (finely ground)
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Also Need

• Kitchen syringe
• 4 cups Wood chips (I like hickory) soaked an hour in water
• Aluminum Foil

1. Remove the giblets, and the neck and any other junk in the turkey cavity and rinse the inside with cold water. Season the inside of the turkey with 2 tablespoons of the rub.
2. Combine and mix the chicken stock and 2 tablespoons of rub in a bowl for the injector sauce. Fill the kitchen syringe with the injector sauce and inject the breast thighs and drumsticks. Repeat until run out of sauce or the turkey is fat and juicy.  Make sure to use a good syringe that will allow the chunks of spices thru the needle. I picked up a good one at Barbeques Galore – http://www.bbqgalore.com/accessories/utensils/219709
3. Tie the drumsticks together with butcher’s string. Rub the outside with butter and season the outside thoroughly. Put the turkey in a turkey pan or large disposable pan.
4. Prep 2 foil packets with wood chips that have been. Bring grill up to high to get the first foil packet smoking directly over the flame. If you have a smoker box, you can use that instead of aluminum foil packet. Turn heat to medium (325-350) and cook with indirect heat with a closed lid.
5. About 1 hour into cooking (see Cooking Times below), add the second wood chip foil packet directly over the flame. Cook until t reaches 170 degrees or thigh reaches 180 degrees. If the bird begins to get too crispy, you can cover with aluminum foil.
6. Let the turkey rest covered for 20 minutes before carving.

Cooking time will vary with the size of your turkey. An 8-12 pound turkey will take about 2-3 hours, 12-16 pounds will take about 3-4 hours.  16 to 20 pounds will be about 4-5 hours.

Enjoy!  And let me know if you have any tips of your own.  I will post pictures after I cook my Thanksgiving Turkey this year.