130. Gas-Grilled Bone-In Chicken Breasts

Date Cooked: March 16, 2010
Page: 609
Rating: B

Ever since we won our grill last summer I have been a lot more enthused about grilling, and now that winter was beginning to close I figured I should fire it up and make sure it was ready for a new season. Grilled chicken sounded like a reasonably simple meal and I figured a rub or paste would spice things up.

Preparation for this meal was not exactly tough. I didn’t brine the chicken due to time constraints and the paste was pretty quick to throw together, so this recipe was all about the grill. I will confess. I am not a griller. While I have made big strides in the kitchen I still struggle on the grill, constantly double guessing myself and prone to burn food. I wouldn’t call what I do grilling… I’d probably call it arson. Isn’t grilling supposed to be buried deep in the male DNA? Or is it buried so deep in mine it got lost? Anyway let’s see how this first foray into grilling for the season turned out.

I spread the Asian spice paste on the skin side of the chicken breasts before placing them on the hot grill skin side down. While the skin side seared I spread the paste on the chicken’s other side. Once the skin side had sufficiently burned, I flipped it to burn the other side. I suppose referring to it as burning isn’t to promising is it. After searing both sides I moved the chicken to the cooler side of the grill to finish cooking. After several minutes I returned to a hot smoking grill to remove the charred poultry remains.

Rating: B-. I didn’t hate this recipe but I need to figure out how to better understand my grill temperature. The chicken wasn’t overcooked except for the outside of it which was well beyond overcooked. I wish I could really comment on the taste of the Asian spice paste but I have no idea what it really tasted like since it was pretty much burned off. I really must not skip brining, but it is so hard to find that hour to brine when I get home from work.

113. Grilled Flank Steak Rubbed with Latin Spices

Date Cooked: October 25, 2009
Page: 574
Rating: A-

Flank steak is an easy meal. We decided to have some fajitas at home and this time I figured I would use one of the variations for the flank steak since I had already prepared Classic Fajitas before. This was a very simple recipe to throw together. A mixture of cumin, chili powder, ground coriander, salt, black pepper, cinnamon and red pepper flakes was rubbed on the flank steak before grilling.

The flank steak was grilled for about 5 minutes a side. The steak was then tented with foil and allowed to rest for 10 minutes.

Rating: A-. The spice rub really added some nice flavor to the meat. And this meal was on the table in under 30 minutes! I wish I had more to say about this but it was so easy. I just need to make sure I always have these spices on hand.

99. Pantry Spice Rub for Chicken

Date Cooked: September 12, 2009
Page: 610
Rating: B

I decided to do some chicken on the grill and figured I might as well try one of the rubs from the book to go with it. I’ll confess, I was a plain food eater for a long time and I was fine with it. Still am. I would eat plain pork chops, plain chicken, plain beef. The only seasoning would be salt and pepper and something at the table from a bottle. I am beginning to realize I have been missing out on an entire world of flavor!

This rub was as simple as mixing several different spices and seasonings together in a bowl. We have cumin, allspice, curry powder, cinnamon, black pepper, and chili powder. Not the most challenging recipe but only recently have I begun keeping fresh spices in the house. I used to have just the basics and some others that were probably several years old. The Bulk Barn has helped me keep smaller quantities on hand so they don’t sit around for years.

This rub was applied to brined and dried chicken before the chicken hit the grill. When I say applied, I mean I practically encrusted the chicken using all of the rub. Even though this post is about the Pantry Spice Rub, let’s discuss the grilling. Chicken drips a lot of fat and that fat likes to burn. I placed the seasoned chicken thighs on the grill and closed the lid. I was supposed to sear each side for 1-2 minutes before allowing it to cook through on the cooler side of the grill. Well when I opened the lid I had flames licking out from all over. It was a mini bonfire in my grill! I struggled to remove the chicken without burning my hands and was only marginally successful. So for the rest of the cooking time I need to constantly spray water to keep the flames down while the chicken cooked.

In the end the chicken looked like this:

Rating: B. Despite the look of the chicken the flavor of the spice rub was very dominant and did not taste really burnt. What I did notice was that the skin retained a lot of the salt from the brine. The rub was good and while I may not necessarily make this one again I will definitely look for others to use.

98. Gas-Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Date Cooked: August 22, 2009
Page: 586
Rating: A

Pork tenderloin is one of those cuts of meat I was always intimidated by. I felt it was a high quality cut and therefore difficult to prepare well. I am slowly realizing how much of an idiot I am. I am spending too much time letting perceptions of food interfere with cooking and enjoying it. One thing I have absolutely learned from this project is that my perceptions are faulty and I need to discard them. Pork tenderloin on a grill could not be easier.

I started by brining the pork tenderloins in salt and sugar for an hour. During this brine process I prepared the Asian Wet Rub and then fired the grill. Once the tenderloins had been rinsed and patted dry I coated them in the rub and set them on the grill. The sizzle as they hit the hot grill was a beautiful sound.

They were grilled for 2 minutes a side at high heat and then I let them cook over low heat for a few more minutes until the internal temperature reached 145. I then removed them and let them rest. I’ve done a fair bit of reading with regards to the internal temperature of pork and have come to the conclusion that when 145-150 is reached and then left to rest I get a much nicer meal. When the temperature reaches too high I might as well cook the plastic tray the pork came in.

Rating: A. I like pork so I am a little biased. I was surprised at how easy it was to prepare and cook this meal and the pork was moist and full of flavor and the rub was delicious on it. I will definitely be cooking much more pork tenderloin in the future.

97. Asian Wet Rub

Date Cooked: August 22, 2009
Page: 587
Rating: B

I made this wet rub for some pork tenderloin I was going to grill. I have been working hard through the grilling section of the book this summer and I am loving it. The new grill helps. I figured if I was going to grill some pork tenderloin I might as well utilize one of the rub recipes in the book also. Two recipes in one is an efficient way to cook through the book I believe. I am always looking for shortcuts to accomplish a task. Some will call it efficiency, others call it laziness. But enough about my personal work ethic and on to the recipe!

So some garlic, scallions and ginger were minced and then mixed with light brown sugar, hoisin sauce, toasted sesame oil, salt and some red pepper flakes. The rub was left for an hour to let the flavors do some socializing and then it was ready for use.

Rating: B. It was a pretty tasty rub for the pork. Nothing that blew my mind but it definitely beat plain pork tenderloin (which can be fantastic anyway). The rub lent a nice sweet heat to the pork.

95. Grilled Corn with Soy-Honey Glaze

Date Cooked: August 10, 2009
Page: 158
Rating: B-

This dish was an afterthought as I was cooking up some leftovers. This recipe is basically grilled corn that gets a glaze after the initial grilling and then spends a few more minutes on the grill to caramelize it. We had some grilled corn the night before with several cobs left over. I figured this would be a good use for the corn.

An extremely simple recipe to make, I basically reduced equal parts honey and soy sauce and then generously coated the cobs of corn before putting them on the grill for a few minutes.

Rating: B-. I don’t know if it the fact that they get grilled a second time or because I used corn that had been sitting in the fridge overnight but the corn was definitely cooked a little too much. The kernels didn’t have enough crispness to them. The flavor was good but the soy sauce was definitely dominant and not sweetened enough by the honey. If doing this again I would cook the corn a little less the first time on the grill and I would probably use more honey than soy sauce.

94. Grilled Asparagus with Orange-Sesame Vinaigrette

Date Cooked: August 7, 2009
Page: 135
Rating: B-

I almost didn’t realize it but this is my 100th post! While it’s not the 100th recipe posted from the book, that is still to come and a milestone I am looking forward to, it does mark a commitment to something I wasn’t really sure I was going to stick with, especially back in May and June. I’m glad I have stuck with it and I am really enjoying trying new things and learning new (and sometimes basic) techniques. Well on with the show!

You may have noticed that I cook an abundant amount of asparagus from the book. The actual number at this moment is 50 percent of the recipes in the vegetable chapter cooked so far are asparagus recipes. That’s a lot of asparagus! I used to actually hate this stuff. Well this was the last grilled asparagus option in the book so I figured why not give it a try. Sounded tasty!

The recipe is basically a grilled asparagus recipe with a vinaigrette added to it. I started by prepping the vinaigrette. And the very first step to that was to toast some sesame seeds. Toasting seeds… in fact toasting anything in this manner is something I had never done until I started this project. So as I toast each ingredient for the first time I am trying to figure out when something looks done and smells done. I think I may have done a good job with the sesame seeds. Of course I didn’t do anything else while they were toasting for fear they would quickly turn into something akin to tiny pieces of charcoal. Time really does crawl when watching something cook. I think paint drying is more exciting to watch.

Once the seeds were toasted I went to work on the rest of the vinaigrette. The recipe really should just be called, sesame vinaigrette. Along with the toasted sesame seeds, I added toasted sesame oil and tahini along with some olive oil. I also added some rice vinegar and of course some orange juice (freshly squeezed!). Once it was whisked together I took a little taste. I will withhold commenting until later. I let the vinaigrette rest while I finished grilling the asparagus.

Grilling asparagus on my new grill is much easier. They don’t seem to slip through the grate like they did on my old grill. The asparagus was tossed with some EVOO, salt and pepper before being placed on the grill. In about 7 minutes I have nice tender, tasty asparagus.

I then ruined it by pouring some vinaigrette on it.

Rating: B-. The only thing preventing this from being a C is that I like asparagus and it has a strong enough flavor to shine through the vinaigrette. The vinaigrette is strongly flavored of toasted sesame. It needs to be better balanced. I don’t know if it’s the ingredients I used but I ended up mixing in some more orange juice and that did seem to balance it out. I doubt I would make this again as written.

93. Grilled Hamburgers with Garlic, Chipotles, and Scallions

Date Cooked: August 7, 2009
Page: 449
Rating: B+

I’m still on a grilling kick and I have been trying to use my grill a lot more this summer, especially since I won the new one. I figured I would try my hand at burgers again considering my previous failure with them. I am not as dense as those previous burgers were though and this time I picked up ground beef that had a higher fat content. I will spoil the ending by saying that it changed things greatly.

I might have deviated a little from this recipe. I’m supposed to start with 1 ½ pounds of ground beef but once I had measured it out I felt it looked a bit... weak? I figured I would just add the rest of the package since I wasn’t really going to freeze a ½ pound. So I am already courting failure but increasing the amount of prime ingredients. The next step was to mix in minced scallions, chipotle chile in adobo sauce and garlic… okay I need to back up a step.

Let’s talk about garlic. Ladies and Gentleman, this was my very first attempt at dry roasting garlic (not counting roasting it in the oven with other foods), and since I had never done it before I didn’t quite know what to expect. After toasting them on the stove I removed them and was marveled at how soft they become and how much more fragrant, as well as the fact that the bitterness mellows out completely. I loved it! So they were minced and thrown into the ground beef.

Some salt and pepper added to season and then I got my hands dirty. There is a relaxing aspect to working the ground beef with bare hands. The only problem is you have to be careful not to overwork it so the relaxation needs to end. Once everything was mixed I left my math and reading skills behind and began to form the patties. Somewhere in my mind I thought the book wanted six patties (from an initial 1 ½ pounds) meaning scrawny little 4oz patties. This was unacceptable so I made fewer of them but larger. I ended up with 5 of them from the two pounds I used, around 6.5 oz each. Turns out that as I review the recipe while typing this that I was illiterate. The original amounts were supposed to make 4 patties not the 6 I had assumed. If you are as confused about this paragraph as I am then don’t worry. I’ll summarize it as follows. It all worked out in the end.

Once the patties were formed with their little divot in the middle (to help them cook up a more uniform thickness), I prepped the grill which had been heating up nicely. The burgers only took a few minutes on each side to cook through nicely. They were removed and left to rest for a few minutes while I grilled up a side dish.

Rating: B+. Definitely getting better. The chile came through nicely but I felt that the garlic and scallions were lost in the burger. The burger definitely turned out moist although a little smaller than I would have liked. I can see myself practicing many burger variations in the coming weeks. I am having my doubts that these burger recipes are the “best” though.

91. Gas-Grilled Strip Steaks

Date Cooked: August 6, 2009
Page: 564
Rating: A

A few weeks ago my wife and I spent some time at our bank taking advantage of the excellent mortgage rates and doing a little adjusting of our finances. In the process we put our names in for a draw for a new grill. Well it turns out we won it! I was very happy especially since we were looking to buy a new grill at the end of the summer season and now I can put that money towards something else! So of course there is only one thing to do with a new grill and that is to try it out.

To break in the grill I figured nothing was better than a good steak. So a quick trip to the store and I picked up a nice strip steak. As my wife is still away, I picked up just a small one for myself. I notice that I tend to eat a lot of strip steaks and need to start trying the different cuts to determine if I can tell and appreciate the difference.

I fired up the grill with ease. My old grilled had the electric starter break on it so I was constantly sticking matches in to light it. The problem was one side would light while the other burner would take a bit to get going. I frequently had mini explosions when lighting the grill. I would literally have to take a few steps back to avoid facial hair loss. This new one seems so much safer!

While the grill was heating up I seasoned the steak with just salt and pepper. Once the grill was hot enough I placed the steak on the grills and listened to it sizzle. 2 minutes per side and then I moved it over to the cooler side to finish cooking for another 6 minutes. I like my steaks more on the rare side.

I am pretty proud of the grill marks on the steak, something my old grill never seemed able to produce. On a side note I did singe the hairs on my arm without realizing it. The grill can throw off some serious heat!

Rating: A. The steak turned out great although it was a little more on the well-done side of medium than I would have liked. That is simply learning the new grill and I am excited to learn!

89. Gas-Grilled Pork Chops

Date Cooked: July 31, 2009
Page: 583
Rating: A

I am a fan of pork. It is a meat that I thoroughly enjoy the taste and texture of. When cooked properly. Nothing can be worse than a dry pork chop. So I was happy to see that this recipe starts with brining the pork chops in a mixture of salt and sugar. The brining is meant to help keep the pork chops juicy and boost their flavor. The book recommends rib or center-cut loin chops and while at the grocery store I picked up center-cut loin chops because they were thicker. Pork chops should be about 1 ½ inches thick and maintain a uniform thickness. My chops weren’t that thick unfortunately. I am still searching for a local butcher that can provide me with my meat needs without paying a hefty premium for the service. Until I do I will be reduced to the supermarket offerings.

The chops brined for a little over an hour while I prepped the rest of the meal. Once the brining was complete I patted them dry and seasoned them liberally with the spice rub from the previous post. When I say liberally I mean they were encrusted with the rub.

I am getting better at grilling. Or more importantly I am getting more confident on the grill. I had one side of the grill set to high and the other side to medium. The pork chops were grilled about 3 minutes per side over the hot section of the grill before being cooked for another 7 minutes over the cooler section. When they were done the chops looked and smelled great.

They were served with a peach salsa (covered in the next post but you can see from the picture above).

Rating: A. The only real improvement I could have made to these chops would have been to get thicker ones. These chops were delicious with the rub really accenting the juicy and flavorful pork. I am craving these again as I type this. I might need to make some pork chops tonight!

84. Gas-Grilled Bone-In Chicken Thighs

Dated Cooked: July 7, 2009
Page: 608
Rating: A-

Its summer grilling season and I intend to make good use of the grill this year. I figured chicken should be easy enough and something can only be stored in the freezer for so long. Once the chicken thighs had thawed I brined them.

** Please hold for this important culinary announcement. The night before I had cooked some chicken without brining it and I must say it just shouldn’t be done. I know, you are probably tired of me praising the virtues of brined poultry so I promise to make this my last tirade. Brine your chicken! DO IT! No excuses! Your chicken will be better for it. Okay done. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. **

When the grill was hot enough I removed the chicken from the brine, patted it dry and then seasoned it with salt and pepper. The chicken was grilled on high heat to give a nice crust before cooking it over lower heat to cook through. I am one of those people always scared to undercook chicken but I am beginning to trust myself a little more and rely on the meat thermometer to tell me when it’s done. Although I need that less and less all the time. When the chicken was done it was plated to eat.

Rating: A-. Simple and delicious chicken that was juicy and full of flavor with a nice crispy skin. Couldn’t ask for more… well actually I could ask for more since chicken thighs aren’t that big.

83. Grilled Asparagus with Grilled Lemon Vinaigrette

Date Cooked: July 7, 2009
Page: 134
Rating: B

My parents were down visiting for a week and now that we are into summer I am feeling the need to use the grill. And since I have done very few grilled recipes I figured this was a good time to start. We had several bunches of asparagus left over from a party we held on the weekend and tossing them on the grill would be a simple way to prepare them.

I started by tossing the trimmed asparagus in oil, salt and pepper. Once the grill was hot enough I placed them on to cook. I also added a halved lemon to the grill. While they were cooking I finely chopped some shallots and added them to a bowl with thyme, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and the juice from the grilled lemon. I whisked up the vinaigrette and drizzled it over the asparagus. Well drizzled is such a fine technique. I actually dropped clumps of shallots on the dish.

Rating: B. I enjoyed this preparation of asparagus but I had two complaints. The vinaigrette was very lemony, not bad just strong lemon flavor. In addition, the asparagus spears were thin and cooked rapidly on the grill. This would probably be better with thicker spears.

52. Classic Fajitas

Date Cooked: January 10, 2009
Page: 575
Rating: B

For those of you that like my blog more when I fail than when I succeed, you will be pleased with this one. My wife loves fajitas and this dinner was for her. There was a slight ulterior motive to preparing this dish though. I’ll explain my motive before moving on. Several recipes in the book reference other recipes as components. These fajitas for example reference a recipe for Charcoal-Grilled Flank Steak. So by cooking fajitas I am actually completing two recipes. But it doesn’t stop there. Several recipes are technique specific and I decided awhile ago that I would count all technique recipes completed when I finished one. In this particular case, as with almost all recipes in the grilling section, there is a charcoal-grilled version and a gas-grilled version. I have a gas-grill so I use that version, but I count both as complete. So for those who are counting, cooking fajitas alone completes three recipes from the book. Enough about the technical details of how I am completing this project and onto the disaster... I mean Fajitas!

Flank steak is expensive. I was always led to believe that it was an inexpensive cut but it isn’t. It tastes great, it’s easy to cook, so it costs more. They say the rise in popularity of fajitas has helped drive prices up and I can believe that. Anyway I made the trip to the grocery store in the evening hoping that they had reduced some of the meat from the meat counter display. No luck. I don’t want to sound cheap but I believe I should be able to cook a recipe for cheaper than I can go to a restaurant to eat it. Anyway I am rambling something fierce today, can’t seem to get my thoughts in order.

Once home I fired up the grill. Well actually I dug it out of the snow and moved it a little closer to the door. Not sure about the rest of you but I’m sick of snow. So I got the grill fired up and left to get everything else prepped. Basically chop some onions, and some red and green peppers into large pieces. I took the liberally seasoned flank steak out to the grill and dropped it on to hear a beautiful sizzle and then a pouff. Pouff?? Is that a really word or an attempt to spell a sound? The flame went out. I immediately panicked because I knew what it meant. I was out of propane! I belted out a few expletives into the cold snowy night and then checked the gas dials and the propane valve to make sure everything was in fact open. It was and I was out of luck. This is what really kills me. I already dropped the steak on the grill or else I would have packed it all up and cooked it the next night.

So I did what no one else should. I set a skillet on the stove and blasted it to high. I let the skillet cook itself for a few minutes before dropping the steak into it. The steak and skillet angrilly hissed at each other for a few minutes before I flipped it over to caramelize the other side. Once completed I removed it from the skillet and tented it with foil while I cooked up the vegetables (which should have been done on the grill as well). When all was done I heated some tortillas and served the meat and vegetables with the chunky guacamole and classic red tomato salsa.

Rating: B. Obviously this didn’t go as expected and much of the rating is influenced by the event. But in reality the fajitas were just ok. I will attempt this again with a full tank of propane (one day I will get a natural gas BBQ, or even a charcoal grill). Part of me likes getting a searing hot skillet spitting angry liquids set in front of me at a restaurant anyway. It adds to the excitement as only the risk of horrible burns can. I love when they tell me to “watch out for the skillet, its hot”, I mean the charred wood platter its resting in and the blast furnace mitts you are handing it to me in didn’t give that away. I would also appreciate it if maybe you didn’t set it in reach of my toddler. Just a suggestion the lawyers for the restaurant might appreciate. Sorry, my train of thought derailed somewhere back there.

15. Grilled Corn

Date Cooked: September 7th, 2008
Page: 157
Rating: A-

Grilled corn, where should I begin? I’ve already prepared corn on the grill several times this summer but I will admit I am new to grilling corn. My brother-in-law mentioned how much he enjoyed it that way, so I figured why not give it a go. I’ll run through the various learning highlights.

The first attempt prior to this project was just throwing the whole cob on the grill with husk and silk intact. This was fun as the husk blackened and fine wisps of ash and charred silk wafted all around covering everything in close proximity to the grill. It was even more fun when the corn was done and I had to peel these crumbling charred messes. In this paragraph you can interchangeably use ‘fun’ and ‘horrible’. The corn though was amazing!

The next attempt came at the instruction of the book where all but the inner layer of husk was removed and the silk was trimmed. This had a better roasted flavor to the corn, especially where the corn kernels were exposed to the grill and developed as nice deep brown color. I really liked the darkened kernels.

So for this latest attempt I went with the same instructions as the book but cooked the corn a little longer. Amazing! I love the blackened kernels. They practically burst with flavor (and a few actually did burst) as the sweet flavor concentrated as the water evaporated. I really wish corn wasn’t going out of season.

The corn was served with the lime-cilantro butter and it was good. The sweet corn paired nicely with the butter. I am a fan of grilled corn and I can’t imagine going back to boiled corn on the cob. Of course I have to simply because there is a recipe for boiled corn on the cob. Maybe I’ll boil it, snap some photos and then toss it on the grill!

I have seen several mentions lately of soaking the corn in water before grilling it. I assume this probably cuts down on the charring of the husk before it is completely cooked. I may try this in the future since husking charred corn is not a character building task. It’s just plain horrible.

Rating: This dish gets an A- since it is now my benchmark for all future corn recipes. I love grilled corn.

12. Grilled Hamburgers with Blue-Cheese

Date Cooked: September 5th, 2008
Page: 448

I really wanted to use the grill and I wanted something simple to put together so I figured what could be easier than hamburgers. The ‘Best’ book is pretty simple with regards to hamburgers. Ground beef, salt and pepper, that’s it. I kept thinking there needed to be more but the book really emphasizes the quality of the ground beef and from which cut of beef it is ground from. I of course didn’t heed this information because I already had extra-lean ground sirloin thawed in the fridge. Wow, I won’t make that mistake ever again.

There was a variation in the book for adding blue-cheese and since we still had some (got to love Costco), I mixed it in with the ground beef and seasonings. The ‘Best’ book has this wonderful method for forming the patties and for pressing a divot in the middle to help them cook evenly. I tossed them on my nice hot grill and listened to the beautiful sound of the meat searing on the metal grills. I paid very careful attention to the cooking times recommended and made sure not to press the burgers to keep them juicy. They cooked up nicely and looked great. I brought them inside to serve up with the rest of the meal.

After dressing the burger the way I like (which is pretty minimal), I took my first bite. I was expecting a nice juicy flavorful burger. What I got was a flavor and texture akin to pressed cardboard. The only flavor was in the second bite when I got a nice chunk of blue cheese. I’ll be honest, these were downright horrible. I can only assume that they were dry because the ground beef was extra-lean. The ‘Best’ book recommends a meat mixture with a fat content that puts it between regular and lean. It also recommends the use of ground chuck since it is a more flavorful cut. In fact it specifically states that sirloin produces a bland burger. But I figured their bland might still be decent. I won’t assume I know what I’m doing. I’ll heed these instructions in the future.

So my past two attempts from the ‘Best’ book have been dismal. Let’s see if I do better with the next one.