Grilling favorites

[sailor55330]

There's been a fair amount of activity about grilling lately and various techniques. I thought I'd start a thread about preparations or techniques (seasonings, smoking, rubs) or ways that you do things that others might enjoy. Here's a very simple one to start that takes zero skill

Crispy baked potatoes.

Make sure the potatoes are very will scrubbed and clean, then perforate repeatedly

Take your baked potatoes and cook them in the microwave as per the oven's directions

Wet your hands and cover them in sea salt. Then rub the cooked potatoes as if you were working a baseball like a pitcher. You don't want to crust the potatoe, but there should be a fair amount of salt on the skin.

Put the potatoes on the warming rack of the grill while you cook your other items. I usually leave them on about 20-25 minutes in total. The skins become almost potato chip crispy while the insides are almost mashed potatoe creamy when you add butter.

LOML found this one.

[toolguy1000]

recipes? i thought the only recipes allowed here were things like cuts of shellac, or mixes for wiping varnish. steaks? potatoes? sea salt? what's next, paula dean and bobby flay making guest appearances?

[leehljp]

recipes? i thought the only recipes allowed here were things like cuts of shellac, or mixes for wiping varnish. steaks? potatoes? sea salt? what's next, paula dean and bobby flay making guest appearances?

Man has to eat between making sawdust and gettin glue all over the hands and it may as well be tasty! I like steak and potatoes with my "coffee"!

I am going to try that potato recipe. I forgot to mention on the other post in "smoking" that I have a grill and smoker next to each other and I often use both at the same time as well as one or the other - depending on my mood and request.

[JimD]

My grilling is very basic. I've determined frozen hamburger patties (I prefer the garlic flavored ones) take about 10 minutes per side. Frozen chicken breast about 15 minutes per side. Side burner is better than using the stove - keeps the heat out of the house where it would have to be removed by the AC. I use it to make pasta most often. Kraft BBQ sauce on the chicken breast is pretty good. A tub of Walmart potato salad in the fridge and some frozen vegitables in the freezer and you are set up for some quick eats. I heat the vegetables in the microwave in tuperware. Takes about 3 minutes to steam up enough for one. 6 minutes will do enough for 4.

Jim

[jackellis]

In the summer, we grill fish (mostly Pacific salmon), tri-tip, steak, a lot of chicken, and occasionally ribs, all over a charcoal grill.

For fish, brush both sides with olive oil, then five minutes per side per inch of thickness over direct heat.

For steak, season as you like (we use a little garlic salt), then cook over direct heat.

Everything else is over indirect heat (coals on the side, food in the middle over a drip pan).

Tri-tip requires around 45 minutes, depending on the size. Cook with the fat side up. My wife prepares the rub.

Chicken requires 30 minutes per side. We usually slather the chicken in some kind of store bought marinade before putting it on the grill.

I'm just getting familiar with ribs. Gonna try hickory chips and slow cooking tomorrow as an experiment.

The secret is to time everything carefully. For fish and chicken, you want to cook it until just done. Any more and it dries out.

My wife claims no one makes better grilled fish or chicken than I do.

[drillman88]

Jalapenos

This is one of my favorites. They are addictive so grill at your own risk. I generally cook at least a dozen whole peppers. I remove the seeds and membrane to reduce the heat so my wife can enjoy them.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/grilled...ps/detail.aspx

[L. D. Jeffries]

Just a dumb eastener; whats "tri-tip"?

[Richard in Smithville]

This is one of my favorites. They are addictive so grill at your own risk. I generally cook at least a dozen whole peppers. I remove the seeds and membrane to reduce the heat so my wife can enjoy them.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/grilled...ps/detail.aspx

I'll have to try that one. I brush hot and sweet peppers with olive oil, grill a few minutes each side, and serve with marinara sauce.

[unknown poster]

Just a dumb eastener; whats "tri-tip"?

It's a triangular steak from the sirloin. It's mostly a western thing, eastern butchers usually throw it in the grinder.


One of my favorite grilled side is similar to sailor's baked potato. I use yukons, but anything will work. Cut the potato into quarters lengthwise (yukons aren't too big, cut larger tubers like a russet into sixths or eights). Rub with some canola oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place on the grill over medium heat for 25-30 minutes, flipping half way. The outside gets crisp and the inside gets mushy, similar to a french fry but without frying. I call them steak fries, but they're really potato wedges.

[schloff]

I make something called "Code-Man Chicken". Named after my nephew who came up with it.

Pound boneless skinless flat, coat with olive oil, season with lemon and lime juices, lightly dust with salt, pepper and garlic. Then give them a heavy coat of cumin. Grill or pan fry till chicken is done. It takes a very short amount of time as they are flat (and tender).

Incredible. Serve with some sort of rice. And a pale ale (or lemonade, whoever is allowed).

[alpha]

One of our recent favorites is pizza. We like chicken pizza using Momma Mary's thin crust. You get 2 crusts with the sauce in a package. Coat the crust top and bottom with canola oil. Spread pre-cooked chicken pieces, sauce, and black olives. Pop on the gas grill for about 8 minutes or so.

We also like the sausage pizza made with Johnsonville Italian sausage. Cut it out of the tubes and fry it. Add whatever you like, onions, green peppers, hot peppers, etc. Try it. You'll probably never "order out" again.

Bob

[charliex]

After reading this thread I'm hungry and thinking Ruben sandwich for breakfast. Great off the grill.
A small butcher shop (Busters meats) about 15 min south in Ostrander has smoked pork chops that grill to perfection. Tender, moist and tasty to the max. That and potatoes, garlic whipped, with a vegetable is my favorite grillin meal. Followed by steak and about 20 other things. With the grill just outside the back door I grill year round. Although when it's 10 below zero the grill takes forever to get to 325 degrees. LOML likes thick sliced bacon grilled for breakfast.

[Kristofor]

Although when it's 10 below zero the grill takes forever to get to 325 degrees. LOML likes thick sliced bacon grilled for breakfast.

That low air temp causes the cooking area to loose heat faster than when it's warmer, but a bigger issue is that it's near or at the no-go temperature with normal "grill sized" propane tanks...

While propane still evaporate down to -44F, the vapor pressure at -10 is only ~1/10 of what it would be today and there's not a lot of heat being transfered in to keep it boiling as gas is drawn off... Wind will speed cooling of the cooking area, but that "wind chill" does help dump some more heat into the tank as well I guess...

If you have a 20Lb tank that's 1/4 full at -10F you're down to ~4700BTU/hr compared to ~24,000BTU/hr from the same tank at 60F. If it's closer to full that can increase BTU/hr. by a factor of 3x+. If you have a 40Lb tank you can almost double the output. But even doing both of those it's still not going to be able to supply the max BTU draw of even a mid-sized grill (I don't cook at full power anyhow, but that helps explain why it takes so long to heat up).

[jking]

Another version of potatoes. I will cook the whole potatoes about halfway in the microwave, cut in half, and then oil, salt & pepper the cut side. Finish cooking on the grill. I usually use Yukon golds.

We also like potato packets. Butter the middle of a large piece of foil. Layer sliced potatoes, carrots, & onion. Add more butter and season with salt & pepper. Close foil to make a packet & grill. If you do it right, the potatoes on the bottom will crisp up & start to turn brown.

Burgers & steaks we do little seasoning. Burgers get salt & pepper. Steaks either get salt & pepper or Misty's seasoning. Misty's is a restaurant in Lincoln, NE that markets their steak seasoning. It's very similar to others I've found.

I tried the stuffed jalapenos last year, except I used a mix of cream cheese & cheddar (or monterey jack). Very good, except I don't care of the skin on the pepper. I may need to try roasting the peppers first to remove the skin.

My wife make devil wingettes. She uses chicken wingettes & then marinades (all day or overnight) them in a mix of Italian dressing & hot sauce. Grill with the lid open & continue adding more dressing/hot sauce mix as desired. Watch out for flare ups.

We also look forward to garden tomatoes. I will slice them & use them for grilled pizzas. We use a recipe from America's Test Kitchen.

[dbhost]

I am trying to low-fat my recipes as of late, and have come up with some reasonable recipes... Generally speaking though, I tenderize, rub, then cajun inject before whatever it is goes on the smoker.

Dave's low fat creole butter inject recipe.

Ingredients.
2 cups low fat butter replacement melted. (I can't Believe It's Not Butter, Shedd's Spread Lite or similar).
2 tbsp fine garlic puree
2 tbsp fine yellow onion puree
2 tbsp Tony Cacheries Creole Seasoning. (If you can't get it locally Amazon sells it in 12 packs, and YES it is sooooo worth it...)

Equipment.
Cajun Injector with coarse orafice needle. (to pass the tiny bits of onion / garlic).
Sautee pan.

Process.
Add 2 tbsp of your 2 cups of butter to the pan, along with the garlic and onion puree, and caramelize.
Add remaining ingredients and fully melt and mix. Allow to cool sufficiently to be able to load the injector.
Inject throughout the meat, no more than 1" apart, with small strokes on the plunger (no more than 1/4" at a time.
Repeat until the meat in question is fully injected. Multiple batches may be neccessary.


I like to use this with Turkey, and / or chicken, I will load the bird in a roasting pan, and coat the outside with the mixture as well. Serve with Bush's Bold & Spicy beans, Country Potato Salad, green bean or broccoli casserole and rolls... Since this is poultry, do not cook this with a heavy smoke wood. Steer clear of Hickory or Oak here! Apple is probably my favorite for poultry, but is hard to come by here... The trick isn't so much the smoke with poultry as it is indirect heat. I have cooked birds this way to rave reviews in all manner of contraptions from my NB Smoker Bandera, a Weber Smokey Joe, and even after spreading the coals of a campfire and hanging a dutch oven in the middle...

I have far more, but I will write them up later...