Saturday, April 30, 2011

Greek Chicken and Shrimp Skewers

2 Chicken Skewers, 2 Shrimp Skewers, Grilled Flat Bread

Grilled on: Weber Silver One Touch
Charcoal: Kingsford original approx 30 briquettes
Wood: none
Dry rub: Cavenders Greek Seasoning
Sauces: Kens Greek Dressing

Method: I normally do not grill boneless chicken but its a must with kabobs.  Chicken, Bell peppers and onions are put on one skewer. Shrimp is on a separate skewer, shrimp cooks faster and should be by itself.  A few tips: leave the hard end of the tail on the shrimp and and run skewer through each shrimp twice. Once through the meaty tip near where the head was and then through the hard part of the tail. This helps for stability when grilling.  Also when adding onion to a skewer with chicken Ive found it best to add about 2-3 layers of the onion together.  I use chicken tenderloins for this, by adding the veggies after each piece of chicken it helps to keep the chicken moist.


When the meat and veggies are put on the skewers I sprayed them with nonstick cooking spray and generously coated them in Cavenders Greek Seasoning. The skewers are grilled over a hot grill on direct heat.  While they are gilling I constantly baste them with Kens Greek Dressing.  This not only adds flavor and moistness, but the dressing falls down onto the hot coals and creates smoke and flareups. I feel that this smoke and flareups create extra flavor.

Grilled bread is Flat outs low carb Italian bread.









Result: This is one that Marsha and I love. This turns out perfect each time.

 Sides: We serve the meats and veggies on a salad, with a bed of Romain lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbed feta cheese and more of the Greek Dressing.  Hummus is on the side with the grilled flat bread.  This meal is restaurant quality, Ill say its better than what you can get in most restaurants.



 

Drink: Rex-Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine is an excellent buy for $5 from Publix.  Its smooth and spicy at the same time.

Phat Phills BBQ & Beer

PHAT= Pretty Hot And Tempting. I guess I like my BBQ like I like my women, just kidding.

This has been a long time coming! I should have started this about 2 years ago. I've really been thinking about it for the last year.  BBQ is a big passion of mine, I love to cook it then eat it!! I started BBQing when I moved out of my parents house and over time I've somewhat perfected my own style of BBQing.  I do things a little untraditional but that is how I've figured out how to add the flavors I like.  I BBQ all types of meat and vegetables, if they sell it raw at the grocery store I've probably grilled it.  I've even gone as far as making my own Gyro meat!!  A strange favorite is grilled cauliflower. Plenty of times for holidays I smoke turkeys and chickens.  I also like smoking almonds, delicious.  Pork butts are a favorite, but they are so unhealthy that I rarely cook them. 


Things really changed for me when Marsha and I started dating.  She moved into an apartment on the 4th floor with a small concrete balcony.  I have a really nice stainless steel gas grill, its huge. I also had a Brinkman bullet smoker.  The apartment complex that she lived at did not allow bbq grills on the deck, and there was no way I could discretely get my gas grill up there.  So after a while I picked up a tiny terracotta grill in the shape of a pig. It could only hold about 5 charcoal briquettes. It made due for a little while, it actually does a really good job on steaks.  But after awhile I new that I needed something a little better so I picked up my Weber Smokey Joe Silver from Lowe's.  Wow how that changed my grilling style.  I've had charcoal grills in the past but I was never happy with their performance, they never seemed to be consistent and without consistency you can never work on recipes and cooking techniques. I had always read and been told that Weber makes superior grills but I could never justify paying the price for one of their grills.  I always thought, they can't be that much better.  Oh how I was wrong.  The best thing I can say about Weber grills is that they are extremely consistent. I recently bought my Weber Silver One Touch.  I'm still learning how to use it.  This blog and my journal will hopefully help me with organizing my grilling and smoking techniques.  Grilling is so different from kitchen cooking. Its a lot harder to write down BBQ recipies cause its a lot more technique than procedure.

My grilling process almost always is a two stage fire.  I place the coals on one side of the grill and usually have none on the other side of the grill.  After the grill gets hot I scrape off the grill grate then remove it with a pair of tongs and spray cooking oil over the grate to keep it the meat from sticking.  If I'm trying to add smoke flavor I add dry wood chips to the coals at different intervals depending on the meat and amount of smoke flavor I'm trying to achieve. I'm a really big fan of searing my meats then slow cooking them and basting the meats a different intervals. I usually baste when I'm adding wood chips.

So begins my documentation of me BBQing for my beautiful wife Marsha!!

Beef Brisket

4-28-11 1.5lb Smoked Beef Brisket


Grilled on: Weber Silver One Touch
Charcoal: Kingsford original approx 25 briquettes, then added 10 after 4 hrs
Wood: Dry Hickory chips
Dry rub: Garlic salt, garlic powder, black pepper, Byrons Butt Rub


First off let me say I don't normally cook or eat brisket.  I never order it at a restaurant. I'm a pork purist!! But about twice a year I'll be at the grocery store and decide to pick up a brisket and cook it.  I always buy the brisket that is pre-brined and has the spices to make corned beef.  I like my beef rare and thats probably why I not a big brisket fan. 


Method: Meat was pre-brined, threw away pickling spices that came with brisket.  Seared meat over direct heat on all sides.  Seared the fatty side extra crispy, left it black.  Then cooked on indirect heat for 4.5 hours, with fatty side up and sitting on aluminum foil.  The foil is shaped into a bowl to catch the juices and the meat sits in its own juices to keep it from drying out. I added hand fulls of hickory chips at the beginning and once ever hour for the first 3 hours, added chips a total of 3 times.  Meat was really tough after 4.5 hours, wraped the meat completely in aluminum foil added more charcoal and cooked the meat for another 3 hours on indirect heat and as the charcoals began to die out cooked over direct heat for the last hour.  Cooked a total of 8.5 hours. 





Result: Meat was perfectly tender.  Texture and appearance were excellent.  Downside, meat was way to salty.  I forgot that the meat was pre-brined in salt water.  Next time do not add salt and even try to wash some of the salt off.  Or maybe I should try to find a cut that hasn't been brined. Also I didn't really like BBQ sauce on the meat, it tasted better by itself.  Maybe it would be better with a sweet fruity sauce.


I'm not sure if it needed more smoke flavor. I could have doubled the smoke, adding chips every 30min for a total of 6-8 times. If it had more smoke flavor it probably would have been better with the BBQ sauce.  Next time I think I will not try to add more smoke flavor but find a better sauce. 

Grilled Chicken Wings

4-27-11 Grilled 8 Chicken Wings

Grilled on: Weber Silver One Touch
Charcoal: Kingsford original approx 25 briquettes
Wood: Dry Hickory chips
Dry rub: Salt, black pepper, smoked paprika
Sauces: Texas Pete Fiery Sweet and Ranch

Method: Brined wings in salt water for one hour   Grilled on indirect heat for approx: 20 min.  Added handful Hickory of at beginning and at 10 min when wings were flipped.  Finished wings on direct heat till crispy. Tossed in wing sauce after resting.  Wing sauce is one of the best I've tasted, 9 out of 10.

Result: outside skin was crispy and delicious.  Perfect seasoning for wings that are having sauce added later. Brining was successful meat was moist.  Smoke flavor was perfect, two handfuls is all that is needed, anymore might ruin the flavor.  Appearance was perfect the smoke gave the wings a nice brown color that regular grilled chicken does not have. Downside, wings were chewy around the knuckles and a little chewy around the bone, could have cooked 10-20 min on indirect heat.  Chicken was not raw, it just need more cooking time to break down the tendons and cartilage. I think that the smoke added color to the wings that made me think they had been fully cooked.

Sides:celery, cucumber, green bell pepper, Caesar salad. Peppers were excellent