Beer Can Chicken

 There is nothing special about this post, just one of the best ways you can cook a chicken - plain and simple.  Here's how to cook a beer can chicken:

 

Buy a whole chicken and a beer can set up (I bought mine at publix).  Season the chicken inside and out.  I chose to use Lawry's sweet basil, citrus, garlic rub bought from Sam's Club.  Crack open a beer can and drink a sip, pinch a little seasoning into the can so it starts to foam.  Put the chicken over the beer can and throw it on the grill.  I cook this between 350-400 degrees on the BGE until the thickest part of the breast reaches 165-170 degrees.

 

 

Here is the finished product after about 45 - 60 minutes.  No one has every said anything bad about my beer can chicken!  It's also nice to have white & dark meat, legs, thighs, breasts, and wings to please everyone.

 

Quinoa Veggie Chili

This meal turned out to be an instant hit and a new weeknight favorite.  It takes about an hour to cook and is delicious, light, and healthy.  I used the grill to roast the peppers, but it can easily be done entirely indoors.

Ingredients:

• Quinoa
• Black beans & red kidney beans
• Zucchini
• Red bell pepper & Pablano pepper
• Taste of Tuscany chicken broth
• Diced onion, shallot, and garlic
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• Chili powder, smoked paprika, and cumin

Step 1: Prep.  Finely chop 1/2 onion and a shallot and set aside.  Slice red bell pepper into 4 flat sides.  Slice pablano pepper in half.  Open and strain one can red kidney beans and one can black beans, set aside.  Cut 1 zucchini into centemeter size cubes.

 

                         

 

Step 2: Roast the peppers on the grill.  Pull them when there is a nice char on both sides, and cut them into small pieces.



 

 

Step 3: Sautee diced onion, shallot, garlic, and zucchini in a little bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes.

 

Step 4: Add chili powder, cumin, and smoked paprika (do this to taste or your liking).  Next add the roasted peppers and sautee with the seasoning for another minute or two. 

 

Step 5: Add two cans of diced tomatoes, beans, 1 cup quinoa, and then enough taste of tuscany chicken broth to just cover all of the ingredients.  Cover and allow to reduce and cook all ingredients together.



 

Step 6: Once the chili is almost done check for taste.  My powder seasoning was pretty good and to my liking, but I did add some brown sugar near the end.  Enjoy!

 



1st Smoke Test

 I have to say that i'm pretty impressed with the way this thing performed.  Friday night I had some of my college fraternity brothers over and we made some progress on this thing while cooking two butts in the process on the green egg.  We sealed the bottom part of the kettle, sanded the inside of the barrel, made a new cut around the top so the lead would seal, added a thermometer, and did the first smoke test.  This thing would hold temp anywhere between 225 to 300 just by closing the dampers on the top and bottom.  It smoked for about 6 hours with the charcoal basket half way filled.  I'll be away this week but plan on doing some more mods and finishing touches the weekend I get back.  Stay tuned for more updates.

 

Valentine's Day Lamb and Lobster

Cooking Rack of Lamb has become sort of a tradition for Meredith and I on Valentine's Day, but this year we added lobster tail as well.  Around lunchtime on Thursday I went to Harry's Farmers Market to pick up the lamb, and I noticed they had a special on lobster tails.  If you kissed this big ugly fish the tails were buy one get one free.....so I kissed a fish!  Here is what our meal looked like.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• Rack of Lamb
• Lobster tails
• Polenta
• Okra
• Mint Jelly
• Shallots & garlic
• Rosemary
• Garlic bread
• Parmesan

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

• Tortilla shells
• Chicken
• Mexican cheese
• Onion
• Enchilada sauce
• Taco seasoning

Step 1: Cut up a chicken into cubes and season with taco seasoning.  Cook the chicken in a skillet or sautee pan.

 

Step 2: Assemble the enchiladas.  Place the chicken in a line on a tortilla shell and cover with onions.

 

Step 3: Spoon some enchilada sauce over the chicken and onion and then top with mexican cheese.

 

Step 4: Roll up the enchiladas and place in a baking dish.  Cover each layer or row with enchilada sauce.

 

Enchiladas below are stacked and covered again with sauce.

 

Step 5: Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Once they're cooked add a layer of mexican and put the dish back in the oven until the cheese is melted.  We enjoyed these with some refried beans on the side and sour cream.

 



Smoker build - work in progress

 Last week I got a free Ugly Drum Smoker from my buddy.  It was in pretty rough shape so I decided to go a different direction with it.  Below is my project which is about 50% complete.  I still need to sand it, repaint it, test the seal, and add shorter legs, grill grates and possibly a door or two.  Pictures of the finished product to come soon.

 

New Drum Smoker

 New drum smoker procured.  Needs a little work on it, but it was free! 

Super Bowl Pizzas on the Big Green Egg

Pizza is one of my favorite things to cook on the Big Green Egg.  Considering that it had been 5-6 months since I last cooked a pizza, I figured that Super Bowl Sunday was a perfect opportunity for this.  I have pizza cooking down to a science now and will break this down into 4 steps.

 

Step 1: Roll out the dough. I buy publix brand store made dough in the bakery section.  Clean off a large space on the counter and cover it in flour.  Roll out the pizza dough until it resembles a pizza.  You may need to continue adding flour to get the dough to roll out properly.

 

Step 2: Set up BGE for pizza cooking.  My pizza cooking set up consists of an inverted placesetter (legs down rather than up), 3 green ceramic legs arranged in a triangle on top of placesetter, and a ceramic pizza stone resting on top of the ceramic legs.  This set up creates indirect heat and a space between the placesetter and the pizza stone.  Your pizza stone would get too hot if placed directly on top of the placesetter and would result in burnt crust.  You want the pizza stone to be around the same temp as the dome temp in the egg but not as hot as the ceramic placesetter to prevent burnt crust.

 

Step 3: Heat the BGE up to about 500 degrees and let it ride there for 10-15 minutes. This is enough to get the pizza stone hot and ready for cooking.  Drop a pinch of cornmeal evenly over the stone.  Place the rolled out dough onto the stone by using a pizza peal.  Flip after about 4-5 minutes and cook the other side. 

 

What you want is a pizza crust that is relative firm on both sides but not quite cooked on the inside.  This is a necessary step for properly cooked pizza on the egg in my opinion.  Dough that is not precooked or crisped is too flimsy, does not support the toppings, and is almost impossible to get off the peel and onto the stone.  By precooking the dough it is just stiff enough to support the toppings and slide back onto the stone.  This method also allows the toppings to cook just enough while the inside of the dough finishes all at the same time.  I developed this method through a lot of trial and error and haven't ruined a pizza in quite a while.

 Step 4: Assemble your pizzas on the precooked dough and place them back on the stone.  Cook for about 10 minutes per pizza or to your liking.  I typically cook my pizzas between 500-700 degrees depending on what level of crisp I want on them.  These pizzas were cooked at about 550 degrees.

Now that I have gone through my method of cooking, I will show you what we made for the big game.  Below is a simple list of ingredients for each pizza.

White / Veggie Pizza:

• Alfredo sauce
• Mozzerella cheese
• Italian seasoning
• Thin sliced tomatoes
• Sliced mushrooms
• Parmesan and Asiago cheese
• Tomato and Basil flavored Feta Cheese
• Fresh Basil leaves
• Zucchini skins
• Black Olives

Pepperoni, Sausage, and Mushroom Pizza:

• Pizza sauce
• Mozzerella cheese
• Italian seasoning
• Pepperoni
• Sausage crumbles
• Sliced mushrooms

Mexican Pizza:

• Taco Sauce
• Mexican cheese
• Red pepper flakes
• sliced chorizo sausage
• jalapenos

Simple Rib Roast

This is a meal that comes with a story.  Earlier in the week I bumped into our good friend Jessica in Kroger, and we happened to be right in front of the meat counter.  We were interrupted in mid conversation by the butcher who said "hey, ya'll like steak?"  This guy would just not let it go until one of us bought some meat.  Jessica walked off and I lost the battle.  Forty two dollars later, I was walking out with about 7 lbs of rib roast which is not at all what I went in the for.  It turned out to be a good deal and provided me with 6 steaks and the rib roast below on top of it all.  In honor of the crazy meat guy from Kroger, we invited Jeff and Jessica over to join us in sharing this dinner.

 

Seasoning the Roast: Thinly slice up a couple garlic cloves.  Cut slits into the roast and insert sliced garlic throughout the roast.  Season the outside of the roast with equal parts of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and sugar.  Coat with a little bit of olive oil and add freshly chopped rosemary.  Season the exterior once more with Dizzy Pigs Red Eye Express (optional).

Cook the roast: Place the seasoned, room temperature roast on the big green egg at 250 degrees.  The foil packet contains the other half of the large garlic bunch I purchased (about 8-10 cloves inside).  Slow cook this for about 2 hours or until the internal temp reaches 150 degrees.  At this point we were cooking our other sides so I closed off the green egg and allowed the meat to rest at 150 for about 30 minutes. 

Sides: Quartered red new potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper and fresh rosemary on top.  Bake in the oven until fork tender.  Our other sides consisted of creamy shells and cheese and green beans.

 Plating: Thinly slice the rib roast.  Remember that the outside or bark will have the most flavor due to the seasoning while the inside will be more medium rare.  Notice the nice pink color which is a little more red towards the center.

 

Creamy Horseradish Sauce: in a small dish combine 2-3 tablespoons of horseradish sauce (some mayo already included), 1-2 tablespoons of sour cream, and the roasted garlic from the grill.  Take a spoon to smash up the roasted garlic and thoroughly mix the sauce all together.  Serve on the side with your sliced rib roast.



Honey Mustard Chicken

This was a great little Friday night meal for Meredith and me.  I first made a batch of home made lemonade when I got home.  It's good by itself and better with a little bourbon mixed in.

 

Lemonade:  In a small pot combine 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water.  Heat and stir until all the sugar is disolved, add to pitcher.  Add 2 cups of fresh lemon juice, 1 fresh squeezed orange, 4 cups of club soda, sliced lemons, and mint leaves.  Mix well.

 

Potatoes: These are just 4 idaho potatoes scrubbed and sliced into steak fries.  Season with salt and pepper.

Grill the potatoes over indirect heat on the weber.

Vegetables: I cut up 4 strips of bacon into inch long squares.  Cook until its almost done.  Add sliced cabbage, carrots,  celery, green scallion onions, and mushrooms.  Sautee in the bacon grease until all vegetables are tender.

Chicken: I marinaded this chicken in a honey mustard mix for about 1.5 hrs.  Pull it and season lightly with lemon pepper seasoning.  Add this to the grill over direct heat once the potatoes are fork tender and nearing completion.  Cook it over direct heat until the skin develops a nice char and is a bit crusty.  Move the chicken over to the indirect heat side of the weber to continue cooking until it's done.  Pull the potatoes and chicken all at once when finished.

Plating: I cut up my chicken legs and thighs and pulled any remaining meat off the bone.  Mix this together in a bowl with honey mustard until all chicken is lightly coated.  Plate with your sauteed cabbage and potatoes and enjoy!

Chicken Stirfry

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• 1 egg
• Fried Rice
• Stirfry vegetables - mini corn, broccoli, red peppers, green peppers, onions, carrots
• Eggrolls
• General Tsao's stir fry sauce, sweet asian red pepper sauce

Cook the chicken, add the vegetables and sautee, add the fried rice, and egg.  Cook everything together and add the sauce near the end.  Heat the eggrolls in a toaster oven.  This was a very simple weeknight meal!