Grilled Chicken and Zucchini Fries

Chicken is one of my favorite things to grill, and I always prefer to cook either a half chicken or a whole chicken spatchcocked.  For those unfamiliar with a spatchcocked chicken, it is a whole chicken with the backbone cut out and then pressed flat.  Pictured below is a half chicken with the backbone removed and then cut once again between the breasts.  I prefer cooking this type of chicken because you are able to yield white and dark meat or the breast, thigh, drum stick, and wing. 

 

Ingredients:

• Half a chicken seasoned with lemon pepper and thyme
• Fresh broccoli
• Fresh zucchini
• 2 eggs
• Italian bread crumbs
• Parmesan
• Honey Mustard Sauce: Dijon mustard, bacon bits, honey, olive oil, 1 tbl spoon butter, balsamic vinegar

 

Step 1: Prep the grill and season the chicken.  To make Zucchini fries cut one large zucchini into thin strips.  I cut the top and bottom off a large zucchini and then cut it in half.  I then cut each half into 6 or 7 thin strips.  Next dip each strip in the egg mixture and transfer to a dish with Italian bread crumbs.  Cover each strip with bread crumbs and transfer to a pan.  I used a cookie rack in the pan so I didn't need to flip the zucchini while cooking.  Place the zucchini in an oven heated to 425 for 30 minutes.  With 5 minutes to go, remove and cover each fry with parmesan cheese.  Allow this to melt for the last 5 minutes. 

 

Step 2: Cook the chicken.  I have my weber set up the same way I usually do, half direct heat separated by fire bricks with the other half indirect.  I like to cook my chicken over direct heat to begin with to create a nice char on both sides.  Once you have the char you desire move the chicken over to the indirect side to allow the inside to cook throughout.

 



 

 

 

Step 3: Steam the broccoli and make the honey mustard sauce. 

 



 

In a small saucepan combine 3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, one table spoon of butter, honey, bacon bits, olive oil, and a little balsamic vinegar.  Stir over low to medium heat for about 5 minutes until everything cooks together.  Sauce with thicken and separate a bit upon standing.

 



 

 

Step 4: Once the chicken is cooked I will remove it from the grill.  Notice I placed it on a dish with some of the honey mustard sauce as board dressing.  This allows the sauce to coat the chicken as I slice it for serving.  The remaining sauce is reserved for dipping or topping the chicken.

 



 

Step 5: Plate and enjoy. 

 



 

The zucchini fries turned out crispy and delicious with the parmesan.  The board dressing and sauce on top of the chicken added just the right amount of finishing flavor, and the steamed broccoli was the perfect amount of green.  This was an excellent dinner!

 



Venison Cube Steak Parmesan

 This is one of my favorite meals to make with venison cube steak.  It's relatively quick and easy to make, and it doesn't call for many ingredients.  To give you an idea, I whipped this together in about 15-20 minutes on a Sunday night after travelling 7 hours.  Needless to say, it satisfied our hunger after a long drive.

 

Ingredients:

• Venison cube steak
• Penne pasta
• Spaghetti sauce
• Flour & Italian bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• Olive oil
• Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese
• Italian seasoning

Step 1: Cook penne pasta and put spaghetti sauce in a pot to heat up. 

 

 

Step 2: Fry the venison cube steak in a cast iron skillet with olive oil.  First put two eggs in a bowl and whip them.  In another dish combine flour and bread crumbs.  Submerge the cube steak in the egg and then transfer to the other dish and cover with breading.  Once you have your olive oil hot transfer the breaded cube steak for frying.  Cook for about 5-10 minutes until the cube steak is done.

 

 

Step 3: Plate the cube steak parmesan.  Create a bed of penne pasta and lay the fried cube steak over it.  Add a layer of mozzarella cheese and top with spaghetti sauce.  Cover again with more mozzarella and parmesan.  Finish the dish with a little Italian seasoning on top.

 

Chicken Wings on the Weber

 Late yesterday afternoon I found myself thinking about chicken wings, so naturally this became our dinner last night.  This was the perfect combination of three things yesterday: 1) the ability to enjoy grilling on a beautiful afternoon 2) cook something that is relatively simple yet complex enough to enjoy in the process 3) satisfy my appetite for chicken wings.

 

 

The grill: set up the fire bricks in the weber so that half of the grill will be direct heat and the other half indirect.

 

The prep: I like to cut full wings so that I have a drum and a flat and discard the smaller tail portion.  I put about 8 wings each into three separate Ziploc bags.  Next I marinated one in honey teriyaki, one jerk, and one buffalo bbq.  Let these sit and marinate at room temp for about 30-45 minutes.

 

The cook: Cook the marinated wings over direct heat until there is a nice char on all sides.  You don't want to do this too long or over too much heat because the marinade will burn up on the wings.  Once they have just enough char to your liking move them over to the indirect side.  I cooked these with the lid closed until they were basically done.  Once the chicken is cooked through add another layer of marinade with a brush.  Allow this to caramelize, flip and repeat on the other side.  In all, this took about 20-30 minutes to cook. 

 

Philly Cheesesteak stuffed Bell Peppers

This is another simple, delicious weeknight meal that is relatively healthy.  The other benefit to this was that it did not call for a lot of ingredients but still yielded enough food for dinner and lunch the next day.

 

Ingredients:

• Bell Peppers
• Roast Beef - thin sliced
• Onion
• Baby Bella Mushrooms
• Provolone Cheese
• Italian Seasoning

 

Step 1: Cut bell peppers in half and empty out the core.  Cut up one onion and thin sliced roast beef. 

 

 

Step 2: Sautee onions and mushrooms in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce for about 5 minutes.

 

Add the thin sliced roast beef and continue to sautee for an additional 4-5 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside. 

 

Step 3: Stuff the bell peppers.  Put one slice of provolone inside of the pepper and the add the sautéed beef, onions, and mushrooms until the pepper is stuffed.

 

 

Step 4: Cook these over direct heat until a nice char develops on the bottom of the peppers.  Move these over to the indirect side of the grill to allow them to continue to cook without burning too much.

 

Step 5: Once the peppers are cooked through place another slice of provolone over the top.  Close the lid and allow the cheese to melt. 

 

 

Step 6: Remove from the grill, season with Italian seasoning, and enjoy.  I could eat two of these, but Meredith said one was plenty.  They were good and also are great for leftover lunch the next day!



Grilled Triple Decker Quesadilla

We have a local Mexican restaurant named Tarahumata that we always go to, and one of my favorite meals there is their Quesadilla Especial.  It's a triple layer quesadilla including steak, chicken, and poblano peppers.  This is a replica taken a little further and done on the grill.  My wife and I both agreed that this turned out better than what we eat at the restaurant.

 

Ingredients:

• Skirt Steak
• Chicken breast
• Poblano peppers
• Flour tortillas
• Portobello mushrooms
• Quesadilla cheese
• Seasoning: fajita & chili powder
• Toppings: homemade guacamole, sour cream, tiger sauce

 

 

Step 1: Prep the weber.  I have foil covered bricks that allow me to keep half my weber with charcoal (direct heat) and the other half empty for indirect heat.  The grill griddle pictured below is mostly over the indirect half with the poblano peppers over the bricks and partial direct heat. 

 

I am cooking my chicken and skirt steak over direct heat.  The poblanos were rotated between direct heat and the griddle until they had a nice char to them and were very tender.  The mushrooms were cooked with a little spray olive oil on the griddle the entire time.

 

Step 2: Once everything is cooked slice it up.  Slice the skirt steak and chicken into thin strips.  I cut each poblano into three strips just so it would be easier to build the quesadilla.  Also pictured below is fresh shredded quesadilla cheese. 

 

Step 3: Crisp up your flour tortilla shells by placing them on the griddle for about 5 minutes.  Flip and rotate half way through so they are crisp on both sides. 

 

Step 4: Start building your quesadilla.  I pulled the griddle off the grill which allowed me to very easily build my quesadilla directly on my cooking surface.  Lay one tortilla shell down and then layer strips of steak and chicken to cover the bottom of the quesadilla.

 

Cover the meat with cheese.

 

Sprinkle some chili powder on top.

 

Step 5: Build the second layer of your quesadilla.  Place another tortilla shell on top of what you previously made and press flat.  Now layer the poblano strips and mushrooms.

 

Cover the veggies with cheese and sprinkle with some fajita seasoning.  I used chili powder on the bottom layer because the meat already had fajita seasoning on it.  Cover the top with another tortilla shell and press flat.

 

Step 6: Cook the quesadilla.  I had some leftover chicken and steak strips so I built a second quesadilla.  This one consisted of a layer of chicken and a little steak on half of a tortilla shell and then some leftover cheese.  I seasoned it a bit and then folded the tortilla shell over in half.  I also use my basset hound pictured below to help clean up any scraps.  Cook these on the griddle over indirect heat for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.



 

 

Finished product.

 

Step 7: Slice the quesadilla into quarters using a very sharp knife.

 

Top with guacamole, sour cream, and tiger sauce and enjoy!  I'll warn you that this is a lot of food, and one quarter of the quesadilla was enough food for one portion.  We left half of the full quesadilla and the second one entirely.  Today's lunch and probably dinner will consist of leftover quesadillas!

Taco Salad

 This is a simple and delicious meal that I made Sunday evening.  Over the weekend I purchased two "as seen on TV"  taco shell molds from an outlet store, and I was dying to use them.  My wife kept giving me a hard time for wanting these, but I have to say that they do come in pretty handy.  Here is how I made our taco salads.

 

Ingredients:

• Ground turkey
• Red & Green bell peppers
• Caribbean Rice
• Romaine Lettuce
• Flour tortillas
• Taco seasoning
• Sour cream
• Homemade Guacamole - Rotel, avocado, and guacamole seasoning
• Mexican Cheese
• Jalapenos
• Taco sauce

 

 

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375.  Place flour tortillas in the mold and press until it forms a bowl shape.  Bake at 375 for about 10-15 minutes or until your desired crispiness.

 

 

 

Step 2: Season cut up bell peppers with Taco seasoning and sautee.  Do the same with the ground turkey in another pan. 

 



 

Step 3: Enjoy a homemade Margarita!  I like mine on the rocks and with a agave reposado tequila.  Fill a rocks glass with cubed ice, fill about half way with tequila, add margarita mix until almost full, and the top with a Gran Gala floater.  Garnish with a lime.

 



 

Step 4: Build your taco salad.  I start with romaine on the bottom.  Next, sprinkle in some Caribbean rice.

 

Step 5: Add sautéed bell peppers and cooked ground turkey

 



 

Top with Mexican cheese.  I also added jalapenos to mine.

 



 

Step 6: Finish with sour cream, guacamole, and taco sauce.  Enjoy!

 



Veal Country Fried Steak

This is a recipe that has evolved from what I have previously made with Venison cube steak.  It's fairly quick and easy to make, and it turned out delicious.

 

Ingredients:

• Veal cubed steak
• Olive oil
• Italian bread crumbs
• flour
• 1-2 eggs
• squash and zucchini
• Pizza Stuffed Portobello - marinara, mozzarella, and olives inside the mushroom caps
• Beef broth

Step 1: Bread and fry the veal cube steak.  In a small bowl crack two eggs, whip together, and submerge the veal cube steak until evenly covered.  In another dish mix together half flour and half Italian bread crumbs.  Evenly coat the egg soaked veal in the batter on all sides.  Heat just enough olive oil in a skillet so that it covers half the cube steak once submerged.  Fry until crispy outside and cooked inside.  Pat off the remaining grease with a paper towel and wrap in foil so they stay warm.

 



 

Step 2: Pop the stuffed mushrooms in the toaster oven and allow to cook until melted and mushrooms are done - about 5-10 mins.  While the mushrooms are cooking, slice up some squash and zucchini and sauté in a little olive oil.  I use salt and pepper to season the vegetables.

 



 

 

Step 3: Make the gravy.  Remove all but 1-2 tablespoons of oil you have leftover from frying.  Do not clean the skillet as the browned pieces from the cube steak add flavor.  Add one heaping tablespoon of flour to the skillet over low heat and whisk thoroughly.  Continue to whisk the mixture while slowly and consistently adding beef broth as the gravy thickens.  It may clump, but just add more broth and whisk vigorously to get the lumps out.  Continue until you have the desired consistency you like in gravy.

 

 

Step 4: Remove veal steak from foil, plate, top with gravy, and enjoy!