With Summer upon us, the urge to take the kitchen outdoors
is met with excitement and well, a little hesitation. The flame spitting grill can be a bit intimidating. But armed with a few tips and techniques,
you’ll look and feel like a pro while pleasing you and your guests with mass
quantities of deliciousness.
The Grill
Charcoal or Gas, the grill is a beast that can wear many
hats. She’s an oven, a smoker, a lean
mean burger searing machine. All you
need to do is learn how to set her up for each of these modes.
Heat zones are your friend. Really!
By creating zones on your grill, you’re setting yourself up
for quick searing and quick evacuation of foods. Hot heat is nice, but not when it burns your
dinner. Thick burgers, chicken, and
sausage do well with an initial sear over super hot coals and then a slow
finish over few or no coals.
To setup zones, simply place more of your hot coals on one
side while placing fewer (or none) on the other. This will allow you to sear off meats and
move them over to the cooler side to finish at a slower pace. On a gas grill, just turn on some of your
burners while leaving others off. Or you
can turn them all on to sear and lower them to finish.
My grill is an
oven? You so crazy!
According to the Belly encyclopedia of cooking, an oven is
any enclosed vessel capable of reaching a desired temperature in an effort to
cook foods to your liking. Simple
enough. So how do we accomplish this
with a grill? Easy. Just scatter a half amount of glowing
charcoal on one side of your rig. If
you’re using gas, just turn on one or two elements opposite from your
food. Get a balanced temperature inside
your rig, insert your food on the cool side, and cover.
Drop a couple lumps of fresh coal on the glowing coals every 30-45
minutes to keep the heat going. Yes, a
thermometer on your grill and in your food is ideal, but you can still work
without it. After a couple runs you
should be a seasoned pro.
So how much lighter
fluid should I soak my coals in?
Let’s try none.
Chimney starters are a beautiful way to get your fire going. They’re those steel cylinders you drop
charcoal into and crumpled newspapers underneath. I’m not a fan of newspaper because it creates
a huge amount of ash and doesn’t really stay lit. Instead, I use paper towels drizzled with a
little cooking oil. Just fill up your chimney
with your preferred coal, tuck your dressed paper towels underneath, place the
whole thing on top of your grill and give the paper a light. Your coals should be ready for cooking in 40
minutes or so.
Always wait for the fire to die before dropping hot coals
into your rig. Cooking over flaming coals
will destroy your food (a.k.a. burn your dinner). You want gray coals that you can hold your
hand over for at least 3-4 seconds.
Don’t forget to let the fire melt the gunk on your grates and to bust
out the brush before dropping new food.
That old hot dog grease is not sexy…trust me.
In the words of
Pauley Shore, “Hot on the outside, icesicle in the middle”.
Don’t let Pauley Shore down.
Just like in your home kitchen, temper meats before committing them to heat. A super cold piece of meat will brown
beautifully, but by the time the outside is done, you’ve got some serious
rawness to deal with inside. Our goal is
to get the color on the outside to meet up with a juicy cooked interior at
about the same time. So feel free to
pull your larger meats out of the cooler an hour or more before cooking. But never leave any perishable foods out
longer than 4 hours.
And now, a recipe to test your new found grilling
skills…
Garlic
& Herb Marinated Chicken
8 Chicken Thighs (Bone in, Skin on)
1 Bunch Sage
1 Bunch Parsley
4 Garlic Cloves
Olive Oil
1 TB Honey
Salt
Pepper
Clean and chop all of your herbs until you can’t
chop no more. Make a garlic paste by
chopping your garlic, sprinkling it with salt, and then smashing it with the flat side
of your blade until smooth. Mix all of
these together with honey and enough olive oil to form a thin paste. This can all be accomplished in a food
processor for those in the know.
Next, season both sides of your chicken with salt
and pepper. I can’t tell you how much
cuz all chickens come in different shapes and sizes. You’ll have to rely on your culinary
expertise for this step.
Put your chicken in a zip-top bag and add
the marinade. Smoosh the bag around to
distribute the goodness. Yeah, I said
smoosh. Then squeeze as much air out as
possible, seal the bag, place in a bowl or tray, and let sit in your fridge
overnight.
The moment of truth! While the coals are being lit, be sure to
pull your chicken out of the fridge to come to room temp. Light up that grill and create a hot zone on one
side and a medium low zone on the other.
When you can stand the heat for more than 3 or 4 seconds with your hand
an inch over the grill, it’s time to cook.
Lay your thighs skin side down over the hot side
of the grill. After that, just walk
away. Well, stick around. Just don’t poke at the food. Once the skin has a nice brown hue to it,
flip the thighs. Continue until brown
then move the thighs to the lower heat zone to finish cooking. You want an internal temp of 160 F before
removing from the heat. Pull your
chicken off and cover with aluminum foil to finish cooking. Let stand 10-15 minutes before digging
in. Serve with rice, veggies, chopped up in a wrap, or just straight up. Yeah, it’s that
good.
Happy Grilling!
-Belly of the Beast
