Mrs Grail doesn’t always appreciate “smoke” as much as I do.  So last night when it came time to prepare the chicken she requested she requested it be grilled.  I didn’t want to just do the normal grilled chicken with just a seasoning one it so I decided to brine it.

We don’t shop on Sunday so I was limited to what I had in the pantry for the brine.  Thankfully, we always have plenty of Kosher salt and brown sugar.  But what was I going to add to the brine to give it a little POP?  This is what I came up with:

BBQ Grail’s Smokey Pepper Poultry Brine

Ingredients:

• 2 quarts water
• 3/4 cup Morton’s Kosher salt (if you use Diamond Crystal Salt use 1 cup)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons McCormick Sweet & Smokey Pepper Blend
• 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces

Heat the water and add all the brine ingredients.  Stir until salt and sugar is dissolved.  Cool brine mixture to at least room temperature.  Place brine mixture and chicken in a container.  Make sure all the chicken pieces are submerged.  Brine in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours but not more than 8 hours.

Remove chicken and rinse well.  It’s important to make sure you remove as much of the salt as possible.

Grill on a medium/hot grill until 165 degrees internal.

Rest for five minutes.  Serve.

The McCormick’s Sweet & Smokey Pepper Blend added a great little bite to the brine.  Combine with the brown sugar it gave the chicken a nice flavor.  I got some of the ’smoke’ flavor I wanted while giving the family the grilled chicken they wanted.

© 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

It’s about getting down and dirty.  You’ve got to get hands-on, get stuck in and extract the most from the food in the most primal way.  Use your hands to crush and combine the fresh herbs, garlic and spices.  Massage the marinade into the meat, and press the seasonings in with your hands instead of using a brush.   I show you how to improvise and impart the best flavors possible with using something as simple as a bunch of  mixed fresh herbs tied to a wooden dowel  with twine.  Discard the roasting rack and other exotic equipment — you won’t need it.  Sometimes restraint can be difficult, but even if you are limited by your ingredients, it doesn’t mean you’re limited in the flavors you can produce. — Adam Perry Lang in the Introduction to BBQ 25.

I’m not sure I have a BBQ idol, but if I did it would be Adam Perry Lang (APL).  Over the last couple of years no single person has influenced me more in my BBQ techniques than APL.

I can remember one of the biggest “I’ve just got to do that” moments was after watching an episode of the Food Network’s “Th Best Thing I Ever Ate.”  Today I can’t remember who the host of that particular segment was, but I do remember they were raving about the smoke beef ribs at APL’s restaurant in New York City.

These were not your normal beef back ribs.  They were more like a roast on a bone.  I just sat there staring at the screen, knowing that since I wasn’t going to be eating them any time soon I had to try to make them myself.  I searched high and low for the type of ribs they were.  I googled, I Tweeted, I Facebooked all to know avail.  I could find what cut of meat they were.  Finally I just asked APL on his Facebook wall.  And he responsed.  I was like a 12 year old girl at a Taylor Swift concert.  APL answered me.  (Okay enough with the melodramatics)  They were “Plate ShortRibs.”  So off to the butcher I went to buy some.  They came out great. (The original blog post is here.)

My next  APL moment was when I bought a copy of Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste, and Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking What a simply fantastic cookbook this is.  I had tried to find 15 to 20 other BBQ bloggers that were willing to take turns cooking recipes from it and blogging about them.  The goal was to cook our way through “Serious Barbecue” from front to back.  I still hope to someday accomplish that task.

APL’s latest book is BBQ 25. Unlike “Serious Barbecue” this new book is about the simplicity of bbq.  APL explains in his introduction why he took this approach:

“There are two sides to me.  One is obsessed by technique and detail.  The other is spontaneous, adaptive, and not too concerned about getting bogged down with complicated processes…

“But les is often more.  This is that book.  This is the backbone of barbecue.”

“BBQ 25″ should appeal to all bbq/grilling skill levels.  If you fancy yourself a backyarder with some skills you’ll be tempted to jump right to the 25 recipes in the book.  But don’t overlook the beginning of the cookbook where APL has written some extremely helpful “tips.”  The “Glossary of Techniques” explains the processes used in each of the recipes.

Each recipe is broken down into the following “techniques:”

• Before Cooking
• Tools
• During Cooking
• After Cooking
• Cooking Method (Pre-Grilling, Direct or Indirect heat)

Even for the most skilled griller the explanation of these techniques is a good refresher.

The 25 recipes are divided into Five Categories: Beef, Pork, Lamb, Chicken and Fish/Misc.  Each of these protein categories are futher divided into Quick Cook, Medium Cook and/or Long Cook areas.

Whether you choose to tackle the Quick Cook recipe of a filet mignon or the “Long Cook of a Pork Butt each recipe will give you step by step instructions on how to preare that recipe.  From taking the meat out of the refrigerator to setting the table the recipe will guide you through the whole process.

One of the newest and most popular trends in cookbooks today is having stories/memories to go along with each recipe.  None of that here.  This is a down and dirty BBQ cookbook.  Simplicity at it’s best.  Lots of pictures and diagrams will make even the most unskilled griller appreciate their new found ability to turn out fantastic food.

This is a must have cookbook.  If you can master one recipe from each of the categories you’ll be the envy of 90% of all backyard grillers.  Get this book.

Photo By David Loftus

20. Whole Chicken (Spatchcock/Butterflied)

Serves  6-8

Two 3 ½ – 4 lb. chickens, spatchcocked/butterflied, thighs & legs slashed

INGREDIENTS FOR BRINE

• ¼ cup sea salt or kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp freshly ground
• black pepper
• 10 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves
• 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 6 cups cold water
• 2 Tbsp canola oil or vegetable oil

INGREDIENTS FOR BASTE/GLAZE

• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp water

PREPARATION

Combine all the brine ingredients in a large bowl or large sealable plastic bag. Mix and crush the ingredients with your hands, directly or through the bag, squeezing them to release the maximum flavor. Transfer half the brine to another bowl or bag.

Put the chickens in the brine, transfer to the refrigerator, and brine for at least 3 hours, and up to 24 hours.

COOKING METHOD

Indirect Grilling

Prepare the grill for indirect cooking; the temperature should be 300°F. Drain the chicken and dry with paper towels. Glisten with the canola oil.

Put the chickens skin side up on the well-oiled preheated grill and cook, covered, with the addition of wood of your choice (I prefer fruit woods when available), for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine all the baste/glaze ingredients in a small bowl.

Baste the chickens, using a regular brush or an Herb Brush (see page 4), and continue to cook, covered, basting every 15 minutes, for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is done: the juices should run clear when a thigh is pierced, and the thickest part of the thigh should register 165°F on an instant-read thermometer.

Transfer the chickens to a cutting board, skin side up, and allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting into 6 pieces each (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks).

From BBQ 25 by Adam Perry Lang copyright 2010 with permission of William Morrow/An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

© 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

Let me just cut to the chase.  Jim ‘N Nick’s was everything, and I do mean everything, I want in a restaurant.  Great atmosphere, great service and most importantly outstanding food.  And what is most astounding is that this is a chain restaurant.  The meal we ate last night more than made up for the nightmare of a meal we had the previous evening.

The meal came with with baskets of these cheese biscuits/rolls. Eating one of these was impossible so we inhaled a couple baskets of them. Eating one of these biscuits made the meal better than the previous nights whole meal.

Barry ordered a BLT that had some kind of cheese, pimento spread working. The bacon used on Jim 'N Nick's is amazing. Not oversmoked, thick cut and cooked to perfection.

Celeste ordered the biggest, juiciest Southern Fried Chicken Tenders that ever graced a plate. There was so much food on her plate that she could only eat one of the chicken tenders.

I ordered some of the best catfish I've ever eaten. Two huge filets that with the mound of fries filled a huge plate.

The collard greens were cooked to perfection.

We ordered some rib bones because we had to try some actual BBQ. They were smoked and lightly glazed with sauce. Just about as good as you can do in a restaurant.

And finished up with some of the most amazing pie I've ever had. It would have made my grandmother happy. We tried the coconut cream, lemon icebox and chocolate cream pies. All flavors were first rate.

I cannot even big to express my satisfaction.  This was one fine meal and a restaurant I would recommend.   Everything in the restaurant is made from scratch right on the premises.  From the salad dressings to the desserts.  The food is fresh, vibrant and tastes so good.  You’ve got to eat there is you get a chance.

On a final note.  We ate in the Memphis restaurant and Jerald was our server.  He was knowledgable about everything on the menu and was able to explain everything to us.  His personality was great and he obviously has a great deal of pride for his place of employment. 

PS:  I don’t know what Jerald is making at Jim ‘N Nick’s but he should get a raise.

© 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

First cook on the new Char-Broil RED Grill was 60 chicken wing drumettes for a review of some BBQ sauces.  The grill performed great.  I was amazed at how fast it got hot.  I even tackled some smoking during the first cook.

Used one of the Wild Cherry wood "pucks" from Appalachia Smokers. The 3 burner RED Grill is divided into two sections. One section with 2 burners and one section with 1 burner. I used the smaller side for lighting the wood.

The wood "puck" was burning too fast, with too much smoke in the trough so I moved it to the warming rack. What was great about the "puck" was that it continued to smolder and smoke after it was removed from the heat.

The wings were seasoned with Simply Marvelous Season All

They browned up nice and cooked to perfection.

Another shot of a grill full of wings

© 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

I love chicken wings.  They are small bite sized morsels of poultry goodness.  I’ve smoked wings lots of time and wanted to give something a little different.

I cranked up one of the Weber Smokey Mountain smokers with some avocado wood.  Avocado wood is a somewhat hard wood that goes great with chicken and pork.  It’s a mild wood that should be treated like you would a fruit wood.

The wings were seasoned with Simply Marvelous Season All and smoked at 225 degrees for about 2 hours.  Because it was a busy day I let the wings cool and put them into the refrigerator for eating at a later date.

After sitting in the refrigerator for a couple of days I took the wings out of the refrigerator and let them come up to room temperature.

After the wings warmed up a little I gave them a little milk dunk and a dust of flour.

After letting the flour set into the Masterbuilt Butterball Indoor Turkey Fryer they went for about 10 minutes.  They came out nice and crisp.

The wings got a coating of Sweet Baby Ray’s new “Original Dipping Sauce”  The sauce has a mild horseradish flavor and complimented the season all and avocado wood.

© 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

The Sioux City Journal does a great job of promoting BBQ with online videos. Here’s the most recent video and The BBQ Grail gets a mention for the Rosemary Garlic Poultry Brine recently posted.

© 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

Last night I posted a review of the Char-Broil Big Easy Oil-less Fryer.  The chicken came out fabulous.  It is close to the best piece of chicken I have ever cooked.  Certainly the Big Easy was a huge part of the process.  But the brine I used also produced an incredible flavor and helped to make the chicken very moist. 

Ingredients:

• 2 Gallons of water
• 2 cups Kosher Salt
• 2 cups Brown Sugar (the darker the better as far as I’m concerned)
• 1/2 cup Tone’s Rosemary Garlic Seasoning

Instructions:

Heat the water in a non-reactive, stainless steel or anodized, pan on the stove.  When water is hot add salt and sugar to the water and stir until desolved.  Once the sugar and salt has disolved and the mixture has cooled to almost room temperature add the Rosemary Garlic Seasoning.  Stir and let the whole mixture cool to at least room temperature.

In another non-reactive container, a zip lock bag works well, cover your chicken, turkey or pork loin in the brine and refrigerate.  Use the guidelines below for how long to brine.

  When the brining is complete make sure you rinse the meat well otherwise the salt taste will be overpowering and your meat will possibly be inedible.

Give it a try.  Thanksgiving is coming up and if you’re cooking your turkey outdoors then brining it is a good idea.

 Brining Times:

• Whole Chicken (4 lbs):  4 to 8 hours
• Whole Turkey:  24 hours
• Whole Pork Loins:  6 to 8 hours

© 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

When Char-Broil first introduced the the The Big Easy Oil-Less Infrared Turkey Fryer I have to admit I was skeptical that you could fry things without oil.  I’ve see many “low fat” recipes that call for “oven frying.”  And have never been all that fond of any frying technique that didn’t include some type of oil or fat.  Let’s be realistic here, flavor comes from that oil or fat and flavor is what food is all about.  Isn’t it?  So, when I got the chance to give the Big Easy a try I jumped at it.

The Big Easy requires some assembly and it wasn’t all that difficult to put together.  It would have been a great deal easier if the cooking basket, which requires removal for assembly, had not wedged underneath the top lid so it wouldn’t come out.  I had to remove the four screws that held on the top rim.  A step that isn’t supposed to be required.  Either a better system of packaging or a note that this might happen would keep people from trying to get the round basket through a hole that’s to small.  A minor inconvenience, but it did add about 10 minutes to the assembly time.  Other than that small mishap the Big Easy it was simple to assemble.  Very few people should have problems with this process.

Just like most other outdoor cooking devices the Big Easy requires a little seasoning.   After hooking up your propane tank you need to coat the cooking pot and roasting basket with a thin coating of oil and heat it for about 15 minutes.  This step is essential to getting an even cook the first time.  Over time the cooking pot will season even more making cooking even better.

My first cook on the Big Easy was a simple fried chicken.  After brining the chicken I let it dry and brushed it all over with olive oil.  I used a “beer can” chicken holder to center the chicken inside the roasting basket and inserted the whole thing into the Big Easy

The chicken took about 45 minutes to reach the desire 165 degrees.  The chicken was then rested for 15 minutes, sliced and eaten.  As you can see I only thought I coated the whole chicken with olive oil.  I missed the botton of the bird where you can see it didn’t brown as well as the top.

The chicken was amazing.  The skin was “bite through” and tasted very much like it had been fried in oil.   I’m very excited about adding this product to my outdoor cooking arsenal.  By reading the Char-Broil website you can see the Big Easy is very versatile.  From vegetables, to chicken/turkey to pork loins.  Lots of options and you’ll be seeing much more about the Big Easy here at the BBQ Grail.

A couple of negatives other than the assemble problem.  The thermometer doesn’t appear to be all that good, I’d recommend either a digital probe thermometer or an upgraded oven thermometer.  And getting the chicken in and out of the roasting basket was a challenge.  The optional hinged roasting basket is a must in my opinion.

But those are minor inconveniences when compared to the awesome food this “fryer” can help you produce.

You can read more about the Big Easy here.

© 2009 – 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

One advantage of being a member of a close knit BBQ community on the internet is I get to meet people from all over the world.  I recently found an international package on my door step from a good BBQ friend in Utrecht,The Netherlands.  “Phubar,” his BBQ Brethren screen name had sent me a bottle of his very own homemade Sweet & Hot Pear Sauce.  Made from his stash of homegrown pears it was one of those special treats I get once in awhile.  I have to admit, that as excited as I was I still had some trepidation because I don’t like pears.

Since I had a whole chicken brining in the refrigerator I figured a little Sweet & Hot Pear Spatchcock chicken would be in order.

The chicken was brined in a normal salt water brine with a cup of Texas Pete Hot Sauce tossed in.

The backbone was removed from the chicken. After laying the chicken out flat the process of cleaning up the little bits of skin and fat begins.

Once the "inside" is cleaned up the chicken is turned over and the trimming of the "outside" is done.

The chicken was then placed on the Traeger with apple wood and a good healthy dose of Plowboy Yardbird Rub.

Once the chicken was about 30 minutes from being done I glazed it with a nice dose of Phubar's Sweet & Hot Pear Sauce. Not only did it smell really good, but it gave the skin of the chicken a very nice shine.

After the first glaze set I put another much thicker coating on the chicken and let it cook the final 20 minutes.

The combination of the brine and the pear sauce made for a very tasty and juicy chicken.

Add some fried potatoes and fresh broccoli and you've got yourself a great meal.

This was a great sauce.  The pear flavor came through but with all the other spices it was a pleasing pear flavor.   It’s homemade and you can’t buy it anywhere and that makes it that much more special.  My heart felt thanks for my international friend PHUBAR!

© 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

Got an email from my baby brother in Santee, California showing off his cooking skills.  Check out the great looking chicken he did.  He’s got some good cooking skills but will always be the junior chef in the family.

© 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.