Thursday, June 9, 2011

About Damn Time! (First Semi-Recipe)

Today I finally got around to some Barbecue.  At my house we try to rotate through the different proteins so we don;t get bored.  Today it was chicken.  BARBECUE WITH NO PORK! you say?.I say yes.  

As much as I love my pork (Read Here) , I respect Barbecue more.  I find that here in Minnesota, not many people understand what Barbecue is.  Burgers!  NO.  Brats!  NO.  Grilled Chicken breast to put on top of that salad you have with the dressing on the side! NO (Deep breaths... That was a long one).  Barbecue is 2 things.  LOW and SLOW.  

What about sauce?  Do we need 15 different sauces with varying degrees of flavor?  That's debatable and we'll save that for the next MNFOODBLOGGERS meet up (or we can start it right now in the comments below).  I believe if you need a sauce at all, it better be right and not cover up  the flavor of the meat that you just spent hours or even days to create.  Pulled Pork. I like it Carolina style, lightly tossed in spiced vinegar.  Ribs.  I like them dry rubbed, basted in beer and NO SAUCE!.  You heard it right.  If you're good, you can make these babies moist and tender with amazing flavor with no need for sauce.  And we come to chicken.  

I change how I marinate my Barbecue Chicken based on my mood and who I'm cooking for.  I usually like mine marinated in brown mustard, sugar, vinegar and beer but my Sis isn't a huge fan of mustard as the Tailback of the team.  SO today I took some BBQ sauce, Brown mustard, fish sauce, and S&P and tossed my thighs (the chickens) in a vacuum bag with the sauces and sucked it up to encourage faster marinating and better absorption into the meat.  Let rest at room temp for an hour Don't be scared, it's only an hour.  It'll cook soon enough).


 After the meat is good and marinated, get your grill heated to Medium on a gas guy and good coals off to one side in a charcoal grill.  You'll want to sear the skin side of the chicken directly over the heat until  good and golden.  


One they look good, place them skin side up( so the fat renders and keeps the meat juicy) on the opposite, cold side of the grill.  Cover with lid. Stretch.  Drink beer or wine or Jack or whatever Johnnie wad whipping up a couple weeks ago at Heidi;s.  

Check every 30 min or so and they should look like this after an hour and a half,,,..


Do you see sauce? Nope.  Doesn't need it.  The marinade reduces and glazes the chicken until smoky, sticky and fabulous.

Now for the sides.  What is the #1 summer vegetable in Minnesota?  If you said Green Beans or kohlrabi, you're an idiot.  Please leave my blog.

Anyways, I like to do corn in non-traditional ways sometimes just to change it up.  Grilled corn is great but sometimes I don't feel like picking my teeth for two hours after dinner.  Tonight I made Sweet Corn Rice.

I grilled 3 ears of corn,  cut it off the cob and pulsed in the food processor with cumin, agave nectar, water, sriracha and S & P.  Buzz it until it resembles creamed corn.  Place in pot with 1 C. rice and 1 1/2 C. Water and check your seasoning.  Cook like rice.  Easy.

Next is the salad.  When preparing meats that are fatty, spicy, rich or a combination of the 3, I like to serve an acidic salad as an accompaniment.  Tonight it was Haricot Vert-Carrot Slaw with Orange Cumin Vin.  I say vin because it's a vinaigrette , backwards..  

Orange juice, white vinegar, lime juice, cumin, mustard,agave nectar and S& P start off the emulsion.  Next the olive oil.  Unlike a traditional Vinaigrette, this is 3:1 vinegar:oil.  Whisk away.

To this you throw in your julienne of Carrot and Haricot Vert (pictured below)

  
Let sit for an hour and enjoy.

If you plan this out, you can have real Barbecue in 2 1/2 hours.  Easy, Stress-less.  Delicious.

Actually, this is retarded easy.  There is a reason they call it Slow Food.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Let me hear it.