Archive for the ‘barbecue’ Category

“COPE” CHOPS: FEEDING HUNGRY DJs FOR ALMOST 4 DECADES!

Posted: April 2, 2025 in barbecue, CHARCOAL, Food, grilling, Recipes
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I just came back from a trip to my hometown of New York City, where I saw some old radio friends. It reminded me of this awesomely simple grilled pork chop that dates back to my early years in radio on Long Island.

“Cope” chops are the creation of my radio buddy, Marc Coppola, who can be heard from Cape Cod to California. Cope and I met at WBAB on Long Island back in the early 80’s. He had the afternoon drive shift, and I was on after him from 7 to midnight. After his show, Cope would remove a hibachi grill out of the trunk of his car, light some charcoal in the radio station parking lot, and he’d grill up the most amazing pork chops I’ve ever had. They were thin, but juicy and beautifully charred. He called ’em “Cope chops,” and we’d eat them by the stack, wrapping the hot bone of the chop with a paper towel, and then just chowing down. It’s a great memory, and one that I like to re-live by grilling Cope chops at home even today.

After four decades, I’m not sure if my Cope chop recipe is the same as the original, but they are damn good and incredibly easy to make.

Ironically, for this recipe, I don’t go all out and spend big money on thick, expensive pork chops. I want them thin, fatty and with the bone in. This is not a low-and-slow process: the secret to the success of these chops is to cook them hot and fast on a charcoal grill, sealing in the juices.

Thin-cut pork chops
Dry white wine (I use an unoaked inexpensive French chardonnay)
Lawry’s seasoned salt

Place the pork chops in a casserole dish or other flat dish with sides, and pour the wine over the top, making sure you cover the chops. Let them marinate for at least an hour at room temperature, flipping them over halfway through so that all sides get covered by the wine.

Light a hot hardwood charcoal fire.

Pour off the wine from the chops and discard it. Place the chops on the hot grill and season the top with the Lawry’s seasoned salt. Once they’ve charred nicely, flip the chops over and season the other side. Grill until the chops are cooked all the way through, but not dry. Serve them immediately.

The proper way to eat a Cope chop: wrap the bone in a paper towel and chow down!

CORNED BEEF IN TIME FOR ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Posted: February 28, 2025 in barbecue, beef, brining, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, Recipes, salt, smoking, Uncategorized
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Now’s the time to start prepping your brisket for corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day!

Before every St. Patty’s Day, supermarkets are full of packages of processed corned beef in preparation for the big celebration. But, interestingly, corned beef isn’t really an authentic Irish dish.

The phrase “corned beef” was coined by the British, and although the Irish were known for their corned beef throughout Europe in the 17th century, beef was far too expensive for the Irish themselves to eat and all of it was exported to other countries. Owning a cow in Ireland was a sign of wealth, and the Irish used theirs for dairy products, not beef.

The Irish ate pork, and a lot of it, because it was cheap to raise pigs, and they traditionally prepared something like Canadian bacon to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland.

In the 1900’s, when the Irish came to America, both beef and salt were more affordable, and the Irish, who lived in poor, tight-knit communities, often next to Jewish communities, bought much of their beef from Kosher butchers. And so many of the Irish learned how to corn their beef using Jewish techniques, but adding cabbage and potatoes to the mix. That’s what we have today.

It takes about 3 weeks to make corned beef. Doing it yourself is not difficult. It just takes time.

Corned beef has nothing to do with corn. ‘Corning’ is a technique for preserving raw meats for long periods by soaking it in a salt brine. This method was used in England before the days of commercial refrigeration. Back then, the large salt kernels used in the brine were called “corns.”

Brining is a time-honored way of preserving meat and it prevents bacteria from growing. Both pastrami and corned beef are made by this method. Both start with a brisket of beef. Corned beef is then cooked–usually boiled–and served. Pastrami is made when the brined meat is rubbed with more spices and then smoked to add extra flavor. So corned beef and pastrami are the same meat, just treated differently.

Saltpeter is an ingredient that has been used in brining beef for years. It adds the traditional pink coloring to the corned beef and pastrami meat, a bit more appetizing than the gray color it tends to have if you don’t use it.

Saltpeter can also contain carcinogens, so there’s always talk of avoiding it. It’s found in pink curing salt, which is used in small amounts during the curing process. (Not to be confused with Himalayan pink salt, which is just plain salt.) Since I only make my corned beef once a year, I’m OK with it either way. The general rule of thumb is only 1 teaspoon pink curing salt per 5 pounds of meat.

I get grass-fed brisket in 10-pound slabs, but use whatever size you find comfortable. Just don’t go too small, or the brine will make that tiny piece of meat extremely salty.

Brining the beef brisket

Brining the beef brisket

Step one: corned beef…

beef brisket (about 8-10 pounds)
2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 cup warm water
3 cloves of minced garlic
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon mixed pickling spices
3/4 cup salt
1 teaspoon pink curing salt (optional)
2 quarts water

Place the brisket in a large container made of non-reactive material, like glass or plastic.

In the 1/4 cup of warm water, dissolve the sugar, minced cloves, paprika and pickling spices.

Dissolve the 3/4 cup of salt (and optional teaspoon of pink curing salt) in the 2 quarts of water. Pour in the sugar/garlic/paprika/pickling spices mix and stir everything together. Pour the mixture over the meat in the container. Make sure the meat is totally beneath the surface of the liquid. (You may need to weigh it down to do this. I place a couple of plates on top, which pushes the meat down into the brine.) If there’s just not enough liquid, double the recipe, leaving out the pink salt the second time. Cover the container.

Refrigerate the container and its contents for 3 weeks, turning the meat once or twice per week. At the end of the third week, remove the container from the refrigerator and take out the meat. Soak the meat in several changes of fresh cold water over a period of 12 hours to remove the excess salt. I add ice to the water to keep the meat cold.

At this point, if you want corned beef, most people boil it.

I prefer to lay some aluminum foil down on a sheet pan. Then I coarsely chop carrots, onions, and celery, placing them in a single layer on the foil. Then I lay my brisket on top of the veggies, and wrap the meat tightly in the foil. I place the baking pan in a pre-heated 350 degree oven and cook for about 3 1/2 hours. (That’s for an 8-pound slab of meat. The cooking time will be less for a smaller cut.)

If you want to make pastrami, there are more steps to take…

Step two: making Pastrami…

pastrami

Brined and rinsed corned beef brisket from above recipe, patted dry with paper towels
1/4 cup Kosher salt
1/4 cup paprika
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon white peppercorns
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated garlic

Combine the coriander seeds, black and white peppercorns and mustard seeds in a spice grinder and grind them coarsely. Place them in a bowl. Add the salt, paprika, brown sugar and granulated garlic. Mix well.

Rub the mix into the corned beef well, covering all sides.

Heat your smoker to 225 degrees and smoke the meat for several hours. (My wood of choice is always hickory.) When the internal temperature of the meat has reached 165 degrees, it’s done. It isn’t necessary to smoke pastrami as long as you would a regular brisket because the long brining time makes the meat more tender, and you’ll be steaming it next.

It is very important that absolutely everything that comes in contact with the meat is very clean. (This includes your hands.) Also, make very sure that every inch of the meat reaches the 165 degrees before it is removed from the smoker. The corned beef is now pastrami.

Delis that serve pastrami go one step further: they steam the meat so that it becomes incredibly tender and easy to slice. I place a baking pan with boiling water in the center of a 350° oven. I put a grate on top of it, placing the pastrami on top of the grate. Then I invert a bowl over the pastrami to keep the steam in. I will cook it this way for at least an hour to steam the meat before slicing and serving.

MY VERSION OF NEW ORLEANS-STYLE BBQ SHRIMP

Posted: February 26, 2025 in barbecue, Food, Recipes, seafood, shrimp
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Mardi Gras is less than a week away!! Here’s a great dish from New Orleans…

One of my favorite dishes to come out of New Orleans is Barbecue Shrimp, so on a visit to the Crescent City a couple of years ago, I had to make a stop at the place where it all started.

The first unusual thing you notice about the classic dish, New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp, is that it’s not cooked on a barbecue grill and it has no barbecue sauce.

So why the name?

Its origin goes back to the mid-1950’s, to an Italian restaurant in New Orleans called Pascale’s Manale. The story goes that a regular customer had just returned from Chicago, where he had dined on an amazing shrimp dish. He asked the chef at Pascale’s Manale to try to replicate it, and what resulted was actually better than the original. And though no barbecue grill or sauce was used, it is believed that they gave it the name “BBQ Shrimp” to cash in on the backyard barbecuing craze that was all the rage at the time. Whatever they call it, I have to say that it’s worth a special trip to have the dish!

The classic New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp is served with shell-on shrimp, so you have to make a big, buttery mess of yourself as you devour it. And it’s served with plenty of crusty French bread.

At home, sometimes I’ll leave out the bread and go for rice instead. And I’ll peel the shrimp completely, using the shrimp shells to make the stock I cook the rice in.

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For the seasoning…
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, very finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon granulated onion
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

Mix all the seasoning spices and set them aside.

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For the BBQ shrimp…
2 lbs. large wild-caught American shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 stick butter (4 oz.)
1/2 cup beer
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
olive oil
For the rice…
1 cup rice (I like jasmine rice)
2 1/4 cups water or seafood stock (see below)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning

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Cook the rice following the directions on the package. I like using stock instead of water when I cook my rice, so after peeling all the shrimp, I toss the shells in a saucepan full of water and I boil the heck out of it, strain it, and use that stock to cook the rice. I add the olive oil and the Tony Chachere’s (available online or at your favorite food store) to the stock before cooking the rice.

To cook the shrimp, I heat a little olive oil in a large skillet over moderate heat. Then I add the shrimp, and sear them on one side (about 30 seconds) and then flip them over to sear on the other side (another 30 seconds.) I’m not trying to cook them all the way through, just get them a bit caramelized. Then I remove the shrimp from the skillet and set them aside.

(I often serve the BBQ Shrimp over the rice with broccoli. If you want to use broccoli, add a little butter and olive oil to the same pan you seared the shrimp in. Cook until the broccoli is nicely caramelized, then remove from the pan and set aside.)

In the same skillet, I heat the butter until the foam subsides. Then I add the beer, Worcestershire sauce, and 2 teaspoons of the seasoning mix. I mix well, then add the shrimp and broccoli back in the pan, simmering for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over the rice!

THAI GRILLED STEAK

Posted: January 8, 2025 in barbecue, beef, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, grilling, Recipes, Uncategorized
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This is a really delicious grilled steak full of wonderful Thai flavors. You do need to marinate it overnight, so keep that in mind. The overnight marinating is key to the intense and unbelievable flavor of the beef.

The original recipe called for skirt steak, but I didn’t have any in my freezer. I did have a fat ribeye, though, so once I thawed it, I sliced it lengthwise to get two large, thin steaks which would easily suck up the marinade I was going to make. And the ribeye was nicely marbled, so it stayed juicy and tender. Beef flap or flank steak are cuts is that would work well with this recipe.

 

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1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped dry roasted unsalted peanuts
2 scallions, minced
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon chile oil
2 lbs. beef ribeye (or skirt steak or beef flap)
1/4 cup chicken stock (homemade is best)

In a bowl, whisk together the sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, cilantro, peanuts, scallions, sugar, lime juice and chile oil. Transfer half of it to a shallow dish.

Add the steak to the dish and turn the meat to coat it well. Cover and refrigerate the beef overnight. Refrigerate the other half of the marinade in a separate container.

The next day, light a grill. While it’s warming up, get out a sauce pan and pour the chicken stock in along with the reserved marinade. Heat it to combine it well, but not letting it reach a boil. Remove it from the heat and let it come to room temperature. This will be the dipping sauce for the beef.

About 30 minutes before cooking, take the marinated steak out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Season it with salt and pepper, and grill it over high heat until it’s medium-rare, about 5 minutes.

If it’s too cold to light a grill, or if you just want to use the oven, heat a cast iron pan on the stovetop, add a few drops of avocado oil or pork fat, and sear the beef on both sides before placing it in a pre-heated 375° oven to finish cooking.

Devour the beef with the dipping sauce!

ROASTING A TURKEY ON A WEBER GRILL

Posted: November 13, 2024 in barbecue, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, grilling, Thanksgiving, turkey
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With Thanksgiving on everyone’s mind, I’d like to share my recipe for what I consider to be the perfect turkey.

I often get asked if I deep-fry my turkey for Thanksgiving. I think it’s way too messy and time-consuming for nothing better than an “OK-tasting” bird. I lived in the South for a few years, and my friends fried a turkey on several occasions. I wasn’t that impressed.

When frying, you need to find a safe spot in the yard to blast the propane-fueled fryer so you don’t burn your house down. Then you need to stand outside and freeze your butt off while it fries, while your friends and family are all indoors having cocktails. Then you need to get rid of gallons of used oil, and clean up a huge mess at the end of it all. And through all this, you need to make sure the oil is at the right temperature so you don’t get a scorched turkey on the outside and a raw turkey on the inside.

No, thanks.

I get great results by cooking my turkey in my Weber grill. I’ve cooked it this way every Thanksgiving for about 30 years. The standard Weber allows me to cook up to a 15 lb. bird–big enough for my purposes–and it comes out crispy, smoky and delicious. If you’re afraid to try this for the first time at Thanksgiving when it really matters, I understand. That’s how I did it years ago, and I never looked back.

 

The charcoal chimney with hot coals awaits.

The charcoal chimney with hot coals awaits.

 

Although I’ve stopped using charcoal briquettes for basic grilling a long time ago, and now strictly use natural hardwood charcoal, this recipe works best with Kingsford briquettes. They burn slowly and evenly. I never use lighter fluid…I always start my fire with a few pieces of crumbled newspaper under a charcoal chimney.

The tools you need:
A Weber grill, with the dome top
Kingsford charcoal briquettes (don’t t use Match Lite or other pre-soaked briquettes)
A charcoal chimney, easily found at Home Depot or Lowe’s
A heavy-duty disposable aluminum pan
Ingredients:
Whole turkey, up to 15 lbs., thawed and brined (see my previous blog about brining a turkey)
Olive oil (to rub on the turkey)
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
½ lb. (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon granulated onion
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper

 

Spreading the coals away from the center of the grill.

Spreading the coals away from the center of the grill.

 

If you want stuffing, it’s always wise to make it separately and cook it separately.

Light 8 to 10 lbs. of charcoal in the grill…depending on the size of the turkey and how cold it is outside.

If you brined the turkey first, you’ve already removed the giblets. If you’re not brining, go ahead remove the giblets from the thawed bird now. Place the turkey in the aluminum pan.

In a small bowl, mix the granulated garlic, granulated onion, salt, and pepper. (Definitely add any other seasonings you might like.)

Coarsely chop the onions and celery. Place them in a another bowl. Mix them with the melted butter and 1/3 of the garlic/onion/salt/pepper mixture.

Place a small handful of this onion and celery “stuffing” mixture in the neck cavity of the turkey. Place the rest in the body cavity (where the stuffing would usually go.) You can fasten the bird with turkey skewers if you like. This “stuffing” is strictly to flavor the turkey…you don’t eat it!

 

The rubbed, stuffed and seasoned bird.

The rubbed, stuffed and seasoned bird.

 

Rub the outside of the entire turkey with the olive oil and sprinkle the rest of the garlic/onion/salt/pepper mixture on the outside of the bird. Make sure you get the bird on the bottom as well.

When the coals in the grill have ashed over, spread them to the outside edges of the Weber grill equally. Put the cooking grill rack in place. Place the aluminum pan with the turkey in the center of the grill, keeping it away from the direct heat of the coals. If you’re using a meat thermometer, insert the probe into the thickest part of the breast, being careful not to hit the bone. Place the lid on the grill. (You may need to bend your aluminum pan a bit.) Open the vents on the bottom of the Weber as well as the vents on the lid. It’s important to get air circulating!

 

My meat thermometer calls me from as far as 100 feet away! Time for a cocktail!

My old-school meat thermometer calls me from as far as 100 feet away! (Newer thermometers are wireless and talk to your smart phone.) Time to join family and friends for a cocktail!

 

No basting is necessary.

Now here’s the tough part: DO NOT OPEN THE GRILL TO CHECK ON THE TURKEY! (If you must look, shine a flashlight into the vent holes on the lid to take a peek at the pop-up timer, if there is one.) The whole point is to keep the heat inside the kettle. You’ll know your turkey is done when no more smoke or heat rises from the grill, and the turkey inside stops making sizzling noises. The internal meat temperature should be around 165 degrees.

And believe it or not, a 15-lb. turkey will be cooked in about 2 hours!

If you’re using a meat thermometer (recommended), remove the turkey when it hits about 155 degrees, wrap it in foil, leaving the thermometer still in the bird, and let it rest at least 20 minutes. The temperature will go up a bit to 165 or even a little higher, before it starts going down.

 

Beautifully grilled, and perfectly cooked in less than 2 hours!

Beautifully grilled, perfectly cooked!

 

KOREAN/CHINESE CHICKEN: SWEET WITH A LITTLE HEAT

Posted: October 16, 2024 in barbecue, chicken, Food, Recipes
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The combination of sweet with a little heat is something I just can’t get away from. Whether I’m barbecuing, putting together a poke bowl, or preparing my favorite Asian recipe, I gotta have it.

I was looking back at a previous blog I had written about Korean barbecue, and I was really craving a lot of the flavors in my recipe…but I was comfy here at home on a bad weather day, and I wasn’t about to go out to the store to buy the one key ingredient I didn’t have: a spicy sauce called Gochujang. So, I looked in my fridge for a reasonable substitute, and there, on the shelf, was a brand new bottle of Chinese chili garlic sauce. It was exactly what I needed.

 

I grabbed chicken leg quarters at the supermarket last week, because the quarters have a drumstick and a thigh, my favorite parts of the chicken.

 

*Raw chicken hack*
I keep disposable gloves in my kitchen to use whenever I handle raw chicken. I’ve got a special trimming knife that I use…and it goes right in the dishwasher after I’m done. (I don’t normally put knives in the dishwasher, but this inexpensive blade goes in.) I also use an acrylic cutting board, because it, too, can go right in the dishwasher to be sanitized. (Doesn’t matter how much you scrub a wooden board, it will absorb odors and liquids and never get completely clean.) I have two beautiful wooden boards in my kitchen, but they’re more for show than practical use. And then the gloves: I wear them while trimming the chicken, then toss them when I’m done.

 

The amazing sauce that I use here will last through the preparation of this dish and then some. Once you’ve mixed up a batch, it might be good to separate it into 2 bowls. Use one bowl to brush it onto the raw chicken. The other bowl will be untouched by anything that touches the chicken, so you can use it cooked or uncooked. As soon as the brush you’re using touches the raw chicken and then sauce, you can no longer use it uncooked. (Salmonella!) No licking the bowl by accident!

The extra sauce will be awesome if you want to brush even more sauce on leftovers.

 

More sauce than you need, but trust me: you’ll keep slathering it on more and more!

 

3 lb. package of chicken parts (I used leg quarters)
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chili garlic sauce
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon granulated garlic

Combine everything but the chicken in a bowl and mix well, then divide them into two bowls…one to use with the raw chicken and one for later.

 

*Ginger root hack*
I love fresh ginger. But I never use it often enough. It gets moldy in my fridge and I have to toss it out. But I learned a trick from a local organic farmer who grows their own ginger– Liz, at at Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton, RI: Put the ginger root in a plastic bag, and keep it in the freezer. When you need it for a recipe, take the frozen root out of the freezer and grate it–skin and all–according to your recipe. Then put the rest back in the freezer. An amazing trick that really works, and you’ll never peel ginger again!

 

Looks good, but it’s not cooked yet! Once it’s basted, fold the foil over the top of the chicken to make a packet.

 

Grab a baking pan, and tear a long sheet of aluminum foil, placing it over it. Place the chicken pieces on the foil bottom-side up. (I need to use 2 sheets of foil overlapping each other because my chicken pieces were larger.)

Brush the bottoms of the chicken pieces with the sauce, then flip them over and brush the tops. Be generous!

Wrap the foil around the chicken pieces to make a pouch, making sure the pieces are not sticking out.

Pre-heat the oven to the highest temperature it will go. When the oven is hot, place the pan with the chicken in the oven, close the door, and turn the oven down to 325.

Bake the chicken for one hour.

When the chicken is done, open the foil packet. It will look like this…

 

Carefully pour off the fat, then brush more of the sauce on the chicken, and place it under the broiler, watching it carefully so that the sugars in the sauce don’t burn. Broil it until it’s caramelized. (Another option is to light a charcoal grill and cook it on the grill rather than putting it under the broiler. It’s just a matter of how much time and effort you want to spend, and what the weather’s like.)

 

I used a new sheet of foil and a new pan under the broiler.

 

Discard any of the sauce that touched the raw chicken. Use the “clean” bowl of sauce on the cooked chicken, if you want to add more.

Leftovers are awesome. Simply take the chicken out of the fridge, brush with more sauce, and place it in a 300-degree oven for about 10–15 minutes. It will take on an even darker color.

 

Leftovers the next day: I brushed more sauce on it before re-heating.

 

 

ROASTED CHICKEN WITH ALABAMA WHITE SAUCE

Posted: September 29, 2024 in barbecue, chicken, Food, Recipes, Uncategorized
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If you watch as much Food Network and Cooking Channel as I do, you’ve probably heard of Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama. Smokin’ and grillin’ since 1925, they put the now-famous Alabama white sauce on the map. They would smoke whole birds, then dunk the entire bird in a bucket of white sauce before returning them to the smoker to cook some more. And then they’d serve more of the precious white sauce on the side as you tore into the most amazing chicken you’ve ever had.

I lived in Mobile, Alabama 35 years ago. Never made it to Decatur. Probably never will. So it was time for me to try to recreate the magic at home. I think I did pretty well.

If you Google “Alabama white sauce,” you’ll get dozens of versions, each, I’m sure, pretty similar and pretty good. I did just that, and then tweaked it to make it my own.

I don’t smoke the birds. I simply season them with salt and pepper, and roast them in a convection oven at 350. When they’re almost done, I brush the chicken all over very liberally with my white sauce…bottom of the bird, too. Then it goes back in the oven for a little bit more.

 

Parts work as well as whole birds. I love using leg quarters for this recipe.

 

1 cup mayonnaise
4 tablespoons buttermilk
4 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Combine all the ingredients and mix well. I like to keep it in a container with a lid so I can shake it up before using it.

Preheat the oven to 350.

I like to roast a whole bird, though parts work just as well. If I’m roasting a whole bird, I like to spatchcock the bird so that it cooks evenly. 

(Aside from the fact that it sounds dirty, spatchcocking simply means removing the back bone of the bird so you can open it up and press it flat onto the roasting pan.)

 

A spatchcocked bird.

 

It’s relatively easy to do, especially if you have poultry shears. You just flip the bird upside down, and cut all the way up on either side of the back bone.

Be sure to save the backbone for chicken stock. If you’re like me and you pay extra for really good quality humanely raised chicken, every little bit needs to be saved and utilized to get the most bang for your buck.

 

 

I line a baking tray with foil, salt and pepper my bird all over, and place it on the baking tray and into the 350-degree oven. It takes a little less than an hour for a 4-lb. bird, but before it’s completely cooked through, I pull it out of the oven and brush on all sides with my Alabama white sauce.

 

 

Then it goes back into the oven for about 10 minutes.

The result is a tender and juicy bird, unlike any you’ve had before.

 

And save some of that white sauce to dip in while you’re eating!

 

 

 

MARINATED RIBEYE…GREAT ON THE GRILL!

Posted: July 26, 2024 in barbecue, beef, Carnivore!, Food, grilling, marinade, Recipes, Uncategorized
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Out on the North Fork of Long Island, there’s a steak restaurant called the Elbow Room. It’s nothing fancy…old school cooking. But they’re famous for their steaks because of a super-secret marinade. Ages ago, I spotted a newspaper article that claimed they found out what that secret marinade was, and they published it. Whether this really is the official Elbow Room marinade or not, I have to say it’s pretty darn tasty and it makes for a delicious steak on the grill.

 

 

My biggest concern with the marinade was the salt factor, since it uses soy sauce. But the ribeye I had was almost an inch-and-a-half thick, which meant that it could sit in the marinade for a long time…my ribeye sat in it for 8 hours. If you choose to use a thinner cut of meat, you might need to reduce your marinating time.

The recipe uses a product called Gravy Master, available in most supermarkets. Look for it in the section where you find gravies and instant potatoes.

 

 

1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Gravy Master
2 large Vidalia onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons celery seed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

 

Combine the onions and garlic in a large food processor and purée. Add the remaining ingredients and run the processor until it’s smooth and sort of resembles root beer.

 

 

Marinate the beef in the marinade overnight, or for as long as possible. The thicker the cut of meat, the longer you can marinate it.

Looks delicious, but it hasn’t been cooked yet! Straight out of the marinade.

 

Light the grill. I prefer pure hardwood charcoal because that’s where the flavor is. If I’m just cooking one steak, I get my camping grill out. It lights quickly and easily, and it doesn’t waste a whole lotta charcoal.

 

Always use a charcoal chimney, never lighter fluid…unless you like the taste of petroleum products in your food.

 

Pure hardwood charcoal gives you a hot fire. I like to sear the beef really well on both sides, then move the steak to a cooler spot on the grill and close the cover. I’ll let the beef cook until it gets to a perfect medium-rare.

 

 

If you try this marinade on burgers–and it’s great on burgers–simply brush the burgers with the marinade as you place them on the grill. Go easy or you’ll get a very salty burger.

 

Marinated grilled ribeye with a side of fried rice…an easy combination of veggies and rice leftovers I had in the fridge with a dash of soy sauce.

 

 

 

KOREAN-INSPIRED BARBECUE, PART 2

Posted: July 21, 2024 in barbecue, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, grilling, Recipes, Uncategorized
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Bulgogi is the name given to the most common form of Korean barbecue. Unlike the daeji bulgogi that I cooked in a previous blog, this one is not based on a chili sauce that can take the roof of your mouth right off.

I used chicken, though this would work with pork as well, and for the best flavor, it’s best to marinate the meat in the fridge overnight.

 

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2/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup chopped scallions
6 tablespoons sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
5 tablespoons fresh garlic, grated or through a garlic press
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper
5 lbs. chicken pieces (I use skin-on thighs)

 

Combine all the ingredients except for the chicken in a bowl and mix well.

Place the chicken pieces in a large Ziploc bag and pour the marinade in. Seal the bag well and squish it around to make sure the marinade makes contact with the chicken. Place the bag in a bowl (to prevent accidental leakage) and keep it in the fridge overnight. Squish the bag around every few hours to make sure the marinade does its job.

When you’re ready to cook the next day, pre-heat the oven to 350 and remove the bag from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Place the chicken on a sheet pan (discard the remaining marinade) and bake it for an hour, or until the meat temperature reaches about 160.

If you want that char and those grill marks, light a hot grill and push the coals to one side of the grill. Place the chicken pieces on the cool side of the grill and close the lid, opening the vents. Every few minutes, turn the chicken pieces over so they get nice grill marks but don’t burn.

 

 

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KOREAN-INSPIRED BARBECUE

Posted: July 19, 2024 in barbecue, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, grilling, Recipes
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I’ve always been fascinated by Korean barbecue. Every time I see it on TV or catch a recipe on an e-mail blast, my mouth waters and I say to myself that I’ve got to experience it some day. But the painful reality is: Korean barbecue can be really spicy…and I’m a total wuss.

Korean barbecue 101: Gogigui means “meat roast” in Korean, and it refers to the method of roasting beef, pork, chicken, and other meats. Meats can be marinated or not. Bulgogi is the name of the most common Korean barbecue. Meat is marinated with soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic and pepper, and then grilled. Galbi uses beef short ribs, and adds onions to the marinade. And the hot stuff is daeji bulgogi, because the marinade isn’t soy sauce-based, but based on the hot-n-spicy Korean chili paste known as gochujang.

All of the marinades looked delicious, but the hot one with gochujang would be my biggest challenge, so I decided to start there. I found a great recipe, and quickly realized that I would have to turn the heat way down if I was actually going to try to eat it! For example, the original recipe called for 2 tablespoons of white pepper. I totally left it out. And it called for a full cup of gochujang. Not only did I cut that part in half, I doubled many of the other non-spicy ingredients.

So is it authentic Korean barbecue? Probably not. But it’s my version of it. It’s got lots a flavor and still carries a bit of heat.

For gluten-free diets: finding GF hoisin and soy sauce is pretty easy these days. Look for the La Choy brand. But I haven’t been able to find gochujang that has a GF label.

 

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3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup gochujang
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon freshly grated garlic (I use a garlic press)
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
4 lbs. chicken pieces

 

Pre-heat the oven to 500 or its top temperature.

In a bowl, mix everything but the chicken pieces. Brush the sauce onto the chicken pieces, then wrap them in aluminum foil. (I like to tear a long piece of aluminum foil and lay it on top of a sheet pan. I place the chicken pieces on the foil, brush them with sauce on all sides, then fold the foil over the chicken, making one large pouch that holds all the meat.) Leave the pouch on the sheet pan and place it in the oven, then lower the oven temp to 350.

Cook the chicken for about an hour at 350, making sure it’s almost completely cooked. Juices should run clear, not bloody, when you poke it with a fork.

Start a hardwood fire on your grill. Push the coals to one side of the grill so you have a hot side and a cooler side with no coals underneath it. Place the chicken pieces on the cool side of the grill (if you put it on the hot side, it will stick and burn), brush with more sauce, and put the lid on the grill, making sure you have the vents open for air circulation.

 

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See those 2 black bits in the foreground? That’s where the chicken stuck to the grill because I placed them over the hot coals. Don’t do that.

 

After a few minutes, lift the lid, flip the chicken pieces over, brush them with sauce again, and close the lid. Keep doing this until the chicken is nice and caramelized, with tasty grill marks.

If you want to serve some of the sauce on the side, it’s important to pour some of the sauce off and set it aside in the very beginning, so you’re not using the same sauce that the basting brush touched the raw chicken with.

 

 

 

 

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