Italian-Style grilled chicken

It was time to try the Mak 2 Star as a grill rather than a smoker. It hit 60 degrees today and was almost sunny so I thought I'd go for summer style dinner. Grilled chicken with cole slaw and yams on the side (more on the yams later).

I tried a recipe from Cook's Illustrated last summer on my charcoal grill, so thought I'd try a proven recipe. My version of the recipe is here. The recipe is for a gas grill; they also have a version for a charcoal grill so I had to adjust a few things for the pellet burner. I overshot the target temp for the thigh, but it ended up pretty tasty anyway. My full cooking log can be found here.

This is a Cook's Illustrated recipe; so we know it's going to be a little more involved than tossing a chicken on the grill. First we simmer 8 cloves of minced garlic, lemon zest, rosemary, and thyme in some olive oil.

After 3 or 4 minutes we separate the oil from the solids. That oil is liquid gold; we'll use it later.

The chicken is butterflied with the rub going under the skin. We salt and pepper the underside of the chicken and slap it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to let things meld.

Wrap a couple of bricks; normal, Lowes, Home Depot, style bricks in aluminum foil and place in the cooker. Set the temp to high and let things come up to temp.

The chicken starts skin side down on the cool side of the grill with the legs pointed to the heat; we want the thighs to get hotter than the breasts. It's hidden under the bricks here, but it's under there, really. The bricks pressing down on the grill  help the skin get nice and crispy; and since they are hot, they help cook the top side.

About 20 minutes later, I flip the chicken skin side up and put on the hot side. Bricks will go back on right after the photo is taken.

After 15 more minutes, the bricks come off and the chicken is flipped skin side down for the final crisping. Not too much worry about flame up at this point. I flip it back over to take its temp. It ended up a bit higher than I wanted; but it didn't dry out.

Tented under foil for 10 minutes then carved and served.

Sorry this picture is a bit washed out. I should have taken 2, but was hungry. The white cutting board reflected too much flash.

While the chicken was resting I added 2 Tablespoons of the lemon juice from the zested lemon along with a bit more thyme and rosemary. Drizzle that over the chicken and you've got some good eats.

I meant to buy a yam, but looks like I got a sweet potato instead. I like yams better and the color of a sweet potato is not real pleasing. The cole slaw is interesting. It also comes from Cook's Illustrated. The vinaigrette is put together and placed in the freezer for 30 minutes. In the meantime, the cabbage is microwaved for 2 minutes with some salt and sugar. The cold vinaigrette then restores it to room temperature.

Both recipes are 4 stars. Nice summer-style dinner even if it barely hit 60 today.

Baby Back Ribs and Mac and Cheese

Trying  a few new things today. New rub; new cooking method and new side.

First, I'm changing the rub. I'm giving Jan's Dry Rub a shot. I first  heard about it on the pellet smoking forum   I participate in. Lots of great folks sharing successes (and warnings). KyNoLa is a regular poster; his wife (I think) developed a rub that you can read about by clicking the link on the rub name above,  Someone said on the blog this rub and some BBQ smoke would make a brick taste good.

Here are the ingredients; first in the class picture;

Into the bowl

All mixed up

 I halved the recipe and it made plenty for this cook and a couple others.

My second change is the method of cooking. I'm still using the MAK; but thought I'd try with a water pan. When I cooked on my gas grill and with the "Smokenator" on the weber kettle I used water. I figured I'd try it here. I've got a full upper rack on the smoker; so I put the water pan on the bottom and the ribs on the rack over them.

It's a little risky but we'll see. The grill is set for 250 and I' added boiling water.

I rubbed the ribs the night before and wrapped in plastic wrap. Let them come to room temperature and then onto the grill.

A little later (well a few hours later) I decided I wasn't a huge fan of the water pan; it seemed to be slowing things down. So, I removed it and moved the ribs down to the bottom rack for the last hour

The third new challenge for the day is a Mac and Cheese side dish; this recipe is from the Amazing Ribs website and is called "Crack 'n Cheese".  Mine didn't look as good as Meathead's but it was plenty tasty.

The line up:

Cook the bacon and then saute the onion, red pepper, and jalapeño in a couple of tablespoons of the bacon fat. Meanwhile. melt the butter for the roux, which will become a béchamel sauce when the milk is added which will become a cheese sauce when the grated cheese is added.

Ready for the oven

30 minutes later; looks like I could have rescued it maybe 2 minutes earlier.

I coated the ribs with sauce and grilled them the last 20 minutes while the mac was in the oven. Then dinner is served. Linda came over for dinner and brought a salad.

Yum!

The ribs were delicious. Think I'll go back to the water pan again; maybe just count on a longer cooking time.