Chillin' and Grillin' - Meat Ideas

Lots of chillin' and grillin' went on in the past two days in the fancy outdoor kitchen with my grill mates, the center piece of which is a table top Kingsford grill with two racks and a hinged lid.  It's wonderful to use and cost less than $40.  It can't be left outdoors though when not in use or it might rust.

So here are some easy ideas for spicing up your meats on the grill:

Chipotle Chicken Breast

All you need to make smoky and delicious chipotle chicken breast is the chicken and a pack of Weber Grill Chipotle Chicken Seasoning.  To prepare the seasoning all you have to do is mix it with some veggie or olive oil and rub it on your chicken.  Half of the package was more than enough for three chicken breasts.  The instructions tell you to marinate it for 15 minutes, but I always think the longer the better!  I marinated mine for a couple of hours.

Once the spice pack has time to get aquinted with the meat, it's time to start the grill.  I use a chimney starter to avoid the use of lighter fluid. That tastes yucky, and you CAN taste it in your food.  The fun smokey part in this chicken comes from the use of a few chunks of hickory, soaked for at least 1/2 an hour to prevent burning when placed on the coals.  Any kinda coals will do just as long as they don't have lighter fluid already in them.  

Dump out your lit charcoal in the grill making sure you have a hot zone and a cool spot.  Add the wood chuncks and get them smokin'.  Put your chicken on over the cool zone and close the lid.  Let the smoke do its thing and keep an eye on the meat so that it doesn't burn.  Temp it if you like to check for doneness.

Take 'em off the grill and enjoy!

Greek Sausage (Loukaniko)

This is about as easy as it gets.  I got a package of Greek sausage from the local deli by my house.  The package did not show an ingredient list, so I looked it up.  This is what's in Greek sausage:

• lamb trimmings
• pork shoulder
• ground red pepper
• garlic 
• ground coriander seed
• dried oregano
• fennel pollen
• cracked black pepper
• orange zest
• Retsina wine (or another Greek white wine)

Just put it on the grill with wood chips of your choice and let it get the smoke!

Spicy Baby Back Ribs

For this I used Weber Grill Seasonings Kickin' Chicken and Trader Joes Smoky Kansas City BBQ Sauce.

Marinate the ribs (raw ones, not the precooked) with the Kickin' Chicken and coat with a small amount of BBQ sauce.  After some time marinating put the ribs in a 300 degree oven for 45 minutes or so.  The oven can be cooler if you have more time to do the precooking.  You want the pork to be at least 160 degrees for safety.  I've seen precooking take place in a microwave, but to me that's just weird.

Set up your grill with the hot and cool zones and add hickory for smoke.  Put your ribs on there over the cool area and let them smoke.  Check for doneness with a meat thermometer and add more BBQ sauce at the end when it's less likely to burn.  You can get ribs at a very reasonable price at Aldi and they come out great on the grill.

Lamb Cheeseburgers 

The neighborhood grocery near my house sells lamb patties at the deli.  They have a few green onions and parsley on the top.  I haven't seen ground lamb at the major grocery store chains, so you may have some searching to do to get ground lamb.

The cheese I used on the burgers was also from the mom and pop grocery.  I chose chipotle smoked Gouda.  It was really good!

Throw your lamb patties on the grill preferably not directly over the coals.  Lamb is like an instant fire starter because it's such a fatty meat, be ready for the flare-ups and don't leave it unattended for a second!  Press out more oil with your spatula as they're cooking.  Keep them moving and monitor them so they don't burn.  If you happen to have wood chips on your grill that tastes really good, but is not entirely necessary.

When your lamb burgers are almost done add the sliced cheese to each burger and let that melt in.  Your burgers are done.

Fun grilled condiments include char blackened Poblano peppers, portabella mushrooms, roasted garlic and grilled onion.  Dijon mustard tastes excellent on there too.  Toast your buns on the grill... crunchy crunchy.  Lettuce and tomato top the perfect lamb cheeseburger!

That's the carnivore's grill tour...   Meow-appetite!

Variation on Tater Carrots, but no Tots... WITH SAUSAGE

This little thing I cooked last night is like that tater tot casserole, except the spices are different and the taters aren't in tot form.  There's also sausage involved, as the title indicates.  Let me explain...

Here's what you need to start with:  (All amounts are approximations based on what was available when I cooked this.  Add more or less dependent on your personal taste!)

• 1 lb. bag of carrots sliced
• 1/2 of a white onion, you could definitely use more... that's all I had in the fridge
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1/2 garlic clove, chopped or you could use the pre-chopped stuff in the jar
• frozen broccoli... this just ended up in there and was good, I'd try fresh or another similar vegetable of your choice
• uncured pork sausage... we need to talk about the sausage

Lets start the sausage talk with the spices I added to Trader Joe's Uncured Pork Sausage:

• Weber Grill Seasonings Kickin' Chicken
• chili powder
• onion powder

Ok, even though I used the sausage mentioned above with the three powdered spices (about equal amounts of each, less Kickin' Chicken and chili if you don't want it to be very spicy) what I was thinking is that the Trader Joe's Jalepeno Sausage would be perfect.  It wouldn't need any spice powder at all, it's very spicy all by itself!  The sausage I used is simply what was in my freezer at the time.  Trader Joe's has a really great selection of pork and chicken sausage (for those who don't pork).  

One more thing to add to the pork discussion is that the pork I used had 23 grams of fat per pint sized link!  I was planning to add some olive oil and butter to the vegetables in the pan, but opted against it because I couldn't handle the idea of adding to the fat content of the dish considering the inclusion of a pretty fatty sausage.  Use your discretion...  It would be really good I'm sure with butter and oil.  Ok fine, I did put in some butter.  To keep my conscience clear I use Land o Lakes reduced fat butter.  It's not margarine, it's sweet cream just with less fat!

So your sausage should be sliced on the bias into semi-circles and sitting somewhere with the spices on it while you prepare your veggies.  Sausage doesn't need to be cooked before you put it in because it's cooked when you buy it.  You can brown it if you like.

Roughly chop the vegetables so that they aren't so small that they turn into mush in the oven.  Now you can use a little bit of oil to coat your baking pan.  I used a pan that was about 2 inches deep and 12 or so inches long, rectangular in shape.  It worked out well.

Throw your veggies in the pan and give them a sprinkle of Stonemill Poultry Seasoning. This comes in a grinder and can be purchased for $1.50 at Aldi.  It goes well on lots of things, and has a minimal amount of sea salt that doesn't make it taste like just salt.  

Get your seasoned sausage slices and strategically place them all around in your vegetables.  Remember this sausage has loads of yummy fat so stick them under the veggies, in between and on top.  Your pan should look like an even mix of all your ingredients.

Put it in the oven at 375 maybe 400 for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on how soft you like the carrots and potatoes to get.  I cooked mine for almost an hour and the big chunks of carrot were still slightly firm, they were good, not mushy at all.  Your frozen chopped broccoli is a different story, but it makes tasty goo all over the other stuff.  Fresh broccoli would have a similar but better effect I think!

I'll be updating this as I try it with a super easy home made pico do gallo in taco form.  Mixing all kinds of stuff together is a great way to come up with new ideas!  That's how I came up with Curry Chicken Tacos, which will be featured here as well at some point.  Anyway, enjoy your pork sausage casserole!