"Hey BBQB! We thought you like to see the glutunous meal we put together over the weekend. We had relatives in town and the house was full. Our grill had to work overtime to feed everyone. My kids and my nieces really dug the weiners we tossed on there. I also included a picture of our potato salad topped with hard boiled eggs that the Mrs. put together. I've never seen potato salad on your site before, so I hope you enjoy.
And, it was all washed down with a pride of Paulaner Weiss Biers! Seeing how you are a Weiss Bier junky, thought you might appreciate these."
Great pictures! The shots of the Paulaner got me thirsty. I believe Octoberfest must be in full swing over there, right? I know it is at my house!
I recently heard from one of my readers that I didnt explain/promote what the Prince's Hot Chicken YouTube video was all about. So here it is again. This is a must see video. It is a hilarious short documentary done on Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. It includes an interview with the owner who gives a little bit of the history of the chicken, how it originated, and even a story about a woman who likes it so hot that it drives her to make "relations" in the parking lot. In addition, there is even commentary from the Mayor of Nashville who has been frequenting Prince's Hot Chicken Shack for years. Since posting my last spotlight on Prince's I was informed of another video out there about Prince's. This video is not as funny as the YouTube one but it is very informative and again includes interviews of the owner and of the Mayor of Nashville.
A few weeks ago I had planned on having a small get together chez BBQB this Saturday. That small get together has turned into a big neighborhood shin-dig. A case of beer and a few hotdogs will now turn into 20 pounds of sweet italian sausage, homemade pastrami, and a keg of PBR. I'm thinking that pastrami sandwiches will be a great way to feed the masses. Last week I bought a 5 pound brisket and began the marinading. I typically marinade my brisket for about 10 days. The marinade goes a little something like this. In a pot bring the following ingredients to a boil and then let cool to room temp:
2 quarts water Quarter cup of Morton's Meat Tenderizer 3/4 cup kosher salt 1/2 cup brown sugar Broken cinnamon stick Teaspoon of mustard seeds Some black pepper corns 8 whole cloves A few bay leaves 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Once the marinade is cool, put the brisket in a big zip top bag and pour in the marinade. Toss it in the fridge for 10 ten days. Be sure to rotate the meat every day or so.
This recipe is a "must try". Besides the 10 day wait, it is incredibly simple to do and the pay off is huge. I'll let you know how my peeps like it on Saturday and how I cooked it. If you can't wait I give a good overview on some older posts.
Humus is a staple in the BBQB's kitchen. Every time I put together some homemade humus I try to mess with the ingredients a bit. As you can see from the picture, in my food processor I've got usual suspects: chick peas (I like to boil my mine for a minute or two first), tahini, olive oil, a clove of garlic, salt, and a splash of water. To changes things up a bit, I also added a few basil leaves and a couple roasted peppers.
I like my humus nice an creamy. To obtain correct creaminess just mess with how much olive oil and water you use.
I was lounging around the house this afternoon after doing a killer mountain bike ride, when my neighnor gave me call. She had just gotten home from the grocery store and had picked up a few Austrlian organic free range NY Strip steaks. Meat with that many adjectives had to be checked out. I instantly sprung into action. Nice cuts like this only need a generous amount of fresh ground pepper and splash sea salt. I then made sure the grill was piping hot and put them directly over the coals. 4 minutes a side and they were a beautiful medium rare. In case you are wondering why there are only 3 steaks shown in the picture below, I cooked mine after the other three were done because I like my meat a little less cooked than my neighbors. I ended up only grilling mine for about 3 minutes a side. Once the meat was cooked I then covered them in tin foil and then topped them with a dishtowel to keep the steaks warm. Doing this allows the juices in the meat to settle.
To round out the meal I whipped together a quick mac + cheese and my neighboor fried up some portobella mushrooms. The shrooms were a big hit. Evidently she marinaded them is red wine, vinegar, salt, and lemon pepper. The day ended nicely!
For some people, Nashville is known as the Music City. For me, however, its known as the home of Hot Chicken. In my opinion, no trip to Nashville is complete without a visit to Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. For those of you who are regular readers of the BBQB, you know that I've already featured Prince's a couple of times in the past on my blog. I realize that this strays away from grilling but sometimes eateries like this one need to be mentioned. Prince's Hot Chicken Now, as far as my knowledge about hot chicken history goes, Prince's was the first to come up with the recipe a few dozen years ago. Since then, several other chicken shacks have popped up but for one reason or another have gone out of business. That was until now. While dining at Prince's Tuesday afternoon, my coworker and I ended up talking to another patron who refered to himself as Calhoun. We all got to talking about how much we all love hot chicken and inbetween sips from his 40oz Budweiser, that he had brown bagged into the restaurant, he told me of a new chicken shack that opened up called 400 Degrees. I was instantly excited and 24 hours later I was in 400 Degrees ready to do a taste test. A word of caution first though. The BBQB does not normally recommend that anyone eat hot chicken more than once a week let alone twice in 2 days. It is quite possible that you will burn a hole in your plumbing.
First observations about 400 Degrees, is that, very similar to Prince's, it is in a rougher part of town. Once inside, the place is even smaller than Prince's. There are only 2-3 tables and a few counter stools. However, one huge difference, which was noticeable instantly, is how much friendlier the staff was. The young man who took our order was extremely friendly and very quick to warn us that the chicken was HOT. 400 Degrees hot chicken comes in 100 degrees, 200 degrees, and 400 degrees.
400 Degrees Even though he tried to warn me, I ordered up a 400 degrees chicken breast quarter, some fries and a soda. Done and done. Now it was time to wait. A typical wait time at Prince's can be well over an hour. This chicken came out in 10 minutes. I believe it because they deep fry it rather than pan frying it. As soon as I got the chicken in front of me, the heat of the cayenne pepper smacked me in the face. I knew instantly that this was going to be a battle. A battle that might even continue to rage the next day. Just like Prince's, they served the chicken on a couple of pieces of white bread and a few pickles. I took one bite and knew the game was on. Though the flavor was a tad different than Prince's, it was delicious. A general assault on the senses, the way it should be. If I had to make one comparison between the two, it would be that 400 Degrees might be a bit greasier than Prince's, but overall it is a fantastic alternative. In the end, Prince's may still be the original but because of the great service and fast delivery time everyone should add 400 Degrees to their list when visiting Nashville. I'll call it a tie. Ain't competition great?
I don't know why I feel the need to take pictures of fantastic beers but here is another one I couldn't resist. Last Saturday, after registering for the Philly Half-Marathon, my buddy and I couldn't think of any better way to prepare for the race than to have a few brews at the German style Ludwig's Garten. This was the first time I had been there and overall I thought the experience was good. Compared to other German beer gardens I've been to, it was a bit lacking. Though they consider themselves a Bavarian style garden, they did not serve beer by the mass (1 liter stein). However, they did have a large fantastic selection of German beer including the hard to find Franziskaner Hefe-Weiss Dunkel. Tasty!
I recently received these pictures from a reader just across the river in the Garden State. As I'm always looking out for new ways to cook chicken I was especially excited. This recipe and these pictures look delicious. Thanks for sending them in!
"Honey Sesame Chicken Marinade 6 Tbl honey 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 Tbl peanut oil 2 Tbl Sherry vinegar 1 1/2 tsp peeled and grated ginger 3/4 tsp dark sesame oil 1 lg clove garlic, minced 1/8 tsp coriander 1 scallion, sliced 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients and marinate chicken overnight. I doubled this and used a 5 lb bag of chicken tenderloins.
Peanut Chutney Dipping Sauce 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter, preferably natural 3 Tbl mango chutney 2 Tbl freshly squeezed lime juice 2 Tbl soy sauce 1 clove garlic, minced 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes salt and pepper
In a blender, combine ingredients until smooth. Can be made ahead and refridgerated until ready to use."
Yesterday morning I trudged into Philly and competed in the Philadelphia Distance Run Half Marathon. It was an awesome event with over 10,000 runners competing. It was also one of the Rock 'n' Roll series of races so every couple of miles there was a band cranking out great music. And as expected, no Philly event would be complete without playing the theme from Rocky which I believe was performed by a group of 13 and 14 year olds called The Dogz.
Once again I did not win the race but I did finish in the top 16%.
After the race and several Advils later I headed back home because its restaurant festival time! This is by far and away the biggest festival in West Chester and definitely worth a trip to the area. Basically, restaurants from all over the area converge on to West Chester and set up food stands throughout the town. There was everything from crab cakes to pizza, funnel cakes to water ice, and yes there was even barbecue.
Well, tonight I began my pre-race eating in preparation for the Philadelphia Half Marathon on September 16th. Once again I thought I would pack on the protein 2 days in advance and the follow it up with a carb overload the day before the race. Tonights menu, grilled chicken bathed in Sullicom's secret family recipe Kentucky BBQ Dip. Sullicom has been posted numerous delicious sounding recipes on his blog and this was the first time I had a chance to check one of them out. Check out his site for the exact recipe but it is essentially a vinegar based sauce that can be mopped onto just about anything. Overall I followed his recipe to the letter. The only difference is that I decided to divide the recipe in half. Half of the sauce was about perfect for the 4 leg quarters that I cooked. Right or wrong, I decided to let the chicken pieces take a bath in the sauce for about 20 minutes before cooking. Once I got about a sleeve's worth of coals hot and ready I tossed the leg quarters on the opposite side of the coals. Keep in mind that I also cut the leg quarters in half to make smaller portions.
When cooking chicken like this I would suggest you let them cook for about an hour and half to make sure they are done. I also chose to drentch the meat about every 15 minutes in the Kentuck BBQ Dip.
To be honest, I am not always the biggest fan of the vinegar based sauces. I've left plenty 'o North Carolina pulled pork joints a little disappointed because they didn't provide a robust tomates based bbq sauce. Sullicom's Kentuck BBQ Dip I must say was excellent. It have a nice little kick to it as well which in my opinion in a neccesity when dealing with chicken. Thank you Sullicom for sharing the family jewels!
I'm sitting here in the Las Vegas airport with some time to kill, so I thought I'd get on their wireless network. Unbeknownst to me, internet access in the Vegas airport is free.
One thing I have been wanting to do a little more of is highlight some of the other blogs that I have come across over the past year. Several of them have been kind enough to already link back to me. Here's a spicy one for you: The Chef From Hell. This site is great. "Chef JP" is the real deal. He seems to have a long resume of working in kitchens and as being a head chef. His site is full of recipes and commentary that can't be passed up. Cheers to Chef JP for sharing so much information with us.
Well, I completed the Lehigh River Relay Marathon Run yesterday. The race started in Allentown, PA and travelled through historic Bethlehem and ended up in Easton. It was extremely well organized and a lot of fun. Unfortunately there wasn't any Clem's barbecue at the finish line though. The night before the race, I decided that I would load up on the carbs. I also wanted to take it easy on the fatty meats as I've read that they would slow my body down. I opted for making a bucket of pesto pasta and grilling some teriyaki marinaded pork skewers. I'm not sure if they qualified for low fat but they sure were good.
I will add more details on how I cooked the skewers when I get back. I am on my way to the airport for a business trip to Vegas. ...
We have some more barbecuing photos submitted from readers.
BBQB, here are some photos of hamburgers we grilled using your advise. We divided the ground beef gently so that we did not crush the air out of them. Then I salt and peppered them liberally and grilled them on high heat initially then turned the heat down. Conveniently, I have a gas grill so I could regulate the heat. I topped them off with cheddar cheese and a thick tomato slice and placed them on toasted buns. Even my French guest was highly impressed with the outcome.
-Marc
Marc, the burgers look good even though you used a gas grill. Thanks for the photos.
Last night, in preparation for my marathon on Sunday, I made a protein packed lentil soup. Granted, the soup isn't barbecued but it does make a nice side dish. Start by sauteeing a carrot, half an onion, chopped ginger, and a few cloves of chopped garlic. Toos in some kosher and pepper as well. Once the onions are translucent, add in a cup of lentils and a quart or so of chicken broth. Next add in a smoked pork shank. You will be happy you did. You can optionally also add in a couple of dried chillies as well for heat. Let this simmer for about 30-40 minutes, unit the lentils are tender. This soup freezes well, so portion out what you don't eat into plastic containers for later.
I found this great post about why it is important to salt your steaks well in advance of grilling it. It has to do with enhancing the moisture content. Salting immediately before grilling may actually dry the steak out a bit.
Most of you are already familiar with how to make your own red peppers. However, I made some tonight that looked so good that I just had to share them with everyone.
When grilling the peppers, don't worry about over cooking them. Make sure that the outer skin is blackened all over. This will make the peelinig part easier. Once they are done, just toss them in a bowl of water and the skin should just peel right off. Cut the peppers up into long strips, drizzle a little quality olive oil and salt on top and voila! A sprig or two of basil will add to the presentation. I would serve these guys with almost anything. Enjoy!
Since the dawn of time, man has wondered what type of grill is the best. Well, I'm happy to say that I've added a poll to the blog to finally answer that very question. Please let me know if you prefer grilling over a charcoal grill or if you prefer a gas grill. By now, you probably know what the BBQB prefers. Either way, once the poll is finished I will explain why I feel the way I do.
In addition, I want to thank everyone who has already sent in their grillin' photos and recipes. I will continue to post them and recreate them on my Weber. Keep sending 'em in!
Well, I just received some more mouth watering pictures from my friends across the pond who also brought us the teriyaki pork tenderloin recipe. This time they decided to blaze up the grill and toss some beef tenderloin steaks on there.
I find the slight differences in grilling styles to be extremely interesting. Here is what he said he did:
"1) Prep each steak with fresh ground pepper. He person can add their own salt later to taste.
2) Get the coals good and hot
3) Place the steaks directly over the coals for 3 minutes each side. Do not put the lid on.
"Hey BBQB! We thought you like to see the glutunous meal we put together over the weekend. We had relatives in town and the house was full. Our grill had to work overtime to feed everyone. My kids and my nieces really dug the weiners we tossed on there. I also included a picture of our potato salad topped with hard boiled eggs that the Mrs. put together. I've never seen potato salad on your site before, so I hope you enjoy.
"Honey Sesame Chicken Marinade
Once I got about a sleeve's worth of coals hot and ready I tossed the leg quarters on the opposite side of the coals. Keep in mind that I also cut the leg quarters in half to make smaller portions. 
When cooking chicken like this I would suggest you let them cook for about an hour and half to make sure they are done. I also chose to drentch the meat about every 15 minutes in the Kentuck BBQ Dip.
"1) Prep each steak with fresh ground pepper. He person can add their own salt later to taste.
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