I'm a Leg Man

I just can't seem to get enough of Thanksgiving. Thus, when I was walking down the meat aisle at Shop Rite the other day, I couldn't pass up the package of turkey legs that was on sale.

To make things a bit more interesting I decided to put them through a teriyaki marinade for 48 hours. That was a very good move on my part and one that I suggest you try as well. Here is what they looked like after about 80 minutes. Don't mess around with poultry, make sure its cooked. This can be especially important in the colder months when things take longer to cook than in the summer.

To accompany my fine legs I decided to whip up some red cabbage slaw. This is another easy side that you can make at the drop of a hat at any time.

Ingredients:

Half a red cabbage (feeds four)

Clove of garlic

Favorite vinegar based salad dressing

Just run the cabbage through your food processor so you end up with a 'slaw' consistency. Next add a crushed and diced clove of garlic and you favorite vinegar based salad dressing. That's it!

Fall In Full Swing

As you can see, the BBQB is not fortunate enough to have any trees of his own. Luckily, however, my neighbor has plenty and therefore I get to experience the pleasure of raking his leaves up every year:)
On the bright side it makes for a beautiful picture!

Grilled Turkey....Done and Done

Believe it or not, I grilled this 10 pound bird using only one chimney of coals. Normally, a piece of poultry this size would take me a couple of sleeves at least. I think a lot had to do with the fact that I was grilling in sunny Phoenix and not chilly PA. All in all, this bird took 3.5 hours. I don't mess around with under cooked poultry so I probably had it on there for 15 minutes extra. One thing I forgot to mention in my last post, is to pt a drip pan under the bird to collect the drippings. Also put a cup or two of water in there so the drippings dont burn off.
As you can see from this second pictures, the leg should pull right off the turkey. This bird was a feast and a half. Incredibly tasty. If you haven't grilled a bird beforem you must try it.

Favorite Day Of The Year

Its finally Thanksgiving! This has got to be my favorite day of the year. A full day of eating without the stress of gift giving. As with most holidays, I have escaped the cold, wet weather of the north east and headed towards warmers weather. This year, I am in sunny Phoenix, getting a little sun as I grill my bird.

As I am writing this blog entry, my turkey has already been on the grill for 60 minutes. I am grilling a nice 10 pound bird that I have marinaded in a brine marinade for 2 days. My brine consists of a cup of kosher salt, a cup of brown sugar, some pepper corns and a few bay leaves. Mix everything with enough water to cover the entire bird.

When cooking a turkey on the grill you are of course going to use indirect heat. Get an entire sleeve of coals ready. After about 1.5 or 2 hours you'll need to replenish the coals again. You want to make sure you maintain a good 350 degrees or so.

This year, before putting the bird on the grill, I placed a few sprigs of rosemary under the skin on the bird and a few inside as well.
I need to get back to my bird. Its almost time to add more coals. Check back later for the final result.

Can the Barbecue Bachelor Make a Soufflé with Google's Help?

I publish this blog with Google's help. They deal with all the technical stuff and widgets and gadgets and blah, blah blah. I get to write about barbecuing.

Now Google is trying to teach me how to cook sophisticated stuff. Check out this soufflé recipe that they posted to their main blog.

Can you barbecue a soufflé??

Sausages, Steaks, Burgers, Salmon and Repeat

I know you might find it hard to believe but the BBQB tends to over induldge during the Thanksgiving holiday. Some people just think I am a gluton but I prefer to think of myself as just giving a LOT of thanks.

...Anyways, since I know my own weakness, I begin to cut my calorie intake a few days before the big day. One way I do this is to push the fish optiona little more. Enter the cajun spiced atlantic salmon fillet. I picked this baby up at my local Acme grocery store. For those of you who have never been to PA, yes, there is actually a grocery store name Acme. As in most grocery stores these days, they offer a bunch of free marinades that you can soak your meats in. They called this one a cajun style. It was a fantastics marindae but I have to say, it reminded me nothing of cajun spices. Instead it smelled more like a marinara sauce. The sauce aside, it made for a delicios low fat, low cal meal. Perfect for my pre thanksgiving day feast.

Encouragement

You've all seen me do ribs a dozens times by now. If you need tips on how to grill ribs definitely check through some of the older posts for ideas. I made these ribs the other night and thought I would share them with you. Basically this is an encouragement post. Just because the weather is starting to get a little colder out you should not ignore your grill. Just remember to tweak your cooking times a tad in the colder months. Meat like ribs will take longer the colder it gets.

Gino's East vs Giordano's

Every now and then I veer away from the grilling world and like to point out great food finds that I encounter during my travels. As everyone knows, Chicago is the home of deep dish pizza. If you have never tried it, you need to. The restaurant that claims to have made the first deep dish pie is Pizzarie Uno's in 1943. Since then dozens of pizza joints have jockeyed to be the best in town. A few of the other popular ones are Gino's East, Giordano's, and Lou Malnati's.

This week I was in Chicago and decided to conduct a little taste test. The two joints I singled out were Gino's East and Giordano's. Gino's East is a bit touristy but a lot of fun. The place is covered in graffiti and has a nice flair to it. Giordano's is more of a traditional chain restaurant. My pictures of the Gino's East pie didn't come out but I did score a couple of shots my monster pie from Giordano's.

Overall I felt like the two places were fairly equal. I didnt actual compare apples to apples though since at Gino's I ordered their sausage pie while at Girodano's I had pepperoni and onion. The Gino's sausage was kind of interesting because it came in patty form rather than crumbled. Even though I felt like the sauage didn't have enough taste I would choose Gino's East as the winner. Frankly, the Giordano's pie probably had a little too much mozzerella on it. I felt like it was just a sea of 'average' cheese. In the end I would eat at either one of them again for sure. I am actually getting really hungry at the moment blogging about them.

London Calling

I have fantastic neighbors. Last week my neighbor called me to let me know that she had a marinaded london broil that needed grilling and was wondering if I was up to the task. Yes, I was up to the task. The marinade she used consisted of red wine, salt and pepper.On the grill I treated the london broils similar to how I would treat a steak of the same size...about 7 minutes a side...give or take a minute. As you can see from the pictures, they came out a nice medium rare.To accompany the meat I put together a quick BBQB salad of tomatoes, green peppers and cucumber. In addition, I put together a baked whole wheat pasta dish with sharp cheddar and broccoli. Once again, I have fantastic neighbors!

Pork Leg - Reader Submitted From Germany

"Hey BBQB, here are a few shots of the pork leg we grilled last weekend. All in all we didn't really do all that much to it before grilling. We simply rubbed some salt and pepper into the meat and then tossed it on the grill away from the coals for about 2.5 or 3 hours. The thick outer skin of the leg keeps the moisture from escaping the meat. It was absolutely perfect. My wife served it with some brown rice and asparagus on the side. Love your site, hope you enjoy the pictures!"

Thanks bro, the meat looks incredible. I'll have to search around the local butchers here in PA and see if I can find a cut like that.

Bob Evans To The Rescue!

Now, you are probably wondering how I did I follow up a night of eating steaks the size of pot roasts last week. By letting Bob Evan's take over of course! Well, to be honest, I am not exactly married to Bob Evan's but they are a good example of a "not pre-cooked" sasauge you can find in your grocery store. I personally prefer the weiners that have not been pre-cooked for my protection ahead of time in the factory. While Johnsonville brats and so forth are pretty good I feel they loose someting in the fact that they are already cooked and all am I am doing is heating them back up. I like my meat to be cooked once and thats it. Obviously, whenever dealing with uncooked sausage you want to make sure it is completely cooked all the way through. These dogs took about 25 minutes under indirect heat to fully finish. If you are new to this, there is no shame in just cutting one open and checking it. Its not worth getting sick over. Though it might have been a little bit overkill, I served these dogs with a nice warmed up crusty roll, sauerkraut, mac 'n' cheese, baked beans and some left over cole slaw. The more I think about it, it wasn't overkill at all.