Archive for: July 2008

Some purists will walk away from you if you talk about this.

I like to precook my ribs in a slow cooker for a couple hours and basically put them on the grill to crust the outside and get that smoke or fire flavoring. It saves a lot of time and gas and just makes sense to me. Once in awhile I will take the time to slowly barbecue them from start to finish and they might be a little juicier but — I have gotten rave reviews at our barbecues doing the ribs in the crock pot first as the meat falls off the bones.

The same thing for chicken wings however, most of the time I take them from the slow cooker to the table. These are always a hit.

Some people will put chicken in the microwave for a short time to get the inside cooking. I think they tend to become pretty dry that way but it doesn’t hurt to experiment sometime and see what you think. I would not put it in for very long though if you do this. If you are curious, I do not do this. Chicken does not take that long. (Wings I do as above because when they are falling off the bone they are delicious.)

Beef? No! Never precook beef of any kind before putting on the grill. The juices are absolutely necessary to give you the taste you want.

Pork. I don’t know. Has anyone tried to precook it?

Remember, when you try it for the first time do so when you don’t have visitors. That’s the time to put the experimenting into high gear.

SEASONING MIX
1 1/2 t Black pepper
1 t Salt
1 t Onion powder
1 t Garlic powder
1/2 t White pepper
1/2 t Ground cayenne pepper

MAIN INGREDIENTS
1/2 lb Bacon, minced
1 1/2 c Chopped onions or 1 tbl. onion powder
2 c Pork, beef or chicken stock
1 1/2 c Bottled chili sauce
1 c Honey
3/4 c Dry roasted pecans, chopped (optional)
5 T Orange juice (1/2 orange)
Rind & pulp from 1/2 orange 2 T Lemon juice (1/4 lemon)
Rind & pulp from 1/4 lemon 2 T Minced garlic
1 t Tabasco sauce
4 T Unsalted butter

Experiment with these ingredients and add or omit whatever you want. This sauce takes a bit of extra work but is delicious and well worth it.

Combine the seasoning mix ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. In a 2-quart saucepan fry the bacon until crisp. Stir in the onions, cover pan, and continue cooking until onions are dark brown, but not burned, about 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the seasoning mix and cook about 1 minute. Add the stock, chili sauce, honey, pecans, orange juice, lemon juice, orange and lemon rinds and pulp, garlic, and tabasco sauce, stirring well.

Reduce heat to low; continue cooking about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove orange and lemon rinds. Continue cooking and stirring about 15 minutes more to let the flavors marry. Add the butter and stir until melted.

Remove from heat. Let cool about 30 minutes, then pour into a food processor or blender and process until pecans and bacon are finely chopped, about 10 to 15 seconds. This sauce may be used to barbecue chicken, pork or ribs. Makes about 5 Cups.

As I have talked about previously, do not begin to apply this sauce to your meats until the last 5 minutes of grilling. This prevents burning. This is also the only time I recommend standing there and turning the meat often, as you apply more and more sauce.

Thanks to Paul Prudhomme’s “Louisiana Kitchen”

Another question I get often has to deal with using barbecue sauce when grilling.

Question: “When I grill with barbecue sauce, my meats always burn!”

This grilling technique is probably one of the most abused. Many barbecuers start putting the barbecue sauce on the meat the moment it hits the grill, figuring it will help the meats absorb the flavor.

Don’t do this! Add barbecue sauce in the final stages of grilling, when the meat is just about done. I turn the flames down and apply the sauce in the last 5 minutes.

Barbecue sauce contains sugars and such and will burn while you are grilling. You need to get that meat cooked until it is nice and juicy, then begin to apply the sauce. If you are looking for flavors to be infused in the meat, marinade is the route to go.

When adding the barbecue sauce, I apply it liberally on one side, grill it some, turn it and apply it on the other side and do the same and, usually I repeat this step. All this is done within the last 5 minutes and this is really the only time I’m standing there constantly watching the meat and turning it a few times. I leave the lid up during this time as I am babysitting the meat.