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.

The 4th of July weekend is coming up and the barbecue parties will be plentiful. I thought this week I would answer some questions I have received in the past to help your barbecue go smoothly.

One question I get asked a lot is “Why does my chicken stick to the grill when I try to turn it?” Chicken seems to be the biggest culprit but other meats can cause the same problem - for the same reason.

I’ve written about this grilling technique in the past but it bears repeating. There are probably 2 reasons.

1) Your grill is not hot enough. Whether you are going to grill over indirect heat or direct heat, you need to start with a hot grill. The grid needs to be hot before any meat or anything you are cooking on the grill is placed on it.

2) You are turning your chicken or meat too quickly. Barbecuers seem to want to constantly turn their meats and that’s not necessary. The first time you go to turn it, use your spatula or tongs and try to turn it without force. If the meat does not release from the grid, it is not ready to turn.

3) Yep - I said 2. A 3rd reason is your grid could be old and deteriorated. If so, you need to replace it.

The nice thing about grilling is you can experiment. Just because you haven’t seen something somewhere doesn’t mean you can’t give it a shot. Now, I’m sure this has been done but I never really thought about it until the other day.

I was grilling some hot dogs and got out some frozen french fries. I have a perforated aluminum pan I use in one of my cookers and I grabbed it and sprayed it with PAM. I dumped in french fries for 3 of us and hit a little olive oil across the top and sprinkled on Italian seasoning and put it on the grill.

Nice taste! I’m not a big fan of frozen fries but I keep them on hand for quick meals. These were the best fires I have tasted. They had had nice grilled flavor and were just perfect alongside the hot dogs.

Give them a try next time you barbecue.

Many grillers feel they need to bring their A-game to the table when they grill. Pull out the seasonings, marinades, barbecue sauce; the more you use the better it tastes.

It doesn’t always have to be this way. Sometimes you need to do nothing more than grill a meat until it’s done. That’s it.

This past Fathers Day I had my family over for a barbecue. Hamburgers are usually on the menu, along with hot dogs. Last year I did some barbecue country ribs. This year I wanted another change.

I bought some Johnsonville sausages. The spices are in there. I got mild ones but you can get them with the heat kicked up as well. I put them on the grill along with hot dogs, while cooking up some killer chicken wings in my slow cooker (I’ll tell you about them another time).

Let me tell you something. I had more raves about the wings and the sausages than you could believe. Everybody loved them. They were all telling me how good they were and I’m thinking - “All I did was grilled them right from the package”.

You don’t always need to be creative in your grilling. Grilling can be very easy when you want. Sure, I love doing my own thing to a steak. But this was nice and easy and I just kicked back and enjoyed.

I never used Johnsonville before. I will from now on.