EDF Cooking Contest--Grilling Challenge

[BK_]

Oops, by no room I meant "I live in a Manhattan apartment with no balcony". If the summer was just starting up though, I think I would buy one of these things and take it to the park down the road.

[ElSapo]

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BK--No room?? Get one of these and join the wonderful world of charcoal grilled flavorful cooking. Everyone should have room for a Smokey Joe. I grilled on it in every apartment I lived in before I got a house. $30.

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Yeah, those little Webers are awesome, especially for the price.

Now that I'm grilling more often, I'm using gas out of sheer convenience though. So much easier.

[jws43yale]

When I do asparagus, I always add lemon pepper with olive oil for even better flavor.

I also love potatoes with onions dipped in an olive oil, honey mustard, and rosemary mixture then grilled until crispy.

Also, if you take an onion and cut a bit of the core out from the top and fill it with butter, salt and pepper, and then wrap it in foil and put it on the grill for about 40 minutes, it will be so tender it almost melts in your mouth.

[Mermade]

It's the weekend. Grill up some goodness!

[Papa Perry]

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4 Webers = [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

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I have 8 Weber's that I use when I need to.

The behomoth in the back is a smoker some one else brought. I Q'd more chicken on the 4 Webers than he did on his smoker. He didn't know how to handle it.

I am having a grill built out of a 300+ gallon water tank. Should be ready in 4 weeks. Will be awesome once it is finished.

Mermade - That chicken looks great!

ElSapo - The webers take me 15 minutes max to start. I use lump mesquite coals Burns much hotter than any gas grill I have found. I get temps up to 900 degrees at the grate. Hottest gas grill I have found was about 550....

PP

[ElSapo]

Similar to Mermade's stuffed chicken:

Grilled chicken breast, stuffed with sauteed mushrooms and garlic, prosciutto, mozzarella and a mix of basil and spinach. Served with brown rice and a roasted zucchini soup.

Personally, I'm not a fan of chicken breast. It never ceases to amaze me that my girlfriend (and presumably many other people) will actually pay money for boneless, skinless chicken breast.

She'll pay $4 or even $5 for chicken breasts when she can get the whole chicken for that price - that's like buying two crappy pieces of chicken and then getting a gallon of stock, thighs, drumsticks and wings for free. And that's assuming you don't use the liver and whatever else comes with it, which I admit I don't.

[z28dreams]

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It never ceases to amaze me that my girlfriend (and presumably many other people) will actually pay money for boneless, skinless chicken breast.

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I'm one of these people - mostly because I've never taken the time to learn how to properly quarter a chicken myself.

Care to walk us through it with some pictures?

[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[ElSapo]

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It never ceases to amaze me that my girlfriend (and presumably many other people) will actually pay money for boneless, skinless chicken breast.

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I'm one of these people - mostly because I've never taken the time to learn how to properly quarter a chicken myself.

Care to walk us through it with some pictures?

[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I don't know if pictures will really do the trick, but I'm happy to do it if you think it would be helpful.

It mostly comes down to cutting at joints, and the only one that might be tricky is the thigh/drunkstick cut. Basically your first cut slices the thigh free, and then through the joint connecting the drumstick.

If you can find a picture of the butchered chicken, you can see fairly clearly what you're cutting away.

Gravity is your friend - if you take hold of the leg and hold it up, you can sort of see where to make your first cut.

It's mostly about practice - and there's no worst case scenario here. Just buy a chicken and give it a go. The absolute worst that can happen is instead of one nice clean chicken breast, you've got nuggets. You can't destroy the meat, so start cutting.

I really think it's worth people learning to do - especially if you ever buy chicken broth. Just take the carcass, drop it in some water and let it simmer a few hours. Yes, good chicken stock is a little more detailed (but the process is no more complex), but if you're just making a soup or whatever I don't know how much difference it will make for your average cook to use mirepoix and so on, versus just letting those bones boil a few hours.

I've never done the real math, but I'm convinced that supermarkets make a KILLING on people who buy boneless, skinless chicken breast. (And the most amazing thing, to me, is that's the least appealing piece to eat.)

[erroneous]

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I am having a grill built out of a 300+ gallon water tank. Should be ready in 4 weeks. Will be awesome once it is finished.


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Wow. Please post pics when u get this thing

[z28dreams]

I'm not sure how much you actually save. I think I pay around $3/lb on the chicken breasts - only buy when they are on sale. Normally as high as $4-5/lb.

I think whole chickens go for something like $1/lb, but there's obviously a lot of waste that you don't end up eating (bones/carcass that doesn't include the breasts/wings/legs/etc).

You can get chicken legs on sale for .99 a pound, so that's not really a big deal either. Never been a big fan of the thighs.

Either way, I'll pick up a whole chicken this weekend and let you know how it goes. Time to break out the big fun knives.