Guy and a grill

Crispy Grilled Chicken with White BBQ Sauce

2012-08-22T11:25:00.003-07:00

Ingredients for chicken

Either a whole spatchcocked chicken, or boneless skinless, or pretty much any chicken you would like to use. I used boneless skinless

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

EVOO

Directions

I learned a simple trick when grilling chicken to acquire more flavor. When I'm prepping my chicken, I make hash cuts about 1/8-1/4 into the chicken before I rub them, like so:

Now the rub I listed is just for measurement even though I hate using measurements, but I would make a lot being the rub is what makes it crispy. First I hit the chicken with some Olive Oil. After I have mixed the rub in a large bowl, I dup it all over the chicken and work it in real good. Work it into the hash cuts, and into the skin if you have skin. Then I refrigerate it for at least an hour to let the flavor really set it.

While it's in the fridge I whip up the White BBQ sauce. Now, you may ask "what the hell is white BBQ sauce?". Well unless your from North Alabama you probably don't know. In Alabama Barbecue traditional Sauce uses Mayonnaise as its base rather than tomato sauce, vinegar, or any of the other more typical barbecue sauce bases. It is clearly a region favorite. Bob Gibson of Decatur, Alabama is credited with the invention the white sauce back in 1925. Friends and family were first treated to this secret-recipe sauce on chicken and pork at weekend barbecues where boards were nailed to trees for tables. Today, this famous mayonnaise-based condiment is traditionally employed to baste chicken, seafood and pork.

White BBQ Sauce is as synonymous with the state with Alabama as the legendary “BAMA” football program. White BBQ Sauce’s intriguing flavor complements salads and is a superb baste for chicken, pork and turkey. You can also use White Sauce as an ingredient to add an extra kick to your favorite slaw or potato salad. However, because the racks of your local grocer are dominated by many incarnations of tomato-based sauces and white bbq sauce is such a regional anomaly, most people outside Alabama have not tested this concoction of flavor.

Like many barbecue sauces you want to apply this only at the very end of your grilling or smoking. It will breakdown and separate if it is heated too long. Use this sauce on chicken and turkey. It is also good on pork. Alabama White Barbecue Sauce has a tangy flavor that is a great addition to grilled foods.

White BBQ Sauce makes a unique experience. Use this recipe when grilling chicken; brush lightly over the chicken during the last few minutes of grilling. This sauce is also great for dipping; keep some sauce aside for passing at the table.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon coarse ground pepper

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons horseradish

That's it. Mix it up and store it in a mason jar! Simple!

Now that everything is ready. I just toss my chicken on the grill and really sear them off until they are nice and brown on a very hot grill. You can even use a brick wrapped in foil to weigh it down. Especially if your doing a whole spatchcocked chicken.

After my chicken is super crispy, I let it finish off in the grill on indirect heat.

Some people like to dip their meat into the sauce, I prefer to just dump it all over!!!

Grilled Sweet Potato Fritters

2012-08-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato
1/2 cup finely chopped pineapple

1/2 cup chopped cooked bacon

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

salt & pepper to taste

1 tbsp cinnamon

Maple syrup

Directions

I love grilling sweet potatoes, and love coming up with new idea's for them. I threw this together last minute while we we're making the crispy chicken. So, I peeled a large sweet potato, cubed it up, put it in a Ziploc bag, and nuked the potato for about 9 minutes until it was soft.

In a bowl I mashed up the potato, then added all the ingredients together.

After that I just made patties them up like a hamburger.

I sprayed them with cooking spray, and seared them ff on the grill just to brown them. Then I moved them over to indirect heat to finish off.

Once I plated, I drizzled on some Maple syrup.

Grilled Bacon wrapped Atomic Fireballs

2012-07-17T23:04:00.001-07:00

Ingredients

Prilosec

Pablano Peppers

Jalapeno Peppers

Habanero Peppers

Cream Cheese

A Day off of work the following day!

Now! Me and my wife love hot food. If you said you would take me out and buy me beer for a night if I ate 2 ghost peppers. I would do it. We just love the heat!

For some odd reason on a Tuesday night. We put together the weirdest menu ever! I'm not sure how it came about, but I threw it out there and we both said "ya, that sounds great"!!

First of all our protein was Jerk chicken kabobs. Which I always make the Jerk marinade from scratch :

If your curious! it's cinnamon, allspice, lime juice, soy sauce, chicken stock, habanero peppers, thyme, oregano, ton's of garlic, diced tomatoes, green onions, red onions, salt, pepper, vinegar, and olive oil. Don't ask me the measurements because I don't have a clue. I pour it in a blender, hit mix, do a shot of tequila, and dump into ziplocs with the chicken! It's hot!

So our sides we're grilled Atomic turds on a skewer which are these:

You know: Bacon wrapped Jalapeno's stuffed with cream cheese! Yum! Also you can adjust the heat by the amount of seeds you leave in the halved Jalapeno's.

If that wasn't enough! I came up with the idea of all idea's! I said " lets stuff a Pablano with cream cheese, and stuff a Jalapeno inside of it also stuffed with cream cheese, and stuff a habanero stuffed with cream cheese inside of the Jalapeno. Wrap it in bacon, and grill it. We both agreed that this was a great idea. I would consider this a first next to the Turducken!! and boy was it fun.

So it went like this:

I halved the Pablano, Jalapeno, and Habanero

I then stuffed all the peppers with cream cheese but left an empty space for their passenger peppers, lol

Dammit! why is the picture vertical!!!!! Oh well, computer mishap!

I then stuffed each pepper into it's awaiting pepper vessel.

......and then filled the rest in with more cream cheese! Then came the almighty pork gift from heaven. Bacon!

1 or 2 toothpics for bacon support and they we're ready for the grill. BTW, the heat in this dish extremely depends on how many seeds you leave in each pepper. If you want to be able to eat the whole thing, remove all the seeds. If you want to shit fire for 2 day's and have to have surgery on your ass, leave them all in.

Anyways. Grilling is tricky. You obviously can't turn them over or the cheese will melt and fall out. So what I did was sear off the bottom. Then I moved them off of direct heat and smoked them for about 40 minutes, until the bacon was crispy!

and low and behold! they we're F'in great!!! I know it seems weird, but if your looking for a fun recipe with friends it's a conversation piece!

So overall here was our well balanced dinner:

......and naturally it's upside down!! Dammit! Oh well enjoy! Oh ya, almost forgot. Beer is the best choice of drinkage for this one!

Grilled Bacon wrapped Pork Chops stuffed with Apples, Blue Cheese, and Bacon with a Maple Glaze

2012-07-15T20:34:00.002-07:00

Ingredients

Boneless butterflied pork chops

bacon

1 red apple

blue cheese

1 Dr. Pepper

3/4 cup Maple syrup

Cayenne pepper

S&P, EVOO

butchers twine

Directions

First chop up a 4 or 5 strips of bacon and cook it off. Then strain the grease and put bacon aside.

Finely dice up the apple and add right into the same pan as the bacon was. Cook until tender and deglaze with some kind of liquid like water, or apple juice, etc. Adding a little liquid will steam it and keep it from burning.

After the apples are done, rinse them through a strainer with cold water so you don't burn your hands when handling. In a bowl mix apples, bacon, and blue cheese. Add in a little cayenne pepper and some allspice.

Lay 3 strands of butchers twine under your pork chops and put a couple of scoops on one side of the pork chop. Press it down real good. Also make sure you salt and pepper the inside of the pork chop as well as the outside.

Flip the one side of the pork chop over the other and press it down a little to pack in the filling. Then wrap a piece of bacon around the chop to hold the filling in place and you know add some bacon fatty deliciousness!

Wrap your twine around nice and snug and tie them off in a knot. Trim off the excess string with scissors.

Brush on a little EVOO to keep it from sticking to the grill, and salt and pepper to taste.

For the glaze

In a pot pour in can of Dr. Pepper, 3/4 cup of maple syrup, a little allspice, and 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper. Cook on Med-hi for about 45 minute until it is reduced down to about 1/2-3/4 cup.

Light your grill up and sear up both sides of the pork. Move the pork over to the cold side and continue cooking at about 250-350 for about an hour or so. Brush on the glaze while it's cooking. Determining how long yours is going to take depends on the size of your cut, gas grill, charcoal, etc. etc. I actually smoked ours with Pecan. We also have a thermometer on our grill which I kept right around 250 for the most part of the cooking. Obviously using a meat thermometer will ensure that your meat is done properly.

That's pretty much it. My wife hates Blue Cheese but said this was her favorite recipe I've done on the blog yet. Having a nice Whiskey and coke would go perfect with this!!! Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken Breast stuffed with Spinach and Feta

2012-07-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

Boneless, skinless chicken breast

fresh spinach

feta cheese

salt, pepper, EVOO

Greek seasoning

Directions:

This recipe is pretty straight forward. The hardest part is stuffing the chicken. You need to trim all the fat off of the chicken, then flatten the chicken with a mallet.

Make sure you salt & pepper the inside as well as the outside. Let's talk about salt & pepper for a second. These are probably the two most important seasonings for anything. So you wan't to use generously. As a matter of fact I always use course salt, and course cracked pepper. It just helps so much with the overall flavor. I taste so much food that is under seasoned.
Anyways, once you have your chicken breast evenly pounded out. Take a hand full of spinach and feta and place it right in middle.

The tricky part when you roll it up is folding in the sides. Basically fold it like you would a burrito, lol. To make things easier I always use 3 pieces of butchers twine to keep it snug and tight.

Once that is finished, brush on some EVOO on your breasts. Chicken that is. Season with salt and pepper. I also added some greek seasoning that I bought at the store I find goes well with chicken. It's called Cavenders and it's amazing!

Heat up your grill. Sear it off. Then finish cooking indirectly until you reach a safe temperature.

Remember to cut off your butchers twine before you eat them. I served these with grilled Zucchini. Enjoy! Oh ya I almost forgot. Make sure you have a cocktail while cooking and after dinner.

Vacation, Food, Family & Friends

2012-07-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

My wife has been on vacation for the last week. We did a lot of neat things while she was off. We also made a lot of good food. So, I'm going to blog about our wonderful week and inter twine some recipes in here that I made over the week.

First off me and Angela rented a nice secluded Cabin in Missouri for our 5 year Anniversary. Kid Free! We we're more than ready! So we arrived last Friday to our love nest for 3 nights in Cherryville, MO

Our cabin was named Jude's Dream after the owner Judy, whoever Judy is! She must be rich though because her and her husband owned the 100 acres that our cabin was on along with about 7 other cabins.

Anyway, here are some snaps of the inside:

Here is our porch where we sat a lot at night. That overlooked tree's. Ton's of trees!

Now, with all of these great Amenities. Including satellite TV, central air, and a Jacuzzi, we didn't want to sit in the air all weekend because my wife is a very outdoors person. I like the best of both worlds, especially when the temperature is above 100 degrees which it was this weekend. But we opted to load up our cooler and drive a short way down to the spring fed creek for the day!

It was really nice to do absolutely nothing!! The water felt great! We drank some beer, and I did some fishing! Drank a little whiskey! and had great conversations. After 4 or 5 hours of sun though it was time to get back. Hit the Jacuzzi, and fire up the Grill. Tonight we we're having Coffee encrusted cowboy Rib eye's, with grilled fries and Chipotle ketchup!

Directions & Ingredients

I picked up two nice thick bone-in Rib eye's from my meat market. Now, for the coffee rub I ground up:

- 1 tbsp coffee

- 1 tbsp brown sugar

- 1 tsp all spice

- 1 tbsp kosher salt

- 1 tsp coarse black pepper

- 1/2 tsp smoke paprika

I made the rub a day before. Rubbed them really good, then refrigerated them in a zippy until they we're ready for the grill! I like mine Med-Rare for best flavor. Make sure you have a nice HOT grill for searing and crusting that coffee rub. For my grill fries, I just put 2 Idaho potatoes in a bag and nuke them for 5 minutes. Remove them, let cool, then quarter them long way. Drizzle on a little EVOO, salt pepper, garlic and paprika. Crisp them on the grill. The ketchup is just 1/2 cup ketchup, 3 tbsp of Adobo sauce from canned chipotles, and a dash of honey.

So we got our bellies full the 1st night. Tied a pretty good one and stayed up late!!!! Fun!!!

Day 2

My wife would always wake up fairly early and make coffee. She loves coffee, but I only drink it on vacation. I could sleep all day if she would let me, but it's nice to get up and get moving at a decent hour. Back to the creek for the day. We we're pretty laid back on this day because we we're hurting a little from the night before, lol. Just sat in the creek and enjoyed the day. Once we got back I fired up the grill for our second night of dinner! Tonight I did, Bacon wrapped whiskey glazed pork chops with spiced apples.

Directions & Ingredients

- 2 thick pork chops

- 1 cup of Whiskey

- 1/2 cup maple syrup

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 2 strips of bacon

- tbsp adobo sauce

Wrap your pork with the bacon, and put all other ingredients in a saucepan and reduce down by half for about 30 or 40 minutes on med-high. Let glaze cool then pour into a Tupperware dish. Brush on the glaze all throughout the grilling process. Sorry didn't have any pics.

For the spiced apples, I roughly chopped up 2 red apples, added a tbsp of butter, 1/4 cup of whiskey, 1/2 cup brown sugar, t tbsp cinnamon. Cooked them on medium for about 30 minutes until they we're soft.

We made some daiquiris and took it easy this night. My wife went to bed about 10, and I stayed up watching funny home videos till about 2.

Day 3

Woke up to another beautiful Day! Decided to make my wife some Biscuits and bacon gravy. I generally make Sausage gravy. But I wanted to consolidate our food list to make it easier and cheaper so I went with bacon. I always use Pillsbury Grands butter flavor biscuits. For my gravy I simply browned up about 7 chopped pieced of bacon. added 3 tbsp of flour into the grease until it was a darker tan, then I poured in a little bit of whole milk and whisked while on med high heat until it started thickening up. Then I would add a little more until I had the amount I wanted. Then I hit it with a good amount of black pepper and some salt and mixed in the bacon pieces. Oh ya! You have to use a cast iron skillet too!!!

Off to the creek we went after breakfast for our last day of fun & sun!! We loaded up our cooler with some rum, and more beer. This day was so fun. I caught a quick buzz drinking rum and diets. We came up with a game called flip flop races. We would each throw 1 flip flop upstream about 15ft, and whoever floated back first would win. Whoever lost had to do a shot, LOL Toward the end of the day we started collecting crawdads as I had decided if we get a half dozen, I'd cook them up. My wife was like an old pro at spotting these little guys. It was a blast though and we caught 6.

So after our last day of fun in the creek we returned to our cabin to make a dinner. I was a little tipsy. So for dinner I made 3/4 lb old fashioned bacon Cheeseburgers with more grill fries, chipotle ketchup and NOW, crawfish!

This was my grill area all weekend. they had a charcoal Weber. Perfect!

If you want to make Crawfish it's really easy. Just keep them alive in water until it's time to eat them. Put them in a calender and wash them off. For my boil I did water, chipotle sauce, garlic, olive oil, salt, and smoked paprika. Got it boiling and dropped them in for about 5 or 6 minutes. They didn't take long at all. They turn a real nice red once they're finished. The only meat you going to get is the tail meat. So don't even waste your time with the claws, legs etc. You can suck the brain out but that's up to you. It was all delicious!! But we could only eat half of our burgers. They we're huge!!!!

It was an amazing weekend!! It went too fast but we made some great memories!! Once returned home in Illinois my wife and son went to a water park on Thursday, and then on Friday we took our son Ty to Six Flags for the first time. For being 6 he amazed me how brave he was. He rode basically every ride he was tall enough for including the roller coasters. My wife is even crazier. She rode the Superman Tower of Power which takes you up 150 ft. on a cable then just drops you at 50 mph with no warning. She's the one covering her face after it was over, lol

Here are some more pics from Six Flags:

Another amazing day with the fam!

Saturday we celebrated Independence Day by having a bonfire at my mothers house. It's an annual thing she does every year. It's really fun because all of our friends and family get together and eat, play guitars, and sit around a huge bonfire. They have a great setup with a couple acres in the county. This year they got a pony barrel of Bud Light, woot, woot!! As a matter of fact we we're doing Keg stands and shotgunning beer by midnight. Including my mother, LOL It was awesome!!!!

The fun part for me though was grilling and smoking all the food. We had a big pork shoulder, a big pork butt, chicken legs, chicken breasts, about 30 polish sausages, and a big slab of Ribs. I used my special rub blend to rub the meat.

Ryno's Good Rub

equal parts:

garlic powder

white pepper

kosher salt

coriander

smoked paprika

brown sugar

We had so much meat I had to use three grills.

I had to build a divider out of foil and firewood to separate my blocks of Hickory. Everything turned out good though, and we had an amazing time.

So that's it! I'm sad this week had to end! I had such a wonderful time with my family all week. I'm pretty sure my wife enjoyed her time off from work too! I'll get back to the regular recipes soon! Thanks for letting me share this special week with you!!

BBQ Grill beans

2012-07-08T19:15:00.001-07:00

Ingredients

- 1 tin roasting pan
- 3 can's of Northern white beans
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp liquid smoke Hickory
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1 cup of ketchup
- 1 tbsp mustard
- 1 tbsp allspice
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 red onion diced
- 1 tbsp black pepper

Instructions

This is pretty straight forward! Dump it all in, mix it up, cover with foil and cook it directly over your fire until it's bubbling then move it to a med heat to keep it cooking for at least 30 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Grilled Root Beer Glazed Pork Chops

2012-06-24T17:37:00.003-07:00

Ingredients

- 2 bone-in or boneless pork chops (I prefer 1 inch thick bone-in, these in the pics are boneless butterfly)

- 3 12 oz. bottles of Root Beer (Not Diet) or 2 liter

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

- 1 Chipotle w/ 1 tblsp of adobe sauce or Chipotle hot sauce, whatever

- 1/2 cup beef broth

Directions

Place pork chops in a zip lock bag and fill with Root Beer. Place in Fridge for at least 2 hours.

Meanwhile! In a medium sauce pan. Bring about 15 oz. of root beer, chipotle, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and beef broth to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-high and reduce by over half. Takes about 45min to an hour. Put aside.

Now remove your pork chops from the zippies and season to your liking. Pop them on the grill to char.

Glaze the pork chops over and over with your glaze until they are shiny and delicious. NOTE: I like to sear mine first with no glaze, then start the glaze after they have been charred once. I also move mine off the hot side and smoke them on the cold side with hickory and continue to glaze until they are finished.

Easy, quick, recipe!

Oh! Remember to have a cocktail in hand throughout the grilling process!!! ; )

Cooler Corn

2012-06-18T12:31:00.001-07:00

So there is a buzz on the net going around about this great cooking method for corn. All though I did not think up this idea, I thought it was so useful that I decided to share it.

If you have several people to feed at your gatherings and don't feel like messing with corn this is perfect.

Process

It's really simple! Get a large insulated cooler. Fill it with shucked corn on the cob. Pour a kettle or stock pot full of boiling water over the corn. Keep the lid closed for 30 minutes, and boom. You have perfectly steamed corn! Not to mention, you can leave them in the cooler and they will stay crisp and warm for over 2 hours afterward.

If you want your corn to really have a great sweet flavor. Add a cup of sugar to the boiling water. Once your done. Just dump it out, and clean her up. Of course I would make sure your cooler is initially cleaned out for safety purposes.

My son is a corn eating fanatic! He'll generally eat 2 ears of corn at every BBQ we have.

Here's a pic of him when he was about 3. Loving corn even back then!

Comment and let me know how the cooler corn worked for you!

Homemade St. Louis Style BBQ Sauce

2012-06-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great Fathers Day! I had a wonderful day! I ended up smoking another whole chicken on the grill and making up this batch of BBQ sauce. My wife and son Ty made me a great breakfast so the whole day was amazing!!

Tyler who just turned 6 is quite the comedian. He has a great sense of humor and had in full effect today!

Here's a pic of him acting goofy today:

Anyways! Here is the recipe for the BBQ Sauce. Which I would suggest you use with chicken or ribs. Since it's St. Louis Style, it has a stronger vinegar base. It has a hint of mustard and cinnamon, with a lingering heat from the chipotle.

2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/3 cup chipotle sauce
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
2 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon orange juice
2 tablespoon liquid smoke hickory
2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon sugar

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over a med heat. Bring to a soft boil, cover and reduce to simmer for 1 hour to infuse all the flavors and reduce. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate. Sauce is better if allow to sit for a day.
If your going to jar it and don't know how. Here is a tutorial:
http://www.ehow.com/how_8325519_jar-barbecue-sauce.html

Grilled Sausage & Pepper Sandwiches w/ Fiery Tomato Sauce

2012-06-16T10:24:00.002-07:00

So for this weekend I decided to do a contest for Johnsonville Brats. I had to make a kabob recipe out of one of many selections of sausages from Johnsonville.

I decided to go with the Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausages. I've always liked sweet pork sausage so it only made since to me to do a Sausage & Pepper dish like you get at the carnival.

Ingredients

-1 pack of Johnsonville sweet Italian sausages

- 2 bell peppers any color

- 2 tomatoes or cherry tomatoes

- 1 can tomato sauce

- Italian Seasoning (I made my own: 1/2 tbsp tarragon, 1/2 tbsp basil, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tbsp garlic, salt, pepper)

- 1 Jalapeno

- skewers

- 6 Hoagie Rolls

Directions

First off these would pair good with a nice pitcher of Sangria or some Hard Cider beer. Cube up your sausage, peppers, and tomatoes.

Skewer those bad boys up. Any order, it doesn't matter. Salt and pepper. Oh! light your grill too! Slice your hoagie rolls down the center, and butter them up as well.

In the middle of this whole process I had to put everything away and go to my son's baseball game. It's his first year playing and he's picking it up great. He went 5 for 5 with a double and made a great play at 2nd base. The whole team did great!!

Once I got home, I then poured the sauce into a small grill pan. (I used my baby cast iron skillet) added my Italian seasoning and chopped up a jalapeno and added that as well. Then mixed it up.

Grill up your skewers until you have a nice char on the peppers and the sausage is done. I like to brown everything on each side then stack them up on top of each other and let them finish cooking on the cold side by closing the grill. It ensures you don't burn them and gives you some time to enjoy a cocktail!

While your kabob's are still cooking, toast up your hoagies, and heat up your fiery tomato sauce.

Once they're finished. Just put a kabob on a hoagie. Grasp the bun and pull out the skewer. Top it with your fiery tomato sauce. Have a few cocktails afterwards of course!

Jalapeno-Bud-Light Lime Beer Can Chicken

2012-06-10T21:24:00.001-07:00

Ingredients

- Whole Chicken (This was about 5 lbs)

- 1 24oz. Bud Light Lime Can

- Salt & Pepper

- Jalapenos & Limes

Directions

Remove innards of bird. Rub butter or oil on bird. Salt and pepper generously and/or add any rubs or seasoning that you would like. I used course salt, pepper, paprika, and chicken/rib rub. Use a fine grater to grate lime zest on to your bird. Like below.

Chop up a couple jalapenos, and quarter up a lime or two. Stuff half of the chopped jalapenos into the cavity of the bird.

Use a can opener to open up the whole top of the beer can. This may take a little work depending on what kind of can opener you have. It should be all the way open like below.

Now, drink half of the beer inside. Never waste beer by pouring it out!!!! Put the rest of your jalapenos and limes into the open beer can.

Very carefully insert the can into the birds cavity until it sits up nicely on a flat surface. You may have to work with it for a while. I loaded his arms up with 2 whole jalapenos for comical purposes.

Light your grill. Make sure you have a cold side and a hot side. If your using gas grill (which I never suggest) light half the grill and keep your temp from around 250-350. I always use lump charcoal mixed with Hickory chunks.

Place the bird on the cold side of the grill once your coals are hot.

Close the grill and don't open for an hour. Make sure all of your dampers are closed to keep all the heat inside. Down below you can see the mix of lump hardwood charcoal and Hickory chunks just to get an idea of how much to use. The first hour should be cooking at around 300 degrees.

I would suggest using an internal thermometer and not relying too much on the thermometer that is provided with your grill as they are generally not very reliable.

After one hour, add more coals to maintain temperature or add a smoking wood as I did and let it smoke for another at anywhere from 230 degrees to 300 degrees.

After the 2nd hour I just added more mix of Hickory and charcoal to maintain temperature. From this point on your skin should be getting nice and dark. I would highly suggest you start monitoring your thermometer. Keep checking the chicken every 15 minutes or so, until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 160°F - 165°F. The total cooking time will vary depending on the size of your chicken, and the internal temperature of the grill. A 4 lb chicken will usually take around 1 1/2 hours. If you don't have a meat thermometer, a way to tell if the chicken is done is to poke it deeply with a knife (the thigh is a good place to do this), if the juices run clear, not pink, the chicken is done.

Once your bird is done to your liking, carefully transfer your bird from the grill to a cutting board and let it rest for a few minutes. If your not sure on how to carve a whole chicken here's a video tutorial:

Cut and enjoy!!!! Drink with a Bud Light Lime and it's even better!!

Candied Hot Dogs on a stick for kids!

2012-05-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

If you have kids you'll know that they get tired of things real quick. Our 6 year old Ty was getting sick of plain hot dogs, so I had to sweeten things up a bit. I ended up loving them myself! For this I ended up using hot dogs that had already been grilled. We have kids over a lot so we always have lot's of hot dogs left over.

Ingredients

- Hot Dogs

- Skewers

- 1 plate filled with Maple Syrup

- 1 plate filled with Brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg

Directions

Sorry I don't have a lot of pictures but I just threw these together. They we're so good I had to post them up. Anyways, Skewer up your Hot Dogs. Take a sharp knife and score the outside of the dog many times but not too deep. Just enough to create a rough surface so everything sticks to it.

Roll the dogs in the Maple syrup, then in the Brown sugar mixture. Coat them with as much as you can!

Once you have them rolled up, I would stick them on a paper plate in the fridge for about 10 or 15 minutes to harden up the glaze. Some will fall off, it's not a huge deal! If you know another trick, feel free and bust it out.

Once they have sat in the fridge for a little bit, toss them on the grill. Grill them until the glaze has formed a nice caramelized outer surface.

The kids will love them.

Here's some of the kids I love to feed! Our good friends the Neely's, and my wife Angela, and son Tyler are in the top right wearing red!

Ham Wrapped Hawaiian Chicken Skewers with Pineapple-Soy Glaze

2012-05-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

- 2 boneless chicken breasts cubed

- 1 can pineapple chunks

- 1lb deli ham with a decent thickness

- skewers

Glaze

- 1 cup soy

- 1 cup Pineapple Juice

- 2 tbsp crushed red pepper

- 1 tbsp garlic fresh or powder

- 1/2 tbsp ground ginger

- 2 tbsp brown sugar

- 1/4 cup of EVOO

Directions

Mix up ingredients for Glaze, set aside. Cut your ham so it's large enough to fit around your chicken chunks. Wrap a piece of ham around a piece of chicken and put it on the skewer to hold the ham and chicken together. Add a piece of Pineapple in between each piece of ham wrapped chicken. Make it tight to keep it all together.

Add your skewers to a hot grill. Sear each side of the kabobs without burning the ham. You will notice, the ham actually start to wrap itself around the chicken as it cooks.

Since I'm using ham I like to cook with Hickory or Mesquite. So I have added Hickory chunks to my lump charcoal (which I always use) to give it a nice smoky flavor.

Anyway! back to the grilling! Like I said make sure you have a nice char on your kabobs!

Once you get a crust you like you can move them off of the hot side and start glazing them. When I remove meat or chicken from the hot side of the grill I like to keep my meat cooking at 225.

Just keep glazing them and checking the internal temperature until they reach your desires temp. Make sure you keep the grill top closed so you have consistent temperature. If it gets too low add a little more coal or wood. If it gets too hot, open up your dampers or crack the lid a little.

Once they are done, top them with some chopped green onion, and serve with some kind of tropical Rum drink. As always!

Grilled Poblano Creamed Corn

2012-05-14T20:53:00.004-07:00

Ingredients

- Corn on the cobb

- Sour Cream

- Pabalano Peppers

- Salt

- Pepper

Directions

Boil corn until Al Dente'. Light Grill.

Grill the corn until they have a nice caramelization and char.

Grill the Pablano peppers until they are soft and have a nice char on the outside.

Remove both corn and peppers from grill. Make sure they have cooled down enough to handle and gently start to peel the thin layer of skin off of the Pablanos.

Cut off the stems. Cut in half and scrape out all of the seeds.

Throw away the stem, skins, and seeds. Roughly dice the remaining peppers.

Cut all of the grilled corn away from the cobb.

Add both corn and Pabalno to a medium size Crock Pot or a regular pot, whatever. Add 1 extra can of canned corn.

Add 3 or so heaping Tablespoons of sour cream. Then salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix well and keep on Med-Low until cream has melted and it's nice and hot. Enjoy! with a cocktail of course!

Pineapple-Papaya Habanero Chick on a Stick

2012-05-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

- Mixer or Blender

- Habaneros

- Skewers

- Cilantro

- Thawed

- Pineapple & Papaya (juice, nectar, fresh, canned, whatever as long as it's blended to a liquid)

- Rum optional (any flavor, any brand)

- Chicken wings (or legs, thighs, breasts, whatever!)

Directions

Put habaneros, fruits or juice, 1 shot of rum, cilantro, and 1/2 cup of EVOO in a blender or processor and blend well.

Put chicken in a Ziploc bag or two and pour in marinade. Refrigerate over night!

The following day, light your grill and remove the chicken from the Ziploc bag and place on a pan or plate. Grate some fresh nutmeg over them . Hit them with some course salt and course black pepper. Jam the skewers through them, and place any remaining marinade in a container. We'll use that to brush on while cooking.

Remember to play with your dog during all of this or he'll get bored, lol. This is our dog Brownie!

Anyways! Throw your chicken on the grill. Brush on the remaining marinade every time you flip!!

Just remember to rotate your wings and get those nice lines. You should get a good caramelization and char with the oil and marinade.

Once they are done to your likeness. Remove them from the skewers, top them with some fresh chopped Cilantro, and grate some fresh Nutmeg on them. Also make sure you mix up one of these below because these babies are HOT!!!

Enjoy!

Grilled Chile Lime Steak Fries

2012-05-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

- 3 large russet potatoes

- 2 limes

- course salt

- cracked pepper

- Chile powder or Ground Red pepper, any red pepper or Chile blend

- garlic powder

- EVOO

Directions

You need to partially cook your potatoes. I do so by leaving them in the bag they came in from the store (minus the metal tie) and popping them in the microwave for about 8 or 9 minutes. Once they come out I let them cool in the freezer for about 20 or 30 minutes.

Once they are cool enough to handle. Quarter them up!

Coat them with a good amount of EVOO. Grate lime zest of two limes into a small bowl.

Sprinkle on Chile powder, salt, pepper, lime zest, and garlic powder very heavily!

You know what to do now! Throw that shit on a hot grill until they have a nice crust and are cooked all the way through.

Hit them with some parsley! Serve them with your grilled meats, and always have a cocktail in hand!

Grilled Mexican Burgers with Guac.

2012-05-03T21:33:00.001-07:00

Ingredients

- Pepper Jack cheese (or jack, Colby jack, cheddar, whatever!)

- Ground Beef ( I mix 80/20 chuck, and 93/7 lean. You use whatever!)

- Chopped green chile's (Mild or Hot)

- Chipotles in Adobo sauce

- Kaiser Rolls

Easy Guacamole recipe to follow this recipe**

Directions

Place hamburger in a large mixing bowl. Remove all of the chipotles from the can and chop them on a cutting board. After that add the green Chile's and chipotles to the meat, and mix with your hands until mixed well.

Time to make patties. I don't know how you make patties but I make large thick patties. I generally take one whole hand full of meat and roll it up in a ball, GENTLY!!! I then GENTLY press down to form a nice thick patty. I see so many people slap, and press down, and hit the meat with a frying pan. You want your hamburger to have that air in them, and you want some room for all the juices to build up. So be easy on that piece of meat. It didn't do anything to you!

Light your grill! Once again, have a cold side and a hot side! Make sure you have your cheese and buns handy because you'll need to melt the cheese and toast the buns on the grill later.

When you cook hamburgers, it is imperative that your grill is hot. When I light my coals, I make sure that the grate I'm going to use to cook on is over that fire when I light the coals. If your grill top isn't hot enough 1. your burgers will not stick, 2. they won't char and 3. It just sucks! Also, don't press on the burgers! Remember be gentle! Once you put them on the grill close the lid and walk away for about two minutes and let the flames and hot grill top do it's job. You want crispy on the outside and soft and juicy in the middle, unless your one of those freaks who likes hockey pucks, lol. To each is own!

the one on the bottom right is for my son ; ) no peppers

Once they are done to your likeness, move them aside or to a top holder and toast up your buns and melt your cheese.

Once they're done, your ready to eat. Just place a nice spoon full of Guacamole (recipe below) right on top of the burger. Serve them with grilled Chile-Lime steak fries (You can find recipe on this blog site)

Easy Guacamole Recipe

- Cilantro

- 2 limes

- 4 or 5 avocados

- salt

- red pepper

- cumin

- chopped white onion

- minced garlic

- 1 can Rotel

Obviously your going to need some ripe avocados. If you pick one up and it's purple and is hard as a rock, throw it into the next isle! They need to be dark and soft. Sometime stores will put stickers that say "ripe" on them. If your not sure, ask the 16 year old that works in produce that probably won't know either.

Remove the pit and skin of the avocados and put in a large mixing bowl.

Add Rotel, and onion. Chop, or cut (like my wife is doing) some cilantro in as well.

Once you have all of that in just add the salt, cumin, red pepper, and lime juice until you have reached a flavor that is good for you. We generally have a bag of tortilla chips sitting around so we can try and tweak as we go. That's the fun part!

That's it!

Margarita Chicken Lollipops with Drunken Jalapeno's

2012-05-02T08:23:00.001-07:00

Ingredients

- Boneless chicken breast tenderloins

- skewers (soaked in water)

- Margarita mix with Tequila

- EVOO

- Margarita Salt

- Jalapenos

- Parsley

Directions

Put your tenderloins in a Ziploc bag with the jalapenos. Pour in Margarita mix until chicken is covered, and add a tablespoon of EVOO. Seal the bag/bags and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Note: When you chicken comes out it will be white on the edges. This is a result of the chicken actually being cooked a little by the citrus and Tequila in the mix. It's normal! Similar to a Ceviche'.

Preheat your grill. Pour out marinade, and skewer up your chicken and jalapenos. Add some of the Margarita Salt to the chicken right before you grill them.

When your grill is nice and hot, place the chicken on the grill in a 7 to 2 o'clock position for a minute, then to a 5 to 10 o'clock position for a minute or so. Flip, and repeat until you have a nice char and grill marks. If you have thicker chicken, make sure you move it to the cold side and close the grill and bake it until it has reached it's proper temperature.

That's it! Sprinkle on some parsley, pop in some Bob Marley, and shake up a mixed drink to go with it!

Grilled Blackened Black Cherry Chicken

2012-04-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

- 3 Bone-In split Chicken Breasts

- EVOO

- Black Cherry preserves or jam

- Blackened Seasoning

Directions

Coat your split breasts in enough Olive oil to coat each one. Add the blackened seasoning heavily in all the crevices and rub it in really good.

Pour jar of jam or preserves in a small saute' pan and add about 3/4 cup or so of water. Make sure your grill is preheated and plenty hot. Make sure you have a cold side and a hot side. First heat up the jam over the flame until it is hot and syrupy. It will still have some black cherry pieces which I pour overt the chicken at the end.

Place the breasts bone side down first to start cooking the meat around the bone until it has a nice char and carmelization.

Turn breast over to sear and brown the meat side. Always remember if you want nice grill lines. Start them on a 7 to 2 angle for a couple of minutes, and then move them slightly to a 4 to 10 position for another couple of minutes. As long as your grill is hot enough, they should form good cross markings.

Start mopping or brushing on the Cherry glaze each time you flip. Do this a couple of times until you have good carmelization without burning.

Once you have the chicken blackened up to your liking, move them over to the cold side and continue to mop on the glaze and turn. Make sure your chicken reaches a safe temperature for consumption. I believe 165 or 170 is good for split chicken. The 3 I cooked took about 30 minutes of baking with the grill closed.

Make sure you dump the rest of the glaze right on top of the breasts the last few minutes o f cooking. Top with chopped parsley.
Plate up and serve with rice or a veggie or anything. I ate mine with Chinese Cole slaw left over from my sons 6th birthday.

Note: If you want more black cherry flavor in the chicken, I would suggest marinating the chicken in black cherry juice, and a little EVOO over night.

Hawaiian Meatloaf

2012-04-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

I know the name of the blog is Guy and a grill but it's only 50 degrees tonight in Illinois so we'll be making Meatloaf inside, lol.
For this Meatloaf I used 75/25 Ground Chuck. I'm a meat guy and I love rare hamburger so this works for me. I would use a mix of ground pork, and leaner ground beef if your looking for more of a dryer, healthier option. If you want traditional Hawaiian loaf, add Spam!
I also used thick cut Applewood smoked bacon. I like fatty bacon. I would use center cut for less fat, if heart attacks aren't for you.

Once again I don't measure. If you want your meatloaf to have more bacon, then add more bacon. If you want more onion then add more onion. This is just how I do it to give you idea's of your own. You know your palette better than I do.

Ingredients:

Meatloaf
- 2 lbs or so of Ground beef, ground pork, or whatever meat you want
- 1 package of bacon of choice
- 1 whole onion (white, red, green, yellow, pink, whatever color you want)
- Worcestershire sauce
- Coarse Sea Salt (it's what I use, if you use iodized, or salt from deicing your driveway it's cool)
- Cracked Pepper (you know where I'm going with this.. it's just pepper)
- Diced Jalapeno's (As many as you want. If you want to shit fire the next day use 20. Hell! use habanero's)
- EVOO just a little to coat the meat and help it brown
- Diced pineapples (again, it's up to you. If you love pineapple, then go crazy!)

Instructions
- Preheat oven to somewhere around 400 degrees
- I'm making enough for myself, my wife, and our 6 year old. So I'm using a medium size bread pan, and a smaller one without peppers for our son. I suggest whatever pan you use. I would line it with saran wrap and fill it with raw meat to see how much you need. Then you can put the rest away for tomorrow's hamburger or whatever.

- Dice up your onions, bacon, and jalapenos (whatever size you want. I would remove the seeds unless you have the desire for stomach ulcers)

- Heat up a skillet with a little EVOO to brown the bacon, onion, pepper mixture.

- Once the bacon, onion, pepper mix is browned to your liking, I would strain the grease, and run it under cold water to cool them off for handling.

- Put your raw hamburger in a large bowl and add the bacon, onion, pepper mix. Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and mix well with your hands until everything is blended.
Note: I know, I know! No breadcrumbs, no raw eggs? I'm not sure what person started the hoax that you needed to add all these things as binders, but you just don't need them! It's a "meat" loaf, not a "filler" loaf. You want to taste the meat not a bunch of bread and stuff. If you want bread, make a hamburger, lol

- Once your loaf is mixed up return to the bread pans lined with saran wrap and stuff them with the mixture as good as you can. This is your mold so make sure you put a little muscle into it! If you do it like a sissy, you going to have cracks and it will fall apart and probably burn your house down.

- Now that I have my loafs in there pans, we need to find a proper tool to cook them on. With all the fat from the bacon and the meat. I would highly suggest you use a deep pan with a a grill that leaves you enough room to fill with at least a 1/2 inch of water. What's the water for? 1. It keeps the grease from catching fire 2. It also steams the meat which helps it cook and makes it more juicy
- You don't need to spray it with that cooking spray crap! there's plenty of fat to keep it from sticking.
- Very carefully flip your loafs over onto the pan and remove the pans, and the saran wrap as the image below shows.

- In the oven they go! I used around 2 pounds so I'm looking at a little over an hour at 400. Now this is only ground beef so if mine is under cooked. I'm cool with that! it's beef! If your using pork or chicken. I would highly suggest using a meat thermometer to achieve a safe temperature for your meats.

The Glaze

- Ground Ginger
- Brown Sugar
- BBQ Sauce
- Soy Sauce
- Pineapple preserves

- While your loaf is baking for half the evening! Combine a whole jar of Pineapple preserves with the rest of the ingredients and cook on medium until it's hot and semi thick and glassy. I would play with the ingredients until you achieve your personal sweetness level.

- In the last 10 minutes of the baking process. Pull out the loafs and pour the glaze all over the loafs until fully covered.

- Once your loafs have a wonderful crust and have achieved a safe internal temperature for human consumption. It's time to carefully remove them from the oven and transfer them to a cutting board. Let the loafs rest for about 4 or 5 minutes to finish the cooking process and let the juices properly distribute and settle.

- Slice these bad boys up and serve them up with some rice or sweet potatoes! Enjoy! Top with fresh parsley or chopped green onions!

Grilled Garlic, Parmesan Corn

2012-04-18T22:29:00.001-07:00

Since they have come out with FlavorPac and microwavable corn, life has been great. Frozen corn just has a great taste, and it saves so much time. Of course grilling corn in the husks is always fun.

So for this I just start with a pack of frozen corn on the cob.
- butter
- Parmesan cheese
- chopped green onions
- garlic
- course salt
- cracked pepper

Before I coat the corn, I obviously melt the butter mixture in the microwave and also heat the corn up in the bag for 8 minutes or however instructed on the package.

Once that's done just transfer the corn to a holding tray and smother the corn in the Parmesan butter. Coat all the corn well.

That's it! Throw it on a hot grill until there is a nice crust. I like to jam a thick wood skewer through them so I can have a free hand for drinking beer.

Tropical Jerk Grilled Chicken

2012-04-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

All Jerk marinades start with the pepper. Traditional Jerk is made with Scotch Bonnets which are found in the Caribbean Islands. The Scotch Bonnet has a 100,000-350,000 heat rating on the Scoville scale. I have a hard time finding these in Illinois so I just use Habanero's which is exactly as hot as the Scotch Bonnet.

You'll find out that I don't use measurements when I cook savory food. That's what fun about it. I always wing it and go by taste. That's why I leave the baking to my wife, lol

- We like hot food so we use 5 Habanero's

- Thyme

- Clove

- Nutmeg

- Cinnamon

- Sea Salt

- Coconut Rum

- Green Onion (Use the white part and the green part)

- Brown Sugar

- Garlic

- Cracked Pepper

- Tropical Fruit (Papaya is the best. Pineapple, Kiwi, Guava are all great. You can even buy the canned juice which works just as well. I used fresh Mango's for this, but I wouldn't recommend this fruit because it's very fibrous and difficult to blend.)

Blend all these ingredients together. In a large plastic ware container pour the marinade over your chicken breast. You can use thighs, breasts, legs, or anything you'd like. I used thin boneless, skinless breasts.

Put in the fridge for at least an hour.

Now we'll hit the grill. Another you'll learn about me is that I swear by charcoal grills. If you would like to find out why just ask, and I'll tell.

When you light your grill always have a hot side, and a cool side. I see so many BBQ noobs fill the whole grill with charcoal then burn the shit out of everything.

Make sure your coals are almost all white, and there is hardly any flame left. Make sure your grates are super hot. If your food is sticking to the grill, it's not hot enough. You don't need cooking spray, just a hot ass grill. If you want good "hash marks" or grill lines you have to have a very hot surface. To do this, you need to place the chicken in a 7 to 2 o'clock position for 2 minutes, then on the same side, carefully move it to a 10 to 5 o'clock position for another 2 minutes. Flip them over and repeat the process.

Once you have a good crust on your chicken, and lines that look good to you. Move the chicken over to the cold side and close the grill until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees. I can generally tell by look and feel when my chicken is done just from experience. If you get freaked out about salmonella, then invest in a chef's thermometer. Serve this with rice and always have some kind of drink with Rum in it.