Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

Chicken has so many ways to be cooked over fire.

Chicken halves is a great way to cook it. It has all the advantages of spatchcocked without the pretension. Since I normally plate in the kitchen and make no fanfare of carving at the table I see no real advantage to spatchedcocking. Now if I was carving at the table for a "fancy" dinner to show off some skills I might spatchcock. But who cooks chicken for a fancy dinner?

Also chicken can be great cooked at medium high heat or smoked at low temperature. The only thing that I dislike about smoking chicken at low temps is that the skin doesn't get crisp enough to bite through and I am not wanting to skin the chicken to remove the fat under the skin and rewrap it to get that back. And chickens are too big to get under the broiler in my gas oven for a finish.

Beer can chicken can actually be really good. Not my favorite way to cook it, but works in a pinch.

When I make jerked chicken it takes at least three days. I first make my jerk sauce and marinade for three days. I use extra allspice in the marinade because I don't have a source of allspice wood for the cook. The cook is actually complicated and is more like a steak, but on a longer time span. First you need a good sear and then a longer cook indirect. For a steak it might be four minutes of sear for both sides and six minutes of indirect for a medium rare. With jerk chicken the times are much longer because you need a much higher final temperature. Usually takes close to an hour to get it right.

So I am guessing your chicken halves are direct heat on a high grate on your BGE tonight. The classic way to cook chicken on a grill. Nothing wrong with that and always pleases. I bet it is moist and perfect.

 

Tonight is leftover yellow rice pilaf and pickled shrimp with fennel.

 

Smoked corn on the cob is also really good.

 

Tonight is chicken fajitas as I have lots of the bell pepper rajas left over and only a little bit of the traditional poblano rajas left. Guess which one was preferred. Not even close for how great they were.

The flank steak for the beef fajitas was really good and I pretty much followed the New York Times recipe. My main change was using soy sauce instead of Worchester sauce in the marinade. That was also where I followed the bell pepper rajas recipe that I am not so enamored with and won't make again. It is OK, but not like the real deal with poblanos ala Rick Bayless and countless Mexican chefs. Roasting and peeling the poblanos is a lot of work, but much of Mexican cuisine is a lot of work. There are precious few Mexican restaurants in the US that serve the cuisine at it at its best and most Americans think of Mexican food as cheap and won't pay for it done properly. Taco Bell is NOT Mexican food. Fonda San Miguel in Austin is one place that really does it right. Not cheap, but really good.

So tonight I am trying the New York Times recipe for chicken fajitas but I already have the rajas made.

 

Dinner tonight is up in the air.

This morning it was Thai take-out.

And then it wasn't.

Whatever it is I am not cooking it.

 

Last night my wife and I went out for a sit down dinner at a restaurant for the first time in ages. We went to Blue Gill.

I had a Greek salad and my wife got something I have never heard of before: kingklip. It is a type of eel from far away from Florida. Funny that it would be on the menu because Blue Gill prides themselves on locally sourced ingredients.

I did taste it and it was delicious.

I actually ordered a beet salad (my wife hates beets so I only get them when we go out or if I use yellow beets) and the waitress misheard me. It was OK and the Greek salad was very good. They had a large private party in the other room and it would have been ages before I ate if I insisted on a beet salad.

 

Last night was Thai take-out.

Tonight is brats and kraut. Actually it will be Johnsville brats and for those that want a second a Johnsonville sweet Italian sausage. My Publix only had one package of original Johnsonville brats.

And why doesn't my Publix have any whole wheat "hot dog" buns? I much prefer them to white bread buns.

 

None of them either.

 

Tonight is tacos.