Quick tips for juicy BBQ chicken

Wow does the time fly by!

Eat a popsicle with chopsticks? Well, if you want to...

Just two years ago today my wife and I went to the hospital and welcomed our second son to the world. He is so full of personality and opinions now, and such a beautiful young boy and we are blessed to have him in our lives. So what better way to celebrate a summer baby than by having a cookout for a birthday party! It was a small event yesterday, but we all enjoyed the shade, a wading pool, a water table, and most especially central air!

One thing I made for us yesterday was barbecue chicken. This is SUCH a trap food in so many ways that some people avoid cooking it at all, because when they do they make a couple of critical mistakes. Fortunately I can give you some easy ways to get around three mistakes I see and hear often and cook juicy, tasty, and safe barbecue chicken.

Mistake 1: Undercooking your chicken.
Chicken MUST be cooked through to avoid the potential for food-borne illnesses, specifically salmonella. I have had food poisoning before (not from something I cooked, thankfully) and it was definitely not a fun experience. The first thing I will say is that your grill needs to be super-hot before you even put the chicken on the grill. Get it up to around 500 degrees or so and then add your meat to the equation. This will also help prevent the food sticking to the grill. The other is to get yourself one of these:

It is a quick-read thermometer and it is a must-have for any kitchen. You can get them in digital or analog and they are a must for cooking any kind of poultry. Make sure you get the meat to at least 165 degrees. If you want to be safe you can go to 180, but too much more than and you will get into the next mistake.

Mistake 2: Overcooking your chicken. 
I know I know - it's almost a Catch-22 with these two. You don't want to undercook the meat, but too much and it just about turns into tire rubber with sauce. The first thing to do is make sure you're not cooking pieces of chicken that are too big. Huge pieces - specifically chicken breast cuts - are just too big and can easily end up overcooked on the outside and undercooked in the middle. Cut them into smaller chunks to make sure that they can cook evenly. The second thing that you can do gives you a little more middle ground to land in. It just requires a little preparation and some very basic ingredients.

Brine cooling in the fridge.

Basic Brine:

• 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 2 cups ice water
• 2 TBSP Kosher Salt
• 1 TBSP Brown sugar
• 1/2 TSP minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns

I include the final two ingredients, but you an leave them out, change them for something else, or even add to them to change how you want your meat to taste. Add all of the ingredients to a stockpot except the ice water and bring to a boil. Cool the brine slightly and add to the ice water. Put the brine liquid into the fridge to cool completely. Once the brine is cooled completely soak your chicken in the brine for at least an hour, more if you want to give some more flavor. One great thing about this brine is that you can use it on more than just chicken. Pork, steak, any meat you want to cook can be brined. It is a great way to add flavor and juiciness to any meat dish - grilled, broiled, or sautéed. 

Mistake 3: Burning the Sauce.

Barbecue sauce is some of the best stuff there is, and whether you make it yourself or buy it in bulk it is what makes barbecue chicken so finger-lickin' good. So why would you want to burn it to the grill or have it get all black and sticky on your chicken? Easy answer - don't. Start the chicken on the grill WITHOUT sauce and make sure the outside is cooked completely before starting to add sauce. Use that brush that came with your grill kit and dump some sauce in a bowl and slather it on. Personally I use a coffee cup because it has a great handle to help me hold the sauce while I am painting it on the chicken. 

If you can avoid these three major mistakes you will end up with some delicious and crowd-pleasing barbecue chicken at your next cookout. How do you sauce your chicken? Is it homemade, or do you have a favorite brand of BBQ sauce that you swear by? Let me know in the comments below or on Facebook!

Steak fajitas

Often times my wife will send me a recipe that she wants me to try out. Recently she sent me a recipe for steak fajitas that sounded simple and fantastic. Last night I made this dinner, and I will confirm that it is simple, yet fantastic.

One of the things that made this recipe so fantastic was probably the length of time I left the flank steak in the marinade. I had planned to make this recipe before our long weekend trip to see family over Memorial Day weekend, but we were not able to fit it in. So I put the gallon zip top bag containing the steak and the marinade in the freezer. Then this morning I took it out to thaw. Not only was the meat infused with flavor, but it stayed super juicy while being grilled - which is not always an easy task.

Grilled flank steak resting on a cutting board

The rest of the meal was simple. Tortillas - which I made a little ahead from scratch - and sautéed onions and peppers. Serve the meal family style and add in some sliced avocados and you have yourself some simple steak fajitas. The recipe says you can add sour cream and fresh cilantro, but after having them I say they are definitely not necessary.

Steak fajitas dinner

 I grilled the steak outside on my gas grill, about 8 minutes per side. This gave the steak a fantastic medium doneness to the meat, and left it juicy inside. If you prefer your meat a little rarer, you can certainly reduce the cooking time some, but for us this was fantastic.

Cutting flank steak for the meal. 

I am not sure if it was the marinade or the simple magic of grilled steak, but the meat was HEAVENLY. I could have sat there and just ate the meat all night - and so could my wife judging by her reaction to a taste test. Wrapping it up in a tortilla with some onions, peppers and avocado seemed like a little much for such a tasty morsel.

Steak fajita, anyone?

The recipe for the fajitas (which includes the marinade) is available on About.com in their food section, and a link directly to the recipe is HERE. If you want to go whole hog and make the fajitas dinner be my guest. but if you just want to start using this marinade for all your steaks like I do, then you can just go ahead and join me in doing that.