Chicken and a Rock

Chicken. Now this is an ingredient that I am familiar with. I have been making whole chickens for a while now in the oven and was very excited to make this one on the grill. The first thing was to make a rub to put on the chicken. This rub included salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and paprika. Very yummy. I was heavy handed on the cayenne pepper because Symon loves spice and I wouldn't be eating the skin anyways. (Got to love the diet)

Next I took a whole chicken and washed and dried it. I did make sure to clean out the "parts" inside the bird. Not good eats. :) The next part is to "butterfly" it. This means to basically cut out/off the back bone in order for the chicken to lay flat. Using some kitchen scissors I simply cut it out. This is easier said than done. For the first time I seemed to do ok but one of the legs was a little more "cut" then the other. :0
Here you can see the back bone out.
The I oiled and seasoned both sides of the bird. See how pretty. :) and Flat. Now off to the grill.
Grill on Medium heat and started with skin side down. In this picture you can see that the left leg is a little different than the right because of my not so good butchering. Hoping it will still work out.
Of course the first goal is to get that crispy skin on the chicken so to create a more flat surface, it was recommended to use a sheet pan and then put 2 bricks on the chicken. Obviously I had no bricks so two big rocks were substituted.
Flip after 15 minutes. Look at that crispy skin. YUMMY!!!!!
I then let it cook on the second side for another 15 minutes. After that I took the internal temperature. It was too cold so I ended up having to cook it for another 15 minutes. After another 15 minutes we reached 160. Off the grill to sit for 10 minutes so the juices can redistribute. This is soooo important. Even if your kids are screaming to eat, and trust me, mine were. You must let it sit.

We served it with a baked potato. As you can see, we ate the legs/thigh of the first night. I ended up taking the chicken breast and making chicken noodle soup the next day which was also very awesome!!!!

We definitely loved this recipe and would do it again. It is always cheaper to use a whole chicken than to buy the parts separate and I got two meals out of one 4 dollar chicken. :) Try it and let me know the spices you use. I would love some new suggestions to try. Next up.... salad on the grill. (Perfect for my diet right?)

This Salmon is far from home

I am back again. So sorry it has been so long again. Life is busy. I have been running and have done two races so I have not had time to cook. I did this a couple of weeks ago and are finally posting it. Still working on grilling, todays specimen.... Salmon. Now I love salmon. I grew up eating a lot of fish and have always made it but never in this size. My family does not have the same love of fish that I do. Symon states it just can't smell like fish, whatever that means. My kids might eat it if they didn't know if was fish. :)

First things first, I had to find a whole salmon with the head on.... in Arizona. Of course I went to Costco and was in luck. They did have a large side of salmon but not with the head on which was ok by me. :)

We started by making a rub/crust that was made out of salt and sugar. It was placed on plastic wrap and then wrapped around both sides of the fish. The fish is supposed to have skin on one side but this one did not. Again, I have decided to just go with it and try to figure it out. Here is my salt/sugar mix ready for the fish to go on.

Before putting the fish onto the cure, it is brushed with honey. Yummy!!!!!

At this point you place a weight on one side of the fish and refrigerate for 1 hour and then flip and do again. The point of this process is to cure the fish. You ask what cure means. When you cure a fish or meat, you draw out the excess moisture out of the protein and intensify the natural flavor of the product. After the curing is complete we removed the fish and washed/dried it well. Now we are ready for the grill.

Of course because this cooking technique was developed by Alton Brown, he states that a main problem of cooking fish on the grill is stickage. :) To prevent that, he suggests using chicken wire. He suggests using the chicken wire as a sling and oil it up with olive oil. Then place the fish on the chicken wire and then place the chicken wire on the grill. Now since I was not going to buy chicken wire, I don't own chickens and am trying to use what I already had I opted to spray the grill with grilling pam and go for it. Now remember, my fish does not have skin on it as suggested. When I put it on the grill, which was difficult because it was so big, I was so proud and feeling confident that it was going to work. I made sure to oil the fish and the grill well.

AB suggests having the grill temp up to 500 degrees, then place the chicken wire contraptions on and then use a thermometer and then remove when you reach 140 degrees. He does not suggest ever flipping. Because I did not have the chicken wire, skin, or a charcoal grill, I opted to flip after a couple of minutes. Now, after a couple of minutes that grill was SMOKING! Probably because it was at 500 degrees. I attempted to flip and it was stuck. Awesome!!! I let it go a little longer hoping to create a crust on that side which would allow me to remove it better. When we were searing, the key was to not move the product until the crust forms in which it will be easier to remove. The longer I left it, the more it smoked. I decided to just turn it. It was pretty burnt. Of course I was mad but Symon reassured me that we could take of the burnt parts. We then continued to cook until we reached 140 degrees.

With help from Symon we removed the whole fish and served with brown rice and peas, "green balls".

Overall, it was a success. It had a sweet flavor from the honey and definitely a BBQ flavor. I think we could have cooked it on a lower temperature for longer and maybe we would not have a had the burnt ends. Symon and I both enjoyed it. The kids didn't even try. :( Next up.... CHICKEN!!!!