Summertime...Barbeques, Grills & Smokers!

4 hours on the kettle grill with 2 hours of hickory smoke. I will finish it up tomorrow in the oven for our friends birthday dinner.
Probably the last smoke of the year. It finally got into the mid 30s around noon.



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When I retired this summer I bought myself a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker. It has been absolutely great. Done salmon, cheese, pork butt, brisket, ribs, and chicken (see photo)

 

Grilled some chicken breasts Saturday. This was probably the best chicken I have ever grilled. I used some rub concocted by a friend that went to culinary school many years ago, containing brown sugar, a little red pepper, a little black pepper, very little salt, and a couple other items I don't remember at the moment. I usually make my own rubs, also using little salt, because most store bought rubs have more salt than anything else, and all you taste is salt. I combined about 4 tsp of soft butter with a healthy sprinkle of rub, mixed thoroughly, and then rubbed this paste under the skin first, and then all over. Then I sprinkled some additional rub over the entire breasts.

After about 6 minutes of direct grilling on each side, plus another 30 minutes of indirect grilling for about 42 minutes total, these chicken breasts were the juiciest and most tender ones I have ever grilled.

 

Those look delicious. What internal temp do you pull the breasts? I normally aim for 155 to 160F.

 

That looksm10 times better than the last Cuban I had in a restaurant!

 

Just hitting 160 when I took them off. After letting them rest for a few minutes, my wife cut into them, you can see the cuts in the pic. The cuts look sort of pinkish, but that's not an accurate color rendition, the meat was white and juices were clear. You have to go by temp, not juice color, but I still like to see it run clear even when I know it hits the desired internal temp. The edges look black, but that was mostly skin, and I think the brown sugar in the rub burned. The meat was absolutely moist and delicious.

 

Our family is a little spread out now, so we're having Thanksgiving dinner today. Smoked a turkey breast on the Weber kettle grill. Injected it with a homemade marinade of equal parts melted butter and dark beer, with some Cajun seasoning mixed in. I used a modified snake method for the charcoal.

 

That looks great!!!!


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I did a butterflied 7lb Turkey breast on the kamado today. Took about 2.5 hours with just a little poultry rub and some cherry smoke between 250F and 300F. Pulled when the thick part of the breast hit 150F, wrapped it in foil for about 30 minutes until everything else was ready.

 

Looks great! I over cooked mine a little. My fire was a little too hot, even with a modified snake method, and before I knew it internal temp was hitting 170. I got it off quick. Surprisingly the meat wasn't totally dry, and was tender. But when you can get them off the grill at 155 to 160, and wrap in foil to finish cooking and to rest is definitely better.

 

Got up at 4 a.m. this morning to brine some salmon. Its in the refrigerator now and will sit for 6 hours. Air dry for two and then into the smoker. The things I do to satisfy my taste buds.

 

Smoked Salmon: Dry brined for 6 hours starting at 4 a.m. this morning. Two hours of air drying and then 3 hours in the smoker. First photo is the finished product - and it taste great. Second photo show the smoking process and the third photo was after air drying and before going in the smoker. I applied a maple syrup with bourbon glaze during the last half hour of smoking. Used 100% apple wood for the smoke.

 

Not really summertime, cloudy, wet & 40º outside but no wind. Decided to do a couple fatties (a.k.a bacon explosions). One for Christmas breakfast & one for... well because the smoker was fired up.

The one on the right is for breakfast. It's just some breakfast sausage and colby jack cheese rolled up and wrapped in a basket weave of bacon. The one one the left is a pizza fatty with tomato paste, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese wrapped in bacon.

The WSM held a rock solid 282º for a quick hot & fast smoke. Pulled them both with an IT of 155º. Both will be finished in the oven, one in the morning and the pizza one will be wrapped in pizza dough and baked. Hopefully I remember to get some pics when finish them... lol.

I used a combination of cherry & mesquite wood. The flash kinda washed out some of the color, they look pretty darn tastey!

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Nice Fatties...

 

Thanks!

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Here's the breakfast fattie, oh it's so good.

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That looks great!

 

Grilled chicken for the in-laws Christmas Eve dinner. First pic is coming off the grill, second is indirect cooking after 4 minutes direct grilling per side over a pretty hot fire, and the last pic are the boneless skinless breasts going on first. Also cooked some thighs, which complicated the cooking time a bit, since the thighs were bone-in, with skin. I prefer bone-in with skin on breasts for grilling, but that's what my wife bought, so that's what we had! I wet brined for about an hour and a half, seasoned with olive oil and a bit of brown sugar, paprika, black and red pepper, ginger and rosemary. To get the thighs to internal temp of 155, the boneless skinless breasts started getting over 160, which got them a bit dry but still good. Next time I'll brine longer, and make sure everything is bone-in with skin.

Wish I had thought to wrap the breasts with bacon.

 

Another thought on grilling chicken, the previous cook with bone-in with skin breasts, I rubbed with butter, and used a similar seasoning, with no brining. I'm still a bit of a novice with wet brining, although I have dry brined quite a bit. I believe the butter rub worked better than olive oil, those previous breasts were probably the best I have cooked. Chicken can be a little tricky.

 

Christmas Day meal - NY Stip steaks aged 28 days. Grilled over Kingsford charcoal and a chunk each of hickory, oak and peach.