Everybody Grills!: 200 Prize-Worthy Recipes to Put Sizzle on Your Grill

INTRODUCTION

It’s my pleasure and honor to welcome you to this very special compilation of great backyard grilling recipes. My involvement with this book is a natural extension of a job I love: creating new recipes and techniques and writing about them for Sizzle on the Grill, a newsletter and Web log sponsored by the folks at Char-Broil.

One of the best parts of my work is getting invited to thousands of backyard barbecues through the stories and recipes folks pass on to me. It’s as if we’re all sitting at one big table, enjoying each other’s company as we reach for seconds. And now, through Everybody Grills!, I’m inviting you to share a place at that table.

I expect that there are many people who are better cooks than I—and you may be one of them. The goal of this book is simply to inspire you to prepare food on your grill that pleases your palate and is adapted to your skills and taste. You’ll find a wide range of ingredients and cooking techniques for everything from appetizers to desserts on these pages, all with simple-to-follow instructions. Some recipes, such as Champion BBQ Beef Brisket, here; Kansas City Mop Ribs, here; and Judge Steve’s World-Famous Recipe for Smoking Turkey, here, are BBQ-contest classics adapted for your backyard enjoyment. Others, such as Smoked Pecans and Gouda, here; Indian-Spice Grilled Cauliflower, here; and Adam Byrd’s Grilled Blackberry Cobbler, here, will challenge you to experiment by grilling new types of foods—with delicious results.

Happy Grilling!

CB

BARRY CB MARTIN

1 Everybody Outside!

It’s All About the Heat

Grilling, Barbecuing & Smoking: What’s the Difference?

•Grilling

•Barbecuing

•Smoking

•Rotisserie Cooking

Infrared Cooking: What Is It & How Does It Work?

•How It Works

•Infrared Cooking Tips

•No-Oil Deep Frying

Caring for Your Grill

•Why Clean?

•Grill Racks & Grates

•Exterior Surfaces

Grilling & BBQ Essentials

•CB’s Must-Have Pantry

•CB’s Essential Grilling Tools

CB’s Favorite Backyard Cooking Tips

•Great Burgers

•Succulent Steaks

•Juicy Chicken

•Tender, Moist Pork

•Lip-Smacking Pork Ribs

•Delicious Vegetables

•Savory Seafood

•Grilled Fruit for Dessert

The material in this chapter was contributed by Barry CB Martin, author of Sizzle on the Grill, the weekly newsletter and Web log sponsored by Char-Broil, LLC.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE HEAT

The roots of modern grilling go back to prehistoric times when our ancestors placed a chunk of meat on a stick and held it in the fire. Judging by the number of people who love outdoor cooking today, there’s something in the way the intense heat crisps the meat’s surface that still appeals to our deeply rooted DNA.

While we’ve refined the caveman’s cooking tools and techniques a bit over the ensuing eons, there are certain things that haven’t changed. The most important of these is the management of heat. This is probably the most basic skill required of any good cook, whether they’re preparing a meal in the kitchen or the backyard. But because this book is about outdoor cooking, let’s start with some basic facts about the heat we use to grill, barbecue, and smoke food.

In outdoor cooking, the heat source we use most often is fire. Whether its source is the propane in a gas grill, the charcoal in a smoker, or the logs on a campfire, fire produces heat; and we can harness that heat to cook foods to our delight.

Fire requires three things to burn: combustible material, a supply of oxygen, and a source of ignition. There are many materials that can burn; yet only a few—such as wood, charcoal, and propane or natural gas—are suitable for cooking food.

Outdoor cooking enthusiasts often refer to heat as either direct or indirect. The most popular form of direct-heat cooking is grilling, which means cooking food directly over the heat source, usually at high temperatures. We typically grill steaks, chops, burgers, and fish. We can also use a grill’s indirect heat to cook food more slowly and at lower temperatures further away from the heat source. Whole chickens, briskets, roasts, and other large cuts of meat are usually cooked by this method, which we generally call barbecuing.

INFRARED HEAT generated by a well-prepared charcoal fire.

GRILLING, BARBECUING & SMOKING: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Many people mistakenly refer to any type of cooking on their grill as barbecuing, but that’s not entirely correct. Let’s compare the outdoor cooking techniques needed for the recipes in this book.

Grilling

Grilling involves quickly cooking individual portions of food at relatively high temperatures over a direct heat source. The first step in many grilling recipes is to sear the meat over high heat—between 350°F to 550°F. The higher heat browns the outside of smaller cuts of meat, sealing in juices that would be lost if the meat were cooked more slowly. My mother did this before placing a roast in the oven, and I do it every time I grill a steak. Cast-iron grates on a grill are also highly conductive, which significantly aids the searing process.

Once food is seared, you’ll often finish cooking over indirect heat on another part of the grill. The reason food can continue to cook this way is that there’s still plenty of heat generated by one or more of these sources: 1) convective heat from air heated by the fire; 2) conductive heat from the grill grates; and 3) radiant heat produced by either a charcoal or an infrared gas grill.

GRILLING is a quick way to both sear and add a smoky flavor to vegetables, steaks, and chicken.

BARBECUING low and slow works best for large, less-tender cuts of meat, such as pork shoulder.

Grilled Ham with Lemon-Orange Glaze

Barbecuing

Barbecuing is a slower way of cooking large portions of meat or poultry using an indirect source of heat at a lower temperature (usually between 225°F to 350°F). It takes time, but your end result is tender and juicy.

Here’s the science behind barbecue: when meat is placed away from the heat source, it cooks by bathing in the hot air—or convective heat—generated by the fire. Another way you might describe barbecuing is slow roasting at low temperatures. Cuts of meat that benefit from this type of cooking, such as pork shoulder and beef brisket, have a high ratio of collagen in the meat. (Translation: they’re tough.) Slow cooking with indirect heat works magic on these cuts, breaking down the dense collagen and adding tenderness and flavor.

Talk to any long-time outdoor cooking enthusiast and sooner or later you’re going to hear the phrase low and slow. In fact, it’s pretty much the official motto of all barbecue. Low refers to temperature—generally between 225°F to 350°F. Slow means the time it takes to cook the food. Simply stated, Good eating comes to those who cook low and slow.

Smoking

Smoking is the process of cooking food on or near an open fire made from materials such as wood or charcoal. The fire releases particles of these materials into the smoker that impart a unique flavor to the meat. The more these materials smolder and generate smoke, the greater the number of particles to flavor the food. Cooking at temperatures between 140°F–225°F is called hot smoking.

If the smoke passes through a cooling chamber and comes into contact with the food at a temperature of around 45°F, you are cold smoking the food. (Note: cold-smoked food isn’t actually cooked, it’s simply being slow-cured and flavored.)

When moisture is added to the smoker to increase its humidity level, it is called wet smoking. A simple pan of water is placed away from direct heat inside the grill or smoker. If desired, you can use fruit juice or wine instead of water, or add these liquids to the water for an additional flavor boost.

ROTISSERIE cooking is ideal for evenly cooking large roasts, whole poultry, lamb, and pork.

Rotisserie-Roasted Leg of Lamb

SMOKING with wood or charcoal on a charcoal grill such as Char-Broil’s CB940 (right) uses indirect heat.

Rotisserie Cooking

Rotisserie cooking involves skewering a large piece of meat or poultry on a rotating spit set over your grill’s heat source. The spit, usually driven by an electric or battery-powered motor, turns at a constant speed to allow for even cooking over the entire surface of the food. Rotisserie cooking is best for large roasts, whole poultry, and pork.

To check for doneness with rotisserie-grilled food, stop the rotisserie motor and insert an instant-read meat thermometer into the deepest part of the food. To avoid overcooking the food, check the temperature about 15 to 20 minutes before the final estimated cooking time. Always use heat-resistant gloves when removing the rotisserie spit rod from the grill because it can get very hot.

INFRARED COOKING: WHAT IS IT & HOW DOES IT WORK?

Infrared is a natural form of radiant heat we’ve all experienced in our daily lives. The warm rays of the sun are transferred to your skin by infrared heat waves. And if you’ve ever made sun tea, you’ve brewed it using the sun’s infrared heat.

Charcoal has been used to cook food for centuries and is still prized by some folks today for the flavor it imparts to food. But I bet that many don’t realize that it’s the infrared heat produced by a charcoal fire that helps food retain its juiciness and flavor. However, charcoal fires require a little more time and effort to adequately prepare them for grilling.

With the introduction of an affordable line of gas grills equipped with infrared, Char-Broil has made the technology used for decades by professional chefs available to backyard grillers. You’ll find this exciting technology in Char-Broil’s Quantum and RED grills, as well as The Big Easy, Char-Broil’s new infrared turkey fryer that cooks without using a drop of oil.

How It Works

Infrared heat is a great way to cook because it can generate high temperatures for quicker cooking and searing—up to two times greater than traditional grills. The infrared waves start to cook the food the instant they reach its surface, quickly creating a sear on the meat that locks in moisture and creates exceptional browning. Char-Broil’s infrared cooking systems offer a wide temperature range, from high-heat searing to slow and low barbecuing and rotisserie grilling. Because most flare-ups are eliminated, you can simply drop unsoaked wood chips between the grill grates to create a slow-cooked smokehouse flavor in a fraction of the time, using one-third less fuel than standard convection gas grills.

Infrared Cooking Tips

Experience with your new infrared grill will help you determine what temperatures and cooking times deliver the best results. At first, you may want to adjust your regular cooking times. If you have cooked on a charcoal fire, this should be fairly easy to do. If you are more familiar with cooking on a regular convection gas grill, reduce the heat settings you normally use by at least 30 percent, and the cooking time by about 50 percent. Here are some other ideas that will help you master infrared cooking:

■ Coat each piece of meat, fish, or poultry with a light spray of high-heat oil, such as canola.

■ Plan your cooking according to technique, required times, and the best use of the grill surface. For example, steaks can be seared over high heat then finished over medium or low heat. Begin with steaks you intend to cook to medium doneness, and end with those you want rare.

No-Oil Deep Frying

Deep-fried turkey is the juiciest, tastiest, most crispskinned bird you’ll ever eat. The Big Easy is an oilless way to fry a turkey using infrared technology. Turkeys cooked in The Big Easy are prepped the same way as for traditional fryers. One of the many bonuses of The Big Easy, however, is that you can use dry rubs and seasonings on the outside of the bird.

THE BIG EASY is a safe, easy, and delicious way to cook fried turkey, rotisserie-style chicken, BBQ pork, roast beef—even vegetables.

CARING FOR YOUR GRILL

Like most people, I’m more motivated to clean up after I finish cooking when the weather’s nice. But when it’s cold and dark outside, I’d rather run back into the house—balancing a plate of hot food while I dodge the raindrops—than clean the grill.

Excuses. Excuses. I’m just lazy sometimes. Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years. Of course, be sure to check the manufacturer’s directions for your grill before trying any of these.

Why Clean?

If it’s been a while since you last cleaned your cooking grates, here’s a tip that could save you time and actually get your grates a lot cleaner. Place either a half-sheet aluminum pan or double layers of heavyduty aluminum foil on the grates; close the lid; and turn the heat to the highest setting. (This method traps heat, causing the grill temperature to rise to between 500°F–600°F). Let the grates cook for about 25–30 minutes. The crud should mostly burn off and, with a light scrape from your grill brush, it all goes into the trash. Beautiful!

Grill Racks and Grates

Before and after each use, you should burn off any excess grease and food that has accumulated on your grates. Turn the grill to high, and close the lid. Leave it on for around 15 minutes; this should turn most debris to ash. When grates have cooled, scrub with a cleaning brush or pad, and they should be as good as new.

Stainless-Steel Grates. Stainless-steel grates should be cleaned regularly with a heavy-duty grill brush. You can occasionally soak the grates in a mixture of water and vinegar. Periodically, remove the grates, and brush them off or lightly bang them together to remove burnt-on debris. Apply vegetable oil after cleaning to help prevent rusting.

Cast-Iron Grates. Treat your cast-iron grates the way you would a favorite