Know your chicken.

Pan roasted chicken.

Crispy skin is the best part of a chicken, now you can do it at home. I don't know if this method is an up and coming trend, or a fad of the nineties, but pan roasted chicken is my favorite way to cook a chicken. It's pretty easy and it only requires an outdoor grill, an iron pan and a chicken.



Prep the chicken. Pick a poulet from you favorite poultry provider. I get a WOG (that's pro talk for "Without giblets")from the grocery, about three and a half pounds. Remove the wishbone, the wing tips and brine in a six percent solution (that's 60g salt per liter of water) for one to four hours. After the brine time rinse your bird then bind it with a measure of kitchen twine. Rack and rest it in the fridge uncovered, several hours would be nice to allow the skin dry, until you are ready to cook.



Start the grill.

Select a nice iron pan and place it on a cold grill. Warm everything up. I use a gas grill, but use anything in which you can easily maintain a temp of 450-500F for an hour. I don't recommend doing this inside, it's going to get smoky. While waiting for things to heat, baste your bird with a neutral oil and season with a few grindings of white pepper.



Place the chicken on the pan, close the cover and set the timer for twelve minutes. No peeking.





Flip the bird. Using tongs (a spatula is handy too) gently turn the bird onto it's tummy. Cover and put ten minutes on the timer.



Carefully balance the roaster on its side, let it go for ten minutes.



Now put ten minutes on the other side.



And time to eat. Let it rest for ten minutes, uncovered, then carve.



Eat this.

Cheers.

Crépinettes on the grill

HAM burger

Do you remember the ads for A1 Steak sauce proclaiming a hamburger is not chopped ham but chopped steak? As a considered rebuttal to that 80's ad, I offer the HAM-burger. Pictured above the ground cured pork burger is dressed with mustard, ketchup, cheese, roasted jalapenos, caramelized onions in sour cream (à la Bonne Femme), tomato, lettuce and mayonaise, all set on a bun made with "Five minute a day dough."



Okay Bonne Femme says I need to take a picture of her burger too. She topped hers with a cole slaw (left over from yesterday's fish taco adventure) made with cabbage, beets, and carrots.

But I didn't set out to make hamburgers. It's been a little more than a week since we returned from our madcap EU adventure and I needed to restock the cured meats cabinet. I made up a brine (loosely based on Charcuterie's American Style Brown Sugar Glazed Holiday Ham recipe) and sunk some pork belly and some pieces of boneless ham. After three days I pulled the pieces from their salty sleep and today I tied them into roasts. While tying the roasts I ended up with some trimmings. Now if I had been really ambitious I used the cured pork trimmings in a Toulouse sausage, but I'm still jet lagged or I drank a lot of beer last night (with fish tacos!) Hey Presto HAM-Burgers. I'm smoking the ham and bacon tomorrow.

Hey check it out, I found the A1 commercial:



Cheers.

Pig Pick

(Genuine Authentic) Smoked Pulled Pork Barbecue.

Oh don't even...Here in a country I like to call the land of the free and home of the brave (and I don't mean Scotland), the beginning of summer queues the national obsession for smoky meats slathered in sugary sauces. Everyone has a story as to where to get the best barbecue, how it is made, what makes it authentic, and you can find millions of pages arguing each particular point ad nauseum. While I would like to stay above the fray, I will endeavor to share with you what I think are some of the important points of "genuine authentic" BBQ and why I think everyone could and should be making their own at home.

1) Meat. For "genuine, authentic" barbecue, you can't go to Whole Foods. Cheap cuts are what you need and you need to get them where they are cheap. Go visit the local butcher, or try to find a nearby packing house. When I lived in Chicago, I used to go to Bari Foods, now in the Southland, I have a meat packing place about three miles away. For pulled pork, you need to look for pork shoulder, or a Boston butt roast, bone in bone out doesn't matter, just try to find it fresh.

3) Prep. "Genuine, authentic" barbecue does not require a lot of effort but it does take some forethought. A dry rub should be applied to the meat the day before cooking. If the cut is amorphous, then it should be tied into a nice roast.

4) Cooking. "genuine, authentic" barbecue is cooked over (or near) an open fire. As for containing the fire, use whatever you have on hand, a hole in the ground, a kettle grill, or a Kalamazoo Dual-Fuel Gourmet Hybrid Grilling Drawer System. While those fancy pants smoker grills are fun to gawk at( And I certainly wouldn't turn down an opportunity to fire one up), Why spend the money on a shiny hood when you all need vessel in which you can heat your meat low and slow for a long period of time. The only equipment I suggest you buy is a thermometer: A Weber grill thermometer will do the trick and it should be about 10 bucks. Measuring the temperature of your fire and keeping it constant is important; as for what the temperature should be let the grill decide. My smoker likes to run about 250 F. I find it easy to keep a kettle grill at about 300F. "Genuine, authentic" barbecue is happy cooking anywhere between 225F and 350F. If you can, throw some wood (Chunks/ chips whatever, I like hickory) on the fire for the smoky love. However you do it, make sure you are set up for the long haul, your fire has to last between six and ten hours.

Is it time to eat yet?

In previous BBQ posts I mentioned that I read somewhere that chewy meats don't start to break down until the internal temperature is above 160F. Pulled pork wont start to shred (or pull apart) until it has reached an internal temp of 190F. When I smoked this roast last weekend my target temp was 200F. However I never made it. After seven and a half hours of smoking at 225F the meat had only made it to 168F. I don't know why some roasts take longer than others. Instead of pulling I got sliced.
At this point I could have taken a cleaver to it and mince it, but much to my surprise, sliced was fine. not chewy at all. So I have a new proclamation: As long as it is fully cooked, "genuine, authentic" barbecue is ready when it is time to eat. Serve it with some slaw on a bun with a side of greens.

Here's the quantities I used:

6lb bone in pork shoulder roast

40 g (1/4 cup) black peppercorns

35g (1/4 cup) paprika

55 g (1/4 cup) sugar

45g (2+T) salt

8 g mustard seed OR 2 tsp ground dry mustard

1 g garlic powder

2 g ground ginger

1 g (1 tsp) cayenne

Starting the day before, grind the peppercorns and mustard seeds in a spice grinder, and combine with other ingredients to create spice rub. Using HALF of the mixture rub the roast all over. If the roast look floppy, tie it into a nice shape. Wrap it and put it into the fridge overnight.

The next day fire up the grill and get out the meat. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the spice mix, then use the rest to rub the roast again. Take the left over spice mix and simmer it in a pan along with:

2 cups of (Real) cider vinegar

1 cup water

1 T Worcestershire sauce

This is going to be you sop that you mop (basting sauce). Baste the meat with the warm sop every couple of hours. Cook to an internal temp of 200F or till when you are hungry and it is over 160F.

For "genuine, authentic" barbecue sauce, I cooked down the leftover sop with some added brown sugar, strained it, then mixed it with ketchup.

This recipe was adapted from the Virtual Bullet website, which I believe adapted it from the book, Smoke and Spice.

I believe barbecue was invented when someone had a cheap cut of meat, a fire pit and a lot of people to feed. It's simple flavorings of sweet and tangy, maybe a little heat, appeal to a broad audience. There's no recipe for "genuine, authentic" barbecue, it is a method to create something out of whatever you have, and share it with people on a nice summer's day.

Cheers.