A community for anyone who loves cooking over fire, whether that’s antikristo, asado, barbacoa, barbecue, barbie, bbq, braai, chichinga, churrasco, inihaw, jerk, lovo, pachamanca, parrillada, or a sausage sizzle - let’s share recipes, advice, tips and tricks…
I did (not authentic 'cos I don't like fennel seeds) porcetta at the weekend for my lot and my wife's brother's family. A couple of notes: 1. that skin/crackling was an absolute flavour bomb, 2. the leftovers were disappointingly scant.
1 hour @ 250F on the smoker. Finished at 425 in the oven to crisp up. Gonna toss them in homemade buffalo sauce and serve with curly fries.
Chicken thighs marinaded overnight in:
Cooked on a joetisserie on a Kamado Big Joe 3, then taken off the skewer, given a minute or so over direct flame to give a little colour all over and chopped.
Served with:
Spicy pickled red cabbage
Tabbouleh
Zhoug
Labneh
And a sort of Greekish salad.
Bonus picture, some bay leaves harvested from my bay tree, washed and drying for later.
https://www.menkind.co.uk/worlds-smallest-bbq it’s this one! (it's pretty tiny)
We went nature camping with this bad boy here:
we had spot 42!
I dry brined the wings overnight with a simple barbecue rub (salt, pepper, paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander seed, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder).
I brought the Kamado up to 180'C/350'F.
I put the wings on over a deflector for about half an hour then moved them over direct heat, turning frequently, for another ten to fifteen minutes.
Then I served them for saucing to individual taste (I like Buffalo, wife likes BBQ, daughter likes plain).
Cooked my first ever brisket.
17 pounds / 8kg from Costco, trimmed somewhat. I had found a charcoal/truffle rub in NZ that I mixed with fresh ground salt n pepper, applied a day before.
Cooked with pecan smoking chunks, at a (dome temp) temp of 275F (135C) for the first 4 hours then 300F(150C) for another 3.5 hours in the foil boat. Fat side up, with a Kickstarter Meater in the top. Wrapped in wax paper, then towel tight into an Esky for 3.5 hours to rest.
Served perfectly rendered fatty strips in time to see the ABs keep the Eden park record alive vs the pumas.
Learning: Next time won't use the fancy rub. I definitely would just use salt n pepper next time.
I filled the basket with a decent amount of charcoal chunks. It barely used any of that on the cook and cool after, could probably cook two more briskets back to back with what's left.
Gloves to handle the meat is way easier than trying to move a hot 7kg blob of meat.
Anyone considering giving this a go: it was way easier than I thought it would be. But you need enough people to help eat it. We tried with 4 and barely made a dent.
Dry brined then cooked low and slow (just around 100'c) for about two and a half hours (in a braising liquid made of mostly beer). Then finished over direct heat on the grill.
Then I got over excited and didn't take any more pictures.
They were ok - bought from Sainsbury's on a whim for about £5. Not that great in terms of meat/bone ratio, but good flavour.
Happy Father's day y'all. To celebrate I am doing a 9ish lb boston butt on my vision smoker with hickory chips and oak charcoal. Its been on for about 4 hours so far. I have some wings waiting on this lovely hunk of flavor to get closer to done so I can pull it and wrap it before getting the chicken on.
The weather has been kind this weekend, so I cleaned the BBQ and made ribs & wings.
A free-range chicken, seasoned with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, white pepper, and cayenne.
A can of a fairly mild IPA shoved up its fundament (about a third of the can decanted into me first to prevent boilover).
Cooked at about 180'C in a Kamado cooker for roughly an hour and a half. The photo was taken at about the one hour mark.
Served with a creamy mac and cheese and a sharp, homemade coleslaw.
A nice end to the summer!
Smash burgers. Fantastic.
The best burger I’ve ever had was the Green Chilli Cheese burger from Meat Liquor. No matter what I do, I can’t quite match that perfection. Has anyone come close?
Seasoned and air dried in the fridge overnight, except the tandoori wings which marinaded in spices and yoghurt.
On the Kamado Joe at 120'C for half an hour.
Then I opened the vents up to get to about 200'C and flipped several times for about another half an hour.
Once they were done, I took them off to rest and quickly grilled a couple of hotdogs for The Boy.
Meanwhile, I made up Buffalo and BBQ sauce and tossed some wings in each.
Bonebowl.
The filet marinated overnight in a mix of HP sauce, soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce. The file was in sous vide in 50 C for just over three hours and finalised on the coal BBQ. The end result was great if just a bit over cooked for what I was aiming for.
If you're using a traditional charcoal grill or a barrel smoker like this one, I recommend using a charcoal chimney to get the party started. I fill mine 3/4 full of charcoal, then roll a couple of sheets of newspaper with a drop of vegetable oil and kind of wedge it under the chimney. Lights first time and gets the charcoals going quickly.
To add a little flavour to the smokiness, I used Jack Daniels barrel wood chips, bay leaves, and allspice berries soaked in water for an hour or so before the cook.
After the chicken temp hit about 65'C I took the chicken off the hooks, put the grill grate in and left the lid off to finish the chicken over a higher flame and get the skin a little more crispy.
Served with potato salad; red cabbage and pecan coleslaw; watermelon, mango, feta, cucumber, mint and basil salad.
Argentinian grilled chicken cooked over charcoal and wood, basil roasted baby potatoes, heart of palm and avacado salad, and homemade chimichurri.
The wait was too long so it became Thursday BBQ instead. In my defence the weather was really nice this evening where we are. Chicken thighs and halloumi pepper skewers with a Mediterranean potato salad and a salad of various greens from the fridge.
Photos are a bit rubbish, sorry. I'd had half a bottle of Greek white wine by this point.
Anyway. I set the Kamado Joe up with one heat deflector so I had an indirect and a direct heat section.
Chicken marinaded in olive oil, red-wine vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper for a couple of hours. Then rested breast side down, in a roasting dish, on some baby new potatoes, quartered red onion, a head of garlic, some more salt, pepper and oregano, and some good olive oil.
Cooked over the indirect half of the Kamado for about 45 minutes then turned the chicken the other way up and cooked for another 45 minutes or so until the internal temp came up to about 70'C.
I took the chicken out of the roasting dish and moved it over the direct heat to give a little more colour and crispness to the skin then took it off and set it to rest (under a foil tent, but that's not shown here for obvious reasons).
While it was resting I made a Greek salad with heritage tomatoes, good Kalamata olives, good quality feta, an average quality cucumber and an entirely pedestrian red onion.
The potatoes continued cooking...
And then eventually everything came together on the plate. Served with a second bottle of Greek white wine (a mix of Moschofilero and Roditis grapes from Ocado, very nice).
Lovely summer variant of roast chicken.
