Tag: honey

BBQ’D Sweet and Sour Chicken

BBQ'd chicken

BBQ'D Sweet and Sour Chicken

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Learning to cook for me has been a long but fascinating journey and I am happy to say that I am still learning which means that cooking still holds my interest and still has mysteries to figure out.

One of the mysteries it has taken me a while to figure out is how to BBQ chicken without burning the hell out of it and quite simply the solution to the “mystery” is to simply par boil the chicken to reduce the amount of grease the skin will produce thereby reducing the flair ups and the burnt chicken.

Here’s how we do this one.

Shopping list:

  • 4 Chicken legs
  • 4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
  • 1/2 cup Rice Vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons Soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup Honey
  • 1/4 cup Ketchup
  • 3 tablespoons Granulate Garlic

Putting it all together:

  1. Par boil the chicken legs in a large pot for 7 minutes.
  2. Remove the legs to a sheet pan and dispose of the water.
  3. Heat the BBQ to 400° and place the legs bone side down for 10 minutes then turn over for another 10.
  4. While the chicken is cooking mix all the other ingredients together in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6 minutes or until thickened.
  5. Brush the chicken with the sauce and turn over once the sauce has “glazed” the chicken and repeat.
  6. Remove and enjoy.

There you have it another “Simple but tasty recipe for the grilling season and beyond.”

Until next time………

                            Bon Appetit 

Advertisement

Sweet Heat Marinade

20170811_160231

Sweet Heat Marinade

  • Servings: 1/2 cup
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

At the beginning of the summer I got a late jump on my vegetable garden because I had not been able to build the raised bed due to the weather but here it is the middle of August and it is going gangbusters…. particularly ,the Herbs and Peppers.

With the cornucopia a mere 30 feet from the house is it any wonder that seasoning dinner has become easier?

The herbs and peppers in the picture are the stars of the marinade and they play very well together in this easy recipe.

Cooks Note:  The Pineapple Sage and Sweet Heat peppers may not be easy to find so feel free to substitute.

Here’s how we do this one.

Shopping List:

  • 1 Large Jalapeno
  • 1 Medium Poblano
  • 2 Sweet Heat peppers
  • 2 – 3 tablespoons fresh chopped Thai Basil
  • 1/8 – 1/4 cup fresh chopped Pineapple Sage
  • 4 tablespoons Honey
  • 1/4 cup Canola Oil
  • Juice of half a Lime
  • 2 tablespoons granulated Garlic
  • pinch of Salt and Pepper

Putting it all together:

  1. Seed the peppers. Place all the ingredients except the oil in a food processor and pulse a few times.
  2. With the processor running add the oil in a steady stream until it is mixed thoroughly.
  3. Use imediately or put in an airtight container and store in the fridge.

There you have it another “simple but tasty recipe for the grilling season and beyond.”

Until next time…….

                            Bon Appetit

Honey Garlic Ginger sauce

  • Servings: ”
  • Difficulty: “easy”
  • Print

Honey Garlic Ginger sauce

I’ve been working part time in a fast food Chicken Wing joint for about a year now and of all the sauce combinations that we have the one that people to gravitate to the most is Honey Garlic. Honey Garlic on its own, Honey Garlic and Maple, Honey Garlic and Jamaican Jerk and so on and so on.

Now I’m not a big fan of commercial honey garlic sauces because I find them just  a little bit to sweet and they have a ton of sugar in them. So with that in mind I decided to see if I could make my own Honey Garlic sauce, mainly because my darling wife Christine likes honey garlic and I’m always up for a challenge.

What I found in my search is that most if not all Honey Garlic sauces have three things in common—- Honey, Garlic and Soy Sauce. Being the “push the envelope” kind of guy that I am I couldn’t help but think “how do I make this my own?”  and the answer was so simple…. add Ginger!!

Well “surprise surprise” as Gomer Pyle was once heard to say it turned out really quite good—- even for a guy who is not fond of Honey Garlic.

So without further ado here’s how we do this one.

Shopping list:

  • 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 5 Garlic cloves— minced
  • 1/4 cup Soy sauce
  • 1 cup Honey
  • 1 1/2 Teaspoons pepper
  • 2 Teaspoons Ginger powder
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
  • Corn starch (optional)– 2 Teaspoons to 1/2 cup water

Putting it all together:

  1. Heat oil in a medium sauce pan
  2. Saute garlic for approximately 2 minutes
  3. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk well
  4. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes stirring periodically so it won’t burn
  5. Remove from heat and let cool
  6. If you wish to have a thicker sauce add Corn starch 

So there you have it another “simple but tasty recipe for the grilling season and beyond”

Until next time……..

                       Bon Appetit

 

 

Cheese stuffed cedar planked figs wrapped with Prosciutto

img003 (2)

I thought I would continue the “simple but tasty” apps path with another one I happen to have stolen from Chef Ted Readers dynamite BBQ book and the fact that this one uses a part of the noble pig, in this case Prosciutto, is no mere coincidence. Now to be honest I have never really eaten figs other than in Fig Newton cookies and I have not really seen them outside of an old movie or two where some Bedouin sheikh is lounging on an overstuffed pillow watching some dancing girls and munching on fresh figs but over the past few months I have started to see them being sold in more and more grocery stores and they reminded me of this particular recipe and so I thought I would pass it on to you…… oh and of course this is not the original recipe in Chef Ted’s book since I have tweaked it to my own tastes.

Ingredients:

Untreated 12 inch Cedar plank soaked overnight

1/2 cup creme de cassis

1 Tablespoon cracked black peppercorns

12 Medium to large fresh black or green figs, halved lengthwise

3/4 cup Goat cheese

3/4 cup crumbled Blue cheese

Four ounces sun dried tomatoes, chopped

1 green onion finely chopped

1/2 cup baby spinach, chopped

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon fresh Sage, finally chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

12 thin slices Prosciutto

Liquid honey to drizzle (optional)

Putting it all together:

In a small flat shallow dish put the creme de cassis and sprinkle the cracked peppercorns on top

Add the figs, cut side down, and marinade for about an hour

While the figs are marinating soak the sun dried  tomatoes in hot water until they are reconstituted (about 20 minutes)—— there is nothing like biting into a rubbery piece of sun dried tomato…. well maybe there are a few things but that’s for another day.

Pre heat the BBQ to 450 degrees

In a medium bowl mix all the other ingredients, except the Prosciutto and honey.

Take one half of a fig and place a good amount of the cheese mix on it and then top with the other half and wrap in Prosciutto. Secure with a toothpick

Repeat until all the figs are stuffed and wrapped

Place the figs on a cedar plank and place in the BBQ for five to six minutes or until the cheese starts to ooze

Place on a platter and drizzle with honey if using it.

The great thing about this recipe is that the figs can be assembled a day in advance and brought out to come to room temperature for 30 minutes before grilling.

So there you have it another “simple but tasty recipe for the grilling season and beyond”

So until next time…………

                                                         Bon Appetit