Kicked-Up Chicken Tacos

 How often do you ever wonder, that million-dollar question," What's for dinner, tonight?"  Well, tonight was no different. We went to the supermarket, with a blank slate, and tried to decide, what would be easy and affordable to make?  After browsing through the circular, we noticed that our local Harris Teeter supermarket had boneless and skinless chicken thighs, on sale for a $1. 49, a pound. Once we had the chicken picked out, we started to quickly think, what can we make with it? Near the meat section, the supermarket conveniently placed the Grill Mates marinades, within eye view.  The buy one get one free sign, over the display, pretty much made this a no-brainer.

 We prepared the marinade, according to the specifications on the back of the envelope, we also added a touch of honey, to sweeten up the marinade.  Once the mixture was thoroughly mixed, we placed the 2 pounds of chicken thighs, in a Ziploc bag and allowed the poultry to marinade, for approximately one hour.

 The kettle was fired up, cleaned and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, to prevent the chicken sticking to the grill.  When spraying the grill with nonstick cooking spray, I strongly advise to use the Weber brand, because it is specially made to NOT cause flareups.  When the coals were ready, the chicken was laid out on the grill, for about 5 min. on each side, and then turned, for a another 5 min.  After that, the chicken was placed directly over the coals, for about a minute to 2 min., on each side, to brown up the chicken.

 Once the chicken was done, it was removed from the grill and foiled, to allow the chicken to rest. We like to take a chicken off the grill, at approximately 165° internal temperature.  The chicken will continue to cook in what is known as "carry over cooking".  The "carry over cooking" will take it well beyond the safe temperature of 170° internal.  It helps to have a instant read thermometer, to test for proper cooking temperature.

 Here is the part, where the chicken gets kicked up a bit, instead of using the traditional salsa, to season up chicken, we decided to use Philadelphia cooking cream cheese, a Santa Fe blend.  After the chicken was thinly sliced,  we incorporated the cream cheese and blended it thoroughly, tasting and seasoning as we went along. Once the chicken mixture was done, it was time to get the taco shells  into the oven and heat them up for about 10 min.

The taco shells were filled with the chicken mixture, shredded lettuce, diced tomato and a mixture of shredded mozzarella and provolone cheese.  The chicken had an extreme flavor from the Mojito Lime marinade, the honey, the Santa Fe cream cheese and our seasoning.  The chicken was good enough to eat alone, because of the different layers of flavor that were obtained, but the tacos made it a wholesome meal, that was both delicious and very satisfying.  So, the next time you're thinking about what to make for dinner, consider this simple, but tasty treat. It can also be done with chicken breast  Hope you will enjoy it, as much as we do.  Buen Provecho!

Brined Pork Chops on the Grill

 Started out by brining six, half-inch pork chops, in a zip lock bag, for approximately 5 hours.  The brine consisted of 4 cups of water, 1/2 cup of Morton's Tender Quick cure, 1 cup brown sugar and a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar.  The purpose of the brine is to tenderize and help keep the moisture, in the meat. After the five hours, the chops were rinsed off very  thoroughly, to remove any excess saltiness. I then pat dried the chops with paper towels and placed them on the cutting board, to be seasoned.

 Keeping in mind, that brine did have a lot of salt and sweetness, I take into consideration that my seasoning such have a low salt content. The seasoning consisted of California style garlic powder, onion powder, smoked Paprika and about 1 teaspoon of John Henry's Texas Chicken Tickler.  Thoroughly mixed the seasoning, to make sure to have incorporated all the spices and then applied liberally to the chops. Meanwhile, the Kingsford charcoal was lit, in the charcoal chimney, and when the coals were grey, they weared poured down the middle of the kettle, leaving the sides set up for indirect grilling.

 The kettle was sprayed with Weber grill spray, to ensure that meat would not stick to the grill.  The  meat was layered, off the fire and covered for 5 mins. intervals.  After the 5 mins., the chops were flipped, using tongs, and not a fork, because we do not want to pierce the meat and try to retain as much of the juices, as possible.

 After the next 5 mins., the jobs were placed directly over the hot coals for about a minute, on each side, to ensure nice coloring and grill marks.

 This is what they look like, once they were removed from the fire, the chops were foiled and allow to rest for about 10 mins., allowing for the juices to redistribute, within the meat.

This is the finished product, if you look closely, at the cut section, you see a slight pinkish hue on the meat, this is because of the  tenderizeration effect, of the brine. These pork chops were very tasty, flavorful and juicy; besides the brining process, they were also very quick to cook.  Hope you enjoy our latest post and hopefully you will give it a try soon.

Meat Ball Madness

 This event was dubbed " The Midnight Meatball Madness", and was held at the Marriott Executive Suites Hotel, in Charlotte, North Carolina.  This event was held to make 450 pounds of meatballs, for the upcoming Italian Festival, which will be held on May 19-21, at St. Philip Neri's church, in Fort Mill, South Carolina.We had approximately 10 volunteers, that started at 12:01 AM, on Saturday morning, in this effort to make the meatballs.  This would be one of two meatball making sessions, in which the goal is to make close to 1000 pounds a meatballs, which would be sold as meatball sandwiches or with spaghetti.

 The first step in the process was to get the me mixture properly mixed, with all the necessary ingredients.  As luck would have it, the commercial mixer in the facility, was out for repair. Which meant that all the mixing had to be done by hand.  While one person was mixing, the others were rolling out meatballs, and we all took turns at various tasks.

 After the first few meatballs wore rolled out, everyone found their niche, and we were moving right along.  It was estimated, that we would probably be finishing up about six o'clock in the morning, which was our deadline.  The hotel needed their kitchen back,  in order to prepare for the the breakfast crowd and their daily events.  I must say, I personally thought we might be cutting it a little close, with all the work that was ahead.

 Even though everybody was serious about their job, we had a great group of people working together, and had lots of laughs, in the process.  This also made the work atmosphere, a lot more enjoyable and help keep everybody's spirits up and awake.

 Our crew was so efficient and diligent, that before 3 AM, we had finished rolling out all 450 pounds of meatballs, we had one finished rack in the walk-in freezer, cooling down, several racks in the oven, and a few racks waiting to go in the oven, as soon as the others came out.  At this time, we knew, we were well ahead of our predicted schedule.  The coordinator of this event was very kind and generous, in bringing in, several snack items and drinks.  This production ran like a perfectly well oiled machine.

 As the last remaining meatballs were rolled out, we started to form a strategy, of how we were going to start the packing process to transport and freeze the meatballs, for the actual festival dates.

The first rack of meatballs that was in the freezer came out, the second rack when in to the freezer, while the last racks of meatballs, were in the oven.  We were using gallon size Ziploc bags to store the meatballs, and package them inside of 150 quart coolers, for the transport back to the church.  The  packing process was very fast and successful.  At 3:52 AM, the last meatball was packaged and we started to do a quick cleanup. The helpful staff members of the hotel, told us not to worry so much about the cleanup, they actually had a crew coming in to do the morning cleanup, before they started to do their prep work.  Basically, within three hours and 52 mins., we mixed, rolled, baked and packaged all the meatballs, in record time.  What was estimated to be a six hour job, took less than four.  We were all sore and tired, by the end of the day.  It was rather satisfying to have completed this mission and after a well deserved rest, we would feel great gratification and sense of completion, for a well deserved cause.  It was an extreme pleasure to work alongside such fine individuals, as these.  My wife and I still have four trays baked ziti to do for the event.  We really had a great time.

Southern Treats: Marinaded Rib-eyes

Southern Treats: Marinaded Rib-eyes: " After all the storm and tornado warnings we've had the last couple of days, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice steak dinner. Our hear..."

Marinaded Rib-eyes

 After all the storm and tornado warnings we've had the last couple of days, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice steak dinner.  Our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected by the storms and all the people who lost their lives due to this phenomenon.  This afternoon, I decided to take a ride up to the Ballantyne area in Charlotte, NC; and check out one of our favorite places, " The Meat House" on Rhea Road. It is a franchise style butcher and specialty store.  They have some of the better quality meat in the area.

 After looking around for a while, I came across these rib-eyes, in their own house style marinade.  I am always willing to try new variations of steak, so I figured I give it a shot.  Both of these steaks, in total weighted about 2.45 pounds and were priced at $12.99 a pound.  This was a once in a while treat, so I figured why not try it out.

  You can see that they are about an inch thick. I decided not to add any additional seasoning, to get the full effect of the marinade and also to enjoy the flavor of the meat.  A really good steak does not require much help or sauce.  While I let the steaks came up to room temperature, I started my charcoal chimney.  While at the store, they also had a vegetable mix, which I also picked up.  Just after the steaks would be done, I would put the vegetables into a foil pouch and let them cook on the kettle, while the steaks rested.

 The kettle was set up for indirect grilling, which means that the coals where banked to one side and thus creating a hot spot and cold spot, on the grill.  Even though it is called a cold spot, it is just less heat than the hot spot. This gives me the option of letting the steaks sit on the cold spot and cook like if it was in an oven or go directly over the coals and give the steaks a nice sear. For this particular cook, I used what is known as a reverse sear.  The steaks started on the cold spot of the grill, with the cover on, for about 5 mins., after that time, I flip them over and let them cook for another 5 mins. When the time was completed, I then placed the steaks directly over the hot coals, at a 45° angle for 1 min. and a half.  At the end of that time, I rotated them 90° and cooked for another minute and a half.  The reason for the rotation was to create the grill marks on the steak.  After this process I then flip the steak over on the other side and repeated the same procedure, rotating the steak 90° after a minute and a half. The smell of the steaks was an absolute delight and I am sure it probably made my neighbors was very hungry.

 When the steaks were done, I removed them onto the plate and then covered them with foil and let the meat rest for about 10 min.  You want to let the meat rest and not cut into it right away, because you will lose a lot of the juices and it will also dry out your steaks.  Once the removed, I placed my vegetable pouch on the grill just off of the hot spot.  I then set my timer for 10 min., and at that point removed the vegetables from the grill.

This is the plating and the cut section picture.  The marinade was very tasteful and delicate, but the next time, I will go back to just the regular steak.  This was definitely well worth the wait.  Thank you for looking, hope you enjoyed our posting.

Southern Treats: Sweet Easter Treats

Southern Treats: Sweet Easter Treats: "This Easter we did quite a bit of cooking. After the briskets were trimmed, we started out by injecting the two briskets with our' secret' ..."

Sweet Easter Treats

This Easter we did quite a bit of cooking. After the briskets were trimmed,  we started out by injecting the two briskets with our" secret" marinade.  They marinade for approximately 18 hours, in the refrigerator.  Unfortunately, when we are doing competition, you do not have that amount of time to marinade the brisket, but since these were orders for Easter, we let them marinate a little bit longer, to get full taste of the marinade.

 After the briskets, were ready, we took them out of the icebox and let them sit at room temperature for about 30 min. or so, to take the chill off the meat. We then prepared our brisket rub, which was generously rubbed on all sides of the brisket.  Meanwhile, the charcoal chimney was lit and we used approximately 4 chunks of  Mesquite  wood.  The Mesquite gives the brisket a nice smoky flavor that is not overpowering.

 We also had an order for pulled pork.  The pork butts were rubbed using EVOO and then applied John Henry's pecan rub.  The UDS was started with Kingsford charcoal and five chunks of pecan wood.

 Once the brisket was done, it was foiled and allow to rest in a cooler for about an hour.  After the resting period, it was ready to be sliced up.  He noticed that pink ring along the outer edges of the brisket, it is what is known as the smoke ring.  The smoke ring actually is created due to the smoking of the wood and does not mean that it is dry.  These particular briskets were very moist and tender.

this is award-winning brisket at its best

You can see how moist and juicy this brisket turned out. This will surely be the star of the dinner table.  Hope you all had a great and wonderful Easter!  Thanks for checking out our blog.