Summer is here and I have decided that I need a stock pile of home made barbque and marinades so as to enliven my dull cookouts.
Also, rather than start another thread, I also need what your secrets are for Iced Tea ( not instant.)
Mucho Gracias.
My favorite marinade is one I found in one of those Time-Life Crafts books that dealt with hibachi cooking. The recipe was for kushiyaki which was like a shish kebab with Oriental flavorings. I can’t find the exact ingredients list online, and I have lost the book, but it was a ginger, garlic, soy, white wine, brown sugar mixture that gave the skewered meat and veggies a delicious tang.
I suspect that teriyaki sauces would come close, but the key for me was using fresh ginger root (which I grated) and fresh garlic (which I minced) instead of powdered spices. The wine I preferred was Reisling or Sauterne. It’s making my mouth water just thinking of how good that was. It’s been too many years since I cooked that stuff!
I have recently discovered dry rubs that I find preferrable to marinades and sauces. Here is a good basic rub:
4 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons celery salt
2 tablespoon granulated garlic
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons black pepper, coarsely ground
2 tablespoons cumin powder
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried sage
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dry mustard
If you like it spicy, add 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper and 2 tablespoons chili powder.
I put it all in my electric chopper, and whirl it until all the ingredients are powdered.
I like it on pork shoulder, sometimes sold as “boneless country ribs”. First, smear cheap yellow mustard all over the pork with a pastry brush, then liberally coat the pork with the dry rub. Toss it into a ziplock bag in the fridge for a couple of hours; overnight is better. Slow cook in a covered BBQ for about two hours using low, indirect heat (if gas, turn off the burner on one side; or push all the charcoal over to one side and place pork over the other).
I like just the way it comes off the BBQ, but if you like it saucier, brush with BBQ sauce 15 minutes before serving.
I recently got some tips from this thread (hope that works!) and in Post #13 the “Beer Can Chicken” I tried a couple days ago.
Some of the best chicken I’ve ever eaten and I love chicken. I used a wood chip/smoker box in my gas grill and did the in-direct grilling and I used diluted orange juice instead of beer as I don’t like the taste of beer. Also, there is now a dry-rub for chicken that we used also. It’s called Grill Mates Chicken Rub by McCormick
It’s easy and it is great!
My favoritest grill recipe is delicious, healthy, and super easy
Take a couple of salmon fillets and put them in a large bowl. cover in Kikkoman Roasted garlic Teriyaki sauce. Let sit for at least 2 hours.
Fire up the grill, place fillets skin side up. after 5-10 minutes the skin should have begun drying up and pulling away from the flesh. Grab it with a pair of tongs and pull off the skin. Baste the fish with more teriyaki suce and flip. ~5 minutes later it’s done.
Brown 1/4 cup sesame seeds in 1/4 cup vegetable oil.
Add that to:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1 tablespoon sugar
3-4 peppercorns
For marinades, Dijon mustard. It takes the flavor to a new level without making the meat taste mustardy (at least not to me). And balsamic vinegar. And sugar.
For me, a nice chicken marinade would start with a generous bit of Dijon and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Whisk in lemon juice and/or balsamic vinegar and maybe a teaspoon of sugar. When I cook, I often use dried fines herbes, a combination of chives, tarragon, and parsley. If you want a more Italian/Greek flavor, some oregano. Add some ground black pepper and whisk in extra-virgin olive oil, and there you have a chicken marinade.
The marinades I make for chicken are generally light in color, like the one above, unless I’m going for an Asian flavor. The marinades I make for beef tend to be darker in color, and for these I use red wine vinegar, never lemon juice. Both Dijon and balsamic work nicely here as well, but I use much less than in a “light” marinade. I also don’t put herbs in the “dark” marinades. A bit of soy sauce is also good in these darker marinades. And for beef, always always always Worcestershire sauce.
These are the basic two I make. Depending on the desired outcome, I vary them greatly. The teriyaki marinade Zeldar describes is another kind of thing I make. For Asian marinades, I leave out the olive oil for obvious reasons, and use sesame oil instead. Hoisin sauce is another ingredient you can use in this kind of marinade. For an extra kick, some Asian chili sauce or paste.
Super-Secret marinade ingredient: Italian salad dressing.
Basic mop sauce for pork: 1 quart apple cider vinegar, 1 cup water, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons kosher salt, 2 tablespoons Gephardt’s chili powder, 3 tablespoons cayenne pepper
Can’t go wrong sauce: 1 cup Karo syrup, light, 1 cup white vinegar, .5 cup water, 3 tablespoons ketchup, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon unsulfered molasses, 1.5 tablespoons pectin, 2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1.5 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper, 1.5 teaspoons red pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon Tiger Sauce, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika or chipotle pepper. Bring all ingredients to a low boil over medium heat. Simmer 15 minutes. Store refrigerated.
Iced Tea: 3 bags per gallon. Use Louisianne tea. Sweeten while hot, then dilute and chill.
What we often do:
Shaka’s Mmm Mmm Sauce
Jose Cuervo Tequila (or some other half-decent cheap stuff. This is where alcohol made from fermented sugar is actually a good thing.)
Marinade some chicken breasts in it all day and cook them up that evening.
Tasty.