Well, I have invested my hard-earned $20 in the George Foreman Long List of Modifiers Grill with optional bun-warming attachment. Unfortunately, I’ve never owned a conventional grill before, and my knowledge of my options consists of:
Should I be exploring the world of spices? Marinades? What if I want filet mignon or tuna steak?
Your suggestions may well be next week’s supper.
Mom’s Secret Hamburgers (May be adapted for other Hunks o’ Meat)
Preheat grill while making big ol’ burgers.
Cook big ol’ burgers for a few minutes.
When juuuust done, sprinkle liberally with powdered Ranch dip mix.
Add slice of cheese.
Turn grill back on until cheese melts.
Eat two. At least.
I LOVE my GF-lookalike grill and use it at least once per week.
Chicken is good too. I marinate mine first, usually in a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, and garlic. Then grill it up.
Here’s a little something I made on my George Foreman grill the other night. It was to use up leftovers, not a real recipe, so all amounts are guess-timated:
Spinach Turkey Burgers
Ground turkey (enough to make two burgers, in my case, so maybe about 1/2 a pound)
Thawed frozen spinach (probably about 2 tablespoons)
Grated parmesan romano blend
Red pepper flakes
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
Dijon mustard
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, form into hamburger patties and plop on grill. 8-10 minutes and they’re done.
Another nice recipe to try is rasberry-dijon glazed chicken, you make a glaze of raspberry jam, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Very good.
IMHO, the best thing about a George Foreman type grill is that the ‘cooking’ part is simple: no matter what you’re cooking, basically you just put it on the grill and shut the lid. This leaves you feeling a bit more comfortable experimenting with new recipes for marinades, etc, because the cooking technique isn’t also something new or complicated.
I’ve found that some marinade sauces scorch and make cleaning considerably less fun. Teriyaki sauce in particular does not play nicely with the surface of the Foreman grill.
I like to grill chicken marinated in Italian salad dressing. It is kind of a pain to clean up, though.
Rub a chicken breast with sesame oil and throw it on, brushing occasionally with a mixture of melted butter and sesame oil, other seasonings optional. When the breast is done take it off and throw on some green onions – if you want, you can baste 'em with a little bit of what dripped off the chicken. Serve over rice. Enjoy.
You can do something similar with a steak and mushrooms, though I usually use sesame oil, olive oil, and a garlic clove for the sauce.
Also, it works really well with frozen hash browns – thaw 'em a tiny bit in the microwave, ‘n’ fry away.
My little Foreman grill is the best $25 I ever spent on my kitchen! 
Oh! I have a cleaning trick!
I happened to have one of those weird little complexion brushes–it’s just a small round brush like you would use on your feet or something. (I personally think it’s too rough for my face, but that’s what it’s called.) Got mine at Big Lots for under a buck.
Anyhoo, it’s great for cleaning the GF grill. I suppose any small nail brush, potato brush, etc, would do the trick.
To clean mine, I turn it on, and as it’s heating up, I wipe it down with a paper towel. The heat dislodges anything that’s stuck to it.
I found that the non-stick coating comes off fairly easily, though. Be careful about leaving the food on for too long.
Easier said than done, since the grill doesn’t allow for ready visibility.
I clean mine with a paper towel when warm, too. I toss on frozen chicken breasts sprinkled with Johnny’s seasoning (I get that at Costco) and some parmesan cheese. 10 minutes for a big frozen breast. I do roughly pretty much the same thing with porkchops.
Thanks for the hashbrown info!
StG
Boy, you don’t want to misread “Foreman”.
You people are lucky. I got the Foreman grill not long after it first came out. Cost me $100 and it has no temperature control!
If you put a hamburger in, shut the lid, and plug it in, it gets too hot too fast. The burger burns on the outside and remains raw on the inside. To properly cook a burger with my grill, you have to unplug it every couple minutes to let it cool off a bit.
Usually, I just fry my burgers now. Messing with the grill isn’t worth the trouble.
Huh? Nobody’s mentioned toasted sandwiches yet? That’s all I use mine for! Put your sandwich on the grill–best if it includes some cheese–press the lid down so the ridges dig into the bread, and toast until the bread is lightly browned. Yum yum yum! I don’t even eat regular grilled cheese anymore, because I prefer doing it in the George Foreman grill. Tastes better and I don’t have to use any extra butter.
Seems like a lot of stores around here are charging big bux for pressed toasted sandwiches. I bet they’re doing them on Foreman grills in the kitchen!
Damn’ if I hadn’t gone out and plunked down the money for the MP3 player yesterday, you’d all have me convinced to get the grill.
I think tuna steaks would work well on it. My standard marinade may work better than a commercial teriyaki since it doesn’t have as much sugar in it:
Tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup soy sauce
Hearty squirt of Sriracha hot sauce, depending on how much spice you like
teaspoon of brown sugar or honey
dash of vinegar
dash of sesame or chili oil, again depending on your heat tolerance
Optional: Tablespoon of blackbean garlic sauce, or a healthy dash of Wortchestershire sauce
Mix well, then add enough water so that meat will be covered. Good for fish, chicken, or beef.
[hijack]
George Foreman and I have the same birthday, so one year I sent him an email saying, “Happy Birthday! I’m turning 21 today. I hope I get a grill,” kind of hoping he’d send me one personally. I got a reply a couple days later that said, “Happy Birthday. I hope you get a grill, too.”
[/hijack]
Mine doesn’t have a timer either…fortunately I have one attached to my ceiling to tell me when the chicken was done 10 minutes ago.
Mine doesn’t have a temp control and it’s only about 6 months old. But I pay pretty close attention to the time and try to use the grilling estimates in the handbook and my burgers are always juicy and perfectly done.
StG
I got my Foreman grill for Christmas last year… they were running about $60 at that time. I’ve cooked chicken breasts, pork chops, polish sausages, hamburgers, and hashbrowns on mine. Mine doesn’t have temp. control either but they’re always tender and juicy and cooked evenly… unlike pan frying. Clean up is a breeze. Just use hot water and paper towels.
Or, possibly, you could do what I just did and burn the hell out of yourself with it.
My thumb now has a grill mark. :smack: