Traeger Grills | You Will Taste The Difference!

I have mentioned in other posts, that I have a gas grill, charcoal smoker and a Traeger Pellet Grill. I use them all, but for slow-cooking my Traeger puts out results that most other grills only dream about.

If you are not familiar with the Traeger brand they use a special wood pellet that is conveyed from a hopper to a small fire pit by an auger. There is a metal plate between the fire pit and the grill so that everything that you cook is done so by indirect heat.

Anytime that I BBQ a pulled pork, ribs, turkey, or if I do a couple of chickens at the same time, I use my Traeger. I have a Lil’ Tex Elite and will have had it for two years come this Xmas.


The Traeger Pellet Grill is designed for slow-cooking. I am amazed on how moist and tender the meat turns out. What’s cool is the wood pellets come in different flavors, like cherry, mesquite, alder, apple and so on.

The meat takes on the flavor of whatever pellet you are using. Many of the Traeger owners mix flavors to get a unique taste.

The units are built like “Brick Chicken Houses”. They are well constructed and built to last.

Personally, I have found my Traeger Grill to be very economical to operate as compared to gas or charcoal. You should get the same results.

Traeger Smokers are very easy to operate. The clincher is: that you will get outstanding results with these grills even after a couple times of using one.

  Enjoy! Like my favorite chef and friend, George Hirsch would say: “Know your fire!”

I don’t ask that you send me 100K for my BBQ and cooking tips. But, hey, it's cool if you do! It really helps with the bills. If not, please check out my sponsors and ads....it helps keep up the blog and my fragile spirit! Thank you, it’s appreciated! Please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure. “Semper Fi” To All Marines!

Recipe For Outdoor Grilled Vegetables | Luv Veggies!

I have many vegan friends. And, I don’t like to disappoint them. Grilled vegetables are at the top of the chart for them, and for my family. Cooking vegetables outdoors brings in a taste that cannot be duplicated, and a simple recipe is hard to beat.

Many BBQ sites feature only ways to barbecue meat. Hey, that’s fine. But, how about considering the total meal experience. Grilling vegetables, fruits and desserts is part of that experience.

I have mentioned Chef George Hirsch in other blog posts. He was grilling vegetables, and was involved in the total meal experience, long before it was fashionable on the food channels, and before many of them hit puberty.

He grilled on a Charbroil Gas BBQ, with a modified cast iron grill, every Saturday on Public TV. Pretty sure it was the late eighties or early nineties. Now days, he publishes a free newsletter that I subscribe to and you should look into it, too.

Anyway for this post, I grilled a combination of fresh Roma tomatoes, zucchini, red and yellow peppers, asparagus and mushrooms. Get a whole bunch of each. The basic recipe is out of an old Family Circle magazine, and I will admit I took a whole lot of liberties with the recipe.

Number one: they wanted you to make a Marinara-based dipping sauce, adding onion, vinegar, Italian Seasoning and sweet roasted red peppers. I didn’t bother with it.

I like the taste of grilled veggies just the way they come off the grill. You don’t need to plunk anything on top of them, or dip them into anything. But, your tastes may be different than mine.

Get yourself a great big bowl...."Martha Stewart-recommended size". Cut up the peppers and zucchini length-wise. Halve or quarter up the tomatoes. Slice up the mushrooms. Remove stems from the asparagus.

Pour on, and toss all the veggies in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I also drizzled on a Balsamic Vinegar. It’s a super marinade and adds an awesome taste. Marinate things for about an hour or so.

I brought the gas grill up to about 400 degrees. I grilled the asparagus and zucchini on one side of the grill and put the remaining vegetables into a grill-top chef’s pan. This way I don’t lose any veggies through the grill.

The asparagus and zucchini should take only about five, six minutes per side. Put everything else in the basket except the tomatoes. Put them in at the last minute or they will turn to mush.

Toss the pan of veggies until done. It’s an eyeball thing.

The first night we ate the grilled vegetables by themselves. The second time we put them into a wrap. Both experiences were, well, just outstanding. My wife told me that the wrap thing was a notch up, though. Are you catching on?

And, hey, you can always add something to the mixed veggies for the next meal. For the meat eaters, you could add thinly-sliced steak one day, chicken the next. Use your noggin!

Ok! You have no excuse now but to fire up the barbie and fix this simple recipe for grilled vegetables outdoors.

Enjoy! Like my favorite chef and friend, George Hirsch would say: “Know your fire!”

I don’t ask that you send me 100K for my BBQ and cooking tips. But, hey, it's cool if you do! It really helps with the bills. If not, please check out my sponsors and ads....it helps keep up the blog and my fragile spirit! Thank you, it’s appreciated! Please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure. “Semper Fi” To All Marines!

 

Ways To Cook London Broil | Part Two

When I first presented ways to cook London Broil, I used Lawry’s Beef Marinade  (See Below) to tenderize and flavor, and it turned out excellent.

The super markets often label London Broil as a cut of meat. When it reality it’s a method of preparing it….like you would prepare flank steak because it can be a little hard on the jaw to chew.

Actually, the labeled London Broil thing doesn’t bother me. The first version I prepared on my blog was a roast. However, this time it was steaks.

And, these are big hummers, really big cuts of meat. Also, I just know from experience they were going to be tough, so I marinate them.

Instead of the Lawry Marinade that I used before, I substituted “McCormick’s Grill Mates Mesquite Marinade”.  (See Below) You mix the contents of the package with ¼ cup of water, and a ¼ cup of Vegetable Oil. I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead of the veggie oil. It helps immensely to breakdown the toughness. Kind of like the Lawry better though.

I have a Tupperware marinating pan (below) I use. You can use a plastic bag. Both work great!

Pour and then brush on the marinade and assure full coverage of the meat. Since any excess marinade sits at the bottom of the container, you will want to turnover, or rotate several times while you let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

When you get ready to grill, let the steak sit out at least thirty minutes prior. You will want to bring your grill up to a high setting, in the meanwhile, so you can sear the steaks.

The steaks I grilled were huge, so rather than grill them for five minutes per side, it was more like eight minutes per side to bring them up to medium rare or 130 degrees. Much longer, 160 for medium…175 for well.

Wrap your steaks in foil and let them sit for about fifteen before serving. Like flank steak you will want to slice real thin. Just more ways to fix, cook and enjoy London Broil recipes. Enjoy!

Enjoy! Like my favorite chef and friend, George Hirsch would say: “Know your fire!”

I don’t ask that you send me 100K for my BBQ and cooking tips. But, hey, it's cool if you do! It really helps with the bills. If not, please check out my sponsors and ads....it helps keep up the blog and my fragile spirit! Thank you, it’s appreciated! Please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure. “Semper Fi” To All Marines!

Beer Can Chicken | Something To Love!

I promised that I would do a beer can chicken on Twitter, on my Traeger Grill, provided I could chase down a non-suspecting chicken. Well, I ran and I ran after one, and “The Chicken Has Landed!”, and he, or she, I couldn't tell the difference, is one done dude.

Really, what the “beer can, or chicken throne, roaster” idea accomplishes (whether it is beer, or other liquid, maybe a cool white wine) is to add moisture, lots of moisture to chicken while you are barbecuing it. The results are phenomenal!

And, this has to be one of the easiest, quickest (maybe not that quick) BBQ chicken recipes out there. You are just going to love it. Other folks, like maybe your friends and family are just going to love it!

Ok, The Quicky Overview: You will want to add a quality“barbecue dry rub for chicken” and/or marinate the chicken beforehand, then insert a Chicken Throne (filled with beer, wine) into the cavity of the chicken. Barbecue it in an upright position, cooking an hour and an half, or more until the bird reaches a 190 degree internal temperature. Geez, can this really be all that hard?

It's been pointed out to me by very reputable sources (medical folks that I trust) to use a chicken throne instead of a beer can  for health reasons.  Hey, you can use the brew, but: the aluminum can and paint on the can, combined with heat, may cause problems to your health, big time.

So what-to-do, what-to-do? Get a chicken throne like below! Pour some beer or cool wine into the holder, but don't fill it up all the way because a lot of liquid will be coming out of the chicken and you don't want a lot of funky things falling all over your cool grill.

So, now you have lot's of brew, wine left. Geez, what are you going to do with it?  

Alright, you paid attention to some advice for once in your life and got happily involved with a quality chicken throne...what's next?  You have to make sure the throne will fit into the cavity. In other words, get a big enough chicken that has a big enough cavity, dude!

Prepare your "love-of-your-life chicken", maybe around five pounds or larger, by cleaning out the cavity, removing giblets, neck and toe nails. Cut off excess fat and wash the poor thing with cold water. Make sure you pat-dry the entire chicken.

Next, you can marinate and/or add a Rub to the chicken. But, what I did in this particular cooking session is rub extra virgin olive oil on the outside of the chicken, and into the cavity and then I applied the “Rub” ( I listed tons of them at the end of the post).

If you want to marinate it, I highly recommend Catalina Dressing. Pour it generously over the bird, into the cavity. Put it in the fridge over night. Put it in a Tupperware container (see below).

For this session I used a generous amount of  Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic Rub. You can use any Rub you want. Make sure you apply plenty of Rub into the cavity. Rub it in with your hand and then sprinkle again, but don’t rub it in this time.

You can easily use a gas or charcoal grill and get excellent results. However, I barbecued the chicken on my Traeger Grill. I have a built in pan that eliminates the dripping from the grill and runs them into a bucket.

On the Traeger, I ran the grill on High for about ten minutes and adjusted it down to Medium, or 325 degrees. How long do you cook, barbecue chicken on a gas grill? The same amount of time. On a gas grill, cook on indirect heat...light one burner and cook on the other with the hood down on medium heat.

With charcoal, you want a 3-zone split fire. If you don’t know what that is, leave a comment on my blog post here and I will answer A.S.A.P, it will save you from having to do a huge cleanup job afterwards.

Cooking time is about one hour and forty-five minutes or 190 degrees on the Traeger for as big a chicken as I did. Make sure you have reached the 190 degree mark.

Using a Chicken Rack, Throne, Vertical Chicken Roaster makes thing simpler. You can purchase one here that will get excellent results for you.



I used a cherry flavored wood pellet when barbecuing. I like the fruit flavor.

I also baked four potatoes while I barbecued the chicken, and for the same length of time. Rubbed them with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled Kosher Salt on them and then wrapped them in foil.

With very little effort on your part you can follow a simple formula for a super, you made it, Beer Can Chicken  that impresses family and friends...and you!

Enjoy! Like my favorite chef and friend, George Hirsch would say: “Know your fire!”

I don’t ask that you send me 100K for my BBQ and cooking tips. But, hey, it's cool if you do! It really helps with the bills. If not, please check out my sponsors and ads....it helps keep up the blog and my fragile spirit! Thank you, it’s appreciated! Please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure. “Semper Fi” To All Marines!

Apple Valley Westside BBQ

In Oregon, there's not an over abundance of BBQ places. And, the last place I would expect to see one is in rural Hood River, Oregon.

Yes, maybe in downtown Hood River one of the hottest wind surfing places on the planet, but not way out of town, incorporated with the 19th hole on a golf course that is way, way out of the mainstream.

The next thing that you might not expect is: “It was pretty darn good”!

My wife, our puppy and I were touring the country-side. There are wineries, gift shops and a lot of scenic country to see, in and around Hood River. We found out about the BBQ spot while visiting a rural country store.

We both ordered meat plates, combined with two sides. My wife ordered, pulled pork, and chicken with baked beans & cornbread as sides. I ordered pulled pork and brisket, with beans & cornbread salad. They were out of the salad, so I ended up with fries.

Everything was excellent, except I told them not to put any sauce on our meat, to put it on the side, and I guess they didn’t hear me. We are not particularly sauce-loving people.

Anyway, I wish them the best of luck! They are great people and we will find our way back there again.

Located at the Hood River Golf & Country Club 1850 Country Club Road Hood River, OR 97031

Enjoy! Like my favorite chef and friend, George Hirsch would say: “Know your fire!”

I don’t ask that you send me 100K for my BBQ and cooking tips. But, hey, it's cool if you do! It really helps with the bills. If not, please check out my sponsors and ads....it helps keep up the blog and my fragile spirit! Thank you, it’s appreciated! Please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure. “Semper Fi” To All Marines!

Grilled Baked Potatoes | Yum Yum!

One of the great pleasures in life can be baked potatoes, especially when grilled on the barbecue.

In this grill session, I started out with six medium size Russet Potatoes. However, you can use Red Potatoes, Yukon, Sweet, or any type you want, even a combo.

I prefer to microwave until just about done. You don’t want them to turn out all shriveled-up. You want them fairly firm. After microwaving, they are stored in the fridge the day before I want to grill them.

By putting them in the refrigerator overnight it firms them up even more, and then I cut them up length-wise so I have two halves. Next, apply a generous amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the potatoes, and then sprinkled on a nice spice.

Hey, you can use any spice you want! To start maybe something like Emeril’s Original Essence (See Below). There’s no rules, you can apply a dry BBQ rub, or just salt and pepper. Try them sprinkled with dill and garlic granules.

You can quarter, or cut them into eights for french fries. And , you don’t necessarily have to cut the potatoes length-wise. You can slice them up into chip-size. But, make sure you don’t cut them so small that they fall through the grill.

Turn the gas grill on to medium heat. On a charcoal grill, you may want to push the coals to one side of the grill and cook on the other side. When up to temperature bake ten minutes, or a tad bit longer, on both sides.

Make sure you rotate the positions of the potatoes on the grill so that they cook evenly. Also, you should end up getting some beautiful grill marks.

If you leave them halved, they can be mashed up, you can add butter, or sour cream & chives, or sprinkle on a nice Parmesan cheese.

Grilled baked potatoes are a blast. They are unique! You will impress family and friends with your grilling skills. And, of course, cooking anything outdoors just makes it taste better.

Enjoy! Like my favorite chef and friend, George Hirsch would say: “Know your fire!”

I don’t ask that you send me 100K for my BBQ and cooking tips. But, hey, it's cool if you do! It really helps with the bills. If not, please check out my sponsors and ads....it helps keep up the blog and my fragile spirit! Thank you, it’s appreciated! Please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure. “Semper Fi” To All Marines!