Adobo Chicken Salad

I've found a great Filipino restaurant near me, so I've been hooked on adobo chicken. Figured why not give it a try on the grill. Another thing that the wife and I have been digging is the salad from Chipotle and Qdoba - basically rice, bean, meat, and romaine lettuce. This is my attempt to do both which works surprisingly well. Rich, salty, and vinegary chicken with the sweet grilled onions and corns. Add to that the crunchy romaine and the satisfying rice and you got a great summer meal.

Grilled Chicken Adobo Salad
Ingredients
Chicken thighs rinsed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp oyster sauce
6 cloves garlic crushed
romaine lettuce sliced into bite sized pieces
4 ears sweet corn shucked
2 vidalia onions sliced 1 inch horizontally
Peanut Oil
Salt and White Pepper
Cooked white Asian rice (or short grain)

1) Combine chicken, garlic, soy, vinegar, and oyster sauce in a ziploc bag. Marinate at least an hour.
2) Set up three zones on your grill if you can. One Medium heat, one low heat, and one off zone. On a clean grill over medium heat, rub grates with some oil to prevent sticking.
3) Coat corn in oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium part of grill until corn gets lightly charred - nice and browned, but not completely blackened. About 5-7 minutes with frequent turning. Remove from grill and remove kernels.
4) Toss onions with peanut oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook on the medium part of the grill. About 5-7 minutes until it's soft and sweet. You may need to use a vegetable grill grate to make sure it doesn't fall through the grates. Remove and keep with the corn.
5) Take chicken out of the marinade and pat chicken down with some paper towels. Place skin side down. Reduce marinate down 80-90%. Reserve.
6) Be careful to watch for flare ups and don't move it otherwise you won't get the nice grill marks.
7) After 7-10 minutes, flip the chicken over. You may need to move the chicken off to a low zone if it's burning up to quick. The key is to really watch the grill and chicken constantly to make sure you have control.
8) Cook for probably another 5-7 minutes but keep checking. I was doing the poke test to check if the chicken was done, but you could probably use a thermometer. Thighs should be about 170F or if you push the meat it should be slightly firm to the touch - not squishy. Another check is if you pick the chicken up the juices should run clear - if there's any blood throw it back on the grill. Chicken skin should be crispy.
9) When finished take the chicken out and drop in the reduced marinade skin side up. Let it sit for 3 minutes.
10) Add lettuce to the onions and corn. Shred chicken meat and add to the salad. Drizzle the marinade over. Serve on top of cooked white rice. Buono appetito!

Grilled Rosemary, Garlic, and Lemon Chicken

I recently hooked up my new grill and I've been having a blast grilling everything under the sun. My recent conquest has been whole chicken on the grill and this dish just just kicked so much ars. Smoky, garlicky, and bright from the lemon, but the most important aspect to cooking chicken is it should be cooked through, but still juicy. One tip I learned is keep the breastbone in as it kept the meat incredibly juicy. I served these with a side salad and some grilled potatoes (baked them 40 mins, then sliced em up and finished on the grill to get em nice and crispy) served with some bravas sauce and alioli. So eff'n good and perfect outdoor food weather. Apologies for the pictures - need to clean my droid lens every time I take a picture.

Grilled Rosemary, Garlic, and Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
1 whole organic chicken
4 sprigs Rosemary
3 lemons juiced
10 cloves crushed garlic
sea salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil

1) Remove chicken backbone and butterfly - rinse. Take chicken and let marinate in lemons, garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt and pepper for at least a 1/2 hour.
2) Set up three zones on your grill if you can. One Medium heat, one low heat, and one off zone. On a clean grill over medium heat, rub grates with some oil to prevent sticking.
3) Take chicken out of the marinade and pat chicken down with some paper towels. Place skin side down.
4) Be careful to watch for flare ups and don't move it otherwise you won't get the nice grill marks.
5) After 7-10 minutes, flip the chicken over. You may need to move the chicken off to a low zone if it's burning up to quick. The key is to really watch the grill and chicken constantly to make sure you have control.
6) Cook for probably another 10-15 minutes but keep checking. I was doing the poke test to check if the chicken was done, but you could probably use a thermometer. Legs should be about 170F or if you push the meat it should be slightly firm to the touch - not squishy. Another check is if you pick the chicken up the juices should run clear - if there's any blood throw it back on the grill.
7) When finished take the chicken out, add more olive oil and lemon. This is a real powerfully flavored dish - bright from the lemon, rich from the olive oil, and the charred smoky skin tastes delicious.

Ribs

After a whole day of Guitar Hero with friends, it's nice to pause for a bit and munch on some slow cooked ribs.

4 hours in a 275 degree F oven = fall off the bone goodness.
I didn't have time to make my usual dry rub, so the next best thing I could think of was to pick up Adobo seasoning.
That and a generous amout of freshly ground black pepper rubbed into the ribs.
Lay it on a silpat and into the oven it went.

I covered it with aluminum foil for the first 2 1/2 hours. Then uncovered for the remaining 90 minutes.
Basting twice. Once when removing cover, and one more time 45 minutes left.

Daisy May's BBQ USA - Review

Intro
Daisy May's BBQ USA - Highly Recommended
623 11th Ave, New York 10036
At 46th St
New York, NY
Phone: (212) 977-1500

I've been wanting to check out Daisy May's for a while, but never found a reason to head up there. This Saturday the fellas decided to go out for Lord Fluffernutter's birthday and man was it a great idea. Great times and as usual way too much food - 3 dudes and 2 dudettes worked on 15 pounds of pig and yes we finished it - kinda ridiculous, hella delicious, and as usual hella fun. Definitely a go-to BBQ spot from now on and the South Carolina style mustard based BBQ is a great contrast to Hill Country's Texas style BBQ - my other go to BBQ joint. Overall, I give the restaurant a 90/100.

Our Menu
Big Pig Gig Menu (half pig - 15 pounds)
1) BBQ Pig **
2) Creamed Spinach ***
3) Creamy Cole Slaw **
4) Baked Beans with burnt ends **
5) Macaroni and Cheese **

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) Incredibly juicy, tender, and flavorful pig with the perfect amount of sweet smoke. Pretty spectacular stuff. Every single piece was delicious with the cheek being incredibly flavorful and tender. This would have been a completely WTF moment if the skin was edible - too much chew and way too much smoke...about 6 hours according to the pitmaster which seemed light to me. Even the mustard based BBQ sauce was a perfect complement to the pig. Great with the texas toast.
2) The best creamed spinach I've ever had - definite WTF moment. Huge flavor and perfect texture - maybe a hint of parmiggiano reggiano? Not super salty or too creamy like most joints - really the perfect side.
3) Another great side in the creamy cole slaw. Mustard based, creamy, with some nice crunch. Great flavor again and necessary to cut the fatty pork down.
4) Great baked beans with the burnt ends. Nice texture on the beans and the right amount of sweetness.
5) I don't get it, but most joints have terrible mac n cheese - terrible texture, no flavor, or too dry. Like all the other sides, this was spot on. Great flavor, real nice texture, and nice creamy sauce. One of the best mac n cheese's I've had in recent memory.

Overall Restaurant Experience (90/100)

• Food 9.0/10 – This place really reminds of Porterhouse - instead taking the BBQ concept and adding phenomenal sides. Great stuff and the piggie kicked massive ars.
  
• Service 8.0/10 – Food came out super quick and the pitmaster brought out the food. He was extremely nice and very cool.
  
• Atmosphere 8.5/10 – Surprisingly a much tinier place that I thought. Seats maybe about 40-50. Very old school picnic style place with the checkered table cloths. The whole place is covered in wood much like Hill Country. More blond wood all around though. Place was pretty busy with lots of couples - older and younger. There was also another group of younger guys. Had reservations for 6pm on a Saturday and were seated immediately.
  
• Price 8.4/10 – $120 for me and the wife which was pricey, but definitely worth it. Me and the wife were extremely happy.
  

Closing Comments
A definite big winner for me - totally love this place and love this style of Carolina mustard based pig BBQ. 100% have to go back, but just need to find a reason to go back to the area.

BBQ Birthday Bash for Jon and Rob

Stopped by Jon and Rob's place for their excellent BBQ Birthday Bash...bub. Great times and the food was delicious. This year's theme were meats around the world and they kicked some massive ars. My faves were the tender and delicious lamb meatballs (rockin the chorizo type spices) and the ridiculous homemade hot dogs - flavorful and the best snap to em. Any who, happy birthday fellas - good times and spectacular food.

Menu

• UK Crisps
• Asian Marinated Ribs - tasted like hoisin but much flavorful and more fun (no hoisin in the marinade)
• Jerk Marinated Pork Belly
• Lamb Meatballs (tasted like Chorizo, but could have been Moroccan spices)
• Homemade Hot Dogs
• Homemade Ice Cream - Creamsicle and Vanilla Bean

Busty Barbeque

Labor Day Weekend BBQ

This past weekend, like millions of other Americans, a bunch of us buddies celebrated Labor Day with a BBQ.
But not your usual Burgers and Dogs BBQ.
We've been talking about roasting a suckling pig for years (5 years to be exact), and now we can say we did it.
Here's our little menu for Saturday and Sunday



















Saturday :
Rotisserie Roasted Suckling Pig stuffed with Garlic, Apricots, Herbs and Chorizo
Roasted Poussin stuffed with Plums, Herbs and Garlic
Foie Gras Burgers with Caramelized Onions, Apple Compote, Baby Arugula and Balsamic Glaze
Stewed Red Cabbage
Penne Pesto with Fromage Fort
Waldorf Salad with Lychees and Asian Pears
Custard Gelato (made to order)
Homemade Brownies
Homemade Pickles

Sunday :
Scrambled Eggs
Toasted Whole Grain Toast
Bacon Bits
Grilled Foie Gras
Apples and Plums

Can't escape the Brisket

I had a craving for Hill Country's Moist Beef Brisket Tuesday.
So after meetings all morning up until 3pm, I couldn't wait for that first bite into some juicy smokey beef brisket.



















Hill Country never disappoints. It's always right on with flavor and juiciness.
Damn is that some good BBQ.
Perfect pink smoke rings, super juicy and tender meats.
Guilty Pleasure.... I went again Thursday for lunch.
Yes, it's that good!

Hill Country

the real deal!

Memorial Day

Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, and Bratwursts...
That's what comes to mind during the summer holidays.




















So on this Memorial Day, I had some friends over for some good 'ol backyard classics :
Hillshire bratwursts with caramelized onions, homemade salsa and chips, and a ton of beer.
Good times.

Cooking Tip : After sauteeing the onions and getting them nice and translucent, add the brats and get all that goodness cooking together.
After about 2 minutes, dump in 2 oz of your favorite beer in and mix the liquid into the onions. The steam will cook the brats and flavor them with that good beer flavor, not to mention your onions are now amazingly caramelized and also received a huge flavor injection as well.

Hill Country part III

Here are some pics I snapped yesterday.
Yes, I went back for more.
And yes, the Brisket was just as magical as it was 3 days ago...

Hill Country - Review

Intro
Hill Country - Highly Recommended
30 W 26th St, New York 10010
Btwn 5th & 6th Ave
Phone: 212-255-4544

Met up Porthos and we finally decided to make the trek to Hill Country. The press has been raving about this place, so we decided to see what the fuss was all about. This restaurant is the ultimate dudes on food joint. Great atmosphere, great service (self serve), and great food. Overall, I give the restaurant a 90/100

My Menu

1) Brisket Moist ***
2) Pork Spare Rib *
3) Kreuz Sausage Jalapeno Cheese **
4) Kreuz Sausage Regular *
5) Beer Can Game Hen *
6) White Shoepeg Corn Pudding **
7) Hot German Potato Salad *

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way
* Good
** Great
*** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) This dish was a complete what the f moment. Brisket moist in Hill Country-speak means stupidly fatty beef brisket - like 50% fat or more. Reminded me of a great pork belly with an abundance of fat encasing the flavorful meat. The perfect amount of smoke (not overly so) and great beef flavor. I've had beef brisket in the past and it's always been very dry and not that flavorful. This was the best brisket I've ever had and the best bbq'd meat I've ever had in my life. I want one right now!
2) Tasty, but a bit of a letdown after the ridiculousness of the brisket moist. Meat was nice and fatty around the back of the rib, but the winner was the narrow part of the rib. The meat had good flavor there.
3) A very tasty sausage from a famous company in Texas. Crispy casing, juicy juicy filling, and a great porkiness. The jalapeno really complemented the fatty meat and woke up the flavors a lot - made it porkier.
4) Same comments as the jalapeno sausage minus the jalapeno. Because of the lack of jalapeno, the porkiness wasn't as pronounced to me. Still a juicy flavorful sausage.
5) Game Hen cooked with a beer which made the meat nice and moist (even the breast). The flavor of the hen was pleasantly sour which I assume is from the beer as well. Again, perfect smoke that enhances the flavor of the meat without overpowering it.
6) Awesome corn pudding. Sweet fresh corn that had a nice soufflé'd, custardy texture.
7) Warmed Potato Salad with a mustard/mayo sauce that was covered in mounds of bacon. Not great, but a good side.

Overall Restaurant Experience (90/100)

• Food 9.0/10 – I've been to KC, South Carolina, and Tulsa for some delicious bbq and this definitely tops the list.
  
• Service 9.0/10 – I like to call this place "Texas Dim Sum Buffet" There are 3 stations that you can navigate to - meats, sides, drinks/desserts. You hand each station a card, they mark it and hand it back to you like dim sum. The best part is they sell the meat by the pound. So you can start with small samples (oh let's say 5 pounds of brisket moist) and go back for more if you like. You pick your own seat and everything is already there for you - paper towels (perfect for wiping your hands and face), bbq sauce, utensils and a salt/pepper combo. This place is heaven since you don't have to wait for your food, just get it yourself.
  
• Atmosphere 9.0/10 – When you first walk in, it feels like you're entering a fun house for meats. There's an attendant handing out your meal ticket and you enter through the right hand side (the left side is for exiting). Upon entering it looks like a social club or something since it's so large and everything has a construction type feel - wood tables, concrete floors, brick walls. The other thing you'll immediately be bombarded with is the country music. Now, I'm not a country music fan, but it really gets you in the mood to eat bbq. Just a great atmosphere for dudes to be loud and feast on food. We got there at 12:30pm on a Saturday and it was half empty (place is huge though).
  
• Price 8.0/10 – About $40 a head for all the food that we had including tip, beers, and Texas sweet tea. Pricey for lunch, but after you have a piece of that brisket moist - you won't care either.
  

Closing Comments
Again, the best BBQ that I've ever had. The whole time we had a ridiculous grin on our face since everything about this place was perfect for us dudes. There's even a sink near the exit with a foot pedal that operates the faucet - you can wash your hands without touching any faucet handles...BRILLIANT! Still need to visit the other BBQ joints in the city - aka Rub, Dinosaur, and Daisy May. Been to Blue Smoke and Virgil's and they can't touch this place.

Hill Country part II

Alrighty...
As Aramis posted up top, this was completely the highlight of the weekend.
Hill Country is brilliant in so many ways.

Even before talking about the beef brisket, the drinks have to be documented.
It's not cool enough that they serve a ton of Boylan's Soda, they also import Mexican Coca-Cola.
It completely tastes better because it's sweetened with real cane sugar and not the High Fructose Corn Syrup which is in every sweetened American product these days.
**Conspiracy**
[The US (yah, that's right, the whole country) switched to HFCS in the 80's to cut costs...]
In addition, the Texas Iced Tea was spectacular as well.
The sweetness and slight minty flavor of the tea really compliments smokey, fatty bbq.
Was this "new world dim sum"?
And finally, I'm going to leave the Lonestar Beer alone and not pick on it.
Let's just put it this way, some things are just better untouched.

Now, onto the Meats and Sides.
The Moist Beef Brisket was somewhat of a religious experience for me.I took one bite and knew something fantastic just happened to Aramis and I.
The meat was so tender, beefy, and had the perfect amount of smoke.
I mean it was PERFECT. You really can't ask for a better cooked bbq brisket.
The rest of the items were generally very good.

Note worthies :
The Corn Pudding and the Kreuz Sausages.

Great BBQ

Went to a great bbq this weekend. The ridiculous menu is listed below - faves included the mojitos, the empanadas, and the steak. I think there was actually more, but those Mojito's probably destroyed some brain cells. Great job Rosh and Sheevani. Going to be hard to top this...

Drinks
Mojito's
White Sangria with Guava
Red Sangria
Lots of beers, wine, alcohol

Food
Empanadas
Croquettes
Steak marinated in chimichurri sauce
Sandwiches with Prosciutto and Mozzarella
Burgers
Hot Dogs
Sausages
Fried plantain chips
Various dips, chips, and cheeses

Dartagnan's 4th of July BBQ

Our buddy Dartagnan prepared a spectacular 4th of July BBQ.
Porthos provided the Japanese beers and the amazing Japanese charcoal "Binchotan". I made quesadillas - recipes to be provided later. Good food, good friends, and good times.

Menu
-Duck breast magret
-Quail stuffed with nectarines and basil
-Potato salad with lardons
-Green bean salad
-Quesadilla traditional - pepper jack cheese and roasted poblano sauce
-Quesadilla non-traditional - gruyere cheese and caramelized onions
-Arrangement of Artisanal cheeses

BBQ Battle Washington DC

So we dudes on foods checked out the BBQ Battle in DC this past weekend. Never been to a BBQ competition before, so I was pretty pumped. I was expecting something similar to what you see on the Food Network competition shows - checking out all the competitors and tasting all the competition bbq. Too bad this was not the case.

What we experienced instead was lines, lines, lines. It was basically a street fair with a bunch of random vendors with huge lines. Crab cakes were great there, but I shouldn't be eating crab cakes at a bbq event. The bbq that I did get to eat was decent, but nothing mind blowing. The one bbq vendor that won multiple awards had lines that were at least 1 1/2 hours long. Still had a great time in beautiful DC hanging out with the dudes. Also, all the competition bbq looked and smelled phenomenal. Next time you go to a cooking competition, make sure the competitors will be sampling their own food...