Smoked Chicken with Cranberry BBQ Sauce

The title of this post should have been " Lamb with Cranberry BBQ Sauce", and it’s all my fault. On Saturday I found out that my butcher didn’t had enough lamb left…should have ordered it in advance. So that’s the reason why it’s chicken now. Anyway....

Not that I don’t like chicken, but lamb…. You know…
But the good thing is, now I could use the wood chunks “ almond/whiskey” (from Baxter's Original, see this post …and that made me smile again as soon as I realized that!

So it became smoked chicken, corn on the cob and…..scalloped potatoes! As soon as the weather gets colder that’s one of my favorite side dishes. A few years ago I bought a combi microwave oven, and that “ combi” is the big trick. Scalloped potatoes are now ready within 25 minutes!

We’re gonna start with the marinade for the chicken: in a bowl pour 1 cup olive oil, add fresh thyme leaves, black pepper, 2 tablespoons Jack Daniels (or more…) and about a tablespoon of your favorite bbq rub. Add the chicken breasts and cover it with foil. Let it marinade in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

In the meantime I prepared the scalloped potatoes. Butter a large oven dish and slice potatoes. Make layers with thin red onion slices, potatoes and crumbled soft blue cheese (or another soft cheese). In a large measuring cup you pour 2 cups of cream, some crushed garlic, fresh thyme leaves, black pepper and 2 cups of milk. Pour this over the potatoes and add some aged cheese. In a combi oven this is ready within 25 minutes, in a regular oven it takes about an hour (400F). Of course I could have done this on the Weber too but I didn’t, I’m sorry….

The Weber was clean again after the Pork Shoulder Event (that’s gonna be the next post!!) and ready for a new session.

As soon as it had reached the right temperature (around 325F) it was time to put the corn on the grill because they needed more time than the chicken. Life can be so simple sometimes!
After 10-15 minutes I added (soaked in water) a few wood chunks and the chicken went on the grill, indirect, for about 10 minutes.
Move the chicken breast to the direct heat and brush them with the cranberry bbq sauce (yes the one and only from Big Butz). Repeat this every 2 minutes, keep turning and brushing the chicken.

The corn I brushed with butter and some herbs as soon as they got off the grill. And this is the result:

Really tasty and delicious!! The chicken was moist and had a really smoked taste and with the Cranberry Sauce it was super! (Excuses for the lousy picture...)

Serve with a cold Shiraz Rosé and I promise you’ll have a delicious dinner!

Enjoy!

Meatloaf

So many recipes...so little time. Why do weekends only have two days? Who decided that anyway?? Wanna talk to that person...

Anyway, let's get started. What was on the menu last weekend? A Pork Shoulder for Pulled Pork, a meatloaf, some chicken. That was all I could manage in 2 days. The Pork will make a nice appearance later this week, and so will the chicken.
That leaves us with the meatloaf for this post. I've never made it before, so I was very curious how that would turn out. Meatloaf is not so well known here in The Netherlands, yes we do know meatballs but that's something different. Totally different!

I found a yummylicious looking recipe on the website of Noskos and because I know his recipes always work out great, I choose this one. Of course I changed the ingredients a little bit, can't resist that!

What do you need:
3 lbs minced meat (beef and pork)
2 eggs
1/3 cup Big Butz Cranberry BBQ Sauce (or another bbq sauce)
some milk (about half a 1/4 cup)
bread crumbs (I used Panko)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
dried parsley
1 tablespoon Tabasco
black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and spoon the meatloaf mixture on a foil sheet, like this:

Prepare your barbecue, and soak some wood chunks, I used plum wood chunks . Only 3 chunks and that turned out to be enough.

When the Weber had reached 350F I placed the meatloaf on the grill (indirect). After half an hour, incise the loaf (see picture) and brush it with barbecue sauce (again I used the Cranberry Sauce).

After this I also placed the baked beans (it's a recipe called Keri's Hog Apple Baked Beans and I found it here (it's the dutch version) on the Weber:

One hour later the meatloaf was ready:

Dinner is ready!! Of course this was waaay to much meatloaf for one dinner, so some went in the freezer for the next time and some I left in the fridge to eat for lunch (or breakfast...). As I said before, I served it with the baked beans (oh and btw these beans taste so good, unbelievable and definitely a keeper) and mashed potatoes with celeriac (cook them together and proceed as if you make regularly mashed potatoes. The celeriac gives it a yummy sweet taste):

Let me tell you something, this was GOOD!!

And now the question is, what do you drink with it...wine of course! A Malbec from Argentina matched perfect!

Enjoy!

Potato Salad

Everybody needs at least one good recipe for potato salad, you can't survive the summer without! Lucky me, I've got three great recipes, an "unhealthy-but-sooo-good" one, a "healthy-but-also-almost-the-best" one, and the recipe I'm giving you today (the "definitely-not-the-average-salad"). And easy does it, cook, chop and mix!
Make this a couple of hours before dinner, keep it in the fridge and I promise you this recipe is gonna be a keeper for the rest of this summer!

Usually I don't measure the ingredients, and it's not that important in this salad. A little more or less, it still will taste yummylicious, so that's good news for the uncertain cooks among us!

The only thing that is important, is your choice of potatoes. Choose potatoes that will stay firm after cooking. Boil them, with the skin on, for 25 minutes and let them cool. It's easier to peel them when they have cooled off. A trick I use is an old, clean, towel. Rub the potato and the skin will go off easy and the potatoe won't break or fall apart. Cut them into not too small cubes.
In the meantime, boil 2 eggs for 10 minutes and let them cool.

In a bowl mix half a cup of sour cream with 4 tablespoons of the best olive oil you can get, one garlic (use a garlic press), some pepper and salt and give it a few stirs, just enough to get a smooth dressing.

Then it's time to chop chop!

What do you need:

green olives, capers, shallot, another clove of garlic, fire roasted red bell pepper, parsley and the boiled eggs.

Mix all the ingredients, put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours and here is the result:

When it's dinner time, put some meat on the grill like skewered beef (recipe will follow this week so stay tuned!), steak or whatever you're in the mood for and dinner is ready!

Enjoy!

Greek Potatoes, from Cyndi Allison

If you are looking for a new recipe for potatoes (grill or oven) you really have to try this recipe. I´ve made it yesterday, and if I had the chance today, I would make it again!
A friend of mine, Cyndi Allison, had posted this recipe on her fantastic blog and I knew my barbecue would be happy with those mediterranean delicacies (and yes, me too!).

Instead of the Garlic Gold Olive Oil (it´s not available here) Cyndi described, I used olive oil and fresh garlic. Almost a whole bulb. And no, that´s not a typo.
Seasoned it with black pepper, dried parsley and some Lawry´s Seasoned Salt, added water and lemon juice.

As soon as the aluminium pan was on the grill and I had closed the lid, the party began! For one hour I enjoyed a very promising smell coming out of the vents!

As you can see, I also made planked salmon, some zucchini, and served it with a green salad.

Note: next time Í need to adjust the amount of water. I used half a cup but that was a bit too much for the amount of potatoes I had. Therefore they didn´t get a nice brown color, but the taste was fabulous!!

To make this dinner complete, there was a bottle of Chardonnay. This one was from South Africa. It was good, but a Chardonnay from Chile would have been perfect.

Thank you Cyndi!!