Now we’re cooking with gas

We got ourselves a little gas grill. We have just enough space out on our (cement and metal) balcony for cookout action. I mixed up some barbecue sauce, and provided cooking tips and side dishes – BN manned the grill.

I looked through my past issues of Cook’s Illustrated to find a recipe for a quick barbecue glaze. There were several options with different types of flavors so I’m going to have to try those at some point. This is the one we tried:

Quick Barbecue Glaze (Makes about 1/2 cups, enough to glaze 4-1/2 lbs chicken)
From Cook’s Illustrated, Sept/Oct 2008

1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 T soy sauce
2 T cider vinegar
2 T Dijon  mustard
2 medium garlic cloves, crushed in a press
1-1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (I omitted this)

The recipe calls to blend the sauce in a food processor, but that sounded more like a mess than a convenience, so I just whisked the ingredients together. I reserved half of the sauce and heated it to serve along side the chicken.

We took cooking tips from another issue of Cook’s, July/Aug 08, brined the chicken pieces (we used thighs) by soaking them in salt water. On the grill, cook the rinsed and dried chicken over a high heat first, to lightly brown the exterior. Then lower the heat (for charcoal grilling, they recommend piling the coals on one side to create a hot area and a cooler area) and cook, covered, until almost done. Then raise the heat again and brush the chicken with glaze as you are cooking and turning it. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes and serve.

At the farmer’s market we had purchased some fresh sweet onions, which were exactly half-way between a green onion or scallion and a regular white onion. I cut them in half the long way and strung them together into a raft with bamboo skewers. (Soak the skewers in water to keep them from burning on the grill.) I misted them with olive oil and sprinkled with salt – they took on a wonderful sweet, smoky flavor and were a great complement to the spicy chicken and Caesar salad that I served on the side.

We enjoyed this meal so much that we cooked it again the next night.