If you’re a regular reader and you also own the Everybody Grills! cookbook, you may recognize the author of this recipe by his tongue-in-cheek moniker: “MasturK”

No he’s not a rap artist!  He’s Keven White, the student pastor of Youngers Creek Baptist Church.  And he’s one “heven-of a cook.”

Happy Grilling!

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Hiya CB,

So you’ve been asking us what’s on our grill. Well here’s an original recipe from an idea I had after reading all the various posts about fatties.  (Though I suspect it has been thought of before, I just haven’t heard of it.) I call it a Kentucky Farm Roll.

After checking into the most common and favorite foods found on a farm in KY – I came up with a recipe using those that seemed to work best and rolled them together. This might be something everyone can create and customize to their particular part of the country. I’d like to hear what people come up with!

It turned out pretty good, well, at least good enough to share with your readers.

Kevin White
Student Pastor
Youngers Creek Baptist Church

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MasturK’s Kentucky Farm Roll

MasturK's Kentucky Farm Roll resting - doesn't that crisp bacon look DEE-LISH-US?

Ingredients:
1 Lb Ground Beef
1 Lb Breakfast Sausage
2 Chicken Breast Filets (boneless, skinless)
8 Strips of Bacon

Hardware:
10” x 15” baking pan (lipped cookie sheet)
Aluminum foil
Wax paper
Rolling pin
Meat tenderizer (flat faced)

Directions:
Line the baking sheet with wax paper and spread the ground beef out with your palms until it covers about 1/3 of the baking sheet. Cover with another sheet of wax paper (our plastic wrap) and roll the beef out evenly to cover the entire bottom of the baking sheet. Remove the beef by pulling the wax paper out and setting the beef “sheet” aside.

Using the sausage, repeat the previous steps until you have a sausage “sheet.” Remove the wax paper from the top of the sausage and flip it (carefully) on top of the beef “sheet.” Make sure to match the edges up evenly. Using the wax paper, lift the two meat “sheets” and place them back into the baking sheet. Set the baking sheet aside.

Using the meat tenderizer, gently flatten the chicken until it is about twice the size it used to be and thin. Add the chicken to the baking sheet leaving 2”-3” on one side of the sheets.

Tasty slices of MasturK's Kentucky Farm Roll

1. Lift one side of the wax paper and gently roll the meat over (don’t roll the wax paper in with the meat, duh.)

2. Continue to roll the meat until you reach the other end of the baking sheet.

3. On the open end of the baking sheet layer the bacon slices just overlapping each other.

4. Make sure to tuck one end under the meat.  Roll the meat “roll” taking the bacon with it as it rolls.

5. When the bacon has completely wrapped the roll place the whole thing on a baking sheet (that will fit into your smoker, aluminum foil should work too) with the ends of the bacon facing down.

Smoke it between for 3 hours at about 200-250F degrees.  Check for doneness using an instant read thermometer inserted into several spots on the roll. (Remember, there’s chicken in the center – it’s done at 165F degrees!)  When done, rest it in a pan and cover it with aluminum foil for at least 10 minutes. Trim any excess meat that has worked it’s way  out the sides. You can rationalize this as ‘quality control.’

To serve, I recommend you slice the roll at each bacon strip. (Humming “My Old Kentucky Home“ is optional during the meal.) Enjoy!

Sometimes the best laid plans are canceled.

That’s what happened to me on July 3. The intrepid public relations person for Char-Broil had cajoled the producer of the local ABC affiliate TV station to feature me in a live segment called “Grilling Tips for the 4th” scheduled to air live on the 4pm newscast last Friday, July 3rd.  She painstakingly talked me through all of the necessary elements to making a good impression. (You can believe she has her work cut out with me!) Unfortunately sometime during the night before the scheduled event the newsroom electronic equipment had a short-circuit that resulted in a fire – and the entire building was closed down.

When I arrived at 3pm Friday, a full hour ahead of schedule to ensure I was prepped and ready, the entire TV station was operating out of remote trailers – reporters and camera operators scurrying about from temporary control room to hastily rigged outdoor studio on the sidewalks and in street – cordoned off with that yellow crime scene police tape.  They were just trying to get the real news on the air.  I presented myself at the temporary news assignment desk and the fellow frowned at me.  He was polite as could be, as he explained the issue of the fire and how they were only airing reporters but I could tell by his face he was thinking “Whoa buddy – get a grip – what’s more important telling the real news or showing pictures of you grilling?”

I was canceled.  Obviously he and I have different priorities!

So there I was…sitting in my fully loaded rig with an Urban Grill and a cooler full of meat.  What to do?  I called my friends and suggested they come over to enjoy an impromptu picnic in the back-yard garden of my friend Allison.  All agreed and several brought salads, sides, etc.  I got busy setting up and grilling.  One extra benefit of cooking in a lovely garden is the availability of fresh herbs for adding flavor when cooking as well as to make appealing presentations.

The results?  Friends came together to enjoy laughter, share good food and talk about all the wonderful privileges we enjoy as citizens of this fine country.

As for the food, well – I didn’t do too poorly. See for your own self.

Grilled ribeye steaks resting before slicing for presentation.

Ribeye steaks cut into individual portions & garnished with thyme .

Grilled boneless & skinless chicken breasts - whole & in smaller portions - garnished with freshly picked rosemary & grape leaves.

Have you ever had a planned meal go “wrong” that turned out right? Share your experiences in the comment section or send me an email.

Happy Grilling!

This is a holiday week for the citizens of Canada and the United States. As with most holidays, many folks are planning family get-togethers and many attend community celebrations this weekend.  I bet by late Sunday afternoon there will be a cloud of backyard barbeque smoke covering most of North America that the weather satellites can track from space!  Wherever you go you are sure to encounter an aroma of food grilling in parks and back yards in towns, cities and the country. To inspire creativity with your menu planning I checked in with three of our celebrity chefs: Marvin Woods, Chris Koetke and Gadi Weinreich – for their thoughts on what to serve this weekend. Oh – and just for grins I added a couple of my favorites as well!

I’m thinking they have some great ideas but, if you want to check our recipe files for something ‘just right’ for your event, click on the Search Recipes tab at the top of this page.

Happy Grilling!

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Chef Marvin Woods

GRILLED PULLED CHICKEN SANDWICH

GRILLED T-BONE STEAKS WITH MAYTAG CHEESE BUTTER
AND GRILLED ROMAINE HALVES

GRILLED HEIRLOOM TOMATO SALAD

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Chef Chris Koetke

DIJON TURKEY CUTLETS

GRILLED SMOKED CHICKEN, RED ONION AND POTATO SALAD

TERIYAKI BURGERS

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Chef Gadi Weinreich

BROILED STUFFED LOBSTERS

GRILLED ALL AMERICAN CHUCK BURGER CLUB

GRILLED SHORTCAKES WITH PORT WINE MARINATED STRAWBERRIES AND MASCARPONE WHIPPED CREAM

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'CB'

CB’S EZ GARLIC-HERB CHEESBURGER

CB’S EZ HULI-HULI STYLE GRILLED CHICKEN

CB’S EZ QUICK-ROASTED WHOLE CHICKEN WITH PEACH STUFFING

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Smoked Cook.

One of the stereotypical images of the classic back yard barbeque is a cook obscured by clouds of smoke swirling about as he opens the hood or lifts the lid and utters the phrase:  “better check the meat.”

For many folks the phrase ’smoke flavor’ as it relates to grilled foods is limited to the taste of burned meat as experienced in similar scenarios in countless backyards all over. And about the only thing that gets smoked is the cook!

While grilling food over hot coals or gas flames is often associated with the taste of burned foods – that doesn’t have to be the case. When you cook meat at the high temperatures of grilling – a range between 400F – 700F degrees depending upon the technique -  there is bound to be some smoke.  At the very least you can minimize the amount of smoke produced when grilling meat over hot fires by reducing the amount of ‘useless’ fat on the meat. This useless fat adds no flavor to the meat when prepared by grilling and really only melts, drips and creates the conditions for fat flare ups and excessive smelly smoke.

Before we go too far into this discussion let’s agree on one basic principal of cooking: Fat = Flavor.  For example (to my taste) the extra lean ground beef sold these days lacks a depth of flavor, tenderness and moisture – due to the lower fat content.  One of the key criteria upon which beef steaks are graded is the amount of fat marbled in the muscle.  Oh and while I’m not going to be an advocate of eliminating fat from meat I will ‘heart’-ily agree there are good fats and not-so-good fats.  But this will not be a discussion of that topic.

When it comes to grilling meat over high heat – making choices about the amount of fat associated with the meat vs. that which is excessive to the requirements for flavor, tenderness and moisture is the responsibility of the cook. And that would be you.

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Visitors sample some Bucaneer Blends BBQ sauce.

The Char-Broil INfrared Tour headed to Kansas City, one of the nation’s BBQ capitals, this past week to attend the Skills USA event. The team shared Char-Broil’s juicy little secret with thousands of good folks who know a little bit about BBQ!

This week we will be in Milwaukee, WI visiting the music fans attending Summerfest. Put on your dancing shoes and come see us!

CLICK HERE for the 2009 Grilling Tour schedule and locations.

These days, everyone I know is looking to save a few dollars here and there  and that usually impacts the grocery shopping list.  I’ve taken to purchasing whole chickens and trimming them into parts for grilling & frying.  Or I really enjoy roasting whole chickens in The Big Easy infrared turkey fryer or on the rotisserie of my grill.

When it comes to tasty preparations I do enjoy smoked chicken and one technique of preparing a whole chicken for grilling or smoking is to ’spatchcock’ it.  That’s a term which essentially means it’s been butterflied by first removing the backbone and then opened up as shown in the picture below.

A 'spatchedcocked' chicken or turkey will cook faster.

Here are three posts that provide more information and recipes using this method to prepare poultry:

Grilled Whole Chicken Under Bricks

Smoked BBQ Chicken on a Gas Grill

Cook a 12lb turkey on your grill in 45 minutes? Spatchcock it!

Spatchcocking is a proven method of opening up the chicken, turkey or other poultry to season and cook. Cooking chicken with the bones intact does improve cooking times and flavor – and I believe it also helps to maintain moisture.  Spatchcocking works, but I have a problem with it.

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A few weeks back I wrote a post about preparing kabobs in which I suggested that meat sold at grocery stores for kabobs was often the wrong cut and thus required a lot of excessive preparation to make it work for that style of preparation.  I suggested that you use better cuts when preparing meat in this manner.  Well – no sooner said than done by yours truly. I happened to be browsing the meat counter at one of my favorite locally owned grocery stores and discovered a great price on packaged pairs of pork tenderloins.  And these weren’t pre-brined with that nasty tasting solution they use at the processing plant that (to my taste at least) reduces the flavor to a bland and somewhat institutional taste lacking in any true pork flavor characteristics.  I snapped these up and prepared them for dinner that evening.

Pork tenderloin on the "red for raw" meat NSF cutting board. Full pieces of tenderloin are thick at one end and tapered at the other - I think they look like skinned catfish.

Whenever I dress out a whole pork tenderloin it always reminds me of the way a catfish looks when it is skinned and be-headed before breading and frying it whole. (OK I am really weird, I know) Thick and round at one end and for a good 1/2 of the length of the meat, and tapering to a very thin almost flat slip at the other end – where the tendon would have connected.

TIP: Grilling pork tenderloin can be problematic for home cooks. I have witnessed many a cook try to prepare the entire piece on the grill – only to have the thin end over-cooked and inedible.  When I prepare this cut of meat on the grill I will generally dress it  to prepare the roast section, or thickest part, separately from the tapering section.  Often I will hold back the smaller ends and freeze for later as they make excellent saute meat.  Today I wanted to prepare the entire tenderloin as a demonstration of technique and, ahem, I was pretty hungry.

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Beef & Pepper Kebobs on the left, mixed veggies on the right, wrapped corn on the cob on the warming rack!

Hello CB,

Here are some pics of the meal I grilled for the family (well maybe for me but I didn’t get any complaints from the family) on Father’s Day. What a great day spent with the family and good eating prepared on the grill.

The kebobs are were just peppers, onions and steak cut into bite-size pieces. And the grilling tray contains the same. I think that I will try chicken next time. The corn was husked, buttered and lightly salted before wrapping in foil. Love the Char-Broil grill, this is the first grill that I’ve had that does cook very evenly.

- David

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Thanks for sharing your grilling menu with us David.  You are now entered into the monthly drawing  to win an autographed copy of Everybody Grills!

Do you have a pix of ‘What’s on YOUR grill this week?’ – send it my way! cb@sizzleonthegrill.com

Happy Grilling!

Sample page from your product manual

Tip – each time you turn off the propane, do so at the burner and not at the tank.

Once the burners are turned off it’s OK to turn off the fuel at the propane tank.

Why?

With the new regulators if you turn off the flow at the tank to shut your grill down, and leave on the burner controls, the next time you turn on the tank valve, even if you’ve turned off the burner controls, you might trigger the anti-flow mechanism.

The propane flow will be restricted and you may experience low heat output.

This is true for all propane fueled outdoor cookers and stoves for all manufacturers.

Here’s a post about this topic: Turning On/Off the Propane – Simple steps keep the gas flowing!

CB's EZ Baby Back Pork Ribs

Spend enough time talking barbeque with folks and sooner or later the subject of preparing ribs will come up. More often as not it’s in the form of a question along the lines of:

“How do I get my ribs to taste like (insert the name of a restaurant, bbq joint or neighbor/cousin/brother-in-law)?”

Based upon the number of folks involved in the conversation there will be, at the very least, an equal number of answers and methods proclaimed as the one-and-only-sure-fire-method.

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