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So I’ve just treated myself to a new fancy pants 4 burner gas bbq with lid. No more crouching over a disposable bbq on bricks in our back garden!
Now I need your best bbq recipes to wow and delight my tastebuds. Very much omnivores in my household.
I’m sure You lot won’t disappoint!
Get some rub, a smoker box, some wood chips and a few big racks of pork ribs.
Trim and rub the ribs, then leave them overnight, this will stink your fridge out... oh well.
Then get them in the hood with the smoker box sat directly on the burners and a water pan to get avoid drying, spitz with apple juice and cider vinegar every houre or so and smoke for roughly 4-5 hours at roughly 110 degrees.
Then, about an hour before serving, baste liberally with BBQ or your choice of sauce and turn the heat up a bit to get it nice and sticky. Job's a good 'un.
Tandoori Chicken
Mix three tablespoons yoghurt with two tablespoons tandoori massala, a teaspoon each of ginger paste and garlic paste, two tablespoons lemon juice and a tablespoon of oil. Mix well.
Skin chicken leg quarters and slash the meat to the bone on the drumstick and thighs in several places with a sharp knife.
Put the chicken portions into a plastic bag and pour in the yoghurt mix. Massage the marinade well into the cuts in the meat and leave for at least two hours (preferably longer)
Start them off in the oven, and roast/bake for fifteen minutes at 180 degrees in a roasting tin.
Take them out and save the liquor that you'll now find in the bottom of the pan.
Stick the chicken pieces onto the BBQ and drizzle the reserved liquor onto the coals a few spoonfuls at a time, clamping on the lid once the flare has caught the edges of the chicken. Turn and repeat until the chicken is cooked through. You'll soon have tandoori chicken with a really good smokey flavour and caramelised edges.
Put them to keep warm once cooked and then use the hot coals to toast some packet naan breads to go with them.
The marinade also works for cubed chicken breast. Once marinaded, skewer the chunks of chicken and pack them in tight to each other to create a boti kebab. Don't precook these though, let the marinade drip off onto the coals.
Chicken thighs marinated in Thai fish sauce and soy sauce.
Chicken wings and fajita seasoning (discovery, not old el crapo) over charcoal. Dead easy and better than actual fajitas.
Or butterflied leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic.
Butterfly a leg of lamb. Mash up garlic, a few anchovies, salt n pepper in a pestle and mortar. Bung that on the lamb. Few sprigs of rosemary bung on the hot bbq. Bloody Lush.
Whole fish (Sea bass is good) on a soaked cedar plank is good. Stuff with herbs.
Also learn about direct and indirect cooking. But you are on gas so may be less of a thing.
My my mate is BBQ Ben. He does bbq demos at food events and I’ve picked up a few things from him.
These vegetarian burgers are very excellent. Mix the bits together with a knife to prevent it becoming a stodgy lump.
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-black-bean-burger-recipe
The idea of half drying the beans really works and little lumps of feta mixed through makes it super tasty
I've upped my bbq game this year with a Weber kettle BBQ. Basically it's about keeping the lid on and maintaining a steady temperature, with the food not over the coals. Like an oven, but a delicious smokey one.
Short rib of beef, rubbed with onion, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper:
Set the coals up in the 'snake method' where you light one end, and it slowly burns for around eight hours. Wood chips are added for smoke:
There are two bluetooth thermometer probes, one for the ambient temperature in the kettle, and one in the meat. Keeping within the desired zone is an art form I have yet to perfect:
When cooked, it's so soft the ribs just pull away. Notice the red 'smoke ring' at the surface. Serve with homemade coleslaw and bbq sauce
https://giphy.com/gifs/PqjMj5jsNVVF90kTl6
<p style="text-align: right;">Beer can whole chicken is always a winner.
that short rib looks lovely.</p>
Chicken thighs marinated overnight in honey, soy and garlic are dead simple but lovely.
But I still love a proper fat burger over anything else.
Maple glazed hot wings. Absolutely sensational https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/maple-glazed-hot-wings
Just slap a lump of meat, un adulterated of course on the wood fire. Anything else isn't a BBQ but is poncing about making life complicated and pretending. Bit like Zwift.
Simmer sausages in water for a few minutes to release some fat which would otherwise cause a flare and burn your banger
or
slowly cook your unpricked (!) sausages and then prick them a couple of minutes before the end to release the fat they've cooked themselves in
Chicken thighs / drumsticks, pop in a freezer bag with char Siu sauce and marinate overnight in the fridge.
BBQ indirect until chicken is cooked, brush some sauce over the chicken every so often then move over the coals last couple of minute to char the chicken.
Simmer sausages in water for a few minutes to release some fat which would otherwise cause a flare and burn your banger
With a big coiled sausage, I'll leave it soaking in apple juice, white wine or beer to rinse out some of the excess salt prior to sticking them on the grill.
Another butterfly lamb or mutton leg/shoulder recipe is with lemon juice and cumin over very hot coals. I prefer using shoulder because it's a little thinner and you can cook it more evenly and faster.
https://proqsmokers.co.uk/blogs/recipes/smoked-shotgun-shell
Made these the other week on the smoker. Absolute filth.
Pulled pork, pork ribs and beef ribs are my go to for low and slow.
https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/pork-recipes/perfect-pulled-pork-recipe/
https://amazingribs.com/best-barbecue-ribs-recipe/
Hot and fast would be a good burger or pork tenderloin.
Be mega careful to not over cook the tenderloin as they dry out very easily!
Christmas Turkey done of coals is gorgeous ..... not sure if it would be the same with that gas stuff.
If you want to keep it really simple this goes really well on chicken...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015WY9CW0?ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_5YHZSA3A3ZX77J1VFFEH
let’s have your best bbq recipes!
Start them off in the oven, and roast/bake for fifteen minutes at 180 degrees in a roasting tin.
No, no no no no
My best advice would be to cook to temp, by a fast read thermometer (thermopen or similar).
An excellent go to is the 'KellyBab' - recipe below
Another lovely option is to place a whole cream cheese out of the tub (Philadelphia or similar) and put a rub of choice (old bay is excellent) onto parchment and cook indirect/smoke for 20-30 mins and then have with bread or onto a salad.
Chicken Kebab (KellyBab)
Marinade all this together for a few hours / overnight (dont worry the oil is left behind in the marinade). Make into a chicken kebab on 6x skewers (3 each way). Cook indirect or on a rotisserie and then finish off over the flames to get some of the nice seared edges (add some wood in a smoker box if you want a bit of delicate smoke). Serve with flatbreads.
1.8 kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3 tbsp tomato puree
4 garlic cloves, minced
Zest and juice of 2 lemon
2 tsp onion granules
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
3 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
8 tbsp olive oil
I'm a veggie and I find that paneer kebabs work well on the bbq. Look up Dishoom's kebab recipe, it's really nice served with tamarind potatoes and a mango salad.
Garlic toast
Make garlic butter by mixing plenty of crushed garlic into softened butter.
Toast a slice of bread on one side on the BBQ. Take it off the heat an spread the butter thickly on the toasted side.
Put back on the heat until the other side is toasted and the butter soaked through.
Very good as a side dish for most food.
Beer can whole chicken is always a winner.
I've read that the beer can thing is a bit of a gimic/waste of time, and you're better off butterflying the chicken instead.
Anyway, I like the Meathead recipe book. Worth getting.
YouTube is your friend here - there are some really good channels.
"How to BBQ right" "Heath Riles BBQ" and "Meat Church" are personal faves..
My butcher was forever foisting some fancy BBQ magazine on me with all sorts of celebs at their poncy outdoor kitchens for hours on end. I want my meat and I want it NOW.
Having moved house a year ago I bought a wood pellet BBQ. It can do beef brisket or pork shoulder long slow and smoky, I can bung a big lump of meat in it and set up from my phone to follow a recipe, heat goes up, goes down, super-smoke for 10 mins, etc...
It's brilliant, you can also sear a steak or cook burgers.
It was £1,200 but well worth it, it'd probably be more now!
Edit to add it's a Traeger Ironwood 650 WiFi Pellet Grill.
I am pretty grumpy as it happens, but you've just described a twelve hundred pound contained fire as amazing.
Sorry, with wifi.
Well I can feed 30 to 40 people with it.
Oh and brilliant not amazing!
Chicken's rubbish on a BBQ tbh.
Lamb / Beef / Venison / Pork (especially belly) / home-made burgers / sausages. (Then veg - sweetcorn / peppers etc).
Chicken's rubbish because it A) doesn't taste as good as any of the above and B) requires *constant* attention to do right.
Was going to mention butterflied leg of lamb (rosemary / mint / garlic / black pepper) but @thDTs beat me to it 🙂
Oh, and no sauces you can't make yourself.
Oh and brilliant not amazing!
Fair point! Sorry, I'm grumpy and inaccurate.
I can make my own bbq sauce but am lazy so just buy the followings from Chinese supermarket. They are good otherwise I won't spend a penny on them.
Mama Sita's Fiery Labuyo Barbeque Marinade (bottle) - This is a good Filipino bbq marinade and my current favorite. Good for chicken and pork. It is Not fiery hot for me but just good enough. But then I can tolerate Tabasco or Dunn's River Jamaican-style hot sauce with no effect.
Kikkoman teriyaki sauce - Not spicy. Standard stuff and good for chicken or pork.
Lee Kum Kee char siu sauce - Not spicy and good for pork and acceptable or chicken.
Tried various Korean bbq sauce brands but nothing impressed me yet (most are rather similar to Kikkoman teriyaki sauce but below the taste standard for me IMO)
Also tried various Jamaican-Jerk seasoning brands but not found one that I like yet.
The winner for me is Mama Sita bbq marinate. Try it and you will be impressed.
p/s: If you use Mama Sita bbq marinate all you need to do is to coat the meat with the sauce. No need to drown the meat with the entire bottle of sauce. A bottle can easily marinate at least 4 packs of chicken wings/thighs.
Nobody’s mentioned onions yet!
super simple cook straight on the coals. Fold tin foil to double thickness. Onion skin and all inside and wrap foil round. Stick on top of coals. Never bothered timing really but out on ten mins before anything else so maybe 20-30mins in there and super caramelised melty onions.
taste good just like that but a wee bit of oil can go in foil too. Or jazz up and cut top off onion and some honey squeezed on top.
Chicken’s rubbish on a BBQ tbh.
Chicken's great on a BBQ. Butterfly it, tie or skewer the legs to the bird to keep it as a single mass, decent rub then cook off direct heat in a closed kettle. When it's basically done move it over to the direct heat to crisp up the skin a bit more (although it'll already be pretty crisp).
Jerk chicken drumsticks are also fantastic. Or a tandoori. Loads of decent chicken BBQ recipes.
Chicken’s rubbish because it A) doesn’t taste as good as any of the above and B) requires *constant* attention to do right
Nope chicken is easy to cook on a BBQ.and tastes great if you add a rub or marinade.
Use meat probe and cook indirect before moving over to the coals for last minute.
