Southwest Chicken Breast with Cumin Mayo

I'm a thief, kind of at least. I have been eating pork all week ( see my pulled pork post) and had a couple of turkey size chicken breast thawed out but what to do with them? There was a Southwest pork tenderloin recipe on Nibble Me This I have been wanting to try but I had chicken not pork. Oh well, is it really that big of a leap?  I did it anyways. Very quick to do if you don't count the one hour for brining that you don't have to do. Excellent results. I'm sure it's wonderful with a pork tenderloin.

Healthy Breakfast Cookies

A quick and healthy make ahead start for your morning. Great taste, soft texture with flexibility of components. And oh so easy to make.

It started when my wife went to a grade school breakfast this week and loved something call a "breakfast cookie". Call me out of touch but what is this? So Google time again, there's a recipe for everything. Yep, way too many recipes. So I let my physician training kick in to pick one.

Memphis Barbecue Sauce - A Wonderful Thing

WOW. Wonderful. Our first 10 on the rating scale. While I have swore for years that I wouldn't abandon my Gates Kansas City BBQ Sauce, it has been displaced. This would even be good on cardboard, I swear.

Pulled Pork on a Gas Grill - First results

Update version : CLICK HERE.

Remember that the name of this blog is 101 meaning a beginning ... so I'm learning here. I'm jumped off the cliff. I'm biting the bullet. I'm risking all... You get the idea. I have conquer my fear of a fatty piece of pork cooked for 5 plus hours and my fear of getting smoke rolling out of my gas grill. Simply put Pulled Pork.

Last week we were in Ann Arbor and went a local institution, Zimmerman's Road House. The pork was great but the sauce even better. I had the Memphis BBQ sauce that I believe is called "Red Rage"- their own sauce. It was sweet and tomatoie and spicy all at once. They don't sell it by the bottle although they will sell you a small container. So to try to recreate that taste, I need properly done pork. But I wimped out a few months ago and used a pork loin recipe that I have used for years. I had though about it hard but just couldn't do it then. Call it fear of fat if you wish. But it's time to MAN UP!

So, I stopped at Sam's to buy the meat. I knew they had it but I never looked closely. Well, the smallest was a two pack of 20+ lbs. This is called "Cooking For Two" for a reason.  Off to the supermarket and I had them cut me a nice 6 1/2 pound pork shoulder blade Boston roast.

Now the recipe. I away peek at CI first. A 13 year old recipe for the gas grill. Looks like a good start. I read at least 5 more recipes and many blogs. Watched a couple of YouTube videos. Many recipes used brines, some used mopping solutions. This was going to be complicated enough without those. I many add them next time I thought.  And I chargeb ahead.

My Plan:
1) Use a rub but not a brine. I followed the CI rub but added garlic and onion powder.
2) Grill set up was oblivious but CI wanted the pork in a disposable pan. I would place it under the grid to catch dripping and add water to it for moisture. But mostly I wanted to expose more surface to the smoke and heat.
3) If the smoke ran out, I would add more hickory for more smoke flavor.
4) Some removed the fat cap, some didn't. I would.
5) CI moved to an oven for the last few hours. Things were stable on the grill so I just left it on.
6) CI recommended a grill temp of 275. Others were 250 to 325. I went with the CI recommendation.
7) CI stated 5 hours cooking. Others 1 hour per lb. So I felt 6-7 max.
8) End point should be a temp of 190 according to some. CI had no temp listed.

Results: Time problems. I went 7 hours and got to 170. I had no time left so off it came. The outside 1/3 was great. The remainder is cooked and can shred but doesn't pull apart. It tastes very good but not that fall apart meat you expect.

Rating 8 Taste 9 texture 7 ease 8 time 6

Notes: I'm publishing this as a learning experience. I expect to publish a recipe next time. So in a way, these are my notes to myself.
1) Given 2 more hours it would have been fine, 9 hours total. An OK method but way long. This would be good for the beer drinkers out there.
2) CI removes the meat after 3 hours, seals and moves to an oven. This is me next time. They do a specific 2 hours, I will get a meat thermometer in there to monitor and then go to 195-200.
3) Any rub should do and no rub with just a great sauce would be fantastic.

Final note: Don't be afraid grasshopper it really is relatively simple.

No printable recipe

Tools: Gas grill with at least 2 burners. Approx. 6 inch square disposable aluminum pan, approx 6X12 disposable aluminum pan, over thermometer, lots of smoking chips

Ingredients:

1 6-8 lb Pork Shoulder (Boston rump)


The Rub
1 T black pepper
1 T white pepper
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
1 T dried oregano
2 T chili powder
2 T ground cumin
2 T table salt
2 T brown sugar
1 T sugar
4 T paprika
2 t cayenne pepper

Instruction:

1) Mix all rub components together in a container. Be sure to mix well, the brown sugar will lump.
2) Trim meat of any large cap of fat. (I want the rub and smoke to get to all the meat it can).

3) Rib a heavy coat of rub on to all surfaces of the meat. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap in both side to side and top to bottom directions. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours (up to 3 days is OK).

4) Soak 5-6 cups of smoking chips for at least 30 minutes. Several hours is better.
5) Let meat set at room temp for 30-60 minutes before grilling.

6) Set up grill. On the right remove grate and place small pan of soaked chips in far right corner. At least 3 cups of chips. Place larger aluminum pan under left grate, removing lava rocks if needed for space. Add 2 cups of water to this pan. Place oven thermometer in a spot you can see though a hole or by only partially opening the lid.
7) Turn the left burner on high and leave the other burner off. Heat until smoke is rolling well. About 20 minutes.

8) Place meat on unheated side and turn lite burner down to medium low. Balance the burner with the thermometer to maintain a 275 degree temp. I ended up on only a tiny bit off low.
9) Add more smoking chips every 1 1/2 to 2 hours to maintain some smoke.
10) Don't bother to check internal temp until about 5 hours. Cook until 195 degrees

11) Remove from grill and let set 1 hr to cool then shred and serve.

Notes: As stated in the discussion, this is about a 8-9 hour grilling time task. You could increase grill temp to 300-325 but I think that has some issues with it. Stay tuned for next version.

Grilled Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast - Quick Marinade #1

Quick, easy and very tasty. A marinaded chicken breast that can be the main course for dinner or the perfect topping for a lunch salad. We all know that skinless boneless chicken breast can be tasteless and have a hockey puck quality if not done correctly. This marinade has soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and a little salt.

This could easily be a weeknight recipe but I ended up marinading today for 90 minutes because I got busy. You can do this for 20-30 minutes if you want. Just enough time to heat, clean and oil the grill. If you brine first (not a bad idea ever with grilled skinless chicken), do not add the salt.

Italian Sausage Marinara Sauce

I did it, I finely did it. I made a good marinara sauce. This has been a downfall for me for a long time. Two things lead to this recipe. First we have three freezers... two on refrigerators and one stand freezer. I have a goal of cleaning them out of anything more than a few months old. Some needs to be tossed but some just needs to be used. Like the 1 lb pack of sweet Italian Sausage I found. What to do with it?

Last week, as I was reading some older posts on one of my favorite blogs Savory Reviews (see my blog list), I saw a "Super Quick Marinara Sauce" I saved it as a PDF and now was the time. I though even I could not louse this up. It should have been called "Simple Super Quick Marinara Sauce". Well guess what, it didn't work for me but it all worked out well.

Multigrain French Bread

A very nice multigrain bread (a Batard) that really is not a lot of work and relatively quick. Adapted from a Cooks Illustrated recipe.

I again had intentions of following a recipe but I had my reasons to run a-muck again. First I didn't want two large loafs of bread. This is Cooking for Two after all. Second I just got a new "toy" a Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch™ Nonstick Perforated French Bread Pan. And lastly I couldn't find the 7-grain hot cereal that CI used so I got Bobs Red Mill Muesli. Olive oil for butter and I didn't do the oats nor the seeds in the original recipe.

Cinnamon Honey Grilled Pork Tenderloin

This is a adaptation of an oven recipe I found at Well Seasoned, a Canadian retail site. Easy to complete in an afternoon. Brine for 1 hour, marinade for 2 hours then less than 30 minutes cooking. Very easy.

Julia Child's French Bread - Simplified

Julia Child's French Bread is the ultimate in Artist Breads. A wonderful loaf, simplified to the essentials to get it done with less fuss. While speed was not a goal, it was a total of 5 hours from start to cooling rack. The results are GREAT. Thank you Julia.

Garlic Grilled Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast

Garlic to the max in a moist grilled chicken breast.

It seems that most people have a problem with skinless boneless (slbl) chicken breast. They turn them into hockey pucks. Well in Michigan we know hockey pucks but we also know chicken breast.

I started with a simple brine of 2 cups water, 2 tablespoons table salt and 1 tablespoon sugar. I only did 30 minutes and two breasts combined gained 25 grams in weight. Not a lot but enough.

Rating 8.5 Quick easy and good.

Notes: you can do this without the brine but if your are not real careful, you will be eating garlic pucks.

Tools: Clean grill and 1 gallon zip lock bag.

Ingredients:

2 cups cool water
2 T table salt
1 T sugar
2 Skinless boneless chicken breast trimmed
Olive oil- not extra virgin
pepper
garlic-see instructions

Instructions:

1) Combine water, salt and sugar in 1 gallon zip lock bag. Mix well and place in salad bowl. Add chicken breast and refrigerate for 30 minutes minimum. Up to 2 hours if possible.

2) Preheat grill on high for at least 15 minutes. Brush grates clean and oil.

3) Pat dry breast with paper towels. Add pepper to taste on both sides and rub in. Do not add salt. Brush both sides with olive oil.

4) Place breast over high heat for 5 minutes per side.
5) While #4 mix 2 T olive oil with minced or crushed garlic. I used pre-minced due to my laziness ( 2 T) or you can crush or mice your own about 4-6 cloves.

6) After the 5 minutes per side, turn down heat to low on one side and move breast to that side with rounded side down.
7) Coat with garlic/oil mixture, cook for 2 minutes, flip and coat rounded side heavy with the garlic/oil mixture.
8) Cook until internal temp is 165 on thickest part of the breast. About 2-4 minutes.

9) Remove an let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes: Regular, non virgin olive oil has a lot better heat tolerance. You will loose some garlic on the grill grates so put on plenty.

Garlic Grilled Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast

by DrDan at 101 Cooking For Two April-4-2011

Garlic to the max in a moist grilled chicken breast. It seems that most people have a problem with skinless boneless (slbl) chicken breast. They turn them into hockey pucks. Well in Michigan we know hockey pucks but we also know chicken breast. I started with a simple brine of 2 cups water, 2 tablespoons table salt and 1 tablespoon sugar. I only did 30 minutes and two breasts combined gained 25 grams in weight. Not a lot but enough.

Ingredients

• 2 Skinless boneless chicken breast trimmed
• Brine
• 2 cups cool water
• 2 T table salt
• 1 T sugar
• Rub
• 2 T Olive oil- not extra virgin
• pepper to taste
• 4 cloves garlic

Instructions

1) Combine water, salt and sugar in 1 gallon zip lock bag. Mix well and place in salad bowl. Add chicken breast and refrigerate for 30 minutes minimum. Up to 2 hours if possible.2) Preheat grill on high for at least 15 minutes. Brush grates clean and oil. 3) Pat dry breast with paper towels. Add pepper to taste on both sides and rub in. Do not add salt. Brush both sides with olive oil.4) Place breast over high heat for 5 minutes per side.5) While #4 mix 2 T olive oil with minced or crushed garlic. I used pre-minced due to my laziness ( 2 T) or you can crush or mice your own about 4-6 cloves.6) After the 5 minutes per side, turn down heat to low on one side and move breast to that side with rounded side down.7) Coat with garlic/oil mixture, cook for 2 minutes, flip and coat rounded side heavy with the garlic/oil mixture.8) Cook until internal temp is 165 on thickest part of the breast. About 2-4 minutes.

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 50 mins Yield: 2

Updated

April 28, 2011