Now that I have a fancy new gas grill, it was time to test the smoker capabilities. I opted to do smoked pork chops again, albeit with a simpler recipe.
I brined the pork chops for several hours in a mix of 1/4 cup of kosher salt, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 4 cups water. I then put them on the grill, along with some wood chips. My grill is a bit different, so it's not necessary to soak the wood chips. You just drop them in. There's no direct flame so they don't burn up too quickly. Anyway, using the BBQ option resulted in a temperature of 350F, which was higher than the 250-275F that is recommended. The chops cooked quickly, in about 40 minutes. They were tender and moist and tasted like a cross between regular and Canadian bacon. The smoke flavor and salt level were just about right. They were not overwhelmingly smoky. I will definitely be making these again. If I feel like being a really anal retentive BBQ geek, I'll try cooking them more slowly at the recommended temperature.
I really like the infrared cooking so far. I like my meat on the rare side, without a really charred crust, and everything I've cooked so far has come out moist, rare but not underdone, and was nice and tender.
Next up: Chicken Spiedies
Showing posts with label grill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grill. Show all posts
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
New Toy: Char-Broil Infrared Grill
OK, so I had a brief respite from my grill lust when I got the BBQ/smoker, but after a few days the gas grill lust returned. The smoker is good for the weekends, but I'm hungry and tired when I get home from work. I wanted to be able to throw some meat and veggies on the grill and eat within 30 minutes.
I got lucky on Craigslist - the full story is posted on my other blog. Suffice it to say I am now the proud owner of a brand new Char-Broil Red infrared gas grill. I like it pretty well so far. There are settings for high heat (clean/preheat) sear (for steaks, etc), grill, and BBQ/smoke.There is a U-shaped pan so grease never drips directly on the flame. That's good for me since I was always having grease flare-ups in my old mini-grill. I think the pan also serves to radiate/diffuse the heat so stuff cooks quickly and evenly. There were mixed reviews on the grill and the infrared. A lot of people really like it, and Consumer Reports gave it a high rating, but some people got lemons or were die-hard BBQ or gas grill snobs. Anyway, so far my grill isn't a lemon (knock on wood) and I'm always open to new technology, so I'm happy.
Last night I cooked some chicken breasts* and zucchini. The zucchini was a gift from the lady that sold me the grill. The chicken cooked in about 10 minutes, and the squash took 15. As it was cooking, it smelled really good, like a rotisserie chicken. That was a good sign. My old mini-grill always was pretty smoky due to the flare ups. At five minutes I took a look at it. It looked done on that side so I flipped it. At ten minutes it was done. I let it rest while the squash finished. Anyway, the chicken was really good - it was fully cooked but not charred on the outside, and it stayed very moist inside, even though I hadn't brined or marinated it. The squash was better than usual, but not perfect. I've never had much success with grilled squash. All in all, I was pretty pleased with my first attempt. I'm looking forward to cooking other stuff on it.
* this is my standard quick meal, so it's a good test.
I got lucky on Craigslist - the full story is posted on my other blog. Suffice it to say I am now the proud owner of a brand new Char-Broil Red infrared gas grill. I like it pretty well so far. There are settings for high heat (clean/preheat) sear (for steaks, etc), grill, and BBQ/smoke.There is a U-shaped pan so grease never drips directly on the flame. That's good for me since I was always having grease flare-ups in my old mini-grill. I think the pan also serves to radiate/diffuse the heat so stuff cooks quickly and evenly. There were mixed reviews on the grill and the infrared. A lot of people really like it, and Consumer Reports gave it a high rating, but some people got lemons or were die-hard BBQ or gas grill snobs. Anyway, so far my grill isn't a lemon (knock on wood) and I'm always open to new technology, so I'm happy.
Last night I cooked some chicken breasts* and zucchini. The zucchini was a gift from the lady that sold me the grill. The chicken cooked in about 10 minutes, and the squash took 15. As it was cooking, it smelled really good, like a rotisserie chicken. That was a good sign. My old mini-grill always was pretty smoky due to the flare ups. At five minutes I took a look at it. It looked done on that side so I flipped it. At ten minutes it was done. I let it rest while the squash finished. Anyway, the chicken was really good - it was fully cooked but not charred on the outside, and it stayed very moist inside, even though I hadn't brined or marinated it. The squash was better than usual, but not perfect. I've never had much success with grilled squash. All in all, I was pretty pleased with my first attempt. I'm looking forward to cooking other stuff on it.
* this is my standard quick meal, so it's a good test.
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