Tag: recipe

By Posted on Posted in Recipes, Smoked Goodness No Comments

Was it beef or was it venison?  I don’t know but it was good.  Some people said it was venison and some beef, and I have to tell you sometimes I wanted it to be venison and sometimes I wanted it to be beef, but it was not labeled and for the life of me I cannot remember whether those were venison or beef steaks I cut up to make jerky.  But whatever they were they got me hooked, jerky is going to be an fascination until I can get it just right, every time in whatever flavor I want.  So there will be more jerky posts, probably even some this weekend.

I started out by cutting my steaks up into about quarter inch this pieces of meat at a 30° angle across the grain of the meat.  This was fairly easy to do and using a larger than necessary knife made it even simpler.

Jerky Rub Ingredients

Once the meat was cut I mixed together a rub as follows.

Ingredients
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c kosher salt
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground ginger

Instructions
Blend together all ingredients in a small bowl being sure to get any clumps out of the brown sugar.

Once the rub was mixed together I then rubbed the rub into the meat, this amount of rub is good for about 1 1/2 pounds of meat.

Jerky on the Smoker

I then placed it on the smoker with NO water in the water pan at 155°F for 5 hours over a blend of hickory and mesquite using my PID controlled electric smoker.  Using the propane would have probably been too moist to get good jerky and the charcoal might have been a little tricky to maintain that temperature for such a long period of time.  The electric with the PID controller is just easy.   At this point it was still a little moist in the middle but chewy and very jerky like, it was really good.

Mystery Meat Jerky

Even as mystery meat the reviews have been good, people have liked it, most importantly I liked it so I will be making more jerky and posting about it as I learn new things.

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By Posted on Posted in Grilled Goodness, Recipes 2 Comments

For some reason on the way home from work today I had an urge for some pineapple glazed grilled chicken, which was strange because I have never had pineapple glazed grilled chicken in my life.   Now I have had grilled pineapple, which I like and grilled chicken, which without variety is boring.  So I gave it a whirl and came out on the other side with a sweet, tasty and relatively quick recipe, I am going to be holding onto.

Pineapple Glazed Grilled Chicken and Pineapple on the grill

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 can of pineapple slices
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp ground dried ginger
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp brown sugar
1-2 tbsp corn starch

Instructions
Start by draining pineapple and reserving juice.  Combine juice, mustard, ginger, curry powder, cayenne, honey and brown sugar in a small pot and heat over medium to a boil, stirring constantly.  Slowly add in cornstarch until it thickens to a maple syrup consistency.  Remove from heat and set aside.  Get the grill ready, when it is at a medium/medium high temperature lube the grate with vegetable oil and start grilling the chicken.  When the chicken is about 5 minutes from done (use your own judgment), add pineapple to grill and brush with glaze.  Then brush chicken with a generous amount of glaze on both sides.  Flip pineapple and brush the other side with glaze.  Use the remaining glaze on the chicken remove both chicken and pineapple when done.  Eat chicken piled high with pineapple.

I ate mine with a healthy portion of spinach salad with mandarin oranges, grilled pineapple, bacon and raspberry vinaigrette.

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By Posted on Posted in Recipes, What's for dinner No Comments

Cooking chicken is like walking into a Jelly Belly store, you know there is potential but there are so many different choices you are not sure which one will lead you astray and that is the direction I feared I was headed tonight when I was making this chicken.  After making the wet rub, for lack of a better term, I took a taste and it was well not good.  Hoping for the best I pushed onward.  Much to my surprise the resulting chicken was not half bad, in fact I may make it again.

Now that is some good looking chicken.  Even the simplest of recipes can yield a complex result on occasion.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp melted margarine
1 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground chipotle pepper

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400ºF.  Grease a glass baking dish.  Wash chicken under cool water and pat dry with paper towels.  Set aside.  In a bowl combine all ingredients besides chicken and mix until uniform.  Spread mixture over entire surface of chicken, rubbing into the meat.  Bake for about 35-40 minutes until done.

While not my favorite chicken recipe of late, I mean its no Curried Chicken, this wasn’t half bad and we may make it again at a later date?

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By Posted on Posted in Recipes, What's for dinner No Comments

Disclaimer: Ordinarily an ordinary recipe like this would not make it to the blog, however, with the request for more variety in chicken recipes come the good and the bad.  Usually when we make Jerk Chicken in the summer or spring we use a whole chicken and go all out, it is certainly not the poor man’s variety and I will make a point to write about it this summer.

With that aside, we had another workout and cook at the same time meal tonight.  It was called Jerk not because of the process or its temperament but because of the seasoning we applied and despite its ease and lack of process and a rich marinade it was far more than edible it resembled jerk chicken and it was easy.  Besides that it tempted us with smells of the Caribbean, while we did our plyometrics.

Poor Mans Jerk Chicken and RiceIngredients
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lime juice
jerk seasoning (I got mine at Penzeys)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F.  Combine lime juice and olive oil in a glass baking dish until uniform.  Roll chicken several times in the mixture and sprinkle both sides, covering evenly with jerk seasoning.  Bake for about 50 minutes or until done, turning once.

While not nearly as delicious as the real thing, our poor man’s jerk chicken was a tasty treat with a bit of a kick in the middle of winter.

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By Posted on Posted in Recipes, What's for dinner No Comments

We are still on the chicken diet and instead of waiting after our workout tonight to prepare dinner I decided it would be nice to have dinner done at the same time were done working out.  So that is what we did, a little prep before and basting on water break and an easy but oh so tasty dish of Curry Chicken on rice was born.  Our workout last somewhere around an hour usually and as such we had pause for just long enough to throw the chicken in.

Curry Chicken on Rice

This could be love at first taste, it became apparent tonight as I ate my dinner that I have not eaten enough curry in the past and will have to include this in my diet in an increasing fashion in the future.  My curry love affair has been born.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1/3 c honey
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp curry powder

Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 375°F.  Place butter in a glass baking dish and heat until melted.  Add honey, mustard and curry powder to melted butter and mix thoroughly.   Add chicken and roll in curry mixture several times.  Cook for 50 minute basting frequently.  Serve over hot rice and smother with curry mixture left over in the baking dish.

I used a cheap curry I had purchased at the grocery store and will be looking next time I am at the spice shop at the variety of curries they have available.  Also of note I made the rice as usual in my rice cooker and allowed it to warm once it was complete.

This might not be as low fat as other chicken dishes but at about 350 calories a serving (did a little math) I’ll take it, its good enough for me, besides what is the point of working out if you can’t eat more?

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