Chick-Fil-N

There was a sale at the local meat market this week on drums and thighs so I thought I'd use this as an opportunity for some prime grilling time. I have included a lovely shot of a crock full of the chicken bits which kind of  makes up for the last less-than-beautiful picture of the duck.

I have taken to brining all of my chicken/turkey meat before cooking it which makes it infinitely better in a few ways.

1. It is an opportunity to flavor the meat with salt, sweetness and spices.
2. It keeps the meat moist for all manners of cooking.
3. Provides an environment to kill off some bacteria that might've contaminated the meat.

Those are the three I can think of off the top of my head and probably the only ones worth mentioning at the moment.

I decided I wanted a lemony flavor, so I made up my standard brine of 1/4 cup kosher salt and 1/8 cup sugar to each quart of water used. After that I brought it to a warm heat and added some toasted coriander and peppercorn medley, a bit of dried rosemary, some garlic powder, onion bits and turmeric. I added about a half a cup of lemon juice (from the bottle, it's what I had), lemon zest would've been awesome.

I let the 10 lbs of drums/thighs sit in the cooled brine in the fridge for about 2 and a half to 3 hours. It would've been okay for even 4 hours possibly.

I wanted to add a nice sweet glaze to it as I grilled it, so I found part of a jar of yellow mustard left, Dijon would've nicer, but I didn't have it. So, I added about a quarter cup of white balsamic vinegar to it, along with nearly half a cup of lemon juice, a quarter cup of Bragg's liquid aminos, and roughly a 1/2 cup of honey. For spices I used white pepper, pepper medley (black, green, white, pink), paprika, turmeric, coriander, and garlic powder. I think that was it. I really wish I could remember better when I'm putting things together off the cuff.

Initially I basted the the chicken once and let it sit for about 15ish minutes skin side down running on a slow grill of about 300 degrees. After that I basted again, turned it, basted the cooked side and let some grill marks develop for about 10 minutes, then continued turning and basting off and on for about 20-30 more minutes. I'm not even a thigh gal and I liked it. Chicken Lickin' good.

Duck Season!

Disclaimer: The following pictures will NOT be pretty. Food is supposed to be attractive, but sometimes, it's just not, even if it still tastes good. You've been warned.

It isn't to say that I don't like duck, I like Donald Duck, Darkwing Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Daisy Duck, and even Daffy Duck (he's hard to like tho). But I don't think I can like duck dinner. Admittedly, this is an Ugly Duck, but it smelled really, really good. I had my first foray into using a smoker the other day, using some hickory and guidance from my brother, we built up a toasty bed of coals and let it do its thing. I just cannot get into the...how to describe it, deepness of the meat, it is rich to be sure, but heavier than I'm used to, since I'm mainly a chicken gal.  My male family members loved it. As for me, if I had to go on this one experience, I would never eat duck again. It didn't help that all I could think of while preparing it was the cute little Yellow Duck with the garbled voice from the Tom & Jerry cartoons where he thought Tom was his "Momma".  "If my Momma wants a duck dinner, my Momma's gonna Get a duck dinner." Gah!

But as the addage goes, You never know unless you try. And I always say it is good to try new things, or at the very least, as in this case, enlightening if not "good".