Welcome to Bobby Flay Everyday!

I am not an expert. I have never even taken a class. I have no formal training - but I love to grill. I love the food off the grill and I just like the idea, the fun and the relaxation of grilling. So naturally Bobby Flay is a hero. I have his books, I watch his shows and I try out his recipes. So my idea is to grill one of Bobby's grilling recommendations everyday and see how it goes. Bobby Flay Everyday!

The idea to grill and blog is not original. Julie Powell wrote a blog that became a book and then a movie when she cooked all 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But this is not French Cooking - this is backyard, after work, tailgate, American male grilling. I grill outside in a man-cave in every kind of weather. There is no "grilling season" for me - its everyday, year-round. We will skip around through Bobby's books and TV shows and grill what we like. But grilling is more than food, its an experience - so we will also report on what music we listened to or what ball game was on while we were grilling. We will keep track of what we were drinking during the grilling and later with the food. I'll try to figure what went wrong when we fall short of Bobby's perfection and pass on any tips I know about or discover along the way. Maybe it will give others some ideas as well.

The photo is of me and two of my brother-in-laws roasting the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill last year. That's me on the far right. In real life I am a college professor and pilot. I have written 12 books, but they were all about flying - here we write about grilling. We write about Bobby Flay Everyday!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Spit-Roasted Chicken

There is hardly anything better than meat turning over a flame! This is Spit-Roasted Chicken with Grilled Lemon and Clementine Sauce from Bobby Flay Cooks American, page 126. In the photo the Chicken was about 2/3 done. It got even more golden and crispy before it came off the rotisserie. It started earlier in the day with a marinade of orange juice (the substitute for clementine), lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, cloves, thyme, kosher salt and ground black pepper. I mixed all that together and put it all in two bowls. The first bowl was just big enough to put in the whole chicken, the second I set aside to use later as a baste. The chicken sat in the marinade for about four hours. I took the grill grates off the grill and got the rotisserie motor out. When we were ready, I brought the chicken out of the marinade and got it on the stick. My set up has two skewers that come in from each side. Since it gets extremely hot, the set-screw adjustment on the skewers can only be turned using a pair of pliers. You gotta love it when pliers become a grill tool! I lit the fire and started the bird turning over the flame. I basted the chicken several times during the roasting with the marinade from the second bowl and on occasion, I would stop the rotisserie and inject the marinade right into the chicken. I kept track of the internal temperature - I was shooting for 160 degrees. When we got up to about 125, I tossed some new red potatoes into the grill basket and let them roast up with olive oil, salt, pepper and parsley. The chicken was just small enough to allow clearance for the upper grill rack. A big turkey takes up all that space and so I had never had both the rotisserie and the rack going at the same time before. Through most of the roasting the fire was set at medium with the hood closed so that the heat would be kept in like an oven. But unlike an oven, toward the end I turned up the heat to finish the chicken with a golden brown and crispy skin. The marinade and juices would drip off the turning bird and on to the grill plate below - this caused an occasional flare up of fire that further charred the chicken gave it that great off-the-grill flavor. The marinade before roasting and the marinade over the chicken and injected into the chicken while roasting really did its job. The chicken had the idea of citrus flavor - but that was not over powering. The inside was tender and juicy while the skin was crispy and smoky. Everything you see on the grill cost less that six bucks and we had plenty of chicken leftover that will surely find its way into another dish. Roasting a chicken is much more healthy than frying a chicken, so when you add it all up - healthy, cheap, great tasting and fun - this was another successful Bobby Flay grilling adventure!


Make sure to watch the YouTube video of this Spit-Roasted, Rotisserie Chicken recipe at
http://www.youtube.com/user/dvcraig1101#p/u/0/n8tNQltUE60
And check out the other Bobby Flay Everyday videos:
Super Bowl - Miami Burgers at http://www.youtube.com/user/dvcraig1101#p/u/3/UBPkkIKK99k
Valentine's Day Triple Play at http://www.youtube.com/user/dvcraig1101#p/u/1/aW9f1oW5uuE 
Introduction in the Snow at http://www.youtube.com/user/dvcraig1101#p/u/4/yqziQ7h42zo


One more thing - you must go see Dorothy's new blog on design. She has been an "after hours designer" for most of her life. She has several blogs already, but this one starts off by featuring Allegre (the sailboat). Check it out at http://designdenizen.blogspot.com/
Paul
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