Patio Daddio BBQ - Musings of barbecue, cooking, and life -- served hot, fresh and saucy

This recipe is perfect for summer outdoor entertaining. It's simple, but the result is a beautiful and somewhat mysterious (in a good way) blend of light citrus and spices that is a welcome departure from your typical grilled chicken. You can serve it cut into pieces on the bone or shred it for some killer chicken tacos. It's traditionally served with grilled green onions, and I threw in some fire-roasted jalapenos and limes.

Ingredients
1 whole Chicken (about 5 lbs), rinsed, patted dry, and spatchcocked/butterflied
2 cups Sunny D® Tangy Original
1 Tbsp Kosher salt
1 bunch Green onions (optional)
2 whole Limes (optional)
2 tsp Sugar (if using limes)
2 whole Jalapenos (optional)

Wet Rub
8 whole Allspice berries (or 1/4 tsp ground)
2 Tbsp Red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tbsp whole Mexican oregano, dried
1 Tbsp Garlic salt
2 tsp Chili powder (I used Gebhardt's)
1 tsp Cumin seed (or 1/2 tsp ground)
1 tsp Black peppercorns (or 1/2 tsp ground)
1 tsp Ground ancho chile
1/2 tsp Ground chile de Arbol (or cayenne)
1/4 tsp Ground coriander
1/8 tsp Ground smoked paprika
1/8 tsp Ground cinnamon

Method
Put the chicken in a gallon zip-top bag and add the Sunny D® and salt. Seal the bag while removing the excess air. Slosh the bag gently to combine. Put the bag in a lipped baking dish or sheet pan (to catch any leaks) and refrigerate six hours, or preferably overnight.

About 90 minutes before you want to serve, start your grill and prepare for indirect cooking over medium heat (300-350º).

While the grill is starting, make the wet rub. Combine the allspice berries, oregano, cumin seeds, and peppercorns in a spice grinder, grind fine, and pour into a small mixing bowl. Add the remaining wet rub ingredients to the bowl, whisk/stir well to combine, set aside.

Remove the chicken from the marinade, rinse well with cold water, and pat dry with paper towels. Smear the entire outside of the chicken on both sides with the wet rub.



Clean and dry the onions, jalapenos and limes. Trim the ends of the onions. Halve the limes and sprinkle the cut sides with sugar.



Grill the chicken indirect until the internal temperature in the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165º (about 60-75 minutes).

Just before the chicken is done grill the onions, limes and jalapenos on the direct heat side of the grill until each is nicely roasted, set aside.



When the chicken reaches 165º in the thigh, remove it from the grill, let rest five minutes, and serve with the onions, limes, and jalapenos on the side.



Enjoy!

(Makes about 4 servings)

SABER® was formed in 2011 as a stand-alone company under W.C. Bradley, the parent company of Char-Broil®. Their sole mission was to engineer a better gas grill, so they wiped the slate clean of all preconceived notions and spent two years doing just that. The line consists of eight grills (including two built-in models) with a price range of $799 to $1699. They are distributed and sold through the independent specialty outdoor retailer channel.

I'll be very honest and say that based on my prior experience with Char-Broil products I was ambivalent about the SABER® line at first. However, that ambivalence was quickly dispensed as I opened the box and started to assemble the grill. First, the packing was so well done that it was almost a work of art. I know that may be an odd observance to some, but it really did make a great first impression. As I continued unpacking it the outstanding engineering and build quality became very apparent. They tout easy an easy 12-step assembly process that takes less than an hour and that was exactly what I experienced. I did fail to get the igniter wire positioned properly which caused a little backtracking, but that was the only bump in the road.











Here are some of the features (full specs here):

• 500 square inches of primary cooking area
• Only commercial kitchen grade non-magnetic 304 stainless steel is used (including the burner tube, infrared emiters and grates)
• Welded tubular cart and firebox frames
• Sturdy side tables (bolted through the frame)
• Separate self-contained heat zones
• Electronic ignition at each burner
• Full-size front access drawer-style drip pan
• Heavy duty locking casters
• Even pure infrared heat
• Uses up to 30% less gas than similar gas grills

OK, enough about the technicalities, let's get down to how this bad boy cooks. Infrared has been "the new cool thing" in gas grills for a few years now. I've always thought it was overblown and largely a marketing gimmick, that is until now. In short infrared grills work by using a standard gas burner to heat an emitter (glass, ceramic or metal) that sits below the grate. The heat is dispersed across the emitter and the resulting radiant heat is transmitted to the grate. In the case of the SABER® the emitter is a perforated piece of stainless steel and the grates fit on top of the perforations such that you can't even see the burners below.



Why is this important? Well, it's almost a sealed cooking surface so the drippings that would normally fall through the grate and hit the burner are vaporized on the emitter. Also, the hot air that would normally come up through the grates is vented out of the front and back of each grate so that it doesn't dry out your food. The result is efficient even cooking that produces a juicier finished product, with absolutely zero flare-ups.You can also add wood chips or pellets between the grate rails to add smoke flavor.



Infrared also allows higher cooking temperatures. How high? How does nearly 700º in about 10 minutes grab ya? High heat means better searing, and this thing sears like nobody's business! Check out this flank steak.



Because each cooking zone in independent you can cook at various temperatures side-by-side. This allows you cook more hearty and delicate foods at the same time. However in my testing there wasn't all that much difference in the heat of the zones. I set one burner to high, the next to medium and the last to low as shown below (15 minutes with the lid closed) and my temperature readings at the center of each grate were 680º, 620º, and 516º, respectively.



As you can see, the temperature gauges are woefully inaccurate, as is the case with old-school dial thermometers. The first two read over 700º and the low one read about 600º. A grill of this quality really should have more accurate gauges. That, and the fact that it's hard to cook at low temperatures are my only real complaints.

Another area where this grill shines is in ease of maintenance. I cooked on it heavily (3-5 times a week) for two months solid and really put it through its paces. The evidence of my heavy use looked like this:



I wanted to see how much effort it would take to get the grill back to near-new condition. I simply sprayed the emitters and grates with oven cleaner and let them soak in a plastic bag for a few days. I rinsed them with a hose and hit them with a steel scrubber and voila!



Pretty cool, huh? That tool comes with the grill and is what you use to scrape the grates and emitter channels between cooks.

The bottom line here is that if you're in the market for a premium gas grill without the super-premium price tag, look no further. This thing is beautiful, it's built like a tank, and it cooks like a dream. Find a local dealer and check one out in person.

Disclaimer: I was provided this grill free of charge for the purposes of this review, but the thoughts expressed are solely my own.

The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint in Ocean Springs, Mississippi was literally built from materials that Brad found by dumpster-diving and scavenging. Since then he and his sister, Brooke Lewis, have continued to build the brand, which now consists of three locations, franchises, and their own "saucery" (run by their father, Craig -- a great guy) where their sauces and rubs are made. In addition to their national awards and television appearances, they will have their own reality series on Food Network this fall.



They sent me two of their sauces to review -- Southern Sweet ShedSpred, and Spicy Southern Sweet. They tout that their sauces and marinades are "junk free", which means, as Brad puts it, "If you can’t pronounce it or read it without the help of a chemist, don’t expect to find it on our list of ingredients!" They are all-natural, gluten free, and contain no high fructose corn syrup. This is a welcome departure from the garbage that's used in too many commercial sauces these days.

Brad says that they like their barbecue sweet on the Gulf Coast, and these sauces definitely attest to that. The Southern Sweet ShedSpred (their signature sauce) is very sweet with some subtle spice notes and virtually no heat. Its somewhat thin consistency and sweetness make it seem to me like more of a glaze than a sauce, but that's really just semantics to most. If you like a sweet sauce that doesn't get in the way of the meat flavor, this one is for you.

The Spicy Southern Sweet sauce was definitely my favorite of the two. It's sweet, but it has more spice and a mild heat at the back. The added spice really helps to compliment and round out the sweetness. The consistency is just barely thicker than the Southern Sweet.

I tested the sauce on a chicken and ribs and, as you can see they provide a beautiful deep rich mahogany color. It goes on smooth and when you let it barely caramelize during the final few minutes of cooking they create wonderfully sweet and sticky finger-lickin' ribs.

I recommend these sauces to anyone who wants to bring some seriously good Southern sweetness to their barbecue. They are available at select retailers nationwide and at their online store. Gitcha some!

Of course you can also connect with them on Facebook and the Tweeter.

Disclaimer: These sauces were provided to me free of charge for review, but the thoughts are my own.

I love cucumber salads! They are a wonderfully cool and crunchy complement to just about anything from the grill, and of course they're made for ranch. This salad adds the complex sweetness of fennel and red bell pepper with the subtle spiciness of jalapenos, all roasted on the grill. A little dill brings a bright herb note to the party.

Ingredients
2 Cucumbers, peeled and sliced to 1/8"
1 bulb Fennel, halved
1 Red bell pepper
1 Jalapeno pepper
1/2 cup Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® dressing
2 tsp Chopped fresh dill

Method
Start your grill and prepare for direct and indirect cooking over medium-high heat (about 350-400º).

Roast the fennel on the indirect portion of the grill, and the peppers on the direct side. Remove the fennel when it is slightly soft and set aside on a cutting board to cool. Continue grilling the peppers turning them until they are charred on all sides. Remove the peppers to a zip-top bag, seal, and set aside to cool 15-20 minutes.

Remove the peppers from the bag and slide the skins off under running cold water. Pull out the stems, slice the peppers in half, remove the veins and seeds, and dice the pepper flesh. Combine with the cucumber in a medium mixing bowl.

Note: The heat of jalapeno peppers varies, so use more or less according your taste and heat tolerance.

Slice the fennel to 1/8" and add it, the ranch dressing, and the dill to the bowl. Stir well and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.



Serve and enjoy!

(Makes 6 servings)

Disclaimer: I'm a compensated partner of Hidden Valley®.

Italian sausage sandwiches are a classic, but they don't really lend themselves to mass production for a crowd. Sliders are all the rage these days, so I've merged the two in a way that allows simple preparation that's done entirely on the grill. This frees up your kitchen and gives you an excuse to enjoy the spring weather.

Ingredients
1 large White onion, sliced to 1/4"
12 Mini bell peppers, left whole
1 pkg (12) Pull-apart dinner rolls
3/4 cup Marinara sauce (any brand)
1 1/2 cups Shredded mozzarella cheese
1 pkg (13.5 oz) Johnsonville® Three-Cheese Italian Style Sausage

Note: You'll also need a 13x9 disposable aluminum baking pan.

Method
Start your grill and prepare for direct and indirect cooking (heat to one side) at medium heat (350-375º).

Grill the onions and peppers until they are softened and charred on both sides. Remove them from the grill and set aside.



Line the bottom of the 13"x9" disposable aluminum baking pan with parchment paper (I didn't, but should have). Slice the rolls in half horizontally and put the bottoms in the pan. Spread the marinara sauce evenly over the bottom half and sprinkle evenly with cheese. Remove the tops from the peppers and rough chop them along with the onions. Spread the pepper and onion mixture over the cheese. I added the peppers and onion during the assembly, which was dumb.

Cover the pan with foil (I didn't, but should have) and cook on the indirect side of your grill. Quickly toast the tops of the rolls over direct heat then set aside.

Quick aside: Can you tell that I didn't bring my culinary A-game that day? Oh well... We live, cook, eat, and learn.



Cook the sausage over direct heat until they reach an internal temperature of 145º.



Slice the sausage at a steep angle to 1/4" thick. Uncover the pan and arrange the slices evenly over the rolls.



Cover with the roll tops, slice, serve and enjoy!

(Makes 6 servings)

Disclaimer: I'm a member of Johnsonville's Big Taste Grillers Panel and I was provided the sausage for this recipe.

Yes folks, this is my contribution to the Peep silliness. Take some Peeps and throw in some bamboo skewers, a few Cadbury Creme Eggs, a box of graham crackers and a butane torch, and you've got yourself some Peep kabobs that quickly become smores.

This isn't so much a recipe as it is an excuse to play. I apologize for the poor pictures, but this was done on-the-fly.

Step 1: Assemble the necessary software.



Step 2: Skewer your yellow blobs of deliciousness.



Step 3: Acquire the fire and roast our little yellow friends until they are nicely caramelized and melting. They will tend to smoke and drip, so do this under a vent hood and over some foil or a sheet pan.



Ain't they purdy?

Put the gooey mass on half a graham cracker, top with a cracked Cadbury egg.



Hit it gently with the torch, top and enjoy!



That hooligan you see there is our middle daughter, Shelby (she's much more large and in charge these days -- you parents know what I mean). Her nickname is "Bling Bling", which I think speaks for itself.

Before I get into the recipe I thought I'd let you know that Grilling.com is conducting a Kingsford One Bite Challenge Sweepstakes. Share your one-bite recipe and have a chance to win a trip to Memphis In May, one of the largest and most prestigious barbecue contests in the country.

[In my best TV announcer voice] "We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress."

The base of my entry is a simplified twist on my Slammin' Salmon that I describe in the video. These canapes balance sweet, salt, bitter and umami. The succulence of the salmon, the crunch of the cucumber and the creaminess of the cream cheese offer a great blend of textures.

I always weird myself out when I try to come up with compelling foodie-sounding descriptions. I sound like some kind of Iron Chef wannabe. The bottom line is that these are really balanced and really good. Make some and you'll see. There, that's much more me!

Ingredients
1 Salmon fillet (about 2 pounds)
3/4 cup Sweet Asian chili sauce, divided
1/4 cup Hoisin sauce
2 Cucumbers, washed well
6 ounces Cream cheese, softened

Note: You'll also need a new food-safe cedar plank that's large enough to hold the fish with about an inch of margin around the edges.

Method
Soak the cedar plank in warm water for one to two hours, making sure that it stays submerged.

Combine 1/2 cup of the chili sauce and the hoisin sauce in a small bowl, whisk to combine and set aside.

Start your grill and prepare for direct cooking over medium heat (375-400º).

Remove the plank from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Place the fish on the plank, skin-side down, and brush the flesh side with a light coating of the chili sauce mixture.

Note: If the fillet has a thin tapered belly edge, fold it under so that the fish is of uniform thickness.

Put the planks on the grill grate directly over the coals/flame, close the lid, and cook 15 minutes. Brush the salmon with another light coating of the chili sauce mixture, close the lid and continue cooking until the internal temperature of the fish is 145º (10-15 minutes).

Remove the plank to a sheet pan, brush the fish with another light coating of the glaze, set aside and let cool. Once cooled, carefully remove the fish from the plank (leaving the skin), wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Note: You can prepare the salmon a day or two in advance.

Combine the remaining chili sauce and cream cheese in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Put the mixture into a gallon-size zip-top bag and seal while removing the excess air. Make an improvised (and disposable) piping bag by cutting off about 1/8" of one lower corner of the bag (or insert a standard piping tip), set aside.

Peel the cucumbers and reserve the strips of peel from one. Cut the cucumbers on a diagonal into 1/4" slices and arrange them on a large serving platter. Mince the reserved peels to use as a garnish.

Flake the salmon and put a small mound on each cucumber slice, pipe a dollup of the cream cheese mixture on each, and garnish lightly with the minced cucumber peel.



Serve and enjoy!

(Makes about 6 appetizer servings)

Traditionally (at least in America) manicotti are large ridged pasta tubes that are stuffed with a mixture of cheese, prosciutto and parsley. They are covered in a tomato sauce and baked. In my version I use a filling of Italian-style chicken sausage, a blend of five cheeses, Hidden Valley® Ranch dressing, and broccoli. I then top them with a marinara-ranch pink sauce.

This ranch-ified version of manicotti is a simple, hearty, family-friendly meal that can be prepared ahead of time. It's also a great way to get your kids to eat their broccoli, as it's cleverly hidden in the filling. The Hidden Valley® Ranch in the filling and sauce gives this twist on the traditional a subtle but welcome new flavor dimension.

Ingredients
1 pound Italian-style chicken sausage
1 1/2 cups Whole milk ricotta cheese
2 cups Frozen chopped broccoli, left frozen
1 cups Hidden Valley® Original Ranch dressing
2 cups Grated mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp Minced Italian parsley
2 cups Marinara sauce (any brand)
14 pieces Manicotti, uncooked

Method
Cook the manicotti according to the package instructions, drain, and cool in a single layer on a lightly greased sheet pan.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown the sausage. Remove from the heat, add the frozen broccoli to the pan, stir and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the sausage mixture, ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of the ranch dressing, 1 cup of the grated cheese and parsley. Combine the marinara sauce and the remaining 1/2 cup of ranch dressing in a small bowl and stir well. Pour half of the sauce into the bottom of a 13x9x2-inch baking dish (or two smaller dishes) and spread evenly.

Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a 1-inch round tip. If you don't have a piping bag, you can improvise by spooning the filling into a gallon size zip-top bag, removing the excess air and cutting off one corner to create an opening about an inch in diameter. Gently pipe the filling into one end of a pasta tube, then finish filling it from the other end. Repeat with the remaining pasta, arranging them in a single layer in the baking dish. Spoon sauce over each tube and sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over the top.

If making ahead, cover the dish or dishes with plastic wrap and foil, and refrigerate up to three days. You can also freeze for up to two months.

When ready to bake, cover the dish with foil and place in the oven for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until hot and bubbly.



Serve and enjoy!

(Makes 8 servings)

Disclaimer: I'm a compensated partner of Hidden Valley®.