What are you cooking for the 4th? 15 surprising recipe ideas

Tea-smoked Grilled Chicken with Star Anise & Orange

ANOTHER MAJOR FOOD HOLIDAY IS UPON US. Everywhere, magazines, emails, friends and online food sources are sharing recipes. Seemed like a good idea to us too. So good that when we checked our archives, we found we’d done a pretty bang up job a few years ago. Unexpected dishes, like this one, chicken tea-smoked with star anise and orange, then grilled. You’ll find this and 14 other surprising recipes, from grilling to appetizers, sides (including three potato salads) and desserts, right here. Have a great, delicious 4th.

Borrowing deep fried tricks for the grill: Szechuan Buttermilk Grilled Chicken

Chicken gets a buttermilk brine and a lively spice mix—Szechuan peppercorns, cumin seeds and Korean red chile powder—then is grilled instead of frying. Recipe below.

Szechuan Buttermilk Grilled Chicken

WE LOVE FRIED CHICKEN, BUT WE DON’T DEEP FRY. Still, when I come across a particularly enticing fried chicken recipe, I’m, well, enticed. That happened last week. Spending more time than was strictly proper studying it, I decided to see what elements of the recipe could translate from deep frying to grilling. Continue reading “Borrowing deep fried tricks for the grill: Szechuan Buttermilk Grilled Chicken” →

Taming the pesky “meanwhile”: Grilled Shrimp Scampi with Orzo

For Grilled Shrimp Scampi with Orzo, the marinade for the shrimp doubles as sauce for the pasta. Recipe below.

Grilled Shrimp Scampi with Orzo

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]M[/su_dropcap]eanwhile gets tossed around rather freely in recipes. “Meanwhile, cook the pasta.” “Meanwhile, make the biscuits.” Sometimes, that’s fine—being able to multi-task is an invaluable cooking skill. But sometimes, it can feel like you’re already juggling flaming batons and someone just tossed you a running chainsaw. Continue reading “Taming the pesky “meanwhile”: Grilled Shrimp Scampi with Orzo” →

A nicely busy Sunday ends with simple, smoky goodness: Dijon Grilled Chicken Thighs

Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, garlic, tarragon and thyme and good, hot coals add up to smoky chicken thighs with a subtle European accent. Recipe below.

Dijon Grilled Chicken Thighs

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]L[/su_dropcap]ast Sunday was Father’s Day. I mention this only because last Sunday, we went to a big box hardware store to pick up some garden supplies and something I’d thought of last minute. The parking lot was jammed, busier than we’d ever seen it. Likewise the store aisles. At first, we didn’t know what was going on. Then we realized—it was dads. Continue reading “A nicely busy Sunday ends with simple, smoky goodness: Dijon Grilled Chicken Thighs” →

Smoky, understated Asian flavors: Grilled Coconut Chicken Thighs

Noisy-sounding marinade ingredients—coconut milk, lime juice, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, soy sauce—produce surprisingly subtle, delicious grilled chicken. Recipe below.

Grilled Coconut Chicken Thighs

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY. That’s a line from the Robert DeNiro film Ronin that Marion and I have made part of our lexicon. We’ve quoted it here, in fact, some years ago. I requote it now because if you think of a recipe as a map—and I do—it seems appropriate with this dish. The chicken was delicious, moist and subtly flavored, but it did not taste like the recipe sounded. Continue reading “Smoky, understated Asian flavors: Grilled Coconut Chicken Thighs” →

Seven recipes for grilling globally

Baked and Grilled Chinese Spareribs

STRAIGHT UP GRILLING—DELICIOUS, RIGHT? Smoke, seasonings, maybe a little barbecue sauce and you’re good to go. But borrow some spices, cooking techniques and flavors from various stops around the world and some wonderful things happen. Just in time for Memorial Day, the semi-official start of grilling season, here are seven globally-inspired recipes. Continue reading “Seven recipes for grilling globally” →

Cooking from the yard: Grilled Chicken with Lemon Sage Butter

Chicken is basted with butter, lemon juice and fresh sage, then cooked using both direct and indirect grilling. Recipe below.

I often say I would be a lousy farmer. And by that, I specifically mean that if I had to grow my own food, I would starve to death. Not so, Marion. Over the years, she has grown many of the foods we’ve eaten—and the flowers that have dressed the dinner table—usually in the confines of a smallish backyard. This year, though, her efforts were limited to a number of herbs, several varieties of tomatoes and some habanero peppers. So when we sat down with our guests on Labor Day, we were surprised to see just how much of our dinner had come from our backyard. Continue reading “Cooking from the yard: Grilled Chicken with Lemon Sage Butter” →

Cookina reusable cooking sheets: nonstick comes to the grill

Cookina reusable, nonstick cooking sheets make grilling, cooking and cleanup simple.

Some things are just made for grilling. Chops, steaks, slabs of eggplant. In my experience, though, fish is not. No matter how carefully I scrub the grate on my charcoal kettle or how much I oil it (and the fish itself), the delicate flesh of even comparatively sturdy fish such as salmon often sticks. So I was delighted to be introduced to Cookina reusable nonstick cooking and grilling sheets at the International Home + Housewares Show this spring. Continue reading “Cookina reusable cooking sheets: nonstick comes to the grill” →

Recipes for a delicious 4th of July

Looking for recipe ideas for your July 4th celebration? Here are a number of our favorites from the Blue Kitchen archives.

JULY 4th IS AT THE APEX OF GRILLING SEASON IN THE UNITED STATES. It’s practically written into our constitution that every household shall cook out of doors on this day. So I’m going to start this post with ideas for the meal’s centerpiece. Continue reading “Recipes for a delicious 4th of July” →

There’s a pizzeria in your yard: Grilled Pizza with Red Sauce, Sausage and Arugula

A new cookbook shows how easy it is to turn your grill into a pizza oven. Grilling gives this Pizza with Red Sauce, Sausage and Arugula a crunchy crust and a nice, slightly smoky flavor. Recipe below.

With our friends Melody and Jeremy, we are about to embark on a study of home pizza making, which has been hampered only by my dislike of turning the oven on when the weather is hot. So it was fortuitous that the other day in the mail we received a review copy of a new cookbook, Patio Pizzeria: Artisan Pizza & Flatbreads on the Grill. Continue reading “There’s a pizzeria in your yard: Grilled Pizza with Red Sauce, Sausage and Arugula” →