I checked out the slider set, and it’s very nice. Quality is good and it came in a very nice quality red box complete with ribbon. Very elegant! Shipping was also fast.

One problem with making your own BBQ sauce has always been collecting the wide array of ingredients you need. All sorts of spices and rubs, it can all get kind of expensive and overwhelming. This is the first sauce mix I’ve tried. It’s very easy to make, it all takes less than 10 minutes, and very tasty!

One benefit is you can make as much or as little as you’d like. No need for it to go to waste!

Invest in a meat thermometer or “temperature probe.” This is an essential tool for preparing perfectly grilled chicken. To check the internal temperature of chicken, place the thermometer into the meat where the leg and thigh come together, taking care not to touch bone.

Always grill chicken over a low to medium flame or charcoal temperature. Experiment with the setting, cooking at the highest temperature possible without flame flare-ups. Such flare-ups will cause the chicken to cook too fast, resulting in chicken that is charred on the outside, yet not fully cooked on the inside. If flare-ups occur, lift the chicken off the grill for a moment and move it to another area of the grill; reduce the flame if necessary.

Begin cooking the chicken by placing it on the grill cavity-side down. During grilling, turn the chicken three times. Turn it the first time when the skin begins to lose moisture, and the chicken becomes rigid. Turn it a second time when the juices pool in the cavity. Turn the chicken a third time when the internal temperature reaches approximately 165 degrees. Finish by cooking the chicken, cavity side up, with a higher flame to crisp the skin.

For barbecue chicken, baste with your favorite BBQ sauce before and after the last turn. Grill marks that appear as you cook the basted chicken signal that sugars in the sauce are “caramelizing,” producing the most intense flavors.

The chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees. Remove it from the grill and cut the chicken into individual pieces. Remember– grilling is an art, not a science, so it’s important to practice, practice again, and then practice some more. That’s why the experts at El Pollo Loco are so good at what they do.

If you haven’t had their salsa, it’s also highly recommended. Try the peach or pineapple if you are in the mood for something sweet, or the black bean and corn for something different. The corn salsa makes a great chicken taco topping!

Try this…

PAMA Glazed Beef Skewers

1 cup PAMA liqueur reduced to 1/2 cup
3 oz of Dr. Marinade Jerk Sauce
1 sprig of thyme
2 teaspoons of hot pepper sauce
Salt & Pepper
1 lb of flank steak
1 package of skewers

Mix the ingredients in a large bowl. Slice steak into 1/2 inch thick
strips, place strips in bowl with marinade and soak overnight.
Dip skewers in water to prevent burning and secure beef strips onto
skewers. Sprinkle with salt and pepper if desired.
Place skewers on hot grill for a several minutes on each side, and
cook to desired temperature.

For Glaze:
Add 3 oz of PAMA liqueur to the leftover marinade and reduce until
mixture turns to glaze. Pour glaze over cooked skewers.

Made from all-white chicken meat, and lightly seasoned, Chicken Grillables are perfectly “bun-sized” and cook much more quickly than regular chicken breasts. Weighing in at the “standard hamburger weight” of 1/4 lb, each chicken patty has just 140 calories and 5 grams of fat. Until you add the bacconaise of course!

With Father’s Day and July 4th grilling right around the corner, these guys decided to build a DIY Digital Meat Thermometer using a temperature sensor, an LCD, and a microcontroller.

In this video tutorial, the designers outline the process for building the DIY Digital Meat Thermometer. In order to speed up the measured reading, they estimate what the transfer function of the system is and use a predictive filter to “guess” what the actual temperature is at the tip of our probe.

The concepts, and the some of the intuition behind it, are presented in the video tutorial. The meat thermometer can be used with a computer to give a live temperature graph, or be used with just the LCD. Whether it’s a fathers day gift, or just a fun weekend project, this little gadget is sure to draw some attention at the next family cookout.

Full kit available.

Briquettes appear to be more convenient, but they aren’t that much cheaper, and they contain all sorts of unappetizing ingredients like burnt peanut shells and corn husks, not to mention fillers and binders.

In particular, I like a pure mesquite charcoal like that sold by Two Tree Products under the “Best of the West” label. When grilling, this gives you a real nice flavor, and it starts quickly.

Grand Prize is a trip for two to Steven Raichlen’s Barbecue University at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado and a Weber Genesis E320 gas grill. Other prizes include a Weber Performer charcoal grill along with a basket of Steven Raichlen tools and spices from Charcoal Companion.

Steven is looking for the next Beer-Can Chicken or Planked Salmon — an Ultimate Grilling Recipe that’s innovative, unusual, a little outrageous, but works like a dream. The recipe should reflect a high level of creativity and passion, it’s got to be delicious, other grillers will need to make it, and it must awesome.

The contest runs from April 27th to July 10th. For Official Contest Rules and Entry form on Steven’s website.

This grill has a lot of features you wouldn’t expect to find in sub $100 grill, including 24,000 BTUs, stainless burners, 446 square inches of total cooking area, and a porcelain coated top. As with most grills now days, you’ll have to provide your own propane take, usually about $40 including the propane.

Set up was super simple, less than 10 minutes. This is primarily because the cart is pretty much assembled right out of the box. This alone is probably a big feature for most people. I found the complete setup process a snap.

Cooking was good, plenty hot for typical family grilling fare. A lack of lava-rocks or ceramic briquettes might be a turn off for most people.