Chile-Lime Marinade

This was originally posted at DC's Musings February 3, 2009. A friend recently asked how I grill my tri-tip and it caused me to think of this wonderful and simple marinade.


I love to barbecue (or grill, I use the terms synonymously knowing that barbecue is a type of food in some regions and how it is prepared in others--if you have an issue then you have issues). I love to experiment. I love to experiment with food and flavor combinations for my barbecue. This weekend I hit a homerun on a new technique that many may already know, but it was new to my un-culinary-educated experience.

Some of my favorite marinades and basting liquids contain lime juice--fresh lime juice from the limes on our tree in the front yard (a "Mexican" or "Key-Lime" tree). The limes are just smaller than a golf ball with incredible flavor. Squeeze one on a piece of tri-tip or a butterflied chicken and bliss is found.

Grilled chili peppers is also one of my favorites from the outdoor cooker, I love the flavor and the spice they bring to a tortilla filled with any grilled meat. With kids the flavor and the spice can sometimes be too intense so I have had to cut back on how many, and what type, of chilies I like to use. Until Saturday.

I was listening to a radio program and the on-air expert (not Melinda Lee who I very much enjoy) was explaining how the heat in chili peppers is cut by acid and if you soak them in acid they will retain their flavors and loose much of their heat. Perfect! I like acids: citrus juices, alcohol, vinegar (in smaller doses than Leslie) and was excited to try a new technique.

Saturday afternoon to prep for my Super Bowl chili I cut the stems off and just scraped out as much of the seeds as I could in jalapeno, Anaheim and banana peppers. Then I put them in a Ziploc with the juice of two of our small Mexican limes. Making sure the juice got inside the peppers I put the bag in the cold-box overnight.
Sunday morning when I opened the bag to retrieve the peppers for roasting I was hit with the wonderful aroma of chilies and lime--it smelled fantastic. Not one to waste something that smells that good I quickly rubbed my pork loin chops with salt, pepper and house rub, placed in a bag, poured in the chili-lime juice and vacuum sealed the contents. Into the cold-box until after church to marinade.

I grilled the pork over the mesquite and without basting the flavor of the chili-lime marinade was terrific. There was little heat, but not too much, and to be able to enjoy the flavor of the chilies without worrying about the heat was a plus.
The pork, the roasted peppers and the left over chili-lime all went into the chili pot for what may have been the best SB Chili I have made in the almost 25 years I have been making it.

Try it, bag of chilies and lime juice then use to marinate chicken, pork, tri-tip, fish--you'll love it!

Arroz Con Pollo: It's Not That Hard!

UPDATE: I realize I did not put the rice on the chalk board! You will need 2 cups of rice for the "arroz" part of the dish!

I love stews and braised meats, especially once the weather dips below 73 degrees in Southern California. This past weekend when our temperatures dipped and the breeze kicked up I was hankering for dinner in a pot. Sunday I made arroz con pollo. There are many variations on this classic dish, the one below is very simple and you can easily add your own extra ingredients to change the dish to your family's tastes.

The prep for this takes about half an hour, most of it spent browning your chicken. Before you start cooking layout your chicken in a roasting pan or cookie sheet with edges so the juice doesn't get all over the counter. I use 10-12 thighs, if you prefer you can use a cut up chicken. I use thighs because I love the flavor of the meat and also all the pieces are the same size so they cook evenly. Don't go all healthy and skinless on this one, the skin renders and adds flavor to your dish, you can always pick it off when you eat it (heresy!).

With your chicken laid out season well on both sides with salt and pepper; I also sprinkle with small amount of cumin, cloves and red pepper. Leave the chicken out until room temperature before browning. Not all day, but about half hour before you are going to start cooking.

In a dutch oven or heavy bottom pot pour about a quarter cup of vegetable or canola oil, I also add about 2-3 tablespoons of butter. Put the pot on medium heat and bring to temperature. Then depending on the size of your cooking vessel place 3, 4 or 5 pieces in the oil, I always start skin side down. You do not want to crowd the pan so the chicken pieces should not be touching if possible, if it takes your 3 or 4 rounds to brown all the chicken so they can have room then take the time you will be rewarded with beautifully browned chicken.

Brown the chicken about 5 minutes and then turn and brown about 5 more minutes. When your skin/meat has a nice brown color and starting to get dark in some areas you are good. Take out the chicken and set in a dish that will hold the juices. (Here I squirt a little fresh lime juice over the chicken I just took out of the browning pot). Repeat with your remaining chicken until all your pieces are browned and in the holding dish (again each time you pull chicken out try a squirt of some fresh lime juice).

When all your chicken is finished take a look at how much oil you have left in the pot, probably more than you want, and while it is filled with flavor, you may want to pour some of it out--I always do. I discard oil until there is just enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan.

While the chicken is browning dice 1 onion, brown, red, white, your choice; and several cloves of garlic.

Once your chicken is out of the pot and your have discarded any oil you are discarding turn the heat to medium low and toss in your onions. As they begin to sweat use a spoon and scrape the bits off the bottom of the pan. When your onions get just closed to becoming browned pour in about a quarter cup of dry vermouth, or the white wine you didn't finish last night, or as my mom used to do open a new bottle, take a swig to make sure it tastes good, pour some in the pot and then some in a glass. Once you have the wine in raise the heat a bit and reduce for about 3-4 minutes.

Time for everyone to go swimming! Add your 2 cups of rice, chopped garlic and can of black beans--do not drain toss all the juices in. At this point you can add: canned tomatoes, olives, carrots, celery, diced chilis, cooked sausage, whatever you want. I go simple just rice, beans and garlic.

Once they are all in give a couple of stirs and mix everything up. Now add your chicken pieces, and pour in all the juice that is in the dish.

When the chicken is in pour in about 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth or stock (if you make your own and save this is a good time to break it out). I say about 1 1/ 2 cups because it depends on how much liquid is in the in the other ingredients you added, you want a total of about 2 cups liquid so if you add can of beans with liquid, can of tomatoes with liquid, can of olives with liquid, you will want to back down to about 1 cup of liquid maybe. But if you are going to error do so on the side of too much liquid rather than too little.

Once the liquid is in cover and bring to temperature so liquid is bubbling on the sides of the pot, a heavy simmer. Turn the heat down to a simmer and walk away for about half an hour.

You're done, arroz con pollo for dinner! You can serve from the pot or put in a casserole or on a platter with the chicken spread over the bed of rice. This feeds quite a few, the advantage in our home is that there is plenty of left overs I can bring to lunch and get jealous looks from my co-workers!

Arroz con Pollo sounds fancy, sounds difficult, sounds intimidating. But as you can see it is really simple: brown some chicken and toss in some ingredients, simmer and serve!

Stuftivus I: We Made, We Ate, Again & Again &...

Bacon Explosion Steps 1 (weave) 2 (sausage on weave) 3 (cooked bacon) 4 (rolled!)

And this is how our Saturday began! Reno Mike showed up in our kitchen about 1:30 on Saturday with some homemade KC sauce and mint juleps in jars from his accountant and ready to roll some Bacon Explosion! The sauce was sweet and sour and tasty, the roll was expertly achieved and the mint juleps...well that is another story that can be told later.

While Smokey was browning lamb to stuff into a pork loin, Reno Mike began construction of the Bacon Explosions--yes plural. His technique belied years at summer camp weaving lanyards and baskets, quickly he had constructed the first bacon lattice that would wrap the sausage and was asking for "more bacon!" Which was not a problem as described in previous post he shuttled a fifteen pound box down from Carson City.

The Bacon Explosion layers are thus:

1) Weave bacon in a tight weave (picture far left above)

2) Cover with sausage (picture 2) and apply generous amount of your favorite rub and barbecue sauce

3) Cover sausage with cooked bacon (yes bacon rolled in sausage rolled in bacon)

4) Roll the sausage to one side of the bacon weave

5) Roll the bacon weave over the sausage into a nice tight bundle (final picture)

6) Put on indirect heat (make sure you have drip pan under the Explosion!) and baste with barbecue sauce for the next couple of hours.

Serve! (Reno Mike cutting Bacon Explosion with guidance from Colleen):

But this was the capper, the piece de resistance, the grand finale...well we had dessert so it was the last bit of pork served at Stuftivus I. Prior to the Bacon Explosion Smokey and Reno Mike were pulling food off the grill and guests were dishing it as well. We had four kinds of sausage (not counting what was in the Bacon Explosion), the Tulsa Treat (barbecued bologna), pork belly, chicken, tri-tip, pork loin stuffed with lamb, brie and basil, Arrogant Bastard beans with two kinds of pork, hash brown casserole with cheese and butter, cornbread, home made bread and some stuff people described as "asparagus" and "salad", and to make sure no one went home hungry we ended with Ginger Orange Cheesecake--all of it. For the record that is ten different variations of pork. No wonder Chef Paul was calling it Pork-A-Polooza!

Picture on the left is the early grill with sausages, Tulsa Treat, chickens and tri-tip; picture on the right is the grill with the Bacon Explosions added (note the drip tray, critical!).

Smokey and Wonder Woman want to thank Reno Mike and Shelle (or Mark and Shirley) for their help and guidance, and very importantly, Anna, Brian, Brian, Chef Paul, Colleen, Dana, James, Julie, Marty and Nicole provided the great laughs, friendship and of course receptivity for everything coming off the grill! Special thanks to the little ones Blaire, Jenna and Skye for keeping themselves occupied and allow the Mamas and Papas the ability to relax and enjoy.

As for that beverage debate, Smokey weighed in...beer goes best with the Bacon Explosion and of course, you can have barbecue sauce on anything including Ginger Orange Cheesecake!

Planning will be underway soon for Stuftivus II as Reno Mike and I contemplate moving from the plains and Porkapolooza to the other three-quarters of the earth and feasting on water based food stuffs, we will have to Sea it to believe it! Stay tuned! Harrison is resting so he will be ready!

Postscript.... About 9:30 Wonder Woman proclaims, "I can't believe this...I'm kind of hungry."

Menu Items

We already know we are having the Bacon Explosion as the centerpiece of Stuftivus, I thought I would share some other tasty treats that are making your way onto the menu for Stuftivus.

Reno Mike's gal Shelle is bringing hashbrowns with many additives that makes for a delicious sounding dish--and believe me if Reno Mike passes a dish to be present you know it is delicious.

Chef Paul (really, he's a chef how he managed to make the cut for this amateur event is under intense investigation--we can probably use photos to blackmail him later to protect his career) is bringing "Arrogant Bastard Smoked Pork and Beans." Someone point out something wrong with that juxtaposition of words! Every time I read that phrase I salivate.

Smokey is going to have some chicken on the grill to cleanse the palettes, nice and juicy. As well a bit of tri-tip for the obligatory beef dish. Accompanying this will be plenty of Nancy Jane's barbecue sauce passed down from Momma to Smokey.

Anyone up for some ginger-orange cheesecake? We'll be getting that put together as well.

Smokey is working on one more stuffed pork item that was debuted about seven or eight years ago combining pork and a four legged protein not yet mentioned on the menu. Stay tuned!