High Heat Slow N Sear Grilling

I have been playing around with the Slow N Sear from the Adrenaline Barbecue Company and have been having a blast.


Most of the cooks I have been doing have been 'Low and Slow" but every now and then I open things up and go for a Hot and Fast cook.

Here are two of them!


The first was a tri tip that had a heavy rub of Montreal Steak Seasoning.

I had a full chimney of lit charcoal in the Slow N Sear and the top and bottom vents of my Weber kettle were wide open.


It took about 30 minutes for this tri tip to hit the magic temperature for medium rare.

The tri tip came out perfect!  We try to make sandwiches when we grill tri tips but usually just end up standing around and eating the slices off the cutting board.  We grunt and drool a lot.



Next up was a butterflied chicken!

I let this bird cook a little too long and ended up burning the skin a little!  I think this was partly due to the sweet injection I used.  That looks like burnt sugar instead of charred skin.

That's okay, it came out tasting pretty fantastic :)

Like a lot of other folks have said, the Slow N Sear is great for long, low temperature smoking sessions.  The slow N Sear also has a LOT of charcoal capacity that lets you get your grill REALLY hot.  This is a nice feature for when you want to do some High Heat Indirect grilling.


If you want to know more about how to use this thing then check out the Slow N Sear review I posted!

Flat Iron Steaks: Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me???

Okay..I already know the answer.

Nobody told me how awesome flat iron steaks were because everyone is keeping this steak a secret.

Well I am blowing the lid off this secret!

Flat iron steaks are a long, thin whole muscle.

They are a little cut up on the back where some connective tissue gets cut out by the butcher.

These steaks are packed with flavor AND are super tender.

Ribeye's used to be my favorite steak....no longer.  I am not a Flat Iron man.

These steaks grill up beautifully with just a little salt and pepper.

The steaks are so tender that even though I messed up and cut it WITH the grain it still meted in my mouth.

I am finding flat iron steaks at my local grocery for about $6 per pound.  This is way cheaper than ribeyes.

If you see something like this at your store do yourself a favor and grab it!!

If you want a full blown lesson on where this cut comes from and hoe to take it to the next level by dry aging then check out this excellent article.

Alright guys...what other secrets have you been holding out on me???

Thin Cut Steaks Made Better with Blue Cheese Sauce

We eat steak way too often at my house.  Usually I grill thick cut steaks that weigh in at about two pounds.  They get a quick sear over high heat followed by a long slow cook with low indirect heat.  When the steaks hit medium rare (typically after about 20 minutes) we slice them thin and serve with mashed potatoes.  It is a simple dish that is always a hit.

Sometimes though we end up dealing with some thin sliced steaks that are pretty bland.  Here is what I did to make some of these more interesting.

I brushed a little oil onto the steaks and sprinkled them with salt and pepper.  The steaks were rested at room temperature for about 30 minutes so the salt would have a little time to penetrate and tenderize the meat.

I grilled these steaks hot and fast over direct high heat.  Grill for two minutes then rotate by 45 degrees and grill another two minutes.  This will get you a beautiful diamond cross hatch.  Flip the steak and grill for another three minutes and it will be done! 

To make this steak a little more interesting I whipped up a classic blue cheese steak sauce.

Blue Cheese Steak Sauce

Gently warm a half pint of heavy cream and add 6 oz of crumbled blue cheese.
Stir the cream and cheese until the cheese has melted.
Add 3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce.
Add 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika.
Stir to incorporate.


Ladle the sauce over the steak and dig in with gusto!

This is a very rich sauce that brings a ton of flavor to the party.  It is a very simple way to take an ordinary thin cut steak and make it a meal worth remembering!

One Man's Trash is my Weber Genesis Gold Treasure

I found a Weber Genesis Gold being sold on Craigslist for next to nothing the other day.  I checked it out and saw it needed the usual repairs (burner tubes, ignition, etc) but was structurally sound.

I got the grill back to my house, bought the needed replacement parts then soon found out the real reason the grill was being sold.  Two of the burner valve stems had seized up and could not be turned. I could see where the previous owner had tried to fix the problem by trying to turn the top of the valve stem with a pair of pliers.

The fix was easy but tedious.  I sprayed the base of each brass valve stem with Liquid Wrench then used a pair of channel locks to grab the stem at the base and twisted just a little.  I did this five or six times a day for four days.  Each time the Liquid Wrench was able to penetrate just a little deeper.  On Day 4 things broke free and now all knobs are turning just fine.

The grill cover that came with the Genesis was pretty ratty.

It is hard to find he right cover for this old grill; definitely wont find this cover stocked at Wal-Mart.  Here is a site that links to the right Weber Genesis grill cover on Amazon.

The side burner hadn't been used for a while...I could tell by the wasps nest that was built under the burner.

After I pulled that guy out the side burner cleaned up pretty nice as well.

I am delighted to have this great grill in my collection!  This Genesis Gold C sits alongside my Genesis 1000 LX and my Genesis Silver A.  My backyard is looking sweeter and sweeter all the time!

A Simple Steak on a Simple Grill

One of my grills in a little two burner Weber Genesis Silver with cast iron grates.  I love this little grill...it has spunk :)

I got the chance to use the Silver the other day when I found a beautiful 2.5 pound, two inch thick ribeye roast.  I knew I had to use the cast iron grates on the Silver to put down some grill marks on this nice piece of meat.

The beef got seasoned with a little salt and pepper.  I let the Genesis Silver pre-heat on high for 15 minutes to get the cast iron scorching hot.  I let the steak sear for ten minutes then flipped.

After that nice sear I wanted to gently cook the steak to perfection.  I put the steak on a GrillGrate panel, coated it in melted butter and turned the Genesis Silver down to Low.

The steak was eased along for about 20 minutes until it hit an internal temperature of 142F. 

No sliced and finished shot on this cook...I wrapped the steak in foil and headed off to a party at my brother in law's house.  It was a pretty awesome steak!

This was a simple steak on a simple grill.  It made for a nice day.

Smoked Pork Chops

I have been seeing beautiful thick cut pork chops all over the place recently and had to try some on my Weber kettle.  I decided to make smoked pork chops instead of grilling them since they were nice and thick.  They turned out great!

I started with two bone in pork chops that were over an inch thick.  I seasoned the fellas up and put them on my kettle with indirect heat and hickory smoke.

After 90 minutes at 275F the smoked pork chops were looking pretty nice!

The pork chops were glazed on both sides with a honey drizzle for a little shine and sweetness.

The pork chops were cooked until they hit an internal temperature of 150F then they were pulled from the kettle. 

These were some seriously great eats!  Thanks for looking!

Frittatas in a Weber Griddle

I picked up a cast iron Weber griddle the other day and have been having fun playing with the toy.

I used the griddle to make a frittata on my Weber Genesis Silver A.  I started by putting down a layer of hash browns.

Then I stuck in some mushrooms, black beans and crumbled bacon.

Poured in a half dozen scrambled eggs...

And grilled this on top of a baking stone on my grill that was running at 400F.  I let it bake for about 20 minutes.  It came out looking pretty nice.

The hash browns stuck a little to the bottom of the griddle but they still got some nice color on them.

Added a little hot sauce and had a pretty nice breakfast courtesy of my new cast iron Weber griddle!

Sweet!