This weekend I had one of my first BBQ’s of the summer. I suppose it’s not officially summer yet, but I think it’s close enough since it’s June now. I wanted to prepare a little food for a few friends and relax for an afternoon. This weekend was totally perfect weather – cloudless, not too hot, and a bit breezy in our backyard.
I started by prepping my chicken for the grill. I received some Sierra Seasoning from a company called Sierra Madre Grocery Company some moons ago, but hadn’t really had the chance to use it. I decided I would use some of it on my bbq chicken this weekend. I actually dipped my finger in and tasted the mixture before I decided to sprinkle it on – it had a really good herb flavor to it so I sprinkled it on the chicken (underneath the skin and on the backside) and added a little extra sea salt and black pepper for good measure.
Then I tossed the chicken on the grill (indirect heat) and I tossed some french bread rolls to toast for a little goat cheese and bread appetizer.
The bread I put directly on the flame (I left only the back burner on) and they didn’t take too long to crisp up. Then I took a garlic clove and rubbed it over the bread before topping it with a little honey goat cheese and a sprinkling of parsley – pretty tasty!
I also grilled some sausages that I picked up at Henry’s: Chicken Parmesan Sausage and Sweet Italian Pork Sausage. I also got some white corn to grill as well.
When my chicken was almost done, I moved it to the back burner directly over the heat to crisp up the skin (my dad told me about this trick!) and then I slathered some Sweet Baby Ray’s honey BBQ sauce onto the chicken. The roasted corn I wasn’t sure how long to leave on the grill – since I was cooking it over indirect heat it didn’t really get that roasted look to it, but the roasted corn turned out really well. I only took some of the husks off to protect the corn a little while it was cooking.
I should have buttered and herbs them up while they were on the grill, but I did that afterwards; butter, sea salt and a little parsley. Really, really tasty.
The chicken turned out really well. Good flavor, sweet sauce, tender and juicy. Mmm! I really like the chicken sausage as well. The pork sausage got totally overcooked though and I ended up giving that to my dog (luckily, she thought it was awesome).
For dessert I made this Fruit Delight-thing. It’s got a cookie-like bottom with cashews in it, a sweet cream cheese and whipped cream center plus a blueberry + raspberry compote topping. Super tasty, this dessert didn’t hang around for too long.
I’m hoping to have lots more BBQ’s this summer! Are you? What are you grilling/cooking/hoping to cook this summer?
