Monday, August 30, 2010

All Up In My Grill!

We've purchased a new gadget and I'm excited to say that it's a keeper!!  I've been wanting to find a way to grill meats (mainly chicken) without having to use an outdoor grill.  Our George Forman grill (while we enjoy it for making turkey burgers & grilled sandwiches) just hasn't been cutting it with grilling chicken without taking away the juicy nature of the chicken.  So, the hunt began and started with a this panini press that I purchased from Bed Bath & Beyond.  The result: semi-liked it, same problem as with the GF grill--the chicken was somewhat burnt on the outside because the chicken had to be grilled longer to fully cook the inside.  So, this was not a keeper!

Second attempt, this grill.  And my friends, she is a keeper!!


For my first trial run I marinated several chicken breasts in a jerk marinade and several others in Kraft's Sweet & Spicy Chipotle BBQ sauce (this BBQ sauce is DELICIOUS!! like, for real!).  I marinated the chicken overnight and the next day I took the grill out for her first test drive!!


p.s. I am so enjoying these mixing bowls I recently found on excellent sale at Macy's for $15!! Bought me and my friend Sonja a box!!  They are great for marinating, storing left overs, preparing food, traveling with food (sturdy lid), you name it! [I have used them for all of the above in the past week alone!]

Anywho, back to the grill--who has yet to be named.  So, to make her work you fill a tray that sits under the rack with water (that makes the steam to give it that smokey taste like you get on the grill!), and then you just plug her in and set the temperature.  Next, spray her down with a little PAM olive oil spray and wait while she preheats.
 can you see the pan of water underneath?

sprayed down with this PAM

Here's how the test run went down....
 BBQ on left, Jerk on right
see the smoke?!
close up of BBQ

close up of Jerk

So, around here, the ultimate test is whether I, or my picky eater, Troy, gives the food 2 thumbs up!  Troy LOVED the BBQ chicken and talked about it for a week.  The grill did not toughen the outside of the chicken and it was still nice and juicy when we ate it (even when we had leftovers!!). 

So, she's a keeper and I actually made chicken tonight--marinated in Italian dressing--I usually bake the chicken when I marinate it in Italian dressing-remember this post from last September?  But Troy said, let's give the grill another spin!! So I did.  A few pics from tonight...

Well, there ya have it!  A new gadget to welcome into our kitchen family! Our kitchen is pretty much filled to the brim now.  The cabinets are full, the counter tops are almost full, and the tops of our cabinets are full....so idk what we're going to do when our next kitchen gadget arrives (we don't have one in mind right now.  But I am really hoping to add a stand mixer to the family in December!!) 

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the grill!! 

Yay for all things hot & steamy, (*wink*)
SG

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