Grill and Chill Winners and Recipes
Wow the crowd at your cookout with these recipes from the winners of our first Grill & Chill contest.
Consider this a mini cookout intervention. Starting now, you’re through with serving nothing but boring hot dogs, burgers and beers. The editors of Morris/Essex Health & Life teamed up with New Jersey’s Drew Nieporent, founder of Myriad Restaurant Group (which owns such culinary giants as Tribeca Grill, Centrico and Nobu in New York City) and Cheryl Slocum, contributing food editor at Country Living magazine and author of the food blog itsaboutourfood.com, to pick the three besttasting dishes submitted in our first Grill & Chill recipe contest. These food and drink recipes, born from the backyard barbecues of Morris and Essex counties, will delight guests at your next outdoor soirée.
Karin Sainato
46, Florham Park Stay-at-Home Mom
Grilling Tip
“Before grilling, rub a paper towel with canola oil on the grates so that the meat doesn’t stick.”
Winner’s Story
Sainato loves to grill “because people are around when you’re cooking.” And more than anything, she loves to experiment. “My kids are 18 and 15, so for the past couple of years I’ve had a lot more time to learn new cooking techniques,” she explains. For her Jamaican-Me-Crazy Chicken recipe, Sainato researched traditional Jamaican Jerk recipes and came up with a flavorful marinade that incorporates fresh herbs such as cilantro and parsley. Her accompanying drink, called the Abso-LOCO (which stands for “Lime, Orange, Cherry, Oh so good!”), has a real tropical summer feel.
JAMAICAN-ME-CRAZY CHICKEN
TIME: 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES (PLUS AT LEAST 1 HOUR FOR MARINATING). SERVES 8
INGREDIENTS
5 pounds skinless chicken pieces (thighs, legs and
breasts)
2 Scotch Bonnet chilies (or 3 jalapeños and
½ teaspoon cayenne), seeded and chopped
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch parsley
1 red onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons allspice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup olive oil
¹⁄³ cup orange juice
½ cup apple cider vinegar
¹⁄8 cup honey
juice and zest of 1 large lemon
juice and zest of 3 limes
PREPARATION
Trim the fat off the chicken. Make shallow scores with a sharp knife on the surface of the meat. Set the chicken aside in a nonreactive bowl. Put all other ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until blended. Pour half of the marinade into the bowl with the chicken and cover (reserve the rest of the marinade for dipping). Place meat in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 1 hour—for best results leave overnight— turning each piece occasionally. Preheat grill on high, reducing to medium-low when you put the chicken on. Grill the chicken with a closed lid for 20 minutes, rotating pieces 90 degrees after 10 minutes. Flip the chicken over and repeat the process. Use a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 150 degrees. Remove the chicken, place in a pan and cover with aluminum foil. Let stand for 15 minutes. Serve with plantain chips and the reserved marinade.
Sarita Puri
58, Denville, Stay-at-Home Mom
Grilling Tip
“Preheat the grill for about 10 minutes to help speed the cooking process.”
Winner’s Story
After thinking about Morris/Essex Health & Life magazine’s Grill & Chill contest for an entire month, Puri finally decided to enter—on the last day! Her two sons are big supporters, constantly urging her to seek recognition for her recipes, but this time Puri didn’t tell even them that she was going to enter. What a surprise when they found out their mother had won second place! “I just love cooking!” Puri says. Her winning Turkey Seekh Kebab recipe is a twist on a traditional Indian dish. The addition of ingredients such as coriander leaves, onions and mint transforms it into something very different—something even better.
TURKEY SEEKH KEBABS
TIME: 30 TO 40 MINUTES (PLUS 30 MINUTES OF REFRIGERATION TIME). SERVES 5
INGREDIENTS
KEBABS
8–10 bamboo sticks, soaked in water for 1 hour
1 pound ground turkey
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, fi nely chopped
2 tablespoons mint, chopped
2 tablespoons coriander leaves, chopped
½ teaspoon crushed black pepper
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper (use more or less
as desired)
½ teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon olive oil
PEACH MINT CHUTNEY
2–4 peaches, peeled and quartered
1 jalapeño, seeds removed, chopped (less if desired)
1 bunch fresh mint leaves (preferably homegrown)
a few drops lemon juice
several pinches sugar
salt to taste
PREPARATION
KEBABS Heat oil on medium heat. When it starts to smoke, add paprika and turn off heat. Combine the smoked paprika with all the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with your hands until well blended, forming a large ball in the bowl. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. After meat has chilled, preheat the grill on medium for 10 minutes. Roll meat mixture into seekh kebabs (each approximately 4 inches long, like the thickness and length of a sausage link) by hand and skewer each one with a bamboo stick. Place kebabs on the grill, leaving room between them. Grill for about 10 minutes with the lid closed. Rotate and cook for another 10 minutes, leaving the lid open for the last 5 minutes to brown the kebabs. Serve with basmati or jasmine rice and peach mint chutney.
PEACH MINT CHUTNEY Put all ingredients except lemon juice into a food processor. Blend to puree. Taste; if it is too sweet, add some lemon juice; if it is too sour, add some sugar.
Jane Ryfa
56, West Orange, Administrative Assistant
Grilling tips
“Start off with a clean grill to avoid cross-contaminating your food, and spray your grill with nonstick cooking spray.”
Winner’s Story
“After being cooped up in the house all winter long, I love the summer because I get to grill outdoors in the fresh air,” says Ryfa. Another thing she loves is dessert, so for the Grill & Chill contest Ryfa combined these two pleasures and created Tropical Splendor, a grilled glazed pound cake with a vanilla citrus cream. “I’m not a big fan of pound cake, but my family likes it, so I wanted to come up with a new idea for it,” she says. And as it turns out, “fruit on the grill is really good,” she says. “Grilling brings out the flavor and all the sugars in the fruit.”
Tropical Splendor Pound Cake
Time: 30 to 40 minutes. Serves 6
Ingredients
Pound cake
2 ripe baby pineapples, trimmed and cut into 1-inch slices
2 large ripe peaches, cut into quarters
2 plums, cut into quarters
1 large banana, peeled and cut into 1-inch slices
1 tablespoon fresh lime or lemon juice
¼ cup dried cherries
½ cup toasted macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
1 store-bought pound cake, cut into ½-inch slices
fresh mint sprigs for garnish
Glaze
¼ cup butter (½ stick)
¼ cup heavy cream
¼ cup honey
¼ cup rum
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Vanilla citrus cream
6 oz. heavy cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons lime zest
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
Preparation
Glaze: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add cream, honey, rum and cinnamon. Whisk together. Gradually bring to a boil until slightly reduced. Set aside. Vanilla citrus cream In a cold bowl, whip heavy cream until slightly thick. Add brown sugar, vanilla extract, vanilla bean and lime zest. Mix thoroughly. Set aside.
Pound cake: Preheat grill to medium. Spray grill rack with nonstick cooking spray. Brush glaze onto each slice of pineapple, coating completely. Place pineapple slices on the grill and cook approximately 2 minutes on each side, turning occasionally so that grill marks appear on both sides. Be sure not to overcook. Brush glaze onto each side of pound cake and grill approximately 3 minutes on each side, or until lightly golden. Lightly toss the peaches, plums and bananas with the lemon or lime juice and assemble them on skewers. With a pastry brush, lightly cover all sides of the fruit with the remainder of the glaze. Place fruit on grill and turn when light grill marks appear. Assemble each piece of pound cake with a pineapple slice on your favorite platter. Add skewered fruit, dried cherries and toasted macadamia nuts. Top with vanilla citrus cream and add a sprig of mint for garnish.
Related Read: Grill and Chill Winning Drink Recipes
