Get Your Grill On

Editor’s note: Please welcome another new member of our GYGO family, Scott Phillips! Scott comes to us from the great land of Sugar and Lard. I’m sure you’ll all make him feel welcome as he joins the family.

Scott’s first post is about a bit of a touchy subject, a food that his wife won’t eat. I hear you brother! I run into that same problem all the time. Take it away Scott.

Chief among the various things my wife won’t eat are Cornish Hens or any other similarly miniaturized versions of full sized foods. As she had a trip to Atlanta with the girls planned last Saturday, I knew it was my chance to get small. The original object of my hearts desire was quail, but unless I was going to take up arms and go all Dick Cheney, that wasn’t going to happen.

So I grabbed a couple of Cornish Hens from the grocery and made my preparations. When my birds had defrosted, I took a pair of kitchen shears and removed their backbones, which went into the freezer until I need to make a tiny little batch of chicken stock. Then I put the hens in a large pot along with 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of kosher salt, and just enough cold water to cover them. Then it was back into the fridge for a few hours.

As this was to be a live fire exercise, I rolled the Weber out into the driveway and half filled it with part of my dwindling supply of pecan wood chunks. The pecan burns really hot, but not nearly as long as charcoal, so once it had burned down to coals, I shoved it all to one side of the kettle grill and let it burn just a bit longer. While the wood was burning down, I slathered the hens with olive oil and then rubbed in salt, pepper, fresh oregano, and thyme.

I put the hens on the grill, not directly over the coals, but not too far away and cooked each side for about seven minutes. Since I had removed the backbones, it was easy to sort of flatten the birds out, allowing them to cook on both sides, rather than from the outside in.

Then I put them right over the coals and cooked each side for another two or two and a half minutes. Your times will likely vary depending on your grill and fuel, but in this case turned my timing out to be near perfect. The hens were completely done and the outsides were brown and crisp.

I really like the flavor the pecan wood imparts. To me, it is just a little more subtle than charcoal, maybe a bit more complex. I fear that my shrinking supply of pecan may play out before long, though. I was just about to get the hang of it , too…