Grilling 101: Steak, Chicken, & Kabobs!

(4th of July BBQ ideas)

Grilling 101: Steak, Chicken and Kabobs
By: Kelly Brant
From flame-kissed steaks and smoked chicken to shish kabobs and satays, grilling adds flavor and flair to virtually any meat.

Fire Away
The most primitive style of cooking--meat roasted over an open flame--can't be beat. You can pan-sear and broil all you want, but nothing compares to a grilled steak. The combination of a smoky, caramelized crust and a tender, juicy interior is what grilling beef is all about.

Tips for a perfectly grilled steak
Choose wisely: Favorable grilling candidates include New York strip, T-bone, porterhouse, sirloin, filet mignon and rib-eye.

Size matters: Choose cuts that are 1- to 1-1/4 inch thick. Pay special attention to bone-in cuts of meat: make sure the steak is an even thickness. Meat near the bone will take longer to cook.

Use caution with marinades: Over-marinating can result in tough or mushy meat. For additional ways to flavor-up a steak, try a dry rub or top cooked steaks with herbed butter.

Handle hot coals: Sear steaks over direct heat, then move them to indirect heat to finish cooking. For a 1-inch thick steak, a general guide is 5 to 7 minutes per side for medium-rare (145 degrees F). For an accurate reading--and to avoid cutting into that sublime steak--use a meat thermometer to test for doneness.

Easy Grilled Tri-Tip
Sirloin Steak with Garlic Butter
Smothered Filet Mignon
Willy's Juicy Steak
Barbequed Marinated Flank Steak
Adobo Sirloin
Bulgogi (Korean Barbecued Beef)
BBQ Chuck Roast

Fair-Weather Fowl
Chicken may be one of the trickiest foods to grill, especially the ever-popular boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The grill's high heat tends to dry out the meat before it's cooked through. One way to avoid this is to lightly pound boneless chicken breasts to a uniform thickness, helping the breast cook evenly.

Grilled Chicken with Herbs
Beer Butt Chicken
BBQ Miso Chicken
Grilled Asian Chicken
Indian Barbeque Chicken
Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken
Tina's Best BBQ Lime Chicken

Get on the Stick
Whether you call them kabobs or satays, skewers of meat, vegetables and even fruit are ideal for the grill. For kickin' kabobs:

Cut meats and veggies to the same size. One- to 1½-inch inch cubes work well.
Group foods with similar cooking times together. While a skewer of bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and chicken looks appetizing, those tomatoes may turn to mush--or worse, slither off the skewer--by the time the chicken is done.
To stabilize round or hard-to-skewer foods like tomatoes and shrimp, use two skewers parallel to each other.

courtesy of allrecipes.com