Gentlemen, we're in the thick of it! Grilling season! After what felt like months of bitter cold and painfully gray days, winter has thawed and from its ashes has arisen a beautiful phoenix of cold beer, seared meats, bare feet and summertime smiles. Huzzah!
It’s easy to get the hang of a good steak, and brats and burgers are an obvious summer staple. But what about some delicious grilled peaches? Or a perfectly cooked pork tenderloin? Or how about the secret to cooking some perfect dirt-cheap skirt steaks that don’t have that classic “shoe leather” mouthfeel?
When we say we love grilling, we mean we love grilling. And sometimes, that means cooking outside the box. Here are 7 Grilling Recipes That’ll Change Your Life:
The Perfect Grilled Pizza
We have no qualms here about saying that we’re unabashed pizza snobs. We take good pizza seriously, and because of that, you can trust we’d never steer you wrong when it comes to quality pie.
This recipe for grilled pizza can be made on both gas or charcoal grills, and is a lot easier than you’d ever imagine. The recipe includes a from-scratch dough recipe that you can follow (It’s solid), but you’re also free to use store-bought dough or the dough recipe of your choice.
The process is a little labor intensive, but for good reason — this pizza is actually damn good, even for all our fellow snobs out there.
Seared Skirt Steak
Skirt steak is one of those cuts of beef that can be one of the most succulent, flavorful pieces of meals you’ve ever had the pleasure of eating, or it could chew (and taste) like shoe leather if you don’t know what you’re doing.
This recipe for quick and easy grilled balsamic skirt steak is one of our favorites because it’s just so damn easy, and can be on the table — from prep to cook time — in just over two hours. The balsamic and garlic meld together to give it a tang, and the brown sugar and chili give it the kind of sweet kick you never knew you were missing in your steaks.
The vinegar works to work down the muscle fibers in the steak and serves as a natural tenderizer, while the other ingredients work themselves into the fibers and create this perfect amalgamation of hot, sweet and tangy. In short, it’s damn good.
Grilled Puerto Rican Pork Shoulder (Pernil)
We can’t think of anyone who doesn’t love a good pernil. When we make ours at home, the low-and-slow cook method inside a crock-pot or in the oven is our best bet, and when we came across this recipe from Joshua Bousel over at Serious Eats, we knew we had to give it a shot. Now, it’s the only way we’ll cook up a pork shoulder.
We love this method over the traditional because you get a really crispy skin on the outside that’s super garlicky and full of flavor, covering incredibly succulent, juicy meat on the inside.
As noted in the article, the meat isn’t as fall-off-the-bone tender as we’re used to, but the juiciness and flavor from the grill smoke more than makes up for what you’ll “lose” there.
Beer Can Chicken
Chicken is one of those things everybody grows tired of eating real quickly. It’s a lean bird, it doesn’t have a lot of natural flavor and it’s super easy to overcook and dry out to a crisp.
But then God himself descended from the heavens and gave unto us beer can chicken. Well, we don’t know if it was God. In fact, we’re not sure who invented beer can chicken. But we know it’s the hands-down best way to cook a bird we’ve ever tried, and it’s easy as can be.
Brown sugar, a little chili powder, some paprika, dry mustard, salt, black pepper and a can of your favorite beer is all it takes to make the most moist, tender and taste-filled bird you’ve ever had — and we’ll bet the farm on it.
Real Deal Grilled Shish Kabobs
There are a million different recipes for shish kabobs all over the internet, but we’re opting for this one from our friend Andrew Rea, better known by his YouTube channel name “Binging with Babish,” because it’s as straightforward as it gets.
Rea takes a very practical and common sense approach to cooking the vegetables separate from the meat (Which is something everyone always screws up), and his lemon rosemary marinade is simply unbeatable. The video is also really good because it goes through everything from prep, to marinating the veggies and meat, to proper cooking procedure, all in one shot.
Alton Brown’s Grilled Pork Tenderloin
Pork tenderloin is like the filet mignon of pig, only it’s a third of the cost and actually contains less fat per serving than chicken breast.
Alton Brown, as you likely already know, is one of the best celebrity chefs alive, and his recipe for making a perfectly succulent grilled pork tenderloin is second to none.
It’s also super simple, requiring little more than some freshly squeezed lime juice, some honey, some salt, garlic powder, chile pepper, vegetable oil, fresh cilantro and a little bit of lime zest.
Prep is super easy, and cook time is a grand total of 15 minutes from grill to cutting board. This is truly as good as it gets, folks.
Grilled Peaches With Vanilla Ice Cream
We’ve given you some really good — hopefully new-to-you — ideas for some incredible grilled entrees, but what about something to satiate your hunger for some good old fashioned dessert?
Well, look no further.
Grilled watermelon was all over the place this summer, but what if we told you that delicious, caramelized, tender, melt-in-your-mouth grilled peaches were within reach whenever your heart desired?
This recipe calls for nothing more than cinnamon, brown sugar, a little bit of vegetable oil and peaches (with “optional” vanilla ice cream), and literally nothing else. The cooking process involves a light char on the “meat” for three to four minutes, followed by a nice, tenderizing slow cook for 10 to 15 minutes with the cinnamon sugar mix, followed by plating and a healthy side of simple vanilla bean ice cream.
It is, without a doubt, our favorite home-cooked dessert of all time.
Oh, what? You thought all we did was gummy vitamins and ED meds? Well, well, well... Color you surprised. Now head on over to the blog to see what else we do.