Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Standing Rib Roast Smoked on the Grill





A standing rib roast is similar to prime rib, although prime rib refers to a specific cut that’s available mostly to restaurants and high-end butchers. They don’t have it at most grocery stores, and they certainly didn’t have it for half-price last week at Harris Teeter. So, rib roast it is.

I started with a Dijon, garlic and herb rub, and then smoked it over indirect heat, using hickory wood chips. You don’t want to go too heavy on the rub or the smoke, because you don’t want to overpower the flavor of the meat.

Enjoy!



Ingredients (serves 4):

1 standing rib roast, approximately 4 pounds

Dijon rub ingredients:

4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon each: sea salt, black pepper, dried rosemary, dried thyme


Total time: About 2.5 hours

Directions:

1.    Mix all rub ingredients, coat rib roast with mixture. Let sit for 30 minutes to reach room temperature.




2.    Soak wood chips in water.
3.    Heat about 15 charcoal briquettes in a chimney starter. Prepare grill for indirect cooking. Place hot charcoals on one side of grill and top with pre-soaked wood chips. Put drip pan on other side of grill. The grill should be at a temperature of about 250 degrees. Add hot coals as needed to maintain that temperature.



4.    Place rib roast over drip pan. Cover grill with lid, with air holes above roast.
5.    Grill for about 2 hours, until the middle of the roast reaches an internal temperature of 125 degrees. Let rest for about 10 minutes. During the resting time, the internal temperature will reach 135 degrees, which is a perfect medium rare. For rare, remove from grill at 115 degrees. For medium, remove at 135. If you want it cooked more than that, then you don’t like rib roast and should eat something else. #Fact
6.    After letting the meat rest, carve into thick slices and serve.



We ate this with grilled winter vegetables – sweet potatoes, butternut squash and carrots.

If you like this recipe, please be sure to click on the links below to share it! And don’t forget to follow @youcangrillthat on Twitter!  

Monday, December 3, 2012

Cherry Cola BBQ Sauce


One of the great things about barbecue, and especially barbecue sauce, is that there are seemingly infinite different options. I love experimenting with different sauces and getting completely different flavors, all of which still count as “barbecue sauce.”

My latest creation is a cherry barbecue sauce, flavored with cherry cola and cherry preserves in addition to the usual suspects (like ketchup and apple cider vinegar). It combines sweet and a little heat, with a cool kick from the cherry flavor. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

½ stick butter
1 cup ketchup
1 can cherry cola
3 tablespoons cherry preserves
½ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
½ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon each of the following: salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion salt, ground red pepper (add more or less depending on your taste)
2 TBSP lemon juice

Directions:

1.    Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.
2.     Stir in all other ingredients.
3.    Simmer 30-40 minutes, until reduced. Enjoy!

Goes great with any of these grilling recipes!


Be sure to try these other sauces to compare and find your favorite:


If you like this recipe, please be sure to click on the links below to share it! And don’t forget to follow @youcangrillthat on Twitter!