Smoked Ribs and Beer-can Chicken

Whether you have a serious BBQ pit or a lowly Weber the rules for smoking are the same: use a good rub/marinade overnight, keep the temperature low and smoke going and most importantly, take your time :) When meat is done, wrap tightly in foil and keep warm until serving time.



















Ingredients (serves 4-6)

• 3lb pork spare ribs
• 1 large (5lb) Organic Chicken
• 1 can beer (for best results, use a Texan beer such as Shiner)
  

Rib marinade

• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup red wine
  
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• salt & pepper

Chicken rub

• 1 tbs whole peppercorns
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tbs whole sea-salt
• 4 whole allspice
• 1/2 tbs whole cumin
• 1/2 tbs dried oregano
• 1/2 tbs dried thyme
• a little olive oil (before adding rub to chicken)
  

BBQ sauce

• knob of butter
• 1/2 cup Worcester sauce
• 1/2 cup apple vinegar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup tomato ketchup
• 1 tbs molasses
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1 tbs mustard

Spinach and almond salad

• bunch of fresh spinach leaves
• 1 tomato chopped
  
• crushed almonds
• olive oil & jerez vinegar & salt for dressing

For smoking
Charcoal briquettes
Plenty of smoking wood chunks (hickory, mesquite, apple, etc)

The Day Before

Marinade the ribs
1. Prepare rib marinade ingredients in a bowl.




















2. Rinse ribs in cold water pat dry with kitchen paper. Cut in half if necessary (to fit in your grill). Put ribs into a plastic bag and add the marinade. Seal and shake well. Put in the fridge overnight, turning occasionally.












Rub the chicken
1. Prepare the dry rub ingredients in a mortar. Then grind until ground.






































2. Rinse chicken in cold water and pat dry with kitchen paper. Pour about 1 tbs of olive oil over the chicken, especially the breast portion. Sprinkle the rub over the chicken, saving about 1 tsp to add to the beer can tomorrow.











3. Carefully wrap chicken in cling-film and put in the fridge overnight.










4. Set your alarm clock for early the next day!!


Day of Smoking
1. Get up early, you've got 8hrs+ of smoking ahead of you. Prepare the grill for smoking, here I used charcoal briquettes in a Weber. Put wood chunks into a bucket of water to soak. I left the charcoal for about 1 hour before starting to cook (at about 300 F - with temp decreasing to about 200 F).











2. While the charcoal heats up, remove ribs and chicken from the fridge. We want to start cooking from room temperature.


3. Prepare chicken. Open a can of beer, take a (small) swig, then carefully put some holes near the top of the can. Add the saved rub to the can.













4. Gently position the chicken over the beer can so it's standing upright. Ouch!














5. Remove ribs from marinade and drain. Discard the marinade.

6. When grill temp reaches about 300F (about 1 hour after starting), add the wood chunks and arrange the ribs and chicken on the grill. Put a drip-an with water under the meat.











7. Cover and start smoking. Adjust the flow of air into the grill to reach desired cooking temp -- around 200-220 F is the target.


8. Leave for 8 hours... checking every hour to add more wood chunks and see how the meat is cooking. If the meat is cooking too fast, just wrap with foil for a bit.










9. About 1 hour from when you think the meat will be ready prepare the BBQ sauce. Add all ingredients to a sauce-pan, bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Then cover and leave until serving time. Sometimes I baste the meat with the sauce in the last 20 mins of cooking, but this time it was served on the side.












10. When it's ready the rib meat should easily come off the bone and the chicken joins (thigh, leg) should pull apart easily.











11. Prepare the spinach salad. Crush the almonds, add to spinach and chopped tomatoes in a bowl. A dash of olive oil, jerez (sherry) vinegar and salt - mix well and ready to serve.











11. Serve the meat with BBQ sauce (reheat if you want), spinach salad and freshly made bread. And last, plenty of ice-cold Shiner!

Korean BBQ Beef Short Ribs (Galbi) & Veggies

A guaranteed chop-licker this one. The longer you marinade, the better it gets. For best results marinade overnight and use beef short-ribs. Serve with steamed rice, stir-fried bok-choy and cucumber salad.



















Ingredients (serves 4)

Marinade:

• 1 tbs soy-sauce
• 1 tbs honey
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 4 cloves garlic crushed & chopped
  
• 3 spring-onions finely chopped
  
• 1/4 cup mirin rice-wine
• 1 tsp salt

• 2 lb beef short-ribs

Veggies:

• 2-3 bok-choy cabbages
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 spring-onions
• oil for frying

• 1 cucumber
• fresh cilantro (coriander)
• soy-sauce
• sesame oil

• & steamed rice

Instructions

Marinade the beef
1. In a bowl mix the marinade ingredients.






































2. Mix the beef and marinade in a plastic bag and refrigerate. At least for a couple of hours, ideally overnight.












Cucumber salad
1. Can be prepared in advance. Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the pips with a small spoon, then peel.

2. Chop the cucumber into small chunks and put into a bowl. Add chopped cilantro and a dash of soy-sauce and sesame oil. Cover and put into the fridge until ready to serve.











Stir-fried bok choy
1. Peel & slice the ginger, crush and chop the garlic and finely chop the spring-onions. Rinse and remove base from the boy-choy. If the leaves are fresh and small, you don't need to chop the boy-choy, just cook as-is.














2. The bok-choy only takes a couple of minutes to cook, so wait until the beef is done before cooking. Heat a wok, then add a dash of peanut oil (or olive oil if you want to be healthy...).

3. Wait until it smokes a little, then add the ginger, garlic and spring-onion. Cook for 10 seconds, then add the bok-choy. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes, then add a dash of soy-sauce and rice-wine. Cook for another 30 seconds, then serve.

Cook the beef and rice
1. Light-up the BBQ. Then start cooking the rice -- will take approx 12 minutes, so get it going while the BBQ lights up.

2. Drain the beef and start cooking.














3. Keep an eye on the beef, it will easily burn because of the honey in the marinade. Turn often. It will take about 3-4 minutes each side to cook the ribs.










4. Optional: keep a cast-iron pan on the BBQ to use for serving as well as cooking the beef if it starts to get too burned. Remove beef and garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.












Serve beef with veggies and rice.