Kristen here. This is supposed to be Steven's weekly thing, but I volunteered to take it over this week because he has been super busy around the house working in the yard and what not. That grass gets out of control when we have a week or two with so much rain. Anyway, allow me to attempt to blog about our recent dinners. Usually, we only grill on Sunday evenings. This week though, we elected to grill both Saturday and Sunday! Yay! I'm all for it.
Saturday we decided to have wings. We are still learning on the whole wing thing. We tried them a few times last summer and just forgot everything we learned apparently. So, we started with the frozen wings from Winn Dixie. Nothing special. The big bags of them were on sale BOGO.
We started by defrosting a few. First tip, defrost half as many as you think you will want. They are huge wings! Especially compared to the types of things you would get at most restaurants. I started them (after they were defrosted) with that McCormicks Garlic & Herb seasoning. I used it as a rub basically and let them sit for a few hours. Then I added BBQ sauce and let them sit for a few more hours. Steven grilled them on medium for about 15 minutes or so, rotating them every so often to try to make them cook evenly.
Unfortunately, because I had already coated them in sauce, they burned quickly. The sugar in the BBQ sauce makes it difficult sometimes to grill. We usually cook thin chicken breasts with it but wings have bones and are much thicker (and more uneven) so they didn't cook as well as we would have liked.
We ended up throwing them in the oven for a few minutes just to make sure they were cooked through. The juices were running pretty clear on most of them, but I just don't chance it with chicken. They were still super yummy because they were grilled first. Next time we will run this a bit differently. I will put the rub on and eliminate the sauce. We will toss them in the sauce after they are grilled. We will also brush actual oil on the grill before we start instead of just spraying with pam as we noticed that the wings stuck a bit more than we would have liked.
With it we just had a salad and I had left over cheesy mashed potatoes from last week. I like to make extras of some sides and freeze them for easy access other nights.
Sunday we decided to try out the marinade mentioned in my sister-in-law, Julie's, blog last week. Instead of using steak like they did though, we elected to use chicken. Mainly just because I prefer chicken fajitas. It was yummy! I omitted the cilantro in the marinade. I'm not a huge fan so I figured it wouldn't be bad if I left it out. It wasn't. No big deal.
I ended up making some sauteed onions and green peppers on the stove. This works out really well for us because Steven doesn't like onions or green peppers on his fajitas, but I LOVE them. When I make boxed fajitas, I use them and end up having to pick them out of his before I serve them. It's a pain, but what can I say? I'm a loving wife. =)
With this dinner we had leftover Mexican rice. This is seriously the best Mexican rice I have ever had. It makes a TON too so again... we freeze leftovers for other nights. As an aside, Julie and Eric loved this rice too when they were visiting so I shared the recipe with them. Julie cheats (though she is likely smarter than me because I spend a lot more time mixing, blending, etc) and uses a jar of salsa in place of the tomatoes, onions, etc.
I think our grilling weekend went pretty well. We learned a few things and have a plan in place for our next attempt at chicken wings. Let's see what next weekend brings (besides college football!!!)
Saturday we decided to have wings. We are still learning on the whole wing thing. We tried them a few times last summer and just forgot everything we learned apparently. So, we started with the frozen wings from Winn Dixie. Nothing special. The big bags of them were on sale BOGO.
We started by defrosting a few. First tip, defrost half as many as you think you will want. They are huge wings! Especially compared to the types of things you would get at most restaurants. I started them (after they were defrosted) with that McCormicks Garlic & Herb seasoning. I used it as a rub basically and let them sit for a few hours. Then I added BBQ sauce and let them sit for a few more hours. Steven grilled them on medium for about 15 minutes or so, rotating them every so often to try to make them cook evenly.
Unfortunately, because I had already coated them in sauce, they burned quickly. The sugar in the BBQ sauce makes it difficult sometimes to grill. We usually cook thin chicken breasts with it but wings have bones and are much thicker (and more uneven) so they didn't cook as well as we would have liked.
We ended up throwing them in the oven for a few minutes just to make sure they were cooked through. The juices were running pretty clear on most of them, but I just don't chance it with chicken. They were still super yummy because they were grilled first. Next time we will run this a bit differently. I will put the rub on and eliminate the sauce. We will toss them in the sauce after they are grilled. We will also brush actual oil on the grill before we start instead of just spraying with pam as we noticed that the wings stuck a bit more than we would have liked.
With it we just had a salad and I had left over cheesy mashed potatoes from last week. I like to make extras of some sides and freeze them for easy access other nights.
Sunday we decided to try out the marinade mentioned in my sister-in-law, Julie's, blog last week. Instead of using steak like they did though, we elected to use chicken. Mainly just because I prefer chicken fajitas. It was yummy! I omitted the cilantro in the marinade. I'm not a huge fan so I figured it wouldn't be bad if I left it out. It wasn't. No big deal.
I ended up making some sauteed onions and green peppers on the stove. This works out really well for us because Steven doesn't like onions or green peppers on his fajitas, but I LOVE them. When I make boxed fajitas, I use them and end up having to pick them out of his before I serve them. It's a pain, but what can I say? I'm a loving wife. =)
With this dinner we had leftover Mexican rice. This is seriously the best Mexican rice I have ever had. It makes a TON too so again... we freeze leftovers for other nights. As an aside, Julie and Eric loved this rice too when they were visiting so I shared the recipe with them. Julie cheats (though she is likely smarter than me because I spend a lot more time mixing, blending, etc) and uses a jar of salsa in place of the tomatoes, onions, etc.
I think our grilling weekend went pretty well. We learned a few things and have a plan in place for our next attempt at chicken wings. Let's see what next weekend brings (besides college football!!!)
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