Green Mountain GrillsA Summer Cookout Menu: Killer Kebabs and the 3-Way Jalapeño Dog
Two quick charcoal cooks from our July and August videos. Steak and chicken kebabs seasoned two different ways, and a Sahlen's hot dog dressed three ways with jalapeño. One fire, one afternoon.
Two of the best things we cooked this summer took under an hour combined, and they came from the same charcoal fire. Kebabs first, while the coals are hottest. Hot dogs second, on what is left.
The kebabs are the ones Pat called the best thing he has ever made. The hot dog is the 3-Way Jalapeño Glizzy, a Sahlen's dog dressed with three different kinds of jalapeño. Together they are a cookout menu that feeds four with room for a second round.
Here is both, with the seasoning choices that made them work.
Killer kebabs: steak and chicken, seasoned two ways
The trick that made these kebabs is that the two meats got two different treatments, not one.
- Steak: Killer Hogs BBQ Steak Rub, and nothing else. Coarse, peppery, built for beef over a hot fire.
- Chicken: Chiavetta's Italian Dressing as the marinade. It is the same family as the Buffalo chicken marinade, and it does the same job on a cube of chicken thigh: keeps it juicy and seasons it through.
- Vegetables: bell peppers and onion between the meat. [CONFIRM what else went on the skewers.]
Cook them over charcoal. Pat's caption was blunt about it: charcoal for best flavor.
This is one of the best things I've ever made in my life.Pat, off camera, cleaned up for print
How to build a skewer that cooks evenly
Most kebab problems are assembly problems.
- Cut everything the same size. An inch to an inch and a quarter. A big chunk of steak next to a small one means one is raw when the other is done.
- Keep the meats on separate skewers. Steak is perfect around 130 to 135 degrees. Chicken has to reach 165. Put them on the same stick and one of them loses.
- Marinate the chicken ahead. An hour in Chiavetta's Italian minimum. [CONFIRM how long the July batch marinated.] Rub the steak right before it goes on.
- Leave a little space between pieces. Packed tight, the middle steams. A gap lets the fire hit every face.
- Turn a quarter at a time. Four sides, four turns, and pull the chicken when a probe in the thickest cube reads 165.
The 3-Way Jalapeño Glizzy
This is a hot dog with a point of view. Three jalapeño hits, one bun.
- Hot dogs: Sahlen's Premium Meats, the Original and the Beef. The only ones.
- Jalapeño one: Burning Asphalt Jalapeño Ketchup.
- Jalapeño two: Burning Asphalt Jalapeño Honey Mustard. [CONFIRM it is stocked in the store; the jalapeño ketchup is.]
- Jalapeño three: fresh jalapeños from the garden, sliced thin.
- Bun: brioche, from Aldi.
Grill the dogs over the coals the kebabs left behind, turning them until they blister and split a little. Put the buns face down on the grate for the last minute. Then ketchup, mustard, fresh peppers, in that order, so the raw jalapeño is on top where you taste it first.
Pit note
Burning Asphalt is a Western New York sauce maker, and their jalapeño ketchup is the one that keeps disappearing off our shelf. If you have never had a hot dog with a ketchup that actually tastes like something, start here.
Running both on one fire
Light a full chimney of lump charcoal and spread it across two thirds of the grill, leaving one side bare. Kebabs go on over the coals first, while the fire is at its peak. Move any skewer that is getting ahead of the others to the bare side to finish.
By the time the chicken skewers hit 165, the fire has settled into hot dog heat. Dogs and buns go on, and the whole menu is done inside of half an hour from the first skewer.
When to change the plan
- Gas grill. Both recipes work. The kebabs lose the charcoal flavor Pat was talking about, so lean a little harder on the rub.
- No time to marinate. Skip the chicken skewers and do all steak with the Killer Hogs rub. Do not put unmarinated chicken on a skewer and expect it to stay juicy.
- Kids at the table. The jalapeño honey mustard is the mild one of the three. Leave the fresh peppers off their dogs and keep the ketchup.
Killer Hogs Steak Rub, Chiavetta's Italian, and the Burning Asphalt lineup are all on the shelf inside the McKinley Mall. Sahlen's and the brioche you will have to get on the way home.
