Stonehauler
Well-known member
Hey all,
I know that everyone here has a secret rub or marinade that they have, or will one day use to crush everyone else at a BBQ competition. This is not about sharing those.
For those of you who do the everyday cooking for your family, this is what this thread is for.
Share some of your rubs or marinades that you use when you put dinner on the table.
Since I am asking others to share, I am going to share mine first. Unfortunately, I measure by eye, squeeze, pinch, handfull, and shake, so I can't give you exact proportions. I will make my best guesses.
All purpose marinade:
Good for steak, chicken, and pork
Base:
Bottle of Wishbone Italian dressing
Kikoman Soy Sauce (not the low sodium version, use the black label, not the green label) - 1/4 to a 1/2 cup depending on how big a bottle of dressing you use. If you do not like the taste of Soy, use a big handful of salt instead. For reference, I use 3 big handfuls of salt to season a pot of water for pasta.
Add-ins
Honey - This is especially useful for things like grilled chicken
Grated Ginger
Lime juice
Lemon Juice
Garlic - either fresh whole, fresh minced, dried minced, powered, or jarred minced depending on the flavor profile you want for the garlic
Onion - fresh diced, dried minced, or powered
cracked black pepper
Vodka or other neutral spirit - or when you want to extract alcohol soluble flavors but no other flavors
Bourbon - for when you want to extract alcohol soluble flavors AND you want the taste that bourbon brings
Example: The recipe I use for grilled chicken with pasta and an alfredo sauce
6 Chicken breasts that are split to half the thickness of the original (you want a thinner piece) (this is enough for 14 adult servings)
Place in a plastic bag, or large sealable container along with one recipe of the basic marinated recipe augmented with
Honey (1/4 cup ish). I prefer local unfiltered honey
Dried minced garlic or fresh whole garlic depending on the quality of garlic available at your local store
about 10 turns of your pepper mill set to the largest size
Let sit in your refrigerator at least 4 hours, 12 hours is better. No more than 24 hours.
Place a pot of salted water on the stove (it should taste like the sea) and bring to a boil
Place on the grill and cook through. Pull the chicken and set aside to rest.
Put 1 lb of dried (fresh is good too) fettuccini pasta in the water so that you have a rest time of about 10 minutes for the chicken. Cook the pasta so that it's Al-dente
about 3 mintues before the pasta is done, put a stick of butter in a heavy sauté pan and melt over medium heat. When it's almost all melted, put in 1 cup heavy cream, and 6-8 oz of grated Parmesan cheese (real if you can get it, good quality Wisconsin if you can't. Freshly grated in your home kitchen is best...DO NOT USE THE GREEN CAN.
whisk the mixture until smooth and reduce heat to the lowest levels. You can add black pepper to taste at this point.
When the pasta is done (which should be right as your sauce is coming together), pull it from the water (strain, lift it out of the water in the basket, whatever) and as soon as the sauce is ready, put it in the sauce. Toss to coat and turn off the heat.
use about 3/4 of one piece of your split chicken per adult (3 pieces should do most families of 4) and cut them into cubes. You can use strips, but then up to 1 piece per person...2 if you have teenage boys in sports
Put pasta on the plate, place the chicken on top. For presentation, you can add some fresh rough chopped parsley on top.
The pasta will not reheat well, so learn what you family will eat and use that amount.
I know that everyone here has a secret rub or marinade that they have, or will one day use to crush everyone else at a BBQ competition. This is not about sharing those.
For those of you who do the everyday cooking for your family, this is what this thread is for.
Share some of your rubs or marinades that you use when you put dinner on the table.
Since I am asking others to share, I am going to share mine first. Unfortunately, I measure by eye, squeeze, pinch, handfull, and shake, so I can't give you exact proportions. I will make my best guesses.
All purpose marinade:
Good for steak, chicken, and pork
Base:
Bottle of Wishbone Italian dressing
Kikoman Soy Sauce (not the low sodium version, use the black label, not the green label) - 1/4 to a 1/2 cup depending on how big a bottle of dressing you use. If you do not like the taste of Soy, use a big handful of salt instead. For reference, I use 3 big handfuls of salt to season a pot of water for pasta.
Add-ins
Honey - This is especially useful for things like grilled chicken
Grated Ginger
Lime juice
Lemon Juice
Garlic - either fresh whole, fresh minced, dried minced, powered, or jarred minced depending on the flavor profile you want for the garlic
Onion - fresh diced, dried minced, or powered
cracked black pepper
Vodka or other neutral spirit - or when you want to extract alcohol soluble flavors but no other flavors
Bourbon - for when you want to extract alcohol soluble flavors AND you want the taste that bourbon brings
Example: The recipe I use for grilled chicken with pasta and an alfredo sauce
6 Chicken breasts that are split to half the thickness of the original (you want a thinner piece) (this is enough for 14 adult servings)
Place in a plastic bag, or large sealable container along with one recipe of the basic marinated recipe augmented with
Honey (1/4 cup ish). I prefer local unfiltered honey
Dried minced garlic or fresh whole garlic depending on the quality of garlic available at your local store
about 10 turns of your pepper mill set to the largest size
Let sit in your refrigerator at least 4 hours, 12 hours is better. No more than 24 hours.
Place a pot of salted water on the stove (it should taste like the sea) and bring to a boil
Place on the grill and cook through. Pull the chicken and set aside to rest.
Put 1 lb of dried (fresh is good too) fettuccini pasta in the water so that you have a rest time of about 10 minutes for the chicken. Cook the pasta so that it's Al-dente
about 3 mintues before the pasta is done, put a stick of butter in a heavy sauté pan and melt over medium heat. When it's almost all melted, put in 1 cup heavy cream, and 6-8 oz of grated Parmesan cheese (real if you can get it, good quality Wisconsin if you can't. Freshly grated in your home kitchen is best...DO NOT USE THE GREEN CAN.
whisk the mixture until smooth and reduce heat to the lowest levels. You can add black pepper to taste at this point.
When the pasta is done (which should be right as your sauce is coming together), pull it from the water (strain, lift it out of the water in the basket, whatever) and as soon as the sauce is ready, put it in the sauce. Toss to coat and turn off the heat.
use about 3/4 of one piece of your split chicken per adult (3 pieces should do most families of 4) and cut them into cubes. You can use strips, but then up to 1 piece per person...2 if you have teenage boys in sports
Put pasta on the plate, place the chicken on top. For presentation, you can add some fresh rough chopped parsley on top.
The pasta will not reheat well, so learn what you family will eat and use that amount.
