Weekend Menu

With Saturday spent sealing the deck we decided to wait until Sunday and Monday to cook out. My wife bought a whole chicken for a beer can chicken and also bought a slab of ribs for us to cook for the two evenings. There were a variety of sides that we would prepare with them.

We decided to cook the chicken on Sunday on the gas side of the grill and wait until Monday to try the ribs on the charcoal side. For the beer can chicken we used the only beer we had, which is one of the least expensive beers out there, Killian's Red. In addition to the beer I used a few basic seasonings including Kosher salt, fresh pepper, and a little garlic powder. We also added vegetables about mid-way through the cooking. Next time we will add them at the beginning.

With the chicken cooked on Sunday that meant that Monday, Memorial Day, I would cook the ribs. Many people will insist that you have to have a smoker to really cook ribs. Since you want an indirect heat for around three hours there are some challenges to using a charcoal grill. I got around this by adding a big handful of charcoal about three times during the cooking. I wanted to keep the temperature under 400 degrees but didn't want it to get too low. I also had a couple of burned wood planks that I had used to cook salmon that I broke and placed on top of the coals. Needless to say, smoke was not a problem. The whole neighborhood smelled great!

I saved a recipe for ribs that a fraternity brother had given me about three years ago. Contact me if you want it! I also bought a second rack to prepare in a different way. My friend's recipe was for wet ribs and mine were dry. In order to keep them moist I wrapped both in aluminum foil. Both were on the grill for over two hours and both were seared on direct heat at the end for five minutes. My friends were so moist the meat was falling off the bones. The picture looks like I have sampled a rib but I assure you that was straight from the grill. My ribs, which just used a dry rub were too salty in my opinion. However, both were great!