Cooking Outdoors Grilling, Camp and Dutch oven Cooking!

Greek Chicken and Lemon Roasted Potatoes Recipe

Here is another recipe converted to the grill from my friends over at Rouxbe.com. Simple, quick and packing tons of flavor, this recipe will certainly be on your “Must grill” list again and again. I love taking recipes made for the kitchen and recreating them outdoors on the grill or even in a Dutch oven, this recipe was perfect for the Island Grillstone.

The ingredients listed are enough to make both recipes, just divide in half when it is time to marinade them both.

Here is a quick video clip of the Grilled Greek Chicken recipe being prepared at Rouxbe.com:

Rouxbe Online Cooking School & Video Recipes

The marinade is perfect from the grill, it caramelizes up quickly from the sugar content so grill over a two zone fire or use and Island Grillstone to control flare-ups and burning. A two-zone fire will allow you to move the chicken/potatoes off of the heat and over to a cool zone if it flares up or has caramelized enough.

To prepare the marinade, first purée the garlic in a food processor. Add the grainy mustard, honey, Dijon, Greek seasoning, lemon pepper, salt and pepper. Pulse a few times to blend. Then add the lemon zest and fresh lemon juice. Keep the food processor running while you slowly add the oil. Do not over mix. The consistency should be thick but still pourable.

8 garlic cloves

1/2 cup grainy mustard

6 tbsp honey

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1 tbsp Greek seasoning

1 tbsp lemon pepper

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3 tbsp lemon zest

1/2 cup lemon juice (4 lemons)

2 1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 tbsp fresh oregano

2 tbsp fresh thyme

Finely chop the oregano and thyme and add them ½ to the Chicken and ½ to the Potatoes, along with the dressing.

Marinade the chicken for few hours in the refrigerator, no need to marinade the potatoes, just coat and grill.

The Lemon Potatoes should go on the grill a few minutes before the chicken, they need more time to cook. Turn then to caramelize all sides.

Grill at 400°F till the potatoes are soft and the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F

Here is a video clip of the Lemon Potatoes being prepared on Rouxbe.com:

Rouxbe Online Cooking School & Video Recipes

Thank you to Rouxbe.com (My favorite online cooking school) for this awesome recipe!

Note: Cooking-Outdoors.com is an affiliate of Rouxbe.com cooking school.

Butter Baked Corn

Rouxbe Tuesday – Here is another video from Rouxbe.com, one that I plan to cook in my Dutch oven.

Rouxbe Online Cooking School & Video Recipes

Note: Cooking-Outdoors.com is an affiliate of Rouxbe.com cooking school.

Grilled Romaine Salad with Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

Fresh homemade Blue Cheese salad dressing from as little as 8 ingredients to top off a grilled Romaine salad, smokey, robust and refreshing on a hot summer afternoon.

One of my first memories of Blue Cheese dressing was on a family vacation so many years ago it is almost a blur. I do remember having a bite of my fathers steak (so good!) and my salad which was smothered in freshly made, creamy blue cheese salad dressing. The salad itself was unremarkable as I remember, just Iceberg lettuce with perhaps a tomato and the delightful fresh cracked black pepper the waiter applied on the top.

What has haunted me all these years since, is the limited re-occurrences of that amazing dressing. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed many great salad dressings over the years, it’s just that I have had way to many inferior bottled versions from the grocery store as substitutes. Very few ever delivered the euphoria of my first blue cheese dressing.

Promoting this whole episode was the Romaine lettuce I had just purchased the day before, the “What the heck were we going to eat for dinner tonight,” combination of frustration and desire. It was hot, close to 100 degrees and I was not going to spend the afternoon grilling – nope, no way! So I decide a little grilled romaine and some sautéed bell peppers would do the nicely for dinner, quick and easy with a few slices of garlic toast to accompany the salad. Checking what else we could have with the salad, I discovered a couple of tomatoes, perfect! Then with a quick glance to the salad dressings… None!

Now I was in trouble! A vinaigrette would be an easy fix, not quite what I was craving for, so looking around a bit more I discovered some beautiful blue-veined, crumbly, smelly and perfect Blue Cheese I was saving for who knows what. “Can I make Blue Cheese dressing?” I mumble in my head.

A quick look for Blue Cheese dressings recipes online revealed some great recipes, but they almost all universally required “Buttermilk”, not something I keep on hand ever, or sour cream. Still not willing to go back to the store, I kept looking for a recipe that fit my kitchen stock (i.e. no buttermilk, no sour cream) and came across an easy recipe on About.com calling for just a few ingredients that I had in stock!

So why am I ranting so much about Blue Cheese dressing? After I doctored the recipe just a bit to make it fit my kitchen stock, we dinned on the best grilled Romaine salad I have eaten in a long time. Yes, It’s probably because I made the blue cheese dressing myself for the first time but there is no reason not to pat myself on the back at least every other day, right?

It was really, really good and reminded me of that old blue cheese dressing I had savored for so long in my memory.

Here is my doctored recipe and I will say that two days later it tasted even better!

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

Recipe type: Salad Dressing

Author: Gary House

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

Serves: 6

This recipe is from http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/saladdressings/r/bluecheese.htm I modified it slightly based on what I had at home.

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
¾ tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ lb blue cheese crumbled
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ – ½ cup half & half

Instructions

Combine the mayonnaise, white wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, blue cheese, garlic powder, pepper and salt in a bowl.
Slowly stir in half & half to thin as desired.
Taste, if needed add additional salt and pepper.
Chill for 1 hour.