A little late with the update from cook that I completed on January 28. It had been about a month since the previous grill which was in late December. We decided to grill a few boneless chicken breasts and then a few turkey breasts. It would be our dinner for Sunday evening and then for two more nights later in the week.
Boneless Chicken Breasts Following
January 28 Cook
I had not cleaned the BGE since I purchased it back in August, so I decided to clean it out. When I cooked back in December, I had difficulty getting the temperature high and following that cook I accounted it to be because it needed to clean it out. Sunday, January 28 was a cold day and my hands were feeling the temperature. I managed to get all of the old lump removed from the BGE so it could be loaded and prepare for the evening cook.
Turkey Breasts Done Following
January 28 Cook
I only took two pictures of the cook on January 28 of the final product. I did use a new thermometer I got for Christmas. It worked great! It syncs bluetooth to my iPhone and then with my new Apple Watch, I am able to see the temperature for up two two separate cuts of meat. Easy to use and worked out great!
Letting the grill get to high heat to start to cook off previous cooks, I brought the temperature back down to around 300 - 350 degrees. Keeping it around that mark throughout the cook. Turning the meet regularly, it took longer than I had anticipated for the meet to finish and reach being cooked. I was using a menu that I found on a Google search that said about eight minutes each side, but I would say it took probably closer to thirty minutes to cook both cuts of meat. I was afraid it was going to burn, but had no issues with the burn marks.
The meat was extremely moist and cooked nicely. There was not any smokey flavor as the temperature was higher than what would allow the smokey flavor to get into the meat. Overall, it was a very enjoyable process and we enjoyed the meal the cooked meat provided for three additional meals.
I will be cooking this evening after a snow storm came through this morning. Tonight will be a pork tenderloin and more chicken breasts, so I will once again be able to utilize the new thermometer and monitor it from inside.
Happy grilling and I will be back on here soon....
On Sunday, December 3, we did a pork roast on the grill. First time I tried doing a pork roast. We did two so we could have extras for the week. I did not plan well, so did not start preparing for the cook until mid-afternoon. I put a nice rub we had from the store.
Took a while to get the grill ready, but worked out as I was preparing the pork roast for the grill. I never did get a high heat going with this cook. I have not cleaned out the lump since we bought the grill. The highest the temperature would go was about 300 and that was not until about the end of the cook. I added more lump before I lit the grill, but still could not get a high temp. I need to spend more time in the forums to see what others say. I am guessing that having the lump in there since the start and sitting in the elements is the issue. Granted, it is covered, but probably moisture still gets into the lump. I need to get some containers to hold new lump (instead of keeping in the bags) and then container to remove lump. I saw someone early on in my BGE experience with someone recommending this technique for dealing with new and old lump.
Pork Roast Ready for the Grill
I let the pork roast sit out on the counter for about two hours with the rub before grilling. I found various recipes that talked about brining the meat the day before or at least 5 - 6 hours before grilling. Not having started preparing the meat until a few hours before it was needed on the grill, I was left with doing a quick prep.
The rub we used was Jack's Gourmet Seasoning. We had picked it up at the store prior to planning this cook. The bottle said it was perfect on steaks, seafood, pork, etc., so figured we would try it out. I thought it had good flavor. It went on nicely and did not add olive oil or anything else to make it stick. Even through the cook, the rub remained on the meat. Gave it a nice almost crust to the finished pork roast.
Reading through how long others had cooked the meat, I thought it was going to take about an hour. It ended up taking about and hour and half. Again, I think this was due to the heat not being as high as I had wanted. Others had said they grilled at about 300 - 350, but the highest the heat would get this day of cooking was only about 300 and again it was at the end of the cook. Most of the cook it was about 250 degrees. Even though it took longer to cook, I thought the pork was nice and moist; easy to cut with a knife or fork with good flavor from the rub. Carrie was a little grossed out at first as she was not sure it was done. The color looked odd in a few places, but the internal temperature was well above what was recommended of 140 internal.
Pork Roast Off of the Grill and Ready to Eat
To the right is the picture of the final product as well as the rub that was used. I think it had nice color inside and the color outside with the rub turned out nicely too. After removing from the grill with internal heat of around 140 degrees, I covered with aluminum foil and let stand for about twenty minutes on the kitchen counter allowing it to cook further.
We served the port roast with a salad although I do not have a picture of the plated pork and salad. It was a good way to start December. I am hoping to do much more grilling before the end of the year.
I still have not cooked a chicken breast, whole turkey, or ribs on the BGE yet. I have so much to learn about cooking and grilling with the BGE... I am having a blast with it so far. No disappointments with anything I have cooked so far on the grill.
After a busy couple of weeks without any grilling, we finally grilled on Sunday, October 29. The weeks leading up to this day to grill were kept busy by completing a eight class which has ended. Still, posting this the week after, I am not grilling as much as I would like. Hoping to do more grilling over the next couple of weeks before the end of the year.
Steak filets and turkey steaks Ready for Grill
It had been a while since I had grilled, so we decided to grill not only for our dinner that night, but to have leftovers to have later in the week too. We went with steak filets for Sunday night and turkey steaks later in the week.
Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Typical seasoning used that I got from my father-in-law and tastes great with steaks. Usually use soy sauce too, but we were out of soy sauce.
Preparation of the Big Green Egg went much better too. Still takes a little while to get it lit and ready for grilling, but I cannot complain when I have something cold to drink and we are not in a hurry. We had a lazy Sunday afternoon on October 29, so I was able to let the grill reach maximum heat before cleaning and preparing to grill.
Steak Filet Resting
Grilled the steaks first. Got the Big Green Egg nice and hot to around 700 degrees before reducing slightly to about 500 degrees. Put the steaks on and grilled on each side for about ten minutes. Turned out great!
The steaks had been in the freezer and were from Omaha Steaks that my mom had given me for my birthday. I thought they were really good with good flavor although mom said the ones she got from his batch were not good and would not be ordering again from them. Carrie and I really like steaks from Hy-Vee although I cannot complain about the meat from Omaha Steak either. My dad started getting me steaks and other assorted meats from Omaha Steak before he passed and my mom kept it going the past few years. I think last summer was the last time we got steaks from there when she said she would not do them any more.
Steak Filet and Risotto is Served
Carrie made mushroom and pea risotto. Turned out great and went well with the steak. I have not done any vegetables on the Big Green Egg yet, but I plan to do some soon. I cooked on a gas grill the next week at my moms and did steaks then too (no pictures), but we did do veggies on the grill which tasted really good. I need to those on the BGE sometime too. I think the flavor would be really good with the smokey flavor. Usually when we have veggies to cook, we simply do them in the kitchen on the stove, but plan to do then the next time on the grill. The risotto, steak, and a bottle of wine was a perfect night!
Turkey Steak for Later in the Week
After the steaks came off the grill, we put on the turkey steaks for us to eat later in the week. Marinated in the same they tasted very good. I believe we ate these on Tuesday or Wednesday of the next week and tasted very good.
I am hoping in the next month or two to be able to post and document how a whole turkey cook goes for me. We did buy a pork butt that was on sale at Hy-Vee last week, but it will be a little while before I have a chance to cook the pork butt. I cannot wait though to spend a weekend cooking. I am happy with the Big Green Egg purchase and have been pleased with how the food comes off the grill.
Have a great week and hope to have another post of my grilling soon!
Tonight we did boneless pork chops on the grill. Low and slow was the setup for tonight. Kept the grill between 250 - 300 and cooked them for 90 minutes one on side. After 90 minutes, flipped and started lathering on BBQ sauce for another 30 minutes. All told, did them for about two and half hours. We could have left them on longer and turned down the grill a little more to get it below 250, but we were hungry and decided to take them off.
They turned out great! Not as tender as I was hoping, but good flavor. Carrie was concerned about the BBQ sauce I was using, but she liked it in the end. Happy with how they turned out.
This was the sixth cook from the Big Green Egg. Another low and slow cook with another one planned for Sunday. Planning on doing our first brisket on Sunday, so I will be spending time on the Big Green Egg EGGhead Forum gathering hints and information. I see another person just posted that they were doing a brisket and getting a lot of pointers from others on the forum. I believe that will be about an eight hour cook, but need to research further before Sunday.
Starting the fire tonight went much better. Got the temperature hot within about 30 minutes. Stopped by Patio Pool and Fireside on Saturday to pick up another bag of lump along with a new tool to scrape the grill between cooks. The scrapper I have had few a few years is falling apart and the high temps from a week ago (Fifth Grill Opened up Flame and Cooked Steaks) made it about disintegrate from the heat. Bristles falling out of it and no longer useful.
Looking forward to another cook on Sunday. Until then, I will be working on homework with two forum posts due Friday night and a paper due that night too. A lot to do and instead here I am posting an update on what I cooked tonight.
Have a great week and I plan to post pictures of preparation, cooking, and final product Sunday evening.
Fifth Grill Steak Cooked to Perfection with Brussels Sprouts
Following the first four grills of keeping the temperature under 350 degrees, we were finally able to open it up and grill steak. We are actually doing our fifth and sixth grills tonight with another pork tenderloin going on here shortly. After getting the grill temperature up to between 600 - 650 degrees, I realize now I should have done the pork tenderloin before the steaks. Taking a long time for the temp of the grill to come down so we can do the pork tenderloin.
At one point while getting the grill ready, the temperature went all the way around the dial which I am estimating was a 950 - 1000 degree temperature. I had gone inside to prepare mushrooms for the steak and came out and realized the temperature continued to climb after I went inside. Hoping that did not cause any damage as I brought it back down closing vents further and the temp dropped to around 650 - 700. Doing additional fine tuning with the top and bottom vents I was able to keep it between 600 - 650 degrees.
Getting Ready
Still taking me a little while, it seems, to get the grill started. I know some people on the EGGhead Forum suggested getting a weed burner to start the grill. I have not done so yet and using fire starters we got from the shop. They work, but it takes about 25 - 30 minutes to get the grill ready to cook.
After finishing the grilling of steak that took two minutes each side, it seemed odd it took longer to get the grill ready than it did to actually cook the food. Although we are doing another cook tonight with the pork, but seemed odd. I am sure I will get the hang of starting the grill and maybe it will get faster.
Using advise I got from the forum, I did leave the lid open until I made sure enough lump was lit. That did seem to make the process better and got the temperature up. I will continue to monitor and fine tune the process of lighting and see if I can increase the time it takes to get started.
Kept Temp at 600 - 650
I snapped a picture of the temperature gauge simply because it got so hot. I could not believe how hot it got. I had read descriptions of the heat that Big Green Eggs can get extremely high temperatures. As I mentioned earlier, the temp got so hot that it basically circled around and 950 or 1000. The needle on the gauge was pointing at the 200 mark when I closed vents and started taking the temp back down. Again, hopefully I did not cause any issues for the Egg or the gauge by getting it so hot. The plan was not to get that hot. I thought I had it pegged at the 650 - 700 mark, but it started going up and got very hot. As they warn, I did the burp when opening it which is good as a ring of flame came out each time I opened it. I had an oven mitt on which was good because it was very hot even when I got it down to the temp I wanted to cook at for the steaks. Impressive!
Pork Tenderloin Cooked at 300 - 350
I just took off the pork tenderloin. Took a while to get the temp down so the pork did not burn. Looks like it turned out great! Cooked for 14 minutes each side to start. The temperature was about 150, so left on for another minute or two each side. We will have this over our salad tomorrow night for dinner, so decided to take it off before it got to 160. Leave it juicy and then hopefully will not dry out when we heat it up tomorrow.
Impressive evening of cooking. Had a good day! Got up and went for a run. We went shopping and then came home to study a little bit. Finished my reading for the week, but struggling to get writing done for this weeks posts. Hoping to knock them both out tomorrow.
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day and long weekend. Have a great rest of the week!
A simple night of grilling. Carrie wanted to cook the pork chops in the fry pan, but I told her I could do them on the Big Green Egg instead. After thinking about it for a little bit, she decided that would work.
Took about an hour from lighting the fire, grilling, to plating the finished product. Not too bad!
I used a new technique that I used that someone told me on Big Green Egg EGGhead Forum with their suggestion being that light the brick and leave it open a bit longer until more of the lump lights. Worked a lot better tonight lighting the grill. Temps before I started lowering it got up to around 400 degrees. Actually, at one point it went up to about 500 as I was inside and came back out to close things up and lower it back down to about 300. The temperature was still climbing when it was at 500, so I have no doubt I will be able to reach high temperatures in a few more grills.
Cook pork chops with a stir fry style veggies. Good way to start the week.
Have a great rest of the week and hope to post more grilling pictures soon. I am off to study and work on my class.
After years of thinking about getting a Big Green Egg, I finally got one on August 19, 2017. I had been going back and forth thinking about a Traeger Grill or Big Green Egg. Finally, Big Green Egg won out. I like the idea that it is only me cooking and not relying on power to make the thing work.
So far, I have cooked twice on the Big Green Egg. We cooked the day after we purchased and then again on that Monday. The only pictures we gathered were from Instagram where Carrie took pictures of the completed food.
To start, we did a pork tenderloin. It is recommended that the first 4 - 6 grilling we keep the temperature 350 or below. This is to allow the Green Egg to seal and do it's thing. After those 4 - 6 grilling, then we can do higher temps.
We are both dying to do a steak on the grill, but recommended to do those after a few grills as need a temperature of 600 or more. So, we are hoping to be able to do steaks next weekend.
Pork Tenderloin
The pork tenderloin took about 30 minutes to grill. It took me a little bit to get the grill started, but once it lit it was easy to keep the temperature targeted right around 200 degrees. Open vent a little and it would shoot up or close it and it would go down. It will take me a little bit to get use to how it works.
I thought the pork tenderloin turned out really well. Especially for my first try and using the Green Egg.
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Chicken Breasts
Monday night, we grilled four chicken breasts with bone in. This night, it took me a long time to get the fire started. I had watched videos on YouTube about lighting and did exactly what they said not to do... I got the starters going and poured more charcoal and put out the starters. So, that extended the grill time a bit. Because the time was extended we did not eat until about 8:30 or 9 that evening. The only picture we got was of the chicken salad we made with the grilled chicken. Let me tell you, that was delicious though as the smokey flavor could be tasted in the chicken salad.
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The grilling of the chicken breasts was also fun because with about twenty minutes left in the grill, it started to downpour. I had an umbrella and continued to cook. The rain did not seem to have any effect on the grill as it kept the same temp and I continued to grill. It was worth the wait as the chicken was moist and delicious.
Chicken Breasts Part Two
Chicken Breasts Bone-in... Ready to Prep for Lunches
Catching us up today, August 27, I started off the afternoon doing four large chicken breasts bone-in. I did these at 300 degrees over indirect heat. They appear to have turned out perfectly. Internal temp got to about 160 before taking them off of the grill. These are actually for lunches this upcoming week.
We used a simple salt and pepper coating on these and put them on the grill. When we did these the first grill last week, we coated them in Olive Oil and then coated in salt and pepper. That was recommend as we were using direct heat. This afternoon, we were able to skip the Olive Oil and use only salt and pepper with it being indirect heat.
Carrie will take these and make chicken salad. I am not sure what else she has planned for these, but she said cook and I cooked.
The indirect heat was done using the convEGGtor. First time trying it. I also used a drip pan. Smelled really good as they were cooking and I could hear the grease being caught by the drip pan as these cooked. Odd to be grilling and hear the sizzling of grease. The only thing we were wanting was the skin to be a little more done, but not sure how I can get that done with the indirect heat being used. I will browse the forums to see what people suggest to get a crispy skin for future grills.
Leg Quarters
Leg Quarters Final Few Moments of Grilling
Finishing off the afternoon grilling were the leg quarters. Another hour and half grill. Set the Green Egg and forget about it. Turn every 45 minutes. These are dark meat, so we need to make sure the internal temperature is at least 200 degrees. The grill is set as before with indirect heat and a grilling temperature of 300 degrees. Early in the grilling the temperature did get to as high as 350, but the past forty minutes it has been right at 300.
This finishes up the third grill for me on the Big Green Egg. It was a fun afternoon of grilling and after lots of chicken is done, we are ready to eat.
Dinner is Served with Leg Quarters, Brussels Sprouts, and potato salad. It was good!
Final dinner picture from the leg quarters tonight and they were delicious!
Let's Feast
Fun day and I learned more about how to grill on the BigEgg. This finishes up our third grill using the Big Green Egg. Two or three more to go and I can open up the heat to see how hot I can get it to go. So far, not very hot even when preheating. I was warned to keep the temperature below 350 as I mentioned, however, even when preheating the hottest I have seen it go is 400 and not much over it.
Until next time, have a great rest of your Sunday and I look forward to grilling again soon!
