Grilling

This one will be short and sweet... or should I say, grilled. If it's one thing I love about summer, it's grilling food. Any kind of meat is good... steaks, chicken, pork chops, ribs, the list goes on. Even some vegetables.



Just look at that, you can almost smell it now. This was just one part of our menu today, but I thought it turned out really well. For the chicken, I used a recipe that I saw in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. It goes something like this:

Apple-Smoked Chicken Thighs

2 cups apple juice

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

4 large bone-in chicken thighs or thigh/leg combination), rinsed and patted dry

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup wood chips, soaked in apple juice and drained

For apple spray: Put juice and sugar in stainless-steel saucepan over medium heat, and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Cool to room temperature and pour into a plastic spray bottle.

Sprinkle the chicken with pepper and salt; set aside while you prepare the grill. When coals are ready, spread them evenly across half the grill; scatter wood chips over hot coals. Place chicken over indirect-heat side of grill (not directly over coals) and spray with apple juice. When smoke starts to rise, close the lid. Place a candy thermometer in the grill vent. Smoke chicken at 225 F to 250 F for 1 hour, spraying chicken every 20 minutes. After 1 hour, spray chicken again, then transfer to direct heat over hot coals for 2 minutes, turning as necessary, or until the skin has crisped all over.

For the record, I substituted chicken breasts for thighs, since... what can I say?... I'm a breast man. But seriously, these turned out to be very tasty. Juicy, with a definite apple flavor. I recommend giving it a shot sometime.

Hate to run, but I think I'm up for a second helping now...