At least here in the SF Bay Area, tri-tip is usually significantly cheaper than the usual steak cuts (NY, rib-eye, etc.). I also find that there is little “waste” with a tri-tip, since there’s no bone, tough cartilage, etc. a whole tri-tip will slice up into a pile of meat large enough for 4-8 adults.
It’s essentially a recipe and style of grilled (rather than a roast) preparation of tri-tip popularized in the CA town of Santa Maria. Traditionally wood grilled, but I’ve made it on charcoal and gas, and it works out great every time. The cut and the style of preparation is forgiving.
Most of the chuck roasts I have bought go to making braciole. The more I read from you guys and the more I think about it I find myself wanting a smoker.
Long Pig?
Whenever feasible, one should always try to eat the rude.
I find all the articles/cooking shows about cheap cuts of meat are either just outdated or inaccurate. I have never been able to find skirt or flank steak for very cheap. Maybe they were 10 years ago but not now. Around here they’re priced about the same as a strip steak.
Tri-tip will probably go up soon too with that being the new cheapish cut. And yes it’s very much a California thing so it hasn’t spread to the rest of the country as much yet. Still a very flavorful piece of meat though.
Time to call mom. Braciole is required.
Whole Chicken.
Salt and Pepper liberally.
Hardwood Charcoal.
Indirect Heat.
About an hour or so.
Eat.
I don’t get the hate for chicken breast on the grill. I have a few in the fridge right now. I give them 2 minutes on each side over the coals to get those nice dark grill lines, then about 8-10 minutes of indirect heat and they are fabulous.
If I forget them for even just a minute or two, it’s not so good. But as long as I don’t fall asleep at the grill, it’s all lovely.
But I am a griller dilettante :) so maybe there is some other reason to be hating on the breasts?
I bought a smoker last year. Threw a 6 pound, $6 dollar whole chicken in it yesterday. Cooked for 5 hours. I did not have a chance to brine it and only put a little rub on it which really didn’t do much to the taste but according to my ex chef mother in law, it was the juiciest chicken she’s had in years…it was amazingly moist.
That was enough chicken to last our family of 5 for two days, with a side like a salad of course. Whole chickens are the cheapest way to go if you want chicken.
This is pretty much how I do it. 4 minutes or so on each side, and 7 minutes or so indirect. Come out nice and moist most every time…definitely stand at the grill though to make sure.
If you are afraid of drying out a piece of meat by cooking it to long try wrapping it in foil about half way through and finish cooking it on the grill that way. It holds in the juices and works great for things like chicken, pork and lamb.
Hmm…I don’t think that makes sense? I’m not sure.
Meat “dryness” usually isn’t a question of just liquid evaporating off, so covering shouldn’t really matter in that way. And while in theory you could basically do a sear-and-braise, anything on the grill isn’t going to have enough time for that? So, I’m wondering what the mechanism is by which that would work. I think you might get the same effect just by taking the meat off the direct heat portion of the grill, and being sure to rest it for 5-10 mins before cutting and serving.
Just throwing this in – if you have an Aldi’s they have fresh pineapple at cheap prices. Here it’s either $0.99 or $1.19. Slice one and grill it and it is awesome, especially with pork.
Grilling a chicken breast to required juiciness is fairly difficult on the grill unless you can put it in warm areas and not over direct heat. And then it’d be a bit of a test. Best way to do it just grill them off a few minutes on each side, then pop 'em in the oven. (Or the equivalent I suppose as mention above is mark them, then wrap in tinfoil).
— Alan
Like. Grilled pineapple is wonderful. It’s also really nice with ice cream for dessert.
A tasty, slightly exotic alternative to hamburgers is kofta, which is basically ground beef (or better: a mix of ground beef and ground lamb) seasoned with chopped onion, allspice, cumin, coriander, and cinnamon, plus salt, pepper, and garlic if that’s to your taste, then formed around skewers and grilled. You can serve the kebabs with rice, or stuff them into pita pockets.
It’s kind of like gyros, but different (and way easier to make at home). Different recipes abound, and you can tweak it like crazy, but this one is pretty solid.
Wanna talk grilling veggies? Cut a couple of Vidalia onions in thirds across the grain. Then push skewers through them to keep the rings together. Brush with a mixture of balsamic vinegar salt and oil. Grill until they have serious char on the outside. Keep brushing with balsamic and oil until the end. Enjoy.
For red meat the best bang for the buck IMO is prime top sirloin. At my local grocery store its $7/lb normally, sometimes on sale for as low as $5.
When I first encountered the prime grade of beef in a store I thought “No way is that worth the price difference” and ignored it for a few years. Then I tried it and I wont ever buy choice or select again. My favorite cut is NY strip but the regular price for that is $15/lb and I don’t feel like its twice as good as the top sirloin. It is occasionally on sale for $10/lb and I buy the shit out of it then.
Cook it in a crockpot, low heat for 6 hours, cover it with a cream of mushroom soup (mix the can of soup with 1/2 a can of water before pouring it in). It comes out extremely tender and delicious.