Cooking for a family barbecue can be daunting. You want to provide good, nutritious meals but you don’t want to spend so much time slaving at the grill that when it comes time to eat you just want to go to bed. Here are some easy barbecue meals for your family that can each can be cooked without too much fuss. All are done on the standard backyard grill, although some might require a couple of accessories you may not have. Visit www.zieglerandbrown.com.au/ to see what barbecue equipment is available and what you might need.
Barbecue steak
Everyone’s outdoor meal favourite, the steak is easy to cook and usually accompanied by an even easier salad. The difficulty is in ensuring everyone gets their steak just how they like it – rare, medium rare, medium, or well done. A good suggestion is to act like a waiter before cooking, determine exactly how each person wants their steak cooked and mark the steaks accordingly – perhaps with an ice block stick like they do in the better steak houses. And don’t put them on all at once; that would mean taking the rarer steaks off earlier and causing people who want rare or medium rare pieces of meat to eat earlier or eat cold. Stagger the cooking, placing the steaks to be well done on the grill first and then adding new pieces according to their cooking requirements. Finally, don’t serve the meat straight away. Let the steaks rest for five or 10 minutes to allow the juices to move back into the meat. The steaks will be much more succulent this way.
Barbecue grilled pizza
Everyone loves pizza, but not everyone knows how to cook them on an outdoor grill. First you need to purchase a pizza stone suitable for a grill from your local barbecue retailer. After that, it’s all easy. The good thing about pizza is you don’t really need a recipe. You obviously need pizza base, which you can make yourself or buy ready-made from the supermarket. After that, what you put on your pizza is a matter of preference, your imagination and taste buds. Heat the grill with the stone already in place; it has to heat slowly with the hot plate to avoid cracking. Once it is hot enough according to the manufacturer’s instructions, place the pizza on, close the lid and cook for 10 to 15 minutes and you’re done.
Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken
Here’s something for those who want to be a little more adventurous with their grilling techniques. It’s still easy; it just requires a little more preparation. First mix some mustard, honey, mayonnaise, and steak sauce in a shallow bowl and dip some boneless chicken breasts in it. Place the coated chicken on an oiled grill and cook for 18 to 20 minutes or until the juices run clear. Use the left over honey mustard mix to baste the chicken during the cooking process.
These are just three outdoor recipe ideas that should have the family queuing for more. Of course there are a lot of other possibilities that should be well received such as seafood, pork and lamb. It’s just a matter of being adventurous and trying out a few.
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