It was shortly after dinner on Wednesday night when my wife was making up our shopping list and she asked me if I wanted to grill this past weekend. It was honestly more of a rhetorical question because @mrsbozz knows just how much I love to grill. What came next was the tougher question: What did I want to grill?
Although we have a freezer full of different kinds and cuts of meat in our garage, I was leaning towards bratwurst (brats). Then she threw a curve ball at me. Since I didn't answer right away, she started throwing out possibilities. Brats? Greek chicken tacos?
Just as I had finally made a decision, she floats an option I hadn't even considered. That's when I decided why not do both? The chicken didn't necessarily have to be right off the grill for the tacos, so I could grill everything up Saturday night and we would be set for Saturday and Sunday dinner. Problem solved!
Through the week, my breakfast usually consists of a small bowl of cereal before I got flying out the door to work. My wife does a little better sometimes having oatmeal or an English muffin with lunch meat and cheese on it. The weekends are different though. Unless we have plans, we slow things down and we actually take time to cook a big breakfast.
When I was younger, we had a restaurant in town called "The Texan". It was a small regional chain with a couple different locations in the surrounding area. One of the meals I loved to get there was the ham steak and eggs. That was the inspiration for breakfast this past Saturday morning.
Two soft (sunny side up) eggs and a couple of leftover slices of lunch meat heated in the pan along with the eggs. It was just what I needed to jump-start my day and give me the energy to go clear the snow off my parents driveway.
I don't have a picture, but I added a couple slices of toast because you simply can't have runny eggs without toast right?
Later that evening, it was time to prep the grill for my cook. As you can see, I am a big fan of the two zone cooking method. I shove all the coals over to one side and leave that as my hot zone. I can then move things over to the cooler side whenever necessary. You can also see there was a still a bit of cooked-on gunk on my grates from the ribs I did a couple of weeks ago. Once the grill was at a decent temperature ~400 degrees Fahrenheit, I used a grill brush and cleaned that stuff off.
This was actually a pretty perfect cook since the chicken breasts needed a more direct cooking method and the bratwurst I usually do with an indirect method. I've talked about this before, but many people boil their brats before they cook them on the grill. The benefit of this is it takes less time to grill them, but I feel it sometimes give them a mushy texture.
Instead, I slow cook the brats away from the flame. This allows them to stay exceptionally juicy. One side effect of my method is it also leaves the casing for the sausage a little tougher. If you can get past that part, I feel the end result is more than worth it (as you will see).
So here we have some chicken breasts that I trimmed and cut thin. We then marinated them in Greek salad dressing for most of the day.
On the cooler side of the grill, we have pork bratwurst that carry the flavors of a "western" omelette. This is one of my favorite flavors of brat from the particular meat market I picked these up at. Cheese, peppers, onions, some of the best stuff in the world mixed up into the bratwurst. Those are the ones that are a bit curved in the back.
Another meat market we like to visit has the chicken garlic Parmesan brats that you see in the front of this picture. Those are for my wife, she loves the flavor and typically prefers chicken over pork.
I close the cover and gave the grill about five minutes before I needed to flip the chicken.
After flipping the chicken I gave it another five minutes (or so) on the other side and I left the bratwurst alone for that first ten minutes.
This is where I made a small mistake. I got busy in the house and I accidentally left the chicken over the coals a bit too long on the second flip. I don't normally mind a bit of char, but as you can see the tip of this piece got pretty wrecked. Our dog Jovi enjoyed that bit, so no harm no foul I guess.
I moved the chicken into the middle of the grill still near the coals, but not right over them so it could finish cooking. I also gave the bratwurst their first flip. I know if you look at the picture above you might think that nothing is happening, but trust me, there is magic taking place inside that casing and the result is going to blow you away.
This was after waiting another ten minutes or so and giving them another flip. See what I mean, things are really starting to come together now.
The chicken was doing alright too.
After another flip or two, it was finally ready to pull of the grill. I used my digital instant read thermometer to check the internal temp of the chicken. I didn't bother checking the brats as I could tell they were good to go just by looking at them.
I diced up the chicken and put it in a small container for Sunday night. Since my wife and I have been trying to reduce our carb intake, I also diced up the bratwurst and we ate it sans bun.
Sorry the pictures are a bit blurry. I was in a rush to get them taken so I could sit down and dig in to this awesome dinner.
We rounded the meal out with some brussels sprouts sauteed on the stovetop and some butternut squash mac and cheese from Trader Joe's. I am not really a fan of squash, but this mac and cheese is amazing. They only have it in stock in the fall and since my wife and I don't have a Trader Joe's near us, we usually buy about 10 to 15 boxes of it when we visit our in-laws in Ohio and store it in the freezer until the next year when it is in stock again.
It is so creamy, delicious, and honestly not that bad for you since they use squash to thicken the sauce instead of 100% cheese. You should try it out if you get the chance.
Now for some gratuitous macro shots...
It was a pretty fantastic meal if I do say so myself!
Let's not forget about that chicken though...
Now, you might be thinking... so if this is a Greek taco, it is just a gyro right? While it does share some of the same components, it isn't exactly the same. First, as you saw above, we use chicken instead of traditional gyro meat. We also use a flour tortilla lightly toasted instead of a pita.
@mrsbozz makes her take on a tangy tzatziki sauce using dill, Greek yogurt, and some other love. I spread that on the toasted pita before adding the mix of romaine lettuce, black olives, onions, Roma tomatoes, cucumbers, and cilantro. I then add the chicken, some of the Greek dressing we set aside before marinading the chicken, Parmesan cheese, and that is it. The masterpiece is complete.
This is probably one my most favorite meals. It is so light and refreshing. The flavors mix together in a magical way. I could seriously eat like five of these tacos and not feel one bit of bad about it.
On this occasion, I only ate three, but that is mostly because I knew I wanted to have some ice cream as a snack later. Plus I wanted to have some of the salad leftover for my lunch today.
It's safe to say, it was an epic weekend of eating in the @bozz household!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
Does Mrs Bozz complain when you want to photograph everything? Or does she appreciate what it earns you? ;)
She is pretty good about it. She understands the idea. It is a bit of a nuisance sometimes, but if anything she just is just light hearted ribbing. There are times I forget and she has to remind me, so it is definitely front and center in her mind!
My other half has no interest in Hive, but she may appreciate when it pays for something she wants.
I try not to think of everything in terms of making a post out of it. Need to just live life sometimes.
I just wanted to say the food looks delicious thanks for sharing 👍🏾
Thank you!
My pleasure 👍🏾 I hope that you have a wonderful day today and a great week ahead 👊🏾
Nothing like food off the grill. I love doing pizza on the grill, it takes some practice but it’s got such an amazing flavor. Have you ever done grilled pizza?
Yes, we have done pizza a couple of times. When we go camping we do calzones on the charcoal grill quite frequently.
Well, I'm really craving for these lol!
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
This really looks yummy, will you teach me how to grill lol
You bet! I'd wait for it to warm up a bit before you head this way though. Unless you like the snow!
I have never experience the snow before lol
Oh, then maybe you should come now. Although our snow is mostly gone now.
!LUV
@emeka4(1/1) gave you LUV.
H-E tools | connect | <><
Given the current emission rate of LUV pushing 500/day, increases to required LUV levels will likely be forthcoming.
Boy did those brats turn out well or what!?!?! No matter what I'm smoking on any given day I always add some time of sausage as a "snack" throughout the process...lolol...it always cooks faster than the other cuts I'm smoking and acts as a "working lunch" I can much on while finishing the smoke. I usually always add a few thick cuts of pork belly as well because.....well because PORK BELLY...am I right!?!?!
These meals looked phenomenal and thanks for sharing....now I've got to find something to eat!!!!
You are probably going to laugh at me, but I honestly don't know as though I have ever had pork belly. I know it always looks really good. I am sure I have, I am just likely forgetting it. That is an awesome idea about putting the sausage on. There is a regional chain just south of us in Ohio and Indiana that I really enjoy. I always get the two meat sampler, but I always have them add sausage on the side because it is just so good!
I am looking at picking up a small propane smoker to start taking with us camping in the summer. I figure what better way to spend the day camping than sitting and drinking and watching the smoker do its thing!
Oh that is a really great idea.
And you definitely need to get some pork belly to smoke it is God's gift to the human race lololol
Will do!
Se ve muy rica tu receta, gracias por compartir. Saludos.
de nada
Barbecued meat side with pasta and salad! That's what I call a perfect meal:)
Yes, thank you! It was pretty fantastic!
It is nice to have such a good day with tasty food
Have a good day ❤️
Thank you! You too!
Que rico eso es lo que me hace falta ahorita.
Gracias!
I also had in plan to go for a grill in the nature tomorrow with my family but looks like weather got drunk on this part of the world because we had snow in the morning and will keep snowing for the next 4 days too, lol
Oh wow! That sounds pretty great! The snow I mean. We haven't gotten nearly as much as I would like this year. We still had some on the ground, but I pulled the grill into the driveway and grilled there. Hopefully by next weekend things will clear up and you can grill.
Oh, a similar situation is over here too as some regions of Romania haven't seen snow at all this season, but due to living close to the mountains I got plenty of it, lol! And yeah, I hope this won't last too much either so I I'll enjoy a grill too 😀
Sounds like a beautiful place to live! My wife's uncle was some kind of diplomat to Romania. I'd love to visit one day.
That's nice. Hopefully you'll get to visit Romania one day :)
Wow, this looking attractive, I love it, I wish to learn this it.
Thank you! All you can do is start trying. I have years of experience behind me!
grilled food is the best
That grill really did it's job of filling that table with those delicious mouth water dishes. :) Came here from listnerds.
Thanks! I appreciate it. It was a pretty awesome weekend. Some of my absolute favorites all in a couple of days!
I've never thought about marinating chicken in a greek salad dressing. That sounds like a splendid idea!
Those wraps and the bratwurst look amazing 😋
I know a lot of people use Italian dressing. The Greek is very similar.
I've never thought about using a salad dressing as a marinade at all before, so this is new to me, and I would guess most South Africans. It makes sense though, having vinegar, herbs and all sorts of goodies in there already.
Yeah, the vinegar and oil really helps break down the meat. Add a little bit of citrus and it keeps it really tender.
Yummy, we call this "durum" may translate into "Wrap" Seems so delicious !PIZZA !CTP
You do know that this is 'horror´ for a vegetarian, right?
Now without joking, BBQ is a party and as a vegetarian who used to eat meat, I know that this dinner you cooked was indeed pretty awesome.
I shouldn't have to apologize for your poor life choices. I'm kidding. I have actually cut way back on the amount of red meat that I eat. I don't think I would ever be able to cut it all out entirely.
Your food photos and story have made me very hungry. I going to start dinner as soon as I finish this comment. Thanks for sharing.
Like I said, always happy to share one of my BBQ posts! I smoked a turkey breast this past weekend. It was tasty!
PIZZA Holders sent $PIZZA tips in this post's comments:
@casimirio(4/10) tipped @bozz (x1)
Learn more at https://hive.pizza.