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Simple Ideas to Up Your Outdoor Grilling Game by Wendy Migdal
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here’s nothing quite like the smell of food cooking on an outdoor grill, especially when it’s coming from your neighbor’s backyard. Steak, hamburgers, and hotdogs are the mouthwatering staples of summer. But you can kick it up a notch without being a foodie. Here are a few ways to do it.
Inject Some International Inspiration Sure, you could spend hours in the kitchen measuring long lists of ingredients for international cuisine, but if you’d rather spend the time enjoying good conversation in your backyard oasis, opt for a store-bought sauce instead. Many are great on their own, and some you may want to personalize. Tandoori chicken is a traditional Indian dish grilled in a cylindrical clay oven called a tandoor. However, your outdoor grill can do the job fairly well. Combine tandoori spice paste with yogurt in a large bowl. Marinate the chicken for about half a day, or even overnight. The key is to cut deep diagonal slashes in the chicken about a ½ inch apart so the marinade can fully penetrate. Covering the grill helps to mimic the effect of the tandoori oven, which is to smoke the meat in the fat that has dripped onto the charcoal below.
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An easy side to add to your Indian dish is grilled store-bought naan. Melt some butter and brush one side of the naan. Place buttered side down on the grill. When the bottom has browned slightly, brush the top with butter and flip. Of course, there are many other international sauces and marinades available in the store that make it easy to be a little more adventuresome in your grilling. Try peri peri sauce (a South African spicy sauce), or a Mexican carne asada or pollo asada marinade. Speaking of Mexican, if you’ve never treated yourself to Mexican street corn, now is the time. The sauce is tangy and the result is unlike any other summer corn recipe. The key Mexican ingredients (crema, which is thinner than sour cream, and cotija cheese) are widely available in grocery stores. Grill the husked corn until it’s charred all around. Mix up the sauce with equal parts (1/2 cup) Mexican crema, mayonnaise, and chopped cilantro. Add 1 minced garlic clove, 2 teaspoons lime zest, two tablespoons lime juice, and ¼ teaspoon chipotle pepper. Mix well and brush onto corn, then roll in crumbled cotija cheese. Have plenty of paper towels nearby, because this one’s not neat!
