I love my grill so much but I also like stir fry. This recipe is simple and SUPER TASTY. 

What you’ll need:

• 1lb Thin Chicken
• Teriyaki Sauce
• 1 Onion
• 1 Green Pepper
• 1 Red Pepper
• Water Chestnuts
• White Rice
• Sweet Balsamic Vinaigrette

The cooking process:

1. Soak your chicken over night in sweet balsamic vinaigrette.
2. Grill chicken on both sides until the chicken has a nice dark caramelized look.
3. Then turn the heat WAY DOWN on the grill. Pour your teriyaki sauce on top and close the grill. Just like you’d put BBQ sauce on ribs, you want to do the same for the chicken. Every 5 minutes pour another layer on it. Get about 3 layers on your chicken.
4. While your chicken is getting layers of Teriyaki sauce on it then throw your water chestnuts, red and green pepper, and onion into a pan with some olive oil. Stir Fry it.
5. When your chicken is done then just cut up into nice pieces.
6. Serve stir fried vegetables, and grilled teriyaki chicken untop of some nice white rice.

Enjoy!

My wife and I were browsing around and discovered Twisted Olive Imports, a really quaint shop in downtown Naperville. This store has many different types of imported Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinaigrette and Wine. We fell in love with their DARK CHOCOLATE BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE! yummmmm

We were using the Dark Chocolate Vinaigrette as a dip with some nice Rye bread, or as a really nice topping for a salad BUT the owner of Twisted Olive Imports, Mary Shearer, suggested that we soak our steak in this over night and then grill it. Wellllll, I must say; PHENOMENAL! and now you must try it!

What you’ll need:

• 1/4 cup diced onions
• 1 tablespoon of diced garlic cloves
• 1-1/2 cup of Dark Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette (http://www.twistedoliveimports.com/balsamic-vinegars/dark-chocolate-balsamic-vinegar)
• 2 Steaks of your choice

Take a strong plastic (freezer) bag and put your steaks in with the diced onions, diced garlic and your 1-1/2 cup of Dark Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette. Shake everything up very nicely and then store in your refrigerator over night (preferably 24 hours) .

The next day heat your grill to a HOT 425 degrees. Throw your steaks on and sear each side to your preferred perfection (this will depend on the size of your steaks and how you like them done).

Consult your butcher on proper cooking temperatures and time for the cut of steak you choose.

Serve with some nicely grilled Asparagus and Roasted Potatoes.

Enjoy!

Difficulty: Can you mix a bunch of ingredients together? EASY

Hey! Who said grilling can’t be healthy too? This recipe is great because you get to grill, and your wife will love you too!

What you’ll need:

• 6 cups of un-pressed lettuce
• 2 cups of un-pressed fresh spinach
• 4-6 pieces of Chicken Pallard (see note below)
• 1/2 cup of diced almonds
• 1/2 cup diced scallions
• 1/2 cup Chow Mein Noodles
• 2 tablespoons of Sesame Seeds
• 1 cup of Mandarin Oranges
• Favorite Asian Dressing – Preferably a lighter Asian Dressing for this recipe

What you’ll need to do:

1. Turn your grill on to 375 degrees.
2. Rub each side of the Chicken Paillard with a light coat of Olive Oil and season with Salt and Pepper. Grill chicken on both sides for about 2-3 minutes (until you get a nice seared color – *note you will only get these nice seared grilled lines if your grill is HOT before you put your chicken on).
3. Mix your Lettuce, Spinach, Almonds, Chow Mein, Orange Slices, Sesame Seeds, Diced Scallions and mix your favorite Asian Salad dressing in.
4. Cut of your Chicken Paillard in thin slices and place on top of the salad.
5. Serve a healthy low calorie, and protein packed** salad! Yummmm!

**Spinach, Almonds and Grilled Chicken are packed with Protein.

*NOTE – How to make Chicken Paillard

Paillards, a.k.a. scaloppini, are very thin pieces of meat or fish because they were smashed to make the meat even all over. They cook very quickly because of being thin.

What you do: Take your pieces of meat (usually do just 1 at a time) and put meat between 2 pieces of wax paper (you can use plastic wrap, but cheap plastic wrap will break when you smash it). Then you beat the meat with a heavy frying pan. Beat until your meat gets to about 1/4 inch thin (or whatever your preference is).

Difficulty: Moderate

Paillards, a.k.a. scaloppini, are very thin pieces of meat or fish because they were smashed to make the meat even all over. They cook very quickly because of being thin.

What you do: Take your pieces of meat (usually do just 1 at a time) and put meat between 2 pieces of wax paper (you can use plastic wrap, but cheap plastic wrap will break when you smash it). Then you beat the meat with a heavy frying pan. Beat until your meat gets to about 1/4 inch thin (or whatever your preference is).

Ingredients

• 4-6 chicken paillards (Flatten Chicken Breast)
• 1-1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes cut into fourths.
• 1 Tablespoon of fresh diced Garlic Clove
• 1/2 cup of finely diced onion
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing
• 2 teaspoons Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Salt and pepper to your preference
• 1/3 cup fresh basil

Directions

1. Turn your grill on to 375 degrees.
2. Mix Tomatoes, Garlic, Onion, Seasonings, Olive Oil, VInaigrette and Basil in a bowl. Cook this on your stove on very light heat. Cover and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes before you serve with chicken.
3. Rub each side of the Chicken Paillard with a light coat of Olive Oil and season with Salt and Pepper. Grill chicken on both sides for about 2-3 minutes (until you get a nice seared color – *note you will only get these nice seared grilled lines if your grill is HOT before you put your chicken on).
4. When Chicken is done put on a plate and put your tomato mix on top. Serve with fresh rice and green beans.
5. Enjoy! Magnifico!

Difficulty level: Extremely EASY

This is one of my favorite recipes. It’s so easy and yet packed with so much flavor. The recipe starts on the stove and gets its amazing flavor from moving to the grill. This is a perfect example of how the grill is intended to be used; simplicity. Simple recipes + grilled = amazing flavor!

What you’ll need:

1 pack of your preferred Brats (raw, nothing pre-cooked)

2 bottles of your favorite beer (my preference is Blue Moon – Yum)

Assorted spices (not essential, most of the flavor will be already built into the meat)

1) Place in your full package of brats into a pan, and turn heat on stove to 300 degrees (level 3.5 on electric stoves).

2) Pour in your beer of choice (NOT a light beer, choose a beer with robust flavor). You want the beer to come up half way up the brats. Season the beer if you wish – sometimes I put some crushed red pepper flakes in.

3) Cook the brats on both sides for about 15-20 minutes. This is a very slow process – you’re using the beer to pull all of the natural flavor out of the meat. Do NOT cover, the beer will evaporate. As beer evaporates replace with more beer to maintain beer level at half the height of the brats.

4) Pull brats off the stove. (If you have the time, put brats in the fridge and let it marinate with the left over cooked beer a little while longer).

5) Put brats on a HOT grill, at about 425 degrees. Cook both sides for about 5-7 minutes. You’ll know when your brats are ready when the skin starts to crack because the juices are bursting through.

6) Place brats in a thick bun (preferably cut up french bread) and just put mustard on top. Simple – the meat has all of the flavor.

7) Enjoy! mmmmm!

This recipe is GREAT! Who doesn’t like steak? and, do you like Bacon too? What’s great is that the Bacon really pulls some lovely flavor out of the steaks and then you also have crunchy and yet succulent Bacon on the outside. Yumm. Enjoy this one.

4 (6- to 7-oz.) filet steaks, about 1 inch thick
4 Thick slices of bacon

Diced Garlic Cloves (usually can find in a can of oil)
1/4 Cup of olive oil
3 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
Salt

Black pepper
Dried thyme leaves
6-inch wooden toothpicks, soaked
in water 10 minutes and patted dry

Preheat GRILL to 400°F.

Season both sides of the steak with Pepper, Thyme, Salt as you please. Sprinkle the diced garlic on both sides and smash the garlic in. I like to make little slits in the steak and stuff the garlic inside. Wrap the rounded Filet Steaks with the thick flavorful Bacon. Use your toothpicks to hold the bacon in place (stick into the point in which the two sides of Bacon join). *Note: It’s best if you season these steaks the night before – WOWZA!

Grill steaks until lightly charred on the outside and until bacon is cooked, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. After you flip the steak once over place some butter on top of the steak and close the grill. This butter will soak into your steak as the last side is finishing up. Flavor extraordinaire!

When done, remove steaks from fire and place on warm serving plate. Remove toothpicks.

Serve steaks with some roasted potatoes or rice and grilled vegetables.

You can find the Chili Pepper Grill Rack at Sur La Table for $20.

Steak Buttons Tell When Your Steak Is Done

If you have never worked on a grill in a kitchen restaurant or grilling steaks is not a weekly ritual, knowing when your steak is done can be difficult task. Enter the Steak Button. While this is just a dolled up version of your standard cooking thermometer, the rare, medium, and well done labels take out all the guess work from grilling your steaks. And lets face it, cutting a steak when it’s still on the grill to check how pink it is is embarrassing for any level of griller.

Get a 4 pack of Steak Buttons for $20.

If you would prefer to look like a master griller, watch this quick video to tell how done your steaks are.

Cedar Grilling Papers

I have always loved the smoky cedar flavor a  seasoned cedar plank brings to fish, most notably salmon. Here, we have cedar grilling papers, designed to wrap and steam food on the grill. These papers are just amazing for seafood, veggies, and finishing off kabobs.

In the kitchen, we also tested them out on some fruits. The cedar added a wonderful hint of flavor to mango, pineapple, and strawberries, while the grill flame brought out that amazing natural sweetness with a touch of caramelization. We used the fruits to make a salmon salsa and ice cream topping.

As much as we liked the cedar papers, we found the price a bit steep. While the lowest price we found was $5.99 for 8, after shipping, the total was around $10. If that smoky cedar flavor is what you are looking for and an extra $10 is no issue for a single grill out, these papers come highly recommended.

Click here for Cedar Papers from Fire & Flavors

Weber's On the Grill iPhone iPad App

So this is not really news but tonight I discovered Weber’s On the Grill iPhone/iPad app. I purchased the iPad app because of the larger screen and interface. If you are a recipe junkie, I would recommended this app over the Weber grill-books. It has some pretty nice features such as a griller’s grocery list (for some reason I always forget to buy tomatoes!). It also has some really accurate cooking times using the meat/thickness guide for the grilling novice.

At $4.99, I really didn’t think I could go wrong considering most cookbooks retail in the $20 range. While not perfect, it is still a useful app and I get it 4 stars on the iTunes ratings. Have the app? Chime in and let everyone know what your favorite/least favorite feature is.