With Memorial Day upon us and signaling the official start of summer, I wanted to do a menu you could use this weekend that fits perfectly for the grilling with friends and family outside. The first course, Guacamole, is one of the best things in life. I used roasted Poblano chiles, which give my “guac” a wonderful, unique, smoky flavor. I think you will enjoy it. Next I chose BBQ chicken because we Americans love it! I know some people have trouble doing a good BBQ chicken so I have shared my tips and tricks to help make the best BBQ chicken in the world. And last, the Blueberry Gooey-Butter Cake with vanilla ice cream – I think that says it all!

In This Menu:

• BBQ Chicken
• Guacamole
• Blueberry Gooey Butter Cake

People tell me all the time that they have trouble with BBQ chicken. They say it is either burnt on the outside, not done in the middle, or dry. I will admit that doing chicken on the grill outside can be a bit tricky, but with some basic tools and common sense it can be one of the best things you cook. Because I like the flavor of chicken on the grill, I probably grill chicken twice as much as any other meat. I have encountered all of the issues mentioned above and over time learned how to BBQ chicken that has a great fire-roasted flavor, is cooked through, and is still moist. I hope this helps!

Secrets to success with BBQ chicken

Grill temperature – One of the cardinal rules of BBQ chicken is a low fire. Since chicken has to be cooked completely through, it takes longer to cook than a steak. Because of this, if your fire is too hot, the chicken will be burnt before it is cooked! If you have an open top grill with no lid, use less coals than you normally would. After the coals are all glowing, move them to one side. Place the chicken on the other side and rotate and move the chicken frequently throughout the cooking process to ensure it doesn’t get too dark on any one side. If you have a Weber, Green Egg, or other grill with the ability to close the lid and adjust the air flow, close the vents to allow just a small opening for air. This will lower the temperature, reduce or eliminate flare ups, and leave you with a perfect chicken.

Different Pieces, Different Time – A chicken leg cooks in half the time as a chicken breast. So why do we put all of the bird on at the same time? Because no one ever told us differently! I usually start my breasts first and cook for about 15 minutes. Then I put the legs and thighs on and cook for another 20 minutes or so until the chicken is done.

Don’t Sauce Too Early – Chicken burns so easily because most of us think that if we start slopping the BBQ on the meat right away it will be better. The problem with this philosophy is that BBQ sauce is full of sugar. When cooked, sugar turns brown or “caramelizes”; the burnt crust you often see on BBQ chicken is usually made up of sauce. I water down my sauce so that the sugar content is thinned. Never add sauce until the last 10 or 15 minutes of cooking.

INGREDIENTS

For the Chicken:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 4 chicken thighs
• 4 chicken legs

For the Dry Rub:

• ¼ cup chile powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oregano

PREPARATION

The Sauce:
1 part your favorite BBQ sauce mixed with 1 part water

To make the dry rub, mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Rinse the chicken, pat dry with a paper towel then add the chicken, one piece at a time to the spice bowl and turn chicken until it is completely coated with the dry rub. Shake off excess rub, then repeat until all of the chicken pieces are coated.

Place the chicken on the grill, following the procedures outlined above. Check every 10 minutes or so and turn frequently to ensure that the fire is not getting too hot and that the chicken is not burning on any particular side. Start basting the chicken with the sauce and water mixture after the chicken has been cooking for about 20 to 25 minutes. The total cooking time for the chicken, depending of course on the size of the pieces and the temperature of your grill, will be about an hour for the breasts and 30 to 45 minutes for the thighs and legs. This is assuming you are using average-sized chicken cooked over a fire that is about 300°.

When chicken is done, remove from grill and let chicken rest for 10 minutes, cooling a bit. This gives the juices a chance to reabsorb into the tissue. Serve hot with fresh, and buttered, corn on the cobb.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 ripe avocados
• 1 medium red onion-diced
• 1 large, ripe tomato-diced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 Poblano chiles, roasted, skinned, seeded, and diced*
• ½ cup loose packed cilantro
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce or Cholula
• 2 teaspoons salt

PREPARATION

Peel and seed the avocados. In a small bowl, mash the avocados with the back of a spoon. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

*To roast Poblanos; rub peppers with olive oil evenly coating the skin. Place on a greased cookie sheet and cook in a 450° oven for 15 minutes, turn over, then cook for another 15 minutes. Total cooking time is 30 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately place in a brown bag or other tight fitting container. Wait 20 minutes or so then remove chiles from bag and peel skin from the peppers. Open them up and remove seeds. They are now ready to dice. This procedure can be used to skin and seed any pepper.

INGREDIENTS

For the Crust:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 4 oz. butter
• 2 eggs

For the Filling:

• 2 cups fresh blueberries

For the Topping:

• 4½ cups powdered sugar
• 12 oz. cream cheese
• 3 eggs

PREPARATION

In a medium mixing bowl, mix cake mix with butter and eggs until a thick dough is formed. Make sure that the cream cheese is room temperature then mix topping ingredients well.

For a large cake, wet your hands with cold water then press crust evenly into a 9″x13″ pan. Sprinkle berries evenly over crust. Pour topping over berries. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

You can do individual cakes by using soufflé dishes, cupcake molds, or other single serving bakeware. The number you end up with depends on the size of the pans you are using. Just follow the same procedure; crust in bottom followed by berries then topping. Bake until golden brown on top.

This is a great way to beat the heat! Serve with margaritas, a good Mexican beer, or a homemade limeade.

Guacamole
- 1 Poblano chile
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 ripe avocadoes
- 1 medium purple onion – “1/4 dice
- 1 large, vine ripe tomato-diced
- ½ cup loose packed cilantro
- 1 tablespoon finely minced, fresh, garlic
- 1 teaspoon coarse, black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon prepared hot sauce
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt to taste

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Rub olive oil all over Poblano until it is completely coated. Place chile on cookie sheet and roast in oven 10 minutes or until skin is blistered and brown. Turn chile over and roast the other side 10 minutes or until skin is blistered and brown. Remove chile from oven and place in a brown bag and seal top. You can also enclose in foil or a plastic bag, but be careful of melting the plastic! The reason you do this step is to let the steam loosen the skin for you. After 10 minutes in the bag, remove chile and peel off loosened skin under cold running water. Discard seeds. Dice skinless pepper.
Peel and seed the avocados. In a small bowl, mash the avocados with the back of a spoon. I like to leave mine a little chunky. If you like extremely smooth, you can use an electric mixer to make it creamy. Add the roasted chile and other ingredients and mix well. If you like your guacamole spicier, add one or two minced Serrano chiles. Remove the seeds unless you want it nuclear!

Shrimp Cocktail

Shrimp
3 dozen large, raw shrimp, shell on

Shrimp Boil
- 2 lemons
- 1 cup cilantro, stems and leaves
- ¼ cup salt
- 4 bay leaves
- 4 tablespoons hot sauce (Cholula)
- 2 tablespoons chile powder
- 1 tablespoon coarse, black pepper

Put about 1½ gallons cold water in a large pot. Cut each lemon in half, squeeze juice in water, then drop juiced lemon halves in water as well. Add remaining shrimp boil ingredients to water. Bring to simmer over medium heat. Let water simmer for 20 minutes before adding shrimp. Shrimp will cook in 2 to 3 minutes. It JUST needs to be done in middle. Most people overcook shrimp. As soon as shrimp is done, plunge in ice water to stop the cooking process. Peel and de-vein shrimp under cold water. Drain shrimp and refrigerate.

Sauce for Shrimp
- 2 cups catsup
- 3 tablespoons creamy horseradish
- 2 tablespoons Cholula hot sauce
- Juice of one lime
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon coarse, black pepper
- Mix all ingredients until well blended.

Chips
Fresh fried chips are a great change from the chips in a bag.

- 1 bag white corn tortillas
- 3 cups vegetable oil
- Kosher salt

Bring oil to 350 degrees in a medium saucepan. Cut tortillas in to 6 triangular pieces. Fry in oil until bubbles stop and chips are floating. Drain chips on paper towels, and apply salt to taste.

Place Guacamole in the center of a large platter. Arrange chips and shrimp around Guacamole. Garnish platter with fresh lime wedges and chopped cilantro. Serve shrimp sauce in a small bowl on the side.