Barbecues
66 recipes found
Dak Bulgogi (Korean BBQ Chicken)
One great joy of bulgogi, marinated grilled beef that translates to “fire meat,” is that you can prepare it in advance and, when you’re ready to eat, have dinner on the table in under 10 minutes. This stovetop chicken variation, dak bulgogi, provides the same workday convenience and savory-sweet flavors, thanks to soju, an alcohol which tenderizes the meat, and maple syrup, which caramelizes beautifully without burning. Apple juice extends those ingredients and allows room for the subtle umami — known in Korean as gamchil mat — from garlic, ginger and scallions to gently season the chicken. Don’t skip the salt, pepper and lemon at the end; they complete this deliciously brisk dish.
Sticky Guava Ribs
These easy, oven-baked ribs are sticky, sweet, spicy and splendidly delicious. The sweet guava paste makes an excellent foundation for the barbeque sauce, resulting in a sauce that’s quick to caramelize and clings to your fingers with every bite. The low and slow cooking technique gives you tender, fall-off-the-bone meat with little to no effort and plenty of rendered fat to baste the ribs before you sauce them up. If you’re feeding a crowd, you can make the ribs ahead of time and broil them before serving. That’ll give you time to prepare a green salad or mango slaw for sides. The extra sauce keeps well in the fridge for two weeks or in the freezer for three months. Stash it away for a rainy day or you can double the amount of ribs for a larger serving -- that’s if you don’t eat them all before your guests arrive.
Corn Ribs
For a more novel approach to corn on the cob, these corn ribs are a fun, flavorful way to eat the juicy summer staple. Shucked ears of corn are quartered, coated in a barbecue-inspired spice blend, charred on a grill and tossed in butter. As they cook, the corn ribs curl, resembling pork ribs, thus earning their name. (They’re also eaten similarly, as the cob functions similarly to the pork bone.) A fair warning: Preparing corn ribs takes patience and a very sharp knife. The cobs should be patted dry before slicing, as slippery kernels will create even more instability for the tall, teetering cobs. Reach for a large chef’s knife, if you’ve got one, and make sure it’s newly sharpened for easier (and safer) slicing. Use a rocking motion to slowly slice through the center of the cobs — and don’t rush it. Serve the corn ribs as is, or with a creamy, spicy or herby dip.
Harissa-Grilled Steak With Juicy Tomatoes
What makes this steak so great is that it’s just as delicious warm for dinner as it is cold and eaten for lunch. When choosing harissa for the marinade, look for it in a tube or can, which will have a thick, paste-like consistency (we want that explosive, concentrated red chile flavor), rather than jarred harissa, which tends to be saucier and has less potent flavor. Yogurt is the actual secret ingredient here, because the sugars will caramelize and help the meat develop a beautiful brown crust. If you have time, let the steak marinate in the yogurt mixture for a few hours or overnight to let it tenderize the meat, but if you only have 15 minutes while the grill heats up (see Tip), it’ll still be delicious.
Korean BBQ Steak
You don’t need a lot of meat for a Korean barbecue meal to feel like a veritable feast. For the chef Peter Cho in Portland, Ore., the specific cut of steak doesn’t matter as much as what is available, so pick what looks good at the market, and whatever works for your budget. When it comes to flavor, Mr. Cho’s marinade is pitch perfect: salty, sweet and savory in just the right ways. Taking the extra step to strain the marinade results in cleaner flavors in the end, and less burning. The ssamjang here is less a sauce than it is a condiment — a tangle of doenjang and gochujang, their fermented saltiness knocked back with whatever finely chopped seasonal vegetables you have on hand. Serve with your favorite Korean BBQ staples: pa muchim (scallion salad) and gyeran jjim (steamed eggs), for instance, and end the meal with a burbling pot of doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) with fresh white rice, as is customary.
Barbecue Vegetable Salad
This knife-and-fork dinner salad is full of char and crunch, topped off with a festive dressing to incorporate into your summer repertoire. It’s also an ideal way to use up any grillable vegetables. On a verdant bed of Romaine lettuce, kale and cilantro, pile on grilled summer vegetables and peaches and a shower of corn chips. Beans add protein, though you could also top with quinoa, grilled tempeh bacon or another protein. While barbecue sauce doesn’t often coat lettuce, here it becomes a tangy, thick and pleasantly sweet salad dressing with the addition of a little lime juice to loosen and brighten. If you have some ranch in the fridge, drizzle zig-zags of it on top, too; the duo tastes like an herb-flecked Thousand Island dressing. Eat this big salad solo or with a side of cornbread.
Slow-Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken
This hands-off path to pulled chicken results in a juicy, saucy tangle of meat for a crowd. The combination of boneless chicken thighs and breasts creates a mix of feathery and hearty shreds, while cooking the meat slowly in barbecue sauce ensures it won’t dry out. To emulate some of the smoke and savoriness created by cooking meat over smoldering coals, chipotle chiles in adobo, Worcestershire sauce and onion powder are also added. Serve the pulled chicken between buns with pickles and slaw, or make a barbecue chicken pizza; leftovers keep well for a few days in the fridge.
Smoked Prime Rib
Smoked prime rib is a staple in barbecue joints across Texas and is one of the premium cuts of beef you’ll find at the legendary Kreuz Market restaurant in Lockhart. Cooked low and slow for several hours then finished with a scorching sear, the result is a tender and juicy cut of beef, rich with a sweet, peppery taste signature to Texas Hill Country. This variation was developed by Dennis Sanchez, a former employee of Kreuz Market (and my father), and makes use of molasses to trap in moisture during the smoking processes. A liberal coating of coarse salt and cracked pepper is used to season the molasses, which caramelizes with the rendered collagen to form a thick, smoky bark not unlike a barbecue brisket. Because this cut of the beef is naturally tender, smoking a prime rib requires only a fraction of the time to cook than tougher cuts like brisket. One single prime rib bone will typically yield enough meat for two people, but you'll find that these portions are far more than enough for additional plates at your cookout.
Oven BBQ Chicken
Lacquered with barbecue sauce, this juicy chicken swaps constant flipping on the grill for a mostly hands-off process using the oven and one smart trick: The dry-rubbed chicken roasts most of the way on top of barbecue sauce. The resulting sauce becomes thickened and glossy from the chicken’s rendered fat. It’s then spooned onto the chicken and roasted until sticky, caramelized and rich with flavor. Serve the extra sauce with dinner, for dipping chicken, or spooning directly into your mouth. (For boneless barbecue chicken, try this stovetop method.)
South Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce
South Carolina’s contribution to regional American barbecue is mustard sauce. Barbecue buffs in these parts understand the wonders that mustard can work on pork, how the spice enhances the meat’s sweetness while the acidity cuts through the fat. A good mustard sauce is a study in balance, the bite of mustard and mouth-pucker of vinegar offset by the sweetness of honey or brown sugar. Tradition calls for using ballpark-style mustard, but this recipe instead opts for the finesse of Dijon-style mustard or a grainy mustard. Serve this sauce over smoked, pulled or grilled pork (it goes great with pork tenderloin), smoked or grilled chicken, grilled salmon and other seafood, and why not, whole roasted cauliflower.
North Carolina Vinegar Sauce
This mouth-puckering condiment was one of America’s original barbecue sauces, and while a watery mix of cider vinegar, hot red-pepper flakes, salt and pepper may not seem like barbecue sauce to most Americans, North Carolina-style pulled pork just wouldn’t taste right without it. The vinegar counterpoints the fatty pork, while the black and hot peppers crank up the heat. In the western part of the state, ketchup or tomato sauce is often added for sweetness, a practice made optional in this recipe. Some pit masters add liquid hot sauce in place of (or in addition to) red-pepper flakes, while others add water to diminish the vinegary bite.
Alabama White BBQ Sauce
Visit Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Ala., and you’ll find a barbecue sauce unlike any on the planet. Created by a railroad worker-turned-pit master in the 1920s, this piquant mixture of mayonnaise, vinegar and black pepper has accompanied barbecued chicken for five generations of pit masters. If you’re not from Alabama, mayonnaise may sound like a strange ingredient for a barbecue sauce, but its creamy piquancy goes great with smoked chicken, pulled pork and roast beef. Some pit masters like to crank up the heat with some prepared horseradish.
Baked Chicken With Hibiscus BBQ Sauce
A homemade hibiscus barbecue sauce makes this oven-baked chicken extraspecial. This recipe layers flavor: A dry rub built on seasoned salt, onion powder and garlic powder flavors the meat, then the sweet-tart, tangy-spicy barbecue sauce — a counterpoint to the savory chicken — is layered on and baked until slightly sticky and caramelized. It gives you that barbecue feel without having to actually set up the grill.
Grilled Pork Chops
Pulled pork is one of the glories of American barbecue. Unfortunately, smoking a pork shoulder requires a smoker — and a substantial part of the day to cook. What if you could capture some of that sweet, salty, spicy flavor in pork chops that grill in mere minutes? You can, and it comes down to the pit master’s secret weapon: a rub. Four seasonings are all it takes to make a classic barbecue rub, and you may have all of them at hand in your kitchen: salt, pepper, paprika and brown sugar. For extra smokiness, use pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika). As for the pork chops, aim for 3/4- to 1-inch thick pieces that are as generously marbled as you can find.
Oven BBQ Ribs
Oven-baked ribs are a great way to enjoy barbecue flavor without stepping outside. This is a foolproof, supersimple recipe, using seasonings you probably already have in your pantry, plus store-bought barbecue sauce that caramelizes into a sticky-sweet, smoky finish. Instead of using traditional pork ribs, this recipe uses beef back ribs, which are juicier. If you can only find them in chunks, rather than a whole rack, that’s more than OK: Wrap the pieces in aluminum foil, which creates a moist environment that yields fall-off-the-bone meat, and start checking them early. When they start to shrink down and the meat pulls away from the bone with the gentlest tug of a fork, they’re ready.
Stovetop BBQ Chicken
Nothing compares to live fire, but even if you don’t have a grill, you can make chicken that’s burnished and sticky with barbecue sauce. To achieve a similar smokiness on the stovetop, paint boneless, skinless chicken with some barbecue sauce and sear it so the sugars in the sauce caramelize and char. The sauce here leans tangy and spicy, but adjust it as you like. Once the chicken is cooked, let the sauce bubble until glossy enough to slather onto the chicken. Since that only took 30 minutes, consider your sides: perhaps a green goddess slaw, potato chips or pickles. (If you’d like to use bone-in chicken, try this oven method.)
Pulled Pork
This is party eating — and still easy enough to pull off for dinner whenever you want. Saucy and satisfying, it’s the type of dish that feels festive. Pulled pork from the American South ranges in styles, but usually balances the natural sweetness of the meat, slowly cooked until it slouches into tenderness, with tanginess and spice. Here, ground and whole dried chiles season the meat and blend into a sauce with fruity complexity and mild heat. The preparation is as inspired by barbecue pulled pork as it is by carne con chile rojo. That means that the glossy hunks and slivers of meat taste as good piled into buns as they do over rice or stuffed into tortillas.
Grilled Sesame Lime Chicken Breasts
Brining chicken breasts in a soy sauce and fish sauce marinade flecked with lime adds flavor and helps retain moisture while they are on the grill. Chicken breasts do particularly well when pounded into an even thickness and cooked quickly over a hot fire, which chars the exterior but keeps them juicy inside. But if you or anyone in your clan would prefer dark meat to white, this recipe will also work with boneless, skinless thighs, though you might have to add a minute or so to the cooking time. Or use a combination of breasts and thighs. Serve these with a cucumber salad and grilled eggplant in the heart of summer.
Lemon and Thyme Grilled Chicken Breasts
These classic herb and lemon-seasoned chicken breasts will win over fans, especially when cooked over charcoal to give them the deepest, smokiest taste. For dark meat lovers, this recipe will also work with boneless, skinless thighs, though you might have to add a minute or so to the cooking time. Or use a combination of breasts and thighs and make everyone happy.
Bulgogi
Bulgogi, a Korean classic of marinated grilled beef, is easy to make and fun to eat; it’s no wonder it is one of the country’s most successful culinary exports. As with most Korean barbecue, the meat is seasoned with sesame and scallion, and has ripe pears in the marinade to tenderize the meat and add a characteristic sweetness. Round, pale yellow Asian pears are traditional, but Bosc pears are just fine. The meat is only half the recipe: Just as important are the crunchy vegetables, pungent herbs and savory sauces that all get wrapped together into delicious mouthfuls. Perilla is a common Korean herb in the mint family, but if you cannot find it, you can try other herbs like shiso or cilantro. Make sure to wrap your bundle tightly: According to Korean tradition, you must finish it in a single bite!
Miso-Glazed Grilled Scallops
This simple and sophisticated treatment is perfect for grilled scallops, but also works well on chicken or pork. One note on preparation: Err on the side of undercooking. Take the scallops off the grill before they’re opaque all the way through. If you undercook a scallop, it will still be delicious, but if you overcook it, it will get rubbery.
Jessica Kirk's Barbecue Marinade
Jessica Kirk, a Kansas state barbecue champion, was forthcoming about her barbecue secrets in a 1989 interview with The Times. To her, who is preparing the sauce and meat is as important as what goes into it. ''There is a lot of ego involved in this thing,'' she said. This barbecue marinade can be used with chicken, beef or pork.
Peach and Molasses Chicken
The sauce here relies on store-bought jam as a shortcut to intense fruit flavor and it is amazing on chicken. This recipe, adapted from the cookbook “Watermelon and Red Birds” by Nicole Taylor, is special enough for your Juneteenth celebration, but it’s so delicious, it can be cooked on a weekly rotation. Almost any fruit jam works, too, if peach isn’t your thing. As for the chicken itself, so much of the fat and flavor comes from the chicken skin that removing that outer layer is tantamount to robbing the meat of most of its taste, so do what it takes to find skin-on pieces. The crispy, charred chicken edges, drenched with the sauce, only happen with skin attached.
Korean BBQ-Style Meatballs
These meatballs, inspired by traditional Korean barbecue, bring the savory-sweet flavors of caramelized meat without the need for a grill. As the meatballs bake, the soy sauce marries the garlic and scallions to create a glaze. This meatball mixture can be made ahead and left to marinate in the fridge for 3 hours or even overnight. Use ground beef that is 85 percent lean meat, 15 percent fat, or 80 percent lean and 20 percent fat for juicier meatballs. The Ritz crackers here make for a more tender meatball, but feel free to substitute plain dry bread crumbs. The meatballs are tasty on their own, but for a simple dipping sauce, combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar. Serve over steamed rice with kimchi, or as a sandwich with mayonnaise or marinara sauce.