Grillin' With Driller

Pull up a chair. We're going to do some serious grilling today. My bride's family is coming to our house Sunday evening to celebrate my bride's mother's 82nd birthday. A favorite dish of her family is grilled chicken. Her dad used to grill chicken using a basting sauce of melted butter, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and garlic salt. It is excellent. I did a practice run a few weeks back and it was outstanding. I will also serve a smoked pork loin. I CAN do pork loin. I cooked the pork loins today and my bride and I enjoyed a couple of slices from one of them for dinner. So here is how it's done.
We purchased a whole pork loin at SAM's Club. I cut it in half and will prepare each half with a different set of spices. One set is a favorite of mine, the other is an experiment.
First up, my old stand by...Tony Chachere's!

Once the loin is cut in half and placed in a large glass dish, I inject Tony Chachere's Creole Butter marinade. I use about three syringe fulls to completely inject the marinade.

The experimental half will get a new marinade, Bronco Bob's Tangy Apricot Chipotle marinade. It actually has small chunks of apricots and chipolte peppers. At first it's a little too thick to go into the injector. So, I mixed about one part orange juice and two parts of Bronco Bob's in a cup to thin it out a bit. This helps, but the chucks are clogging up the syringe. Next step, the rub!

For the old stand by, I use Tony Chachere's original Cajun seasoning.
For the experimental half I use Southwest Chipolte seasoning. Both halves get a little Canadian Steak seasoning for good measure. Are we hungry yet? I let these marinate for about half an hour while I build the fire and get the temperature correct. Okay, let's go outside.Call me a Barbeque snob, but when it comes to real meat, I use only natural lump hardwood (oak) charcoal....NO briquets! Bricquets are for hot dogs and hamburgers. I'm going to do something new here too. I am going to use apple wood chips for the flavor enhancer. Typically I use hickory chips. One tip. Soak the chips is water before putting them on the fire. This keeps them from flaming up an generates more smoke. The flavor is in the smoke, so the more smoke the better. Bring on the meat.I will start with the meat directly over the fire in order to put a bit of a crust on it. I have seasoned the opposite side of the loins when I put them on the grill. They will stay here for about half an hour. Are you hungry yet?
Next, I turn the meat. See that crust I was talking about? I also move it to the side of the grill away from the fire. Now we are grilling with indirect heat. This will take about another half hour. Then comes the good part. Are you hungry yet? See that apple wood smoke?Your pork loin has been on the grill at about 250 degrees for about an hour. Now remove the loin and put it on some heavy duty aluminum foil. Build a tent and pour about 4-6 oz. of your marinade in the tent. The photo is the one with Bronco Bob's Tangy Apricot and Chipolte/orange juice. Does that look good or what! Eat your heart out Bobby Flay. Now we're going to steam this in the marinade on the grill, for about an one and one half -two hours. Keep it on the side away from the direct heat. Hold on, we're almost done.


Once the loin is done, bring it in and let it rest for about 15-20 minutes. Open the foil tent and pour the juices into a bowl to serve with the loin. Slice the loin. Serve with a green salad that includes feta cheese and cranberries, some green beans and potatoes.
This will buckle your knees and make you slap your mama! Enjoy!!!
Tomorrow we're grilling chicken. Are you hungry yet?