This “huli chicken” recipe was featured in our recent “Ultimate Backyard Lu’au”
The term “huli” means “to turn” in Hawaiian. “Huli huli chicken” is a term many locals know well. It draws up memories of school or church fundraisers where thousands of marinated chickens were being grilled over large beds of kiawe (mesquite) charcoal. These huli huli chickens were some of the most delicious, succulent birds I’ve ever tasted.
Which of these ribs scored the most points in our Ultimate Rib Showdown?
First things first. I have to do this because there are a lot of people out there who call something barbecue when they’re really missing out on the essential element of real barbecue. There are many different definitions and usages for the word “barbecue”. You may disagree with me, but here is the one I use:
bar-be-cue (bär‘bĭ-kyū’) (also spelled "barbeque”, “bar-b-q”, “bbq”, “’cue” or simply “Q”)
n.: Meat cooked in the heat and smoke of a wood or coal fire.
v.: A method of cooking meat over a wood or coal fire.
I see a lot of recipes out there for “barbecue” ribs which call for slathering the ribs with barbecue sauce and then grilling them on a gas grill. Worse, there are so-called “barbecue” recipes which call for boiling the ribs first and then drowning them in sauce while baking them in an oven. I just think these are shortcuts to making tender ribs but cannot compare to the true taste of barbecue that only wood smoke and time can impart.
In order to test this theory, I made plans to cook pork spareribs using these three different methods, to see which one tasted better than the others. With the weather starting to warm up here in San Jose, I pitched our plan for the Ultimate Rib Showdown as a Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 event, and Foodbuzz accepted our submission! We invited FoodGal Carolyn Jung and Michael from Cooking for Engineers, along with their respective spouses, plus some other friends over to our house. Their job was to taste and score the ribs cooked with the different methods. Then we’d tally up the scores and see which one came out on top.
Which rib cooking method is the best? Boiled, grilled or smoked?
Continue reading Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Ultimate Rib Showdown, Part 1
I’m not big on going out to eat steak. Unless it’s a good steak restaurant, you’re likely to get an overcooked, over-sauced hunk of low quality meat that’s better off ground into burgers. And if it’s a high-end steak restaurant like The Grill on the Alley, you’re likely to pay a very high price for your dinner. (Forget about going out to eat steak anywhere on holidays like Valentine’s Day – you’re likely to wait an hour just to get seated!)
Annie bought some USDA Choice, thick-cut, bone-in ribeye steaks from Costco for $4.99 / lb (sometimes they have Prime cuts for $8.99). About an hour before cooking, I brought the steaks out of the fridge and seasoned them well with sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper, and granulated garlic.
