This past Father’s Day weekend I did what all good children do: grilled with my dad! It was really fun, especially since I was trying out a new marinade that Chef and Butcher James Burden recommended to me. I went to Berkshire Organics in Dalton to stock up on everything we needed for dinner. I picked up fresh, organic veggies: eggplant really soaks up marinade so it’s great for grilling, plus onions, zucchini and some red and orange bell peppers.
Red Apple Butchers, at Berkshire Organics, had 30 day, dry aged steaks, so I had to try a few of those. And I also bought about 2 and 1/2 pounds of chicken thighs with the skin on. Here’s the marinade recipe plus a bonus curry mix from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything, which is as useful as it sounds. Last week I wrote to Mr. Bittman about Fire Cider and his assistant wrote me back saying she had tried it the last time she was in the Berkshires and would be happy to share a sample bottle with her boss. How cool is that?!
Marinade for 2-3 pounds of Chicken
Yes, of course you can use this marinade on tofu, fish or veggies. For fish and veggies, about 20 minutes in the marinade will do. For meat, like the chicken, make the marinade the day before and let the meat marinate overnight. I made double this recipe, one half for the chicken and one half for the veggies.
Ingredients:
a generous 1/4 cup unsweetened Fire Cider
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons salt
1 big tablespoon fragrant curry powder blend (see photo below for the recipe! Yes, you can use store bought as well.)
a pinch of asafoetida
a pinch of chipolte pepper
1 teaspoon garam masala
Method:
First, make up the fragrant curry powder blend, this will make enough for this recipe plus plenty left over for all your curry spice needs, it’s awesome on kale chips!
Whole spices ready to toast.
Keep ‘um moving, toasty and fragrant!
Use a small spice grinder to turn toasted spices into powder and then add powdered ginger and turmeric. Homemade curry powder!
Once you’ve made the curry blend, combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl.
Yes, that’s my personal gallon of unsweetened Fire Cider. Beware the underdose!
Pour all the marinade over the chicken and marinate over night in a sealed bag or sealed container.
The next day, when you are ready to cook, remove the chicken, discard any leftover marinade and grill the chicken til it’s done!
For veggies: chop bite sized pieces of onion, bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant, make up more marinade and marinate for about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to coat each piece. Slide onto skewers and grill with the chicken.
Grill ready chicken, veggies and steak.
The 30 day dry aged steaks were perfect as is so I let them sit out at room temp for about an hour, lightly salted them and then grilled them for a few minutes on each side for perfectly rare, melt in your mouth awesomeness.
Happy grilling, all summer long!
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