Fine Cooking, Good Eating

On Saturday, our morning's shopping resulted in us having so late a lunch that we ended up having only a light dinner of leftovers, as opposed to following our planned menu.  As a result, on Sunday night I ended up with not only some ribs I was planning to grill, but also the chicken I'd planned to prepare for dinner on Saturday.  Rather than freeze the chicken, I decided that since I was going to be grilling anyhow, I'd go ahead and cook the chicken, which would give us more leftovers for the work week.   This wouldn't be a problem, since one grills ribs with indirect heat but uses direct heat to grill up chicken breasts.

I'd been considering a couple different recipes for grilling the ribs, so I decided on one and then looked around for a chicken recipe that would complement the ribs while being different enough that each meat would stand on its own.  

The rib recipe I chose was one from a special issue of Fine Cooking that dealt specifically with grilling.  As it happens, I found a good chicken recipe in the same issue: Fine Cooking Grilling Magazine (95 Best Barbecue Recipes, 2010) .  So, with two recipes in hand, I was good to go.

The rib recipe I used was Grilled Spareribs with Maple-Chipotle Glaze.  First I applied a simple rub of sugar, cumin, chili powder, fresh-ground pepper and Kosher salt, then let the ribs sit while I got the grill going, complete with soaked cherry wood chips.  Once I had the ribs going on the grill, I started working on the second dish of the evening, Rum-and-Pineapple-Glazed Grilled Chicken Breasts.  By the time I'd made the rub, applied it to the chicken and prepared both sets of the glaze, it was time to glaze the ribs and to toss the chicken on the grill.   Juli, meanwhile, steamed some fresh green beans we'd picked up recently at a farmer's market.  Everything was done and on the table at approximately the same time, and then it was time for dinner.

Chicken and Ribs



Dinner is Served

The chicken and the ribs both turned out great.   The fruity glaze over the spicy, jerk-style rub sealed in all the juices of the chicken, resulting in perfectly-done chicken.  Meanwhile, the ribs, having been on the grill a lot longer, had taken on the flavor of the cherry wood smoke, and after more than 90 minutes on the grill, they were fall-off-the-bone good.  With a bit of butter and some fresh-ground pepper, the beans rounded out the meal.  All in all, we were very pleased with the results, and I expect we'll be making both of those grilled dishes again sometime.