Lots of summer grilling isn’t about recipes. It’s about good food, cooked simply and well. One of the great things about doing it this way it you can do a variety of dishes all at the same time.
This night it was chicken thighs for the kids and kielbasi for the adults.
Thighs have much more meat per bone than legs, and I like the dark meat better anyway. So far the girls seem to be agreeing with me.
Let them come up to room temperature, then coat the skin side liberally with salt and pepper. A lot of it will drip off as the fat melts, so use much more than you would if you seasoned after cooking.
Put the chicken skin-side down on a pre-heated grill …
… then season the bottom with more salt and pepper.
Check the kielbasi. You put it on before the chicken, didn’t you? Didn’t I say that up above? No? Oops. Yeah, put the kielbasi on first. You don’t have to be as careful with it, so it can stand to be on the grill a little longer. When the casing splits, turn it over and turn the flame down.
Then check the chicken. Hey, it’s starting to drip and flare up, let’s turn that over too.
Wait, weren’t there six thighs a minute ago? Yup. But one of them was smaller than the others and getting done a little too fast. So that went into the cold spot behind the kielbasi.
Do you know where the cold spot is on your grill? Odds are you’ve got one.
As the kielbasi cooks, it will probably start to straighten out. I don’t completely understand the physics behind this, but I know it happens. So I rearrange them to fit better.
Keep turning them over, and rotate the thighs through the hot spots and cold spots. Be careful that the kielbasi doesn’t fall apart when you flip it. Once the casing splits it gets much more fragile. Check the chicken with an instant-read thermometer, or cut into the thickest one. There shouldn’t be any pink left on the inside.
And that’s it.
You’re still here? Good. Because that’s not it. I’ve also got the final shots that put it all together: chicken and kielbasi, German potato salad, deviled eggs, salad (from our guests) and lemonade.
You ready? Make sure you’re not leaning over anything that will short out if you drool in it.
Here it comes.
That’s just a table full of summer, isn’t it?
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