Grill’s the Word!

The best way to keep the heat out of the kitchen is to take it outside and do some grilling! My kid’s favorite all time food off the grill is chicken drumsticks aka yard bird. My all time fave is corn on the cob! This meal makes all 6 of us very happy campers.

I love the taste of cilantro in the summer, and I use it at least 2-3 times a week. This meal is heavy on the cilantro, but those who dare to not enjoy cilantro could always sub parsley, or skip the herbs all together.

The key to this meal is the prep time. I try to work the prep in order of what requires the most prep time first. In this case it’s the meat so that it can marinate while I prep the corn. The corn takes a while to cook, and it never hurts to let it sit and cool down a bit while the meat and red skins finish cooking if the corn is finished early. The directions may seem a bit out of order, but I’ve written them in a way that cuts down on the prep to cook time.

Cilantro Lime Yard Bird, Red skins, and cobs

Directions

Marinate the yard bird:

Add the lime zest and juice, cilantro, and Olive oil into a gallon size zippered bag. Squish the bag with your hands to mix the contents well. Add the Chicken drumsticks to the baggie, and shake the bag until the marinade covers the drumsticks evenly. Place the bag in the fridge for 30 minutes to marinate the chicken.

The Cob:

Submerge the whole corn cobs in a sink of water, in husk, and let soak for 15 minutes.

Potatoes:

Cut the red skins into wedges. I use 2 small, or 1 large red skin potato per person. Lay the wedges onto 2 layers of foil approx 18” long. Drizzle olive oil on top of the potatoes, season them with sea salt and cracked black peppercorns, and top with 1 Tsp of chopped parsley.

Fold the foil up, meeting in the center like a taco shell and fold into a seam on top. Twist the ends to seal the foil into a foil burrito. Set aside until you start cooking the chicken.

Cooking time!

Preheat the grill to a medium temperature (350 degrees F).

Remove the corn from water, shake off any excess water, and slide the husks down to the base of the cob without removing them. Strip off all of the silk and discard.

Baste the corn with a mix of ¼ c. Olive oil, 1 Tbsp chopped cilantro, and minced garlic clove.  Season the cobs to taste with sea salt and cracked peppercorns.

Recover the corn with the husk and wrap the ends with twine to secure the husk.

Place the prepared ears of corn on a medium heat grill, rotating the corn as needed to keep it from getting charred too much on one side. After a couple of turns, place the corn husk to the indirect heat section (side of the grill, or on the top shelf) of your grill, and close the cover.

Remove the chicken from the gallon bag. Season the drumsticks with sea salt and cracked peppercorns to taste. Add the drumsticks to the grill as you move the corn to indirect heat.

Once you have the chicken on the grill add the foil burrito of red skins beside the drumsticks. The potatoes take about 20 minutes, and the chicken about 30 minutes. Just watch the grill and remove the corn and potatoes as they are finished.

Always cook chicken pieces (thigh, wing, drum stick) until it reaches an internal temperature of no less than 180 degrees.

Tonight we tried out marinated and grilled pineapple slices for dessert, a suggestion I recently received from a friend of mine. We like to eat fresh fruit as a dessert a few times a week during this season, and normally would just serve our pineapple cut into chunks. We like to try a new food at least twice a week to mix things up, so the dessert was a welcome change to our porch picnic.

I never knew grilled pineapple could be so delicious! This marinade was surprisingly the perfect complement to the natural flavor of the fruit. We just melted a stick of butter, added ¼ c. of honey, and added a Tbsp of hot sauce. I dipped the pineapple slices in the marinade, allowed the excess to drip off, and grilled them for a few minutes on each side.

Happy grilling!

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Leticia Latinovich is a wife, a mom of 4 crayon eaters, and loves helping others simplify their crazy life. She has a nack for seeking out the best deals on clearance sales, and really enjoys paying pennies on the dollar for clothing, food, and household items for her family. In her free time she enjoys gardening, cooking, reading, and nature.