I just got back from the grocery store and purchased some cajun pork sausage and a rib eye steak. I have some chicken breasts in the freezer too. Anyone got a good recipe for me to marinade some of this? Anyone with a beer marinade recipe?
4 large garlic cloves, minced 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 3 tablespoons Dijon or cajun mustard 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled 1 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled 1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes 2/3 cup olive oil Mix everytning in a large zip lock bag and put meat inside. Place in refrigerator and turn bag every so often for several hours.
Steak marinade, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup worchestchire sauce, 1/8 cup lemon juice(or the juice from 2 sm lemons) 1 tsp garlic powder. Season steaks with a Montrial type steak seasoning and marinate in this mixture for 2 to 3 hrs, cook steaks on hot coals for 4 mint. each side for med rare and enjoy! Chicken, cut into pieces, take the skin off and marinate in italian dressing overnight . Sausage, good cajun sausage don't need no marinade, its got the marinade already built in!
Put the steaks in a Ziplock baggie, add a 3 to 1 ratio of Kikkomans Teriyaki Bake and Glaze sauce to Worchestershire sauce, add the juice of 1 lemon and a couple of cloves of crushed garlic. Put in the fridge until you are ready to put them on the grill For chicken Italian salad dressing works about as well as anything. No marinade needed for the Cajun sausage.
If it's a good steak, it doesn't need anything besides a little olive oil, fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt. Make sure your grill is red hot and sear that bad boy for 5 min on each side. Done. As far as your chicken goes there are three basic ingredients that will tenderize it. Vinegar (& oil), yogurt or buttermilk. Use one of those basic tenderizers and any spices that you like. One thing about the yogurt and buttermilk is that they help prevent the chicken from burning if you're a little careless. Try a little curry powder, cayenne, garlic (fresh or powder) with the yogurt/buttermilk based marinades. Try bunches of your favorite dried herbs, garlic, 2-1 ratio of EVOO to vinegar, fresh black pepper and crushed red pepper as well. Sear on red hot grill then lower temp and let slow roast over low heat.
You just don't want to marinate with salt longer than 15 min or so but you certainly want to liberally coat the meat with kosher salt and black pepper before cooking. It's what gives it that tasty crust. While salt certainly will extract moisture with long exposure there isn't enough time when cooking a steak at high temps with quick cooking times.
Have to agree with you Jack, a little olive oil, kosher or sea salt and fresh ground pepper is the way to go on a good steak and high heat is the secret to a nice crust and juicy insides. The time needed to cook a steak is not long enough for salt to draw out the juices. Once it is seared the juices stay inside. Not many know about using Yogurt for a tenderizer. You must do a lot of cooking. We use yogurt on beef, lamb and goat. Have you ever tried thousand island dressing? It does a good job as a tenderizer and have used wishbone oriental salad dressing on grilled fish and shrimp with good success.