Not that I need an excuse to do a little cookout, but Saturday was the Kentucky Derby, and seemed like the perfect day to relax outside all afternoon (as Randy pointed out there was a high of 80; 97 for next Saturday!). When I woke up Saturday morning, I didn’t have a set plan for what to cook, or a firm idea of how many people were coming over, so I decided if I simply bought two whole chickens, two tri-tip roasts, and a package of hot links, we should be covered.
By 11 am I had been to the farmer’s market and Costco and was home with all that food and ready to fire up the smoker. I decided to do the larger of the two roasts, as well as both chickens, and a few hot links around the edges. The only legit recipe I could find online said to cook the tri-tip at around 350 F. Since I didn’t have time to brine before cooking, the higher temperature would be perfect for the chicken. The tri-tip got salt, pepper, and some garlic powder, while the chickens got salt, pepper, and a half-onion in each cavity. Apparently I’ve run out of wood chunks, so only the few unburned scraps in the Big Green Egg would have to do (uh, I mean I didn’t want this food to cook up as smoky as regular bbq fare; yeah, that’s it).
While the food was cooking, I made a quick simple syrup, and as soon as it was boiled and combined, took it off the heat, tossed in a bunch of mint, and covered to let cool. I find that for Derby Day, it doesn’t take long to get tired of muddling mint, so if I just infuse it in the syrup, all that needs to be done is to combine bourbon and the mint syrup in a glass of ice.
Next up was a side dish. None of the greens at the farmer’s market blew me away, so i went with a quinoa salad. In the past few months I’ve made different quinoa dishes at my brother’s house, my parents’, as well as a few BBQs I’ve hosted. It seems I’m on a quest to make everyone in my life appreciate quinoa (or at least learn to pronounce it). First, I cooked 2 cups of quinoa and cooled it. Next up was to make a quick vinaigrette, chop some almonds (then toasted them), diced some raw red onion, and also some sun-dried tomatoes. Combined them all, and there’s an easy salad. Upon reflection, the sun-dried tomatoes didn’t quite work for this; I had planned on using some of the San Marzanos I am growing, but there weren’t enough (or maybe I’m just hoarding them for myself).
Just as I settled in to a second mint julep, the timer went off to check the chicken. The thighs weren’t quite there so I finished my drink, came back and took them off the smoker and covered with foil. Then just enough time for one more julep, remove and cover the tri-tip, and cut the chicken into individual pieces. After that, I sliced the tri-tip and the hot links, and it was time to eat!
Personally, my favorite was the chicken, and I was pleasantly surprised with the Costco hot links. They weren’t as good as the homemade ones, but they were a helluva lot easier to do. I could’ve gotten by with only cooking one chicken no problem, but now I’ve got leftovers galore (hello enchiladas and chicken salad). The only problem with this meal was that I could barely eat what I put on my plate, and we had run out of mint syrup, so there wasn’t a julep to go with it!
