Father Son BBQ Time

Last year I was to judge the American Royal Jr. World Series of Barbecue. And yes you read that correctly I said Jr., A kid’s barbecue! How great is that. Well I think it’s pretty awesome anyway.  So this got me thinking; I have a ten year old who is getting into cooking. I mean at least if the recipe comes from a Star Wars or Cartoon Network Cookbook. But he is showing an interest, and with my extreme obsession of BBQ I thought it would be a good opportunity for some good old fashion farther son time. We started at the local barbecue store searching for the perfect rub. At this point you might be saying to yourself why not make a rub? Maybe you missed my boy’s age (ten) or possibly you’ve never cooked with a child before. Some short cuts are a necessity! Besides who doesn’t like to go to the barbecue store? I’m pretty sure my boy read every label to every BBQ rub in the store. For those of you that have been to the BBQ store you know can only imagination how long we spent there. It was fun though and after some time and thinking a rub was chosen (Mostly for the picture on the shaker). We chose Squeal and moved on to the market for some chicken thighs, legs and breast. While we were there we picked up some basic brine ingredients along with some corn on the cob, a premade pasta salad and fruit.

Once at home we through together the brine for the chicken parts to soak for three to four hours and began to prep the corn and fruit. For the corn we peeled back the husk without tearing them off, tore off the hair and buttered the corn then sprinkling them with salt and pepper. After the corn was salted and peppered we pulled the husk back up and covered them with foil. For the fruit we had a cantaloupe and a pineapple.  The pineapple we cut into half inch slices and the cantaloupe was cut into thick wedges. At this point we set everything aside, broke for lunch and a bit of TV.

After four hours of Adventure Time it was back to work. We took our chicken out of the brine and let it sit for a few minutes. During that time we started the grill (which was easy we were using a propane grill). Once back inside we trimmed the chicken legs, wrapped the bone in foil and Finn covered both the boneless skinless chicken breast and the legs with the rub we bought. We set a smoker box under the racks with soaked pecan chips for extra flavor and a cooking we go. We placed the chicken over the flam and the corn we wrapped in foil on the top rack.  After ½ the cooking time we turned the legs, breast and corn then went inside to get our fruit ready to grill. Yes Grill!!! When the chicken hit 170 degrees we sauced our chicken and five minutes later pulled it off the cooker. The corn was left on. I cleaned the grates and rubbed them with oil using tongs and a paper towel. The cantaloupe was place over the hottest parts of the cooking surface and the pineapple over the less hot surface area. This is because the pineapple will cook faster than the cantaloupe. After a few minutes we flipped the fruit let it go a few minutes more and off it went. The corn was last off the cooker. Everything was plated by Finn who has quite the talent for that sort of thing and dinner was served.

We had an awesome time planning, prepping, cooking and eating. I love grilling and smoking but I love my family more than anything so sharing this passion with my son was truly the greatest way to do either.

Cary