Grilling with Gordon

CBN.com Fire up your oven! Gordon Robertson recently demonstrated how to prepare a barbecue feast with smoky flavors -- all indoors.

Gordon Robertson: We're coming up on the July 4th holiday, and  today we're going to show you how to barbeque indoors just using an oven and a little bit of tin foil. I think everybody can do it.

Terry Meeuwsen:  What are we barbequing?

Gordon:  We are going to barbeque some ribs.  We are going to barbeque some corn. And we're going to barbeque some pulled pork.

Terry: I'm so glad I showed up today! (laughs)

Gordon:  … and some cole slaw.  We're going to have a regular July 4th feast.  And the neat thing about it is that we're going to do it all indoors, in an oven. So technically, for those people who are real technical about barbequing, I know there are a lot of barbeque fanatics in the United States, this is really a braise. It's not a barbeque. So just keep that in mind, that what we're trying to do is create smoky flavors using spices and not smoke from a barbeque.

Terry:  So don't try to get the barbeque through the door.

Gordon:  Don't try it indoors--you don't want smoke indoors. Your smoke alarm will go off.

Alright, here we go--we're going start with two baby back slabs of ribs.  And the key to any barbeque, that any barbeque aficionado will tell you, the absolute key, is the rub that goes on it.  That’s what produces all the flavor.  Start with some brown sugar; that’s always sort of the base.  Then add some salt.  And the keys to creating smoky flavor without smoke are using chiles.  This is ancho chile powder, which is not spicy, all it is is a dried poblano that’s rendered into a powder. And it’s the sort of key in a lot of Tex-Mex type cooking.  It gives you a sort of a wonderful mole-type flavor.  This is dried chipotle, and chipotle is a smoked jalapeno.

Terry:  And that would be hot?

Gordon:  This would be hot.  We’ll balance the spiciness with a little bit of honey later, but for now this will give you a lot of good smoke.  So that goes in there.  Some powdered thyme -- which is always good with pork -- black pepper, onion powder, which is not coming out.

Terry:   You’re allowed to use your fingers.

Gordon:  All right. I am, am I?  I have your permission?  I have carefully washed my hands to impeccable cleanliness.   And then add some garlic powder.

You take all of this and just combine it together in this mixing bowl.  All you’re trying to do is incorporate it into the meat.  It’s going to need about a couple of hours just to get friendly with all the meat.  Here we’ve got two slabs of baby back ribs and you just take your spice powder and take the meat side up.  Any rib will have the meat side and the rib side.  You’re not really looking to spice the rib side because it’s just bone, you’re not going to eat it.  So you take the spice powder and you just rub, which is where we get the rub.  You literally press it into the meat and rub it in.

Terry:  Then you let it stay like that for quite a while?

Gordon:  If you want to take it overnight, the more time its spent in the rub the … .

Terry:   The better.

Gordon:  The more it’s going to permeate and get all the way through the meat.   But no less than an hour.  Another thing, whenever you handle raw meat, you have to make sure you wash your hands, otherwise you’re going to contaminate things.

You wrap this up and we’ve got these packets here, where we show you how to do it.  These have already been wrapped and then put into a refrigerator for a couple of hours, so they are fully marinated. The key with a braise is that you take liquid and pour it over the meat, and then you seal it up.  And the braising liquid is real simple, it’s just chicken stock, a couple of tablespoons of white wine vinegar, a little bit of honey, a tablespoon of honey, and two tablespoons of Worcester sauce.  So it’s not fancy, you’re just trying to have a little flavored liquid that you pour over the meat.  This recipe is enough for two slabs of ribs, and so you pour half of it on one slab.

Now the key, and the key to any braise, is, this is heavy-duty aluminum foil.  You don’t want it to tear because you want all that liquid in there.

Terry:  You want this closed at the end?

Gordon:  Yes, and you close it at the end.  All of this is sealed up.  And all of this is now steaming the meat.  The key for braises is low and slow.  You want low temperature…

Terry:  So what is that?  You want…

Gordon:  250 degrees.

Terry:  Really?  And how long?

Gordon: 2 ½ hours.

Terry:  Really? Wow!  Falling off the bone are we talkin’ here?

Gordon:  It will be falling off the bone.  But it will be delightful, because one of the problems with cooking meat at a high temperature is that the protein matrix in the meat actually contracts, and it makes meat tough.  You don’t want tough pork.  You want falling off the bone pork.  So low and slow is the key to any barbeque. 
You put these packets in, sealed up, with the braising liquid.  And when you take them out, you are going to have this wonderful liquid that is then going to be in these packets. 

Terry:  OK.

Gordon:  And now it’s going to have all the meat juices. 

Terry:  Ooh.  So you save that.

Gordon:  You save that.  You don’t throw it away.  You put it back in your saucepan and you reduce it down to a paste.  You can add a little tomato catsup to it to give it a consistency.  And that is now a wonderful barbeque

Terry:  Barbeque sauce.

Gordon:  Ancho chipotle barbeque sauce that you made yourself.  And it is delicious!

Terry: Mmmm.  Are we allowed to…?

Gordon: (laughs) You are allowed to sample.

Terry:  Am I?

Gordon:  Now, you take that and you …

Terry:  Wow! (tasting sauce)

Gordon:  … use any basting brush

Terry:  That is fabulous!!

Gordon:  … and you paint that on top of the ribs as you’re getting ready to eat them, and then you put them under the broiler.  This is where the key comes in to how to make them look beautiful and like you had them out on the barbeque.  You put them under the broiler until that sauce caramelizes to this color.

Terry:  Wow.

Gordon:  Wow. (laughs)

Terry:  You all need to make this sauce, I mean, that is something special!

Gordon:  Alright, now’s the time for a little sample.

Terry: Oh good!

Gordon:  You cut them into two sections or individual ribs for people to eat.

Terry: Wow. (tasting)  Sure wish you were here.

Gordon:  And it’s all done indoors.  You have what is a beautiful slab of ribs, all done braised, all done indoors.  And you have more dipping sauce if you want that.

Now.  Here’s the other one that goes with that, and it’s roasted corn.  I love roasted corn.  I think a lot of people overcook corn. They boil corn.  Corn comes with its own natural braising container, and it’s the husk.  So you just open up the husk, you take out all the corn silk, you wash it under some cold water, and then you seal it back up.  And this should cook for about thirty minutes, 350 degrees, and you end up with something wonderful, which is roasted corn, which tastes like you did it on the grill.  Then the husk becomes your handle.

Terry:  Your handle!  Wow.

Gordon:  So you can have outdoor grilling. And we’ve got something special for you, which is an ancho chile butter. With some lime zest, you take softened butter and you  combine all that together, mix it together, and you get this wonderful what I call compound butter with Ancho chile and on corn,...

Terry: Oh. my word.

Gordon: Take a sample of that and see what you think.

Terry:  Oh, my gosh.  Well…

Gordon:  That is barbeque indoors.  Where you can have barbeque flavor without ever lighting a single coal, or spending for that.

Terry:  (coughs)

Gordon:  Was that the ancho or the chipotle?

Terry:  I mean it’s not real hot, but it’s got a little kick to it.

Gordon:  It’s not …but it’s got a little kick

Terry:  But fabulous…

Gordon:  But, it’s really good. And if you don’t want the chile, you don’t want the kick you can just use the lime zest

Terry:  Love the lime in it, it’s awesome!

Gordon:  Or you could add lemon zest or another good compund butter is to take a piece of garlic and roast it in tin foil with a little bit of olive oil, and mash that and incorporate that into the butter, and on corn. That will knock your socks off!  And it will make your family really, really happy.

Terry:  I guess so!

Gordon:  Now we’ll walk over here, we’ll show you the whole outlet, what you can have on July 4th (camera pans table)

Terry:  How pretty is this, wow!

Gordon:  Without any barbeque.  You can literally have barbequed pulled pork, we’ve got a recipe online for that, the barbeque ribs, some cole slaw. And even if you lived in the heart of New York City, you could make this barbeque.

Terry:  Wow. It’s fabulous!  You know it’s always true that the sauces and the seasoning and all of that are what put the finishing touch on things.  These are awesome! And they’re all available to any of you who are interested, right?

Gordon:  We’ve got a fact sheet for you. All you have to do is log on to CBN.com, and it’ll be there for you right now. Just download it.

Terry:  Delicious, delicious..Well done, Chef.

Gordon:  Well done.  (laughs)