Does the smell of wood smoke excite you? Does it make your saliva glands begin to secrete? Do you love hovering over a fire watching meat being cooked to perfection. Then you are MY kind of people!
Whether it's smoking, roasting, baking, braising or grilling; with quality meats and some imagination, you can create some mouth water meals and memories with loved ones. As a barbecue addict myself I'm here to give you ideas to take your taste buds on a wild ride.
Photos, Videos, Recipes, and more. If you love to smoke, brine, inject, baste and rub come back often to see what's new.
And if you are firing up the grill, please share! I'd love to try your recipes and see your photos! You can hashtag your grill photos #RiddersQclub.
In much of the southern US spring marks the beginning of "boil season". A "boil" is usually done in a large pot (60 to 80 quarts) fitted with a strainer and heated by propane. Food is cooked in boiling water seasoned with crab boil seasoning, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, salt, lemons, and bay leaf. Ears of corn, new potatoes, onions, and heads of garlic are usually included in shrimp and crawfish boils. Some people will add smoked sausage links or mushrooms. I add all of the above.
When I don't feel like the work of a full on boil but still want the flavor I make "boil foil packets". I place all of the same inegredients in foil. Seal it tight and steam everything. The trick to making a perfect shrimp foil packet is to use frozen shrimp.
Here's what you need:
- 1lb of frozen large or medium frozen shrimp
- 1/2lb of Andouille sausage (If not andouille you can sub any smoked sausage)
- 4 medium red potatoes, cut into quarters
- 2 ears of corn, quartered
- 1 medium yellow onion, quartered
- 1 lemon, sliced into rings
- 2-4 cloves of garlic
- 1 lemon, sliced in rings
- small pack of mushrooms
- shrimp boil seasoning (old bay or zatarain's)
- 2 Tbsp of butter
- roll of heavy duty aluminum foil
The contents of a traditional boil do differ from person to person. Here's a few ideas of things you could put in your boil foil packets.
Making these boil foil packets is pretty simple actually...
Directions:
- Fire up your grill and place most of the coals off to one side to allow both direct and indirect heat. While your coals get going and grill warms up, lets make the foil packets.
- Tear off 4 large sheets of aluminum foil and place them on a counter of workstation. Use 2 sheets, double layered, per foil packet.
- Layer in ingredients first starting by rubbing 1Tbsp of butter on the center of one of the sheets of foil. Then place potatoes down and sprinkle with some Old Bay seasoning.
- Then place the andouille sausage, onions, garlic, mushrooms and corn in order.
- Finally put half your frozen shrimp on top of everything and sprinkle with a bit more Old Bay seasoning.
- Place a 2 lemon slices on top and roll up the foil and seal it tightly.
- Repeat steps 3-6 to make a second packet.
- With grill warmed and coals set to one side, place the packets directly over the coals for about 10 mins, then move away to a cook them over indirect heat for another 10 mins.
- Remove for the heat and let sit for 10 mins before opening.
- Open up and before serving again sprinkle a little Old Bay seasoning over the top.
These foil packets make for a great outdoor cookout where you just dig in with your hands like a classic boil without any of the cleanup! Just crinkle up foil and throw away!
Everything should be perfectly steamed and cooked. And if you're wondering why frozen shrimp? If you use fresh or thawed shrimp they over cook. starting with frozen shrimp they thaw before cooking and keeping them on top they steam the entire time so they don't over cook. That's a real pro-tip there!
And if you are firing up the grill, please share! I'd love to try your recipes and see your photos! You can hashtag your grill photos #RiddersQclub. Also check out these other ideas to help kick up your outdoor cooking skills.