Hopefully you are aware that we have a stocked freezer in The Barbecue Shack selling frozen burgers, sausages, chicken thighs, steaks as well as frozen pizza dough and cheddar / mozzarella mix for pizza toppings. As part of our Frozen Food review cooking food from our freezer I decided to make a honey mustard mix, coat some chicken thighs, smoke them on the Monolith Junior, toast some par-baked bread and make some delicious, juicy, tender, flavourful baguettes.
So once the chicken thighs had defrosted using natural warming (and a small nuclear device) I took the skin off but at this stage left the bone in as I feel the flavour of the thighs is better if cooked bone in. I made a mix of clear honey, English mustard and cider vinegar and poured this over the thighs, rubbing the mixture into the meat to ensure a good coating and popped them in the fridge to marinade.
The Monolith Kamado Junior was light and once up to temperature I placed the diffuser in and left this to warm through. The Monolith settled at around 200 Celsius so I placed the chicken thighs on the grill and left them to cook. I did throughout the cook baste the thighs in more marinade but waited for them to char before turning. I also roughly sliced a white onion, placed it in a small cast iron pan with some oil and placed these on the Monolith to soften and become nice and translucent.
Once the thighs were cooked to 78 Celsius, always cook chicken higher if it has bones in it, I took them off the barbecue and placed some par-cooked baguettes on the Monolith to finish baking which didn’t take long. Once the onions and baguettes were finished I removed them from the Junior and shut it down (closed all the vents to save the charcoal for a future cook) and built my baguettes. I cut the bread down the middle from the top, added some burger sauce (because why not) and mayonnaise, filled them with the delicious, moist, juicy, tender chicken that I had cut off the bone and diced and topped them with the chopped onions (once I remembered I had them) and yes they were delicious, tender…..oh you know the rest!
None of these cooks take long, yes a bit of preparation but I get on with other things whilst the cook is happening and the end result is a delicious meal for really not a lot of effort. So get outside and light your barbecue, yes it may be chilly but your barbecue will be warm and your lunch / dinner will be the best food you have eaten since your last barbecue.