Even though women tend to be stereotyped as home cooks, grilling has long been considered a man’s domain. However, this isn’t the case, especially in modern times. There are millions of female grillers seeking fun new ways to inject flavor into their traditional recipes served at barbecues, family gatherings, and general neighborhood cookouts. While everyone seems to enjoy a good hamburger or hotdog, truly creative chefs seek ways to add seasoning to steaks, chicken, fish, and other unlikely grilled delicacies like crab legs. So, girls, if you want to put some flavor in your cookout this summer, check out these three ideas!
Try New Spices
Some diehard grillers out there will insist that all a decent cut of meat needs is some salt and pepper. However, if you find that this motto leaves you wanting more flavor in your cookout, consider getting freaky with the spices. Depending on your personal tastes, there is an entire universe of seasoning at your disposal – all it takes is some experimentation and a trip to the supermarket.
You don’t have to get fancy right away. You can start with something simple as adding garlic and onion powder to a steak or hamburgers before grilling. Other fun spices for these red meats are brown sugar (for a sweet taste), red pepper, ground mustard, ground cumin, smoked paprika, and even ground ancho chile pepper.
For chicken, there is a world beyond supermarket poultry seasoning and regular barbecue sauce. One of the best ways to add flavor to the grill is to season chicken with a dry rub or use a marinade. Some popular spice choices are olive oil, coriander, cumin, garlic salt, ground mustard, salt and pepper again, and good old-fashioned cajun seasoning. Fish, as another lean protein, shares many of its flavors with chicken but also tastes delicious with some lemon and other citruses.
Flavor the Smoke
If you don’t have a lot of money to invest in equipment but you do have a charcoal burning grill or one that produces smoke, consider adding some flavor directly to the fire. Meats tend to hold on to some of the smoke used to cook it. This means bad grilling can result in chicken, steak, or fish that tastes like charcoal, especially if the food is left on the rack too long. However, it also means it’s possible to ingest some new tastes into your diet.
Some chefs have discovered that an easy way to add zest to any grilled food is to lay dried orange, lemon, or lime peels directly on the charcoals before lighting the fire. As they burn, the peels release some of their delicious citrus flavors, which will become infused with the proteins of the meat. This method is especially effective at adding zest to fish, which is the most adaptable and tender of the grilling meats.
Add An Offset Smoker
An offset smoker is an unusual device rapidly gaining popularity among grillers. The smoker is separate from a grill and contains two chambers designed to smoke meats more effectively and efficiently than a traditional design. There is one chamber that resembles a standard grill, and then there is another box that is attached to the side. This side grill is where users can place their chosen woods and charcoals to pick their smoke flavorings. All meats go in the central grill chamber, where there tend to be multiple racks for smoking.
An offset smoker is perfect for grilling because it flavors meat slowly, allowing the spice and seasonings to grow more complex like a healthy marinade. While most powder seasonings and charcoal flavorings are great, they tend to be surface level. An offset smoker can go all the way.
Conclusion
There are tons of ways to inject more flavor into the traditional grilling scene. Some can be done with a regular grill, while others require some specialized equipment. But whether it’s reaching for some new spices at the supermarket, drying out some citrus and throwing it on hot coals, or actually investing in some new equipment, there’s a variety of methods available to boost the flavor in the traditional summer grilling scene. Get out there and have some fun!
