I love cooking, nearly anything, but until very recently I have kept my cooking adventures within the walls of the sky castle, a few weeks ago I got bit by the BBQ/grill bug. It all started out innocently enough, we had a small, very small table top charcoal grill, it wasn’t really large enough, but it was a good start. Next we dusted off the tall smoker that could be used as a grill by moving the charcoal pan up to the top, it wasn’t much better than the smaller grill, but by then I knew I really wanted to have a more permanent setup so PB went to work building a grill for me.
PB is a master at taking this & that and putting it together to make wonderful and useful things, this was no different. It took him the better part of a day but he created a grill for me. He took a stainless steel jacket/cover that had originally been used to cover a booster heater for one of the restaurants he used to work for (as a handyman), he had manufactured this piece, then when they changed systems later, they paid him to remove it.
Being a former restaurant kitchen repair guy, he has lots of parts laying around, he took a burner from a big oven, some stainless angle brackets, and a few odd pieces of things laying around the property and made me a grill, we decided to use propane, it burns clean, doesn’t smoke, and turns off instantly. The thought was to use the propane to light wood or charcoal, but honestly I’m liking it as it is.
Tasty tasty tasty!
Propane bottle attached to the grill, the entire thing is sitting on what we used to use as a smoker.
This shows how PB mounted the burner along with the stainless steel angle used as deflectors.
I have grilled several dinner’s worth of hamburgers and this latest dinner was chicken tenders, now THAT turned out tasty! I made a marinade, soaked the chicken for 15 minutes then grilled them, oh oh oh did they turn out tasty! I’ll give my recipe for the marinade.
These measurements are approximate, I really didn’t measure, I just eyeballed it, it’s OK if it doesn’t measure out exactly.
1 T raw honey
1/4 cup olive oil
2-3 T worstershire
a few dashes of dried onion powder
salt, pepper to taste
I mixed this with a small whisk and poured it over 6 chicken tenders. While grilling, just before turning over the chicken, I dribbled the remaining marinade on the chicken, if you do this BE SURE TO COOK THE MARINADE THOROUGHLY on the chicken, it is contaminated with raw chicken. If you want a dipping sauce, you should make a fresh batch besides what you used on the chicken.
If you want to make your own grill, be sure to use heat safe and food safe items, don’t use galvanized anything, it is toxic when heated, nothing that is chromed. Stainless steel is safe, cast iron is safe, anything made to take heat and will not give off toxic fumes.
I eventually want an outdoor kitchen, mainly for cooking in the summer, don’t like adding any extra heat to the house… I have a nice deck that is enclosed on 3 sides, most of the surfaces including the floor are fireproof and heat proof, I will be able to cook out there in most weather, cold, windy, rainy and still be protected from most of the weather. This grill makes a good start on that. :)
What I’d REALLY like is a rocket stove cooker and maybe even a pizza oven/bread cooker in cob or stone… I’m working on PB about that ;)