Newsletter Archive
Brisket. Few words have the power to make you palpitate, salivate, and levitate. Whether smoked in a pit, braised by a grandmother, or simmered for half a day by a Vietnamese pho master, brisket ranks among the world’s most revered meats.
Brisket’s been part of my life almost from the moment I started eating solid food. For decades, it was the centerpiece of the holiday dinners that took place at my grandparents’ home. My aunt Annette’s brisket was always the highlight of the meal. (Find her recipe on page 132 of my book, The Brisket Chronicles.)
As most backyard grillers know, the price of America’s favorite beefsteaks has risen dramatically in the past few years. Rib-eyes, New York strips, tenderloin, and even the humble chuck steak appear on family menus less often than they once did. But you and your grill grates needn’t despair: Just in time for Memorial Day cookouts, we’d like to introduce you to our favorite underappreciated cuts.
Today is National Barbecue Day—a holiday near and dear to my heart. After all, I’ve spent the better part of my adult life dedicated to barbecue—cooking it, eating it, researching it, writing about it, making TV shows about it, and generally marveling at barbecue’s ability to assuage our hunger, feed our communities, and soothe our souls.
If I have a personal Barbecue Day, it would be in November, not May, for that’s when my formal relationship with live fire cooking began. I remember exactly where I was sitting, what I was wearing, the place, the time, and the weather. I was working on a book on low-fat cooking—a far cry from what I do now! Time slowed down, as it does in portentous life moments. I heard a voice, as though from heaven. It gave me a simple order—drum roll, please. “Steven Raichlen—follow the fire.”
For years, I’ve extolled the virtues of cooking burgers on the grill (preferably over a wood fire), and for years I’ve warned against pressing those burgers with the flat part of a spatula (an act often practiced by people with Y chromosomes that squeezes the luscious meat juices onto the coals).
But there’s one burger that does better on a griddle than a grill and that absolutely thrives when pressed. You guessed it: the smash burger.
Taking St. Louis ribs to the next level using some awesome products from the Texas Pepper Jelly Company. We’re talking rubbing those ribs down with their spice blends, smoking them over apple wood, spritzing them with a zesty vinegar and rib candy mixture as they smoke. Good stuff!
Just released! Beer-can chicken is startlingly simple; grill a chicken upright over an open can to make crispy, succulent chicken of unmatched flavor. Once learned, the barbecue cook can apply this technique to endless variations: Cola-Can Chicken, Ginger Ale Chicken, Iced Tea Chicken, and more.
Written by award-winning, multimillion copy bestselling author Steven Raichlen—the expert who wrote The Barbecue Bible!—BEER-CAN CHICKEN: Foolproof Recipes for the Crispiest, Crackliest, Smokiest, Most Succulent Birds You’ve Ever Tasted (Workman Publishing; April 23, 2024; $24.99; paperback) is an updated classic: revised, redesigned, and beautifully photographed for a new generation of grillers. Raichlen, who brought beer can cooking into the American mainstream 20 years ago, offers 50 recipes for inventive variations on this ultimate chicken grilling technique, plus brilliant recipes for birds off the can, perfect sides, and even desserts!
Do you have a favorite restaurant, food truck, or burger joint (or even a fond memory of one) that makes outstanding burgers, burgers that are uncommonly, inexplicably good? “Wait a minute,” you think. “I make good burgers at home. Why don’t they taste like this?” The answer? Because many of these chefs and chef-like ground beef greats have a few tricks up their sleeves. Read on, and you’ll be privy to “secrets” that will have the guests at your table murmuring, “Best burger…ever!”
In our experience, the serious practitioners of barbecue always have a few tricks up their sleeves. Below, we share with you some of the most useful we’ve collected, along with several recipes to back them up.
In our experience, the serious practitioners of barbecue always have a few tricks up their sleeves. Below, we share with you some of the most useful we’ve collected, along with several recipes to back them up.
April is a tease—sometimes warm enough to make you believe summer is on its way—before cruelly yanking your hope away! However, we urge you to take advantage of those “let’s fire up the grill” days by making these tantalizing recipes.
This spring, we urge you to give versatile lamb a try! Tender, rich, meaty, and compatible with many flavor combinations, lamb’s versatility is unmatched. Explore its many cuts to find your favorites—loin, shoulder, ribs, brisket, bone-in or boneless leg of lamb, steaks, loin or rib chops, etc.
If you’re new to grilling lamb, we recommend you start with a leg of lamb or shoulder. If using shoulder, ask your butcher to remove any excess intermuscular fat (this is where the gamier flavors hang out) and to roll and tie it for a more uniform shape that can be rotisseried or indirect grilled.
Here are a few of our favorite recipes:
Revised, redesigned, and beautifully photographed, this updated classic from America’s barbecue guru offers 50 recipes for the ultimate chicken grilling technique—on a beer can—plus brilliant recipes for birds off the can, perfect sides, and even desserts!
Chicken on a beer can? You bet! When Steven Raichlen, America’s barbecue guru, says it’s the best grilled chicken he’s ever tasted, cooks stop and listen. An essential addition to every grill jockey’s library, Beer-Can Chicken presents foolproof recipes for the ultimate poultry grilling technique, plus the perfect sides and desserts—more than 50 recipes in all. The results? The perfect bird, crackly crisp, succulent within—the most flavorful chicken you’ve ever tasted. Beer-Can Tandoori with yogurt, warming spices, and of course, India’s Kingfisher Lager. Sake Chicken with a wasabi-sesame rub. Truffled Chicken and Cousin Rob’s Cajun Chicken. Other birds on the can: Root Beer Game Hens and Beer-Can Turkey (perched on a 32-ounce can of Foster’s). ”Beerless birds” (Ginger Ale Chicken, Black Cherry Soda Chicken), and birds cooked off the can in clever ways—like Stoned Chicken (grilled under a brick) and Welder’s Chicken (wrapped in foil and turned with welder’s gloves). Whether on a can, under a brick, or in the embers, each grilling technique is explained in easy-to-follow steps, with recipes that guarantee no matter how wild the process, the results are always outstanding. Includes sides, desserts, and all new instructions for beer-canning on a pellet grill—with full-color step-by-step and beauty photography throughout.
