“Johnnie Walker” brined chicken breasts

Do you remember the last time you’ve grilled chicken breasts? No? Oh don’t get worried, your memory is just fine! You are in a good company – many people simply avoid grilling chicken breasts. Why? Well, for one simple reason – it often comes out dry as a desert!

In a whole chicken the breast is the leanest part, very low fat, and when grilling it dries almost instantly. So, since shortening cooking time isn’t an option here (unlike beef, chicken must always be “well done” – that’s a food safety matter), another obvious idea is to “push” extra liquids into the meat. Yes, you may use an injector, and by all means, if you’re in a hurry, do use it, indeed! However, there is a much simpler and basic way – brining!

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Quick’n’Easy marinated mushrooms – Russian classics

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It is quite an interesting fact that marinated mushrooms are most known as classic Russian dish, regardless of the fact many world kitchens make an extensive use of this wonderful ingredient. Marinated mushrooms – be it champignons or any other – were mostly considered either as pickles or, more popular, as the bite following a shot of an ice chilled vodka. So, as a tribute to this wonderful dish, here’s my version of it – quick, easy and very tasty!

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Hot smoked rainbow trout

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Smoking has always been one of my all times favorite ways to serve fish. I’ve smoked salmon, hot and cold, also tried smoking grouper and mackerel… So today I am smoking rainbow trout on cherry wood, the classic way. So… here we go!

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Sunday Fair Smoked Turkey Legs

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G’day, folks!

Sooo…. I finally got my smoker! Before moving to Sydney I had a Weber Smokey Mountain cooker, which I unfortunately had to leave behind. For the last 6 months I’ve been doing market research trying to find a better smoker, but eventually I am back with my trusty “R2D2”, as my two little “Star Wars” fans named it.

Today I am going to talk about one of those recipes demonstrating how the basic techniques make an amazing outcome. Turkey legs are among the cheapest cuts of meat you can get, but, cooked right, will become a real treat!

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Honey & orange smoked turkey pastrami – it ain’t gonna get healthier than that!

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Hey folks!

It’s been a long time – work kept me busy and travelling, mainly in Austria, but here I am, shaking the dust off my smoker and bringing you one of the easiest and cost-effective recipes I know for a smoked turkey pastrami. The honey-orange glaze adds an extra layer of sweetness to this lightly savory meat, resulting in the most tasty pastrami I’ve tried since quite a long.

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“Drunk” chicken breasts – Scotch Whiskey brine

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Well yeah, I’m a wee bit Scotch fan. Actually, there’s not even a single Irish or American whiskey in my bar – only Scotch single malts and couple of blends, like Ballantine’s and Johnny Walker. So for me pouring a shot or two of my favorite amber liquid into a sauce or a marinade was nothing but a matter of time. My first attempt was to add it to a brine, and what’s more natural to be brined than chicken breasts? Right!

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