For a Canada Day party I had a few friends over for a BBQ. And Beer. And I got real excited about making KEBABS! The beer was supplied by the guests; we enjoyed Rolling Rock Extra Pale and Steam Whistle.
The good news is, I actually have a recipe to share! The bad news is, in all the craziness, I forgot to carefully monitor the beer-timings. So this may get a bit fuzzy. But it turned out fantastic, so read on!
The Prep
First, the variety of meats. I went to the butcher directly for this one, and got some choice meats. I was serving 9 adults (kids had hotdogs, suckers…).
- 850g (1.8 lbs) Top Sirloin steak, cut into 1” cubes.
- 1kg (2.2 lbs) large chicken breasts, also cubed up.
- 4 German style sausages
- 3 or 4 [Piller’s Knackwusrt)[http://www.pillers.com/product.php?pid=74]
- 5-10 strips of bacon (depending how many bacon wrapped meat chunks you want)
- 2 red, 2 green, 1 orange, 1 yellow sweet peppers
- 2 large red onions
I made a marinade for some of the meat (not all, as the meat didn’t really need it). I didn’t know what to do, but in the spirit of the German Sausage, I went with:
- 3/4 cup of dark beer (I went with Waterloo Dark again)
- 1/4 cup of oil (vegetable; no flavour. But if you try olive or something else, let me know!)
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) of Hy’s Cajun Spice. This is basically seasoning salt with cajun pepper, garlic, and onion.
I dropped in 8 cubes of beef and 10 cubes of chicken, then let it marinade for about 3 hours. (Flipping and mixing now and then). During this time, the skewers were soaking in water.
(I drank the rest of the dark beer…)
When it came time to make the skewers, I realized how much food I actually had! (Too much). Here was the basic pattern on the skewer:
- pepper, steak, onion, chicken, pepper, sausage, pepper, chicken, pepper, steak, pepper, (swig of beer for me).
Mix up the meats and veggies, variety makes the kebab! I also had some bacon wrapped steak and chicken in there.
Ok, with two giant platters of skewers, it was time to BBQ!
The Cook
For the skewers that did not have the marinated meat, I just brushed on some generic teriyaki sauce.
- Fire up the grill, nice and hot to get things rolling. At around 400°F we dropped the first round of skewers. (I say we as I had help from the guests, nice fellas that they are).
- Reduce the heat to medium-low, as the veggies and meats will profit from a slow cook.
- At about 1/3 of your beer, roll the skewers. Shuffle them around if some are cooking faster then others; a good indication is how dark the skewer sticks are getting. For the skewers that had no marinade, brush on some teriyaki sauce. Remember to watch your heat; you want a slow cook to maximize the juiciness!
- Repeat this every 1/3 of a beer for about 4 or 5 turns.
- Check the biggest chunk of chicken; if its cooked, then pull them off!
They are done!
This was by far one of the best BBQ experiences I have had. I hope it works for your too.
Total Beers: about 1 1/2, +1 prep beer and 1/2 a marinade leftover beer.