Recipe #14 and how I almost burned down the house

It's been a while since I've cooked a Tyler recipe and the people have been getting restless.  I've received messages like..

"where's Tyler?"
"You give up after 13?"
"I miss your food blog!  We need more recipes!"
"I love your pictures!  You're awesome and extremely good looking!"

And that's just a small sample of the thousands of fan mail I get on a daily basis.  So there are many reasons why I haven't blogged or cooked a Tyler recipe in a while.  Some of them, but not all, include playoff hockey, painting chairs, vacation, catching up on the DVR, and the traumatic experience of this recipe.  So without any further ado, I give you Recipe #14 and how I almost burned down the house.

not my house

So my neighbors were having a party for my other neighbors who recently moved.  I was asked to make something delicious so I decided to try one of Tyler's appetizer recipes, Chicken and Pineapple Skewers.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-and-pineapple-skewers-recipe/index.html

It's rated easy, listed at just over an hour so I figured on a weeknight I had enough time when I got home from work at 5:45pm to make them for the 7:00pm party.  I had all the ingredients on hand.

Everything but the chicken.  I guess the chicken was too busy to make it to the photo shoot on time.   I'll have to speak with it's agent.

 Before getting into the cooking, soak the bamboo skewers for as long as possible.  

Soaked them in a large roasting pan.   It was either this or the bathtub.  Hard to find something long and deep enough to soak skewers in.

The recipe says to soak them for 30 minutes.  That's bull plop!  I soaked these for close to an hour and they still burned up on the grill.  I think you either need to use metal skewers or soak the bamboo for 3 days.  

So now that you've got the skewers in the pan or tub, you can move on to making the sauce.

Sauce in the pot with some large white glob on the right.  I think it's garlic.  That sounds more appetizing that a white glob so we'll go with that.

 

Fairly simple.  Follow the recipe and put them in a pot and let it simmer while you move on to the chicken prep. 

The recipe says to cut each boneless chicken thigh into 2 pieces.  Since there are no pictures I wasn't sure which way to cut the thigh, lengthwise or the other way.  So I took a guess and did it whichever way came out like this.

So this picture really doesn't show diddly squat about the way to cut the chicken.  Nice job on taking a picture of a mound of sliced chicken thighs on a bamboo cutting board.  I think you can cut the chicken either way.  Season with salt and pepper.

After the chicken is cut, move on to the pineapple.  Come to think of it, I believe I cut the pineapple first so I wouldn't have gross chicken hands while cutting the fruit.  I would wash my hands after handling the chicken regardless of the order.  Don't want to mess with the salmonella.  Haven't got it yet, don't plan on getting it in the future.

Sliced pineapple chunks.  Cutting a fresh pineapple is not a pretty job but the end result it worth it.  Don't even think about using canned chunks.  I'll permanently ban you from this blog and any future blogs.  I'll know.  I have people. 

Now that the ingredients are ready it's time to make up the skewers.  I went with chicken bottom and pineapple topper. 

Special thanks to the wife for taking this shot.  I wouldn't touch my camera with pineapple chicken hands.  I don't think I'd touch much of anything with pineapple chicken hands.  Now I'm picturing a guy with hands made of chicken and pineapples.  I hope it's cooked chicken cause that poor guy couldn't touch anything except maybe chicken.

 

Almost ready to grill.  Just need some of the sauce.

I then brushed on some of the sauce not knowing what was in store for me when I went to the grill.  It was a mild June evening and the sounds of Malden traffic hummed in the background as I opened the screen door to the deck.  And there on the deck was my grill just ready for the chicken. 

The grill had been preheated to around 400 degrees and was ready to accept Tyler's bountiful chicken skewers which I had spent the past hour preparing.  The hour was nearing seven as I approached the grill and lifted the handle to reveal the grates of glory on which the chicken would achieve it's greatness.  And this is where it all started to go wrong.

I didn't want the chicken to stick so what I should have done was oil the grates before I started the grill.  What I did do was pour some vegetable oil on the grates not realizing that some of the oil went between the grates.  I put the chicken on the grill and closed the lid.

Within about 5 minutes there was a bit of smoke coming out of the grill and the temperature gauge was rising 500, 600, 650, 700 until it was maxed out.  I've had this grill for over a year and never seen it over 550.  I grabbed an oven mit and attempted to open the lid.  I didn't get far when I decided that was a bad idea.

I turned off the burners but the smoke continued to rise whilst the fire burned in the belly of the Weber beast.  I knew that the chicken was lost and my next and only move was to grab the fire extinguisher under the kitchen sink.  Never having used an extinguisher I quickly read the instructions.  I can't imagine most people read these when the time comes to use it.

Without lifting the lid I was able to shoot the foam into the sides of the grill which extinguished the flames and the smoke subsided.  Hours later when I opened the grill it looked like this.

It surprisingly doesn't look too bad in this picture.  And it still smelled pretty good too.

 

Looks like a sandstorm came along and got all up in my grill. 

Thank you fire extinguisher.  I now know how to use one and hope I never have to again.

Luckily I hadn't put all of the skewers on the grill, so I took the remaining ones upstairs to my neighbors and used their grill to properly cook them.

Me cooking the chicken without burning down the house.  I look a bit dejected from the recent experience.  I was.

This is what the chicken skewers should look like when cooked properly. 

And there you have it.  Recipe #14 and how I almost burned down the house.  While this business was more involved than it needed to be, the end result was fantastic.  Moist, tasty, succulent chicken with a tang of barbecue and the sweet touch of pineapple.  These were a hit at the party even though they came after most people had moved onto dessert.

Special thanks to Dave and Jenna for letting me use their grill and for taking the last two pictures.  Also for not calling fire department when they saw billows of smoke coming from the unit below them.  I've learned a valuable lesson here and I hope you have as well.  Don't pour oil onto a lit grill and always have a fire extinguisher at the ready.

What's next for Tyler's 100?  Not sure yet but I imagine it will be something indoors without an open flame.