Kosher Blog

HOWTO: BBQ for 100

I’ve been involved with my shul’s annual barbecue for about four years now, and this is the first year we ran out of food. I won’t say it was only because of its skilled preparation — the beautiful weather and ideal mid-September scheduling played large parts in drawing out more attendees than we could feed — but a few people asked for recipes, so here goes. (Remember that these are effectively institutional recipes, prepared in a practically unequipped kitchen, so don’t hassle me for using bottled barbecue sauce and dehydrated onions.)

BARBECUE CHICKEN
The quantities on this one aren’t important, just the technique: precook dark-meat chicken in a flavorful, slightly acidic sauce, then finish on the grill for great flavor and crisp skin.

• 1 institutional jug Cattleman’s Smokey barbecue sauce
• 1 smallish bottle apple cider vinegar
• 50 lb. case of chicken legs, preferably Canadian, split into thigh and drumstick portions
• 10 half-size, full-depth aluminum steam pans with lids

Preheat a large convection oven to 300 degrees.

Pour about 1 cup sauce and 1/4 cup vinegar into an aluminum pan and mix. Fill each pan with about 10 pieces of chicken, coat both sides of each piece with sauce as you load the pan. Cover pan tightly, and repeat until all the chicken is used.

Place sealed pans into oven and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven. If not cooking immediately, refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare six-foot grill with one bag of lump hardwood charcoal. When hot, remove cooked chicken pieces from sauce and place on grill. Give the chicken a little char (about five minutes on each side) and serve.

KUFTA
Adapted from epicurious.com. Using dehydrated onion instead of fresh actually makes forming the kufta a heck of a lot easier, since there’s less moisture to contend with, and the little shortcut didn’t detract from the finished product’s flavor.

• 20 lb. ground beef
• 1 1/2 cups dehydrated minced onion
• 2 cups dried parsley flakes
• 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. ground coriander
• 1-2 Tbsp. cayenne powder (your preference)
• 2 Tbsp. powdered ginger
• 2 Tbsp. cumin

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Lemon juice

Reconstitute dehydrated onion with warm water just to cover; let sit for five minutes.

Mix rehydrated onions, beef, parsley, and spices thoroughly.

Form small handfuls of meat into sausage shapes (about 5″ long, 1″ diameter) and refrigerate or freeze in foil trays until ready to cook.

Prepare six-foot grill with one bag of lump hardwood charcoal. When hot, cook kufta until lightly charred on all sides and internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

Splash cooked kufta with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice. Serve.