Rotisserie Chicken on the Grill

Using the #rotisserie option on a Gaucho Grills insert. Simply remove your grill plates and insert your spit rod and you’re good to go. #woodfired rotisserie chicken for dinner will keep everyone happy. 

Meat Cutting Techniques & Tips

We’ve designed our Argentine grills to give you perfectly cooked cuts of meat. What you do with that meat after it leaves the grill is up to you. The way you cut a steak after it’s cooked plays as much of a role in your meal as the grilling process.

When you’ve taken the time to grill a nice piece of beef on your parrilla, you want to make sure that you take the proper steps to serve it correctly. Here are a meat cutting techniques and tips that will allow you to get the most out of your next meal.

1. Let it rest

We can’t stress this enough. When you slice a steak too early, you’re letting the juices inside escape, leading to a dry, flavorless cut.

Once your meat has cooked to your liking on the grates of your Argentine Grill, place it to the side and let it rest for three to five minutes. This lets the juices relax the meat. Resting times depend on the size of what you’ve just cooked. Larger pieces of meat – roasts for example – will need longer resting times.

2. Cut against the grain

When talking about meat, “the grain” refers to the alignment of muscle fibers. It’s easier to identify in tougher cuts like flank steak than in leaner varieties of steak, such as tenderloin.

By slicing the meat against the grain, we cut through those fibers, increasing the tenderness of the cut and making it easier to chew. When we slice with the grain – in the direction as the fibers – we’re left with a chewier piece of meat.

3. Use a cutting board

Using a cutting board makes slicing meat easier and safer. There’s less chance of the meat – or your knife – slipping, and you’re less likely to damage your countertop. Feel free to trim off fat and surface muscle to enhance flavor, but don’t away so much that you’re giving yourself less meat.

4. What if we’re serving chicken?

To slice a chicken breast, place it on a cutting board, skin side up. Start at one end, and pull the skin away from the meat. Use a boning knife to cut meat away from one side of the breastbone, cutting as close to the bone as you can.

Cut the meat away from the rib bones using a sawing motion, pressing the flat side of the knife against the bones. Gently pull the meat from the bones as you cut.

Chicken sounds pretty good right now, so we’ll end – as we often do – with a recipe, for Argentine Grilled Chicken.

Ingredients

½ cup of parsley
¼ cup of red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. of olive oil
1 tsp. of soy sauce
½ tsp. of Worcestershire sauce
2 peeled garlic cloves
¼ tsp. of fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. of dried oregano
1 bay leaf
A dash of red pepper flakes
12 boneless chicken thighs
Directions

Use a blender to pulse marinade ingredients until they’ve been pureed.
Marinate the chicken in a plastic bag for at least four hours.
Pre-heat the grill over medium-high heat. Remove chicken from bag.
Grill until the chicken reaches your desired doneness, for about 5 to 7 minutes on each side.
If you don’t have a grill – or are unhappy with the one you have – Gaucho Grills can help. Visit our website to find the right Argentine grills for your next cookout. Our grills will do their job. It’s up to you to find the right way to cut what you’ve cooked.

Using Your Asado Rotisserie Grill Attachment

Our company’s name is Gaucho Grills, but you can use our products for more than just grilling.

You can buy one of our grills with a rotisserie grill attachment, which snaps in place with just a few quick steps. When you watch this video, you’ll see that it takes less than a minute to make the switch from grilling to rotisserie.

Simply lower and remove the V-groove grill grates, detach the grease trough and attach the rotisserie bar, and you’re ready to cook.

And when you cook rotisserie style, you’re engaging in a time-honored method of food preparation enjoyed all over the world, from people in Greece spit-roasting lamb to the delectable babi gulig (spit-roasted pig) found on the island of Bali to the American traditional backyard barbecue.

No matter how you cook, there’s something about cooking around a fire that brings people together, and there are many foods that seem designed for a rotisserie grill:

Ribs
Whole fish
Rounded foods like turkey breasts, boneless legs of lamb
Duck
Chicken
Prime rib
Artichokes, eggplant, squash, potatoes and other vegetables.
Fruits such as pineapple (your rotisserie can even make dessert!)
So what should you cook with the newly-installed rotisserie?

Glad you asked. As always, we’re happy to share some recipes.

Slow Roasted Barbecue Beef Roast

Ingredients:

5 lbs of boneless rump roast
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 tsp of Spanish paprika
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper
¼ teaspoon of dried rosemary
¼ teaspoon of dried thyme
Directions:

Prepare your grill for medium heat
Cut slits along all sides of the roast, and insert the sliced garlic into those slits.
Mix all of the remaining spices in a small bowl, and rub the mixture over the roast.
Place the roast on the rotisserie. Cook for 2-5 hours, until the meat reaches a minimum internal temperature of 145 degrees F. Allow the roast to rest for 20 minutes before slicing.
Peruvian Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (about 4 lbs)
¼ cup of white vinegar
3 tbsp of white wine
3 tbsp of canola oil
2 tbsp of garlic powder
2 tbsp of paprika
4 tsp of cumin
2 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of salt
Juice from one lemon
1 quart of cold water
Directions:

Combine the vinegar, wine, and oil with garlic powder, paprika, cumin, pepper and salt, mixing them until they form a paste.
Add lemon juice to the cold water
Trim the chicken of any loose fat, then wash the bird thoroughly with the lemon/water mixture.
Put the chicken in a Ziploc bag, and pour the spice paste over the chicken. Coat the chicken completely, rubbing the mixture into the surface and trying to get the paste under the chicken skin as much as possible.
Seal the bag and refrigerate the chicken for at least two hours. The longer the chicken marinates, the more flavor it will absorb. Take care not to let it marinate longer than 24 hours.
Preheat the grill and get the rotisserie ready. Cook the chicken for roughly 90 minutes at 300 degrees. Test the chicken for doneness by measuring the temperature at the thickest part of the thigh. The chicken will be finished when the temperature hits 165 F.
rotisserie1If you’re ready to try something new when cooking outdoors, Gaucho Grills can help. Whether you want to cook rotisserie style or over a grill, we carry grills inspired by the traditional Argentinian parilla.

Our grill designs allow outdoor chefs to raise or lower the grilling surface as they cook, meaning you can take your dishes to the next level, both literally and figuratively.