My First Kebabs on the Egg

One thing I have looked forward to every summer for the last 6 or 7 years is the release of the Cook’s Illustrated Summer Grilling Guide 20XX. This recipe called: Great Grilled Beef Kebabs was my first cook from this cookbook as well as my first kebabs on the egg. The impatient among you can scroll down to the photos, but I am going to take the opportunity to ask how folks here would handle these kebabs on a Large BGE. 

The recipe called for the kebabs to be grilled using separate skewers for the veggies and meat, which was nothing new to me. What was new was the way they suggested grilling them. The beef kebabs were direct grilled using high heat and the veggies were grilled using high indirect heat. Multizone fires, let alone direct indirect cooks aren’t easily done on a stock BGE.These kebabs only used 2 12” skewers for the meat and 2 for the veggies. I was able to use my half moon raised grid with the drip pan to do these but I am wondering if there is a better solution. Another issue is my current flat bar skewers, which I love, are 14” meaning I can only use about 4 of them at a time. But what would you folks do if you were faced with cooking kebabs direct and indirect at the same time and using two LBGE are an option.

• Use the half moon raised grill grate like I did.
• Instead of a two-zone fire, use a two Egg fire. One large for direct, one for indirect. 
• Some third party solution and if so which?

These kebabs were excellent but there was some room for improvement which I will cover after the pictures. OK on to the pictures.

The marinade used: Tomato paste, chopped fresh rosemary, diced onion, lemon zest, vegetable oil, beef broth, salt, sugar, pepper & finely diced garlic.

The finished marinade after being pureed using an immersion blender.

The recipe called for 2" beef sirloin tip cubes. My butcher cut two strip of beef sirloin for me so I could get as close to 2" x 2" as possible, but the cuts they were working from just weren't that thick. After the meat was cubed it was placed in a Ziploc 1 gallon freezer bag with the marinade. Then it was off to the fridge for at least an hour.

Some of the marinade was reserved for the veggies: Sweet onion, zucchini & red bell pepper.

The veggies are cut to size &  are coated with the marinade. I used toothpicks temporarily to hold the onion wedges together.

The beef cubes marinaded for 90 minutes & I feel I probably should have done a better job here patting the meat dry. I think some of the charring I got on the first side was from the marinade burning from the high heat.

The beef & veggies are skewered.

Everything is out at the Egg which has been set up with the half moon raised grid & is stabilized at 525 degrees.

The meat is direct grilling on the cast iron grill grate installed wide bar side facing up. The veggies are on the half moon raised grid for indirect. Wrapping the drip pan with foil makes cleanup easier.

The beef kebabs are done and will be pulled & rested for 5 minutes tented in foil while the veggies cooked for the additional 5 minutes.

The veggies are done after the addition 5 minutes. BTW this was a called for in the recipe and the time was just about right.

Time to eat! I also served up Southwestern Style fried rice.

Some German hefeweizen (wheat beer) completed this day's bill of fare.

The good news was these kebabs were excellent. The meat was the best tasting beef kebab meat I’ve made. I think part of this was due to the marinade which was said to help bring out the beefy flavor. I also think that charcoal grilling these came into play too. These kebabs actually had a tiny pink smoke ring. You will have to take my word for it, because my camera battery crapped out when I went to snap that picture. But there are some areas where I could improve things:

-The first side of the meat charred more than I might have liked. I did reduce the cooking time from 4 minutes per side to 3 minutes. This was the range given in the recipe. I also think part of this may have been my not wiping off enough of the marinade before skewering the kebabs.

• The veggies were just about right, I am going to try giving them a minute or two more.
• I will probably need to replace my favorite skewers because I can only get about 4 on the LBGE at a time.

Since my wife declared these to be the best kebabs I have ever made, so I WILL be making them again with a few tweaks.

Jim