Indoor grilling is the perfect way to get your fix when the weather outside is miserable or you don’t want to break out the grill.
I love grilling but to be honest I don’t always love getting the grill out and ready, especially in the winter. My darling husband is a bit of a charcoal snob and so we only own a kettle grill at home so the prep time to get it going is a bit higher than I like.
Here are 4 great indoor grilling products that I use to get some grill tastes on the table without actually breaking out the grill.
The Instant Marinater is a fantastic tool to keep in your arsenal especially for quick dinners. By removing most of the air out of the marinating container the time needed for marinating is significantly faster! It’s certainly not only useful for indoor grilling either we use this for our regular grill all the time too.
One of my favorite meals to make is a quick and easy chicken dish with red onions on the grill. It’s not an exact recipe, we just add in white wine, red onions, a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper and whatever fresh herbs I have on hand.
When you are ready break out your trusty grill pan, the cornerstone of indoor grilling. This Anolon Nonstick grill pan is a great option and gives a great sear. Make sure you preheat it well as that first contact is crucial to making those coveted grill marks.
Don’t drizzle in olive oil into your pan like you might be tempted too, it will smoke and cause trouble. Instead grab a pastry brush or a paper towel and thinly coat the pan with a high smoke point oil such as canola oil or even a bit of peanut oil if you have that on hand.
The key to great grill marks is to let the protein cook completely on one side before lifting it. If you continue poke and prod it and move it around not only will your sear be inadequate but there is no chance for the lines to develop cleanly.
Another thing that we really love to make inside is veggie kabobs, I love our Lodge Pro reversible griddle for this. It’s easy to get a fantastic cook on the veggies this way. We do use olive oil on these because I like to brush the entire exterior of the veggies with it so I just reduce the heat a bit to compensate. Side note: this griddle is also fantastic for cooking up big batches of bacon super easily (family style BLT’s anyone?!)
The next day I love slicing up a few leftover pieces of the grilled chicken and tucking them into a delicious cheesy panini. This gorgeous Le Creuset Panini Set makes quick work of making perfect panini’s every single time! Preheat it as well with the top placed on the griddle to get it nice and hot and cook up two perfect panini’s at once.
Smoke is probably the most noticeable thing lacking in any of these setups as my husband will of course point out. Which is true. There are lots of gadgets on the market for adding in smoke in the kitchen but I’ve decided that true smoke is something that our family leaves to the real grill since even a smoky pan of bacon can trigger our smoke detector.
A bit of smoky paprika, a tiny dose of liquid smoke in a marinade or picking out a delicious hickory smoked barbeque sauce are all great options that I like to employ in the comforts of my fantastically non-smoky kitchen.
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