April is a tease—sometimes warm enough to make you believe summer is on its way—before cruelly yanking your hope away! However, we urge you to take advantage of those “let’s fire up the grill” days by making these tantalizing recipes.
Recipes to Grill in April
1. Smoked Shrimp Cocktail with Chipotle Orange Sauce
We’ve never understood the appeal of traditional shrimp cocktail. Boiling is a terrible way to boost flavor, but season the shrimp with garlic and cilantro and smoke it with mesquite — now you have our interest. Serve it with a Chipotle Orange Cocktail Sauce from the Yucatan. Now that’s a shrimp cocktail.
2. Honey Soy Chicken Wings
These wings take on a distinctly Asian flavor profile thanks to a marinade featuring honey, soy sauce, ginger, and Chinese 5-spice powder, likely one of the most aromatic spices in your pantry. (Be sure to pick up a fresh jar if you suspect yours is more than 6 months old. The spice mixture is widely available in supermarkets.) I like to use whole wings for this recipe, stretching them out on skewers to maximize their surface area. But feel free to substitute drumettes and flats, if desired. Provide plenty of napkins! These wings are sticky. But oh-so-good.
3. Barbecued Pork Belly
Bacon is about smoke and salt. Barbecue is about smoke and spice. They join forces in this barbecued pork belly—inspired by a new-school barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, called Q39, run by an old-school chef and pit master named Rob Magee. What is most remarkable about this sizzling, spice-crusted barbecued belly is how it retains the sweet, meaty taste of fresh pork. You’d never mistake it for bacon.
4. Spice-Rubbed Baby Back Ribs with Chipotle Bourbon Barbecue Sauce
If weather drove you into the kitchen and away from your beloved grill, you must be craving ribs! Here’s one of our favorite rib recipes, one you will want to add to your repertoire. A serving of coleslaw or mac ‘n’ cheese are great side dishes.
5. Smoked Cheesecake with Burnt Sugar Cream Sauce
By now you probably realize you can smoke just about anything. But should you? Only if smoking adds something to a food or dish that makes it better or more interesting than it would be in its natural state.
Which brings us to cheesecake. This is another dessert that you usually bake in a pan of simmering water, which cooks the filling while preventing it from cracking or curdling. In other words, low, slow, and moist. Sounds like a session in a water smoker to Steven. The smoke gives the cheesecake a haunting flavor—familiar yet exotic. This may just be the most interesting cheesecake you’ll ever set fork to.
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