Annabel Langbein

Three super-tasty barbecue recipes

Is the reason we love to barbecue because it speaks to our primal instincts or because it takes us outdoors with the sound of cicadas and puts us in a holiday mood? The fact that there are fewer dishes to wash has to be a big plus. But really, hands down, it’s all about the way barbecued food triggers our senses — that fragrant, sweet, smoky waft on the wind, of food cooking on the grill, is guaranteed to set our taste buds alight and our hunger raging. We want to inhale those moreish smells, bite into all that smoky, sweet, caramelised deliciousness and lick our fingers.

In 1912, French doctor Louis-camille Maillard discovered that when amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and sugars are exposed to heat, the reaction produces a range of potent aromas and complex flavours. The Maillard reaction sees literally thousands of entirely new, often aromatic molecules created from these simple building blocks of sugar and amino acids. Barbecuing also produces caramelisation — again creating complex and beguiling flavour notes that are sweet like toffee and also reminiscent of nuts, coffee, chocolate, alcohol, green leaves, fruits, sherry and vinegar.

The trend of cooking over fire, which requires engaging all your senses, is overtaking the precise techniques of technological cooking. Chefs are abandoning thermomixers and sous-vide machines in favour of charcoal cookers, traditional Kamado-style grill cookers and woodfired ovens to impart lip-smacking smoky, rich flavours to meats, seafood and vegetables.

Unless you are slow-cooking a large chunk of meat on the barbecue via indirect heat, cooking over the grill is not something you can put on and walk away from. By common consent, the biggest mistake home barbecuers make is cooking their food at too high a temperature. The result is a blackened, bitter crust and a raw interior. In the case of chicken, this is the perfect formula for some serious food poisoning.

The best way around this is to set up your barbecue for two-zone cooking. Stack the lit coals on one side to create a hot zone. The other side becomes a cooler, “indirect” zone. If you are using gas, heat the elements on the outside and leave the ones in the middle off to create an indirect zone.

This technique is perfect for cooking bone-in cuts of chicken or anything fatty that will otherwise cause flare-ups when the hot fat drips on to the coals. Start on the hot side, then move to the cooler side to finish cooking. If you’ve got a barbecue with a lid, having two zones also means you can use the barbecue like an oven, searing larger cuts initially over the direct heat before moving to the cooler side and putting the lid on.

Light up the grill and set your senses alight with these three super-tasty barbecue recipes.