Grilled Chicken Drumsticks and Smallwoods

Tonight I was tired and I wanted something that required little effort, little mess and clean up, and I didn't want to sacrifice taste, so we grilled up some drumsticks and made a Smallwood.  I started by preheating my gas grill,  the 3 left burners on med and the 2 right on low.  I would've used my charcoal grill, but I was out of charcoal, and like I said I was tired.  You know when I was a kid I hated the dark meat of chicken, but now it's my favorite.  I love thighs and drumsticks they just cook up so juicy and flavorful.  Don't get me wrong I do like a good breast, but it has to have the skin on and bone in. So I pulled my drumsticks from the frig, a stick of unsalted butter and my veggies for my Smallwood.  I melted 4 tbs of butter in the microwave.  I rinsed and dried my drumsticks, placed them in a large bowl, poured 1/2 the butter over them and sprinkled them with S & P and then I just worked it all into the flesh.  I sat those aside and started chopping up the veg for the Smallwood.  If you don't know what a Smallwood is, it's just your favorite veggies roasted in a foil pack with butter or oil and your favorite seasonings.  I learned this little trick on a rustic camping trick.  You know when your camping primitively, which I seldom do now, everything tastes great.  Especially over an open fire.  Camping for me today consists of setting up camp in Hocking Hills and using my Coleman Stove, Coleman Grill and just about Coleman everything.  We save the campfire for smores. I failed to mention that we sleep in the trailer that we haul our ATV's in with a queen size blow up mattress, fans and heaters and electric.  I have to say it's pretty cushy.  We just lack running water and a toilet, but who needs a toilet when you have the woods and a shovel.  Right?  OK, back to the Smallwood- tonight I had on hand garlic, poblano, red and jalapeno peppers, asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash and red skin potatoes.  I chopped the veggies and quartered the potatoes and left the garlic cloves whole (they roast up so nicely).  I placed in a bowl and remaining butter and some cajun spices mixed it all up and just placed in a foil packet.  I placed the Smallwood on the low heated burner side and the chicken drumsticks on the medium side.  I grilled it all for about 25-30 minutes, turning the chicken occasionally and basting it with the butter that was leftover in the bowl. Always check your chicken with a thermometer, there's nothing worse then serving up bloody chicken. I also shook the Smallwood occasionally, so that everything inside cooked evenly. That's pretty much it and look how it turned out.  Looks good doesn't it?  Well it's not difficult so give it a try.  Bon Appetit!

Tex Mex Drumsticks and Rice

Tonight I made a Tex Mex dish that I found from All Recipes, but I made some Mods.  Before I get to that, I must preface that these drumsticks were delish!!!
Ok, so I first took five drumsticks (skin on) and rinsed and dried them, put them in a bowl and poured 2 tbsp of unsalted melted butter over them and massaged the butter into the flesh.  My grill has five burners, so I heated the outer 2 on med high and the inner 3 on low.  The gauge read 400 when I placed the drumsticks on the grill.  I grilled them to perfection for about 30 minutes.  They had a golden brown outside and of course the temp was 166.  While my chicken was grillin, I started the sauce, which I modified for my liking.  I used 1.5 C skim milk, 1 C low fat sour cream,  3 chipotles in adobo sauce and 1 tbsp of the chicken bouillon granules.  I put it all in a large mixing bowl and used my immersion blender to blend it all together.  In the mean time I took a large skillet and heated on med low 1tbsp of unsalted butter.  Once the butter was  melted I added the chipotle sauce to the skillet and simmered it while my chicken grilled.  I also made some rice cooked in chicken stock and added 1 tsp turmeric, 1tbsp cumin, 1 tsp kosher salt 1 can black beans rinsed and drained, 1 C frozen white corn and just just let that cook.
When the chicken had reached temp, I removed it from the grill and  placed it in the skillet with the chipotle sauce and let it simmer in the sauce for about 10 minutes.  I served the drumsticks with a drizzle of the chipotle sauce over top and the rice.  I garnished it with cilantro, chopped onion, dollop of low fat sour cream and chopped jalapenos.  This was really yummy.  The drumsticks were so moist and most awesome.  Give the recipe a try and let me know what you think.  Enjoy!!