Planking For the Holidays...

I had never tried planks before until a few months ago. My wife and I were shopping WalMart and in the meat section where they keep the fresh seafood I noticed some fresh salmon on a dinner sized plank. It was a product from Slade Gorton out of Boston. My wife recognized them for the yellow packaging with the blue fisherman in his blue hat in the frozen sections but this was fresh seasoned salmon on a plank. We bought one for each of us, took them home and enjoyed the best salmon either one of us had ever eaten. It was like eating in a fine dining restaurant it was so good. The salmon was perfectly seasoned and that hint of smoky cedar was the perfect complement. Just popped them in the oven in a shallow pan with a slight amount of water in the bottom and cooked exactly to the instructions and voila!

We decided then and there that this holiday season we are going to change a few things up. It is our turn to prepare the thanksgiving meal for the extended family and we have decided to plank the turkey on the BBQ.

We started last night with a chicken and we butterflied it and seasoned it up good with fresh garlic and a rub we both like. And we were generous with the seasoning as we like it that way. Then we spread the chicken out on our family griller and cooked it as instructed over the indirect heat but we kept the BBQ at 400 degrees for 1 hour and it was perfect - a beautiful golden brown and as juicy as can be. The meat just fell off the bones.

I must admit I was amazed at how easy this was. All we did was cut the chicken down the backbone, laid it out on the plank and seasoned it and stuck it in the BBQ after soaking the plank thoroughly for an hour. That was it! Tomorrow night we are going with a couple of Cornish Game Hens. and throw on some asparagus or maybe wrap the asparagus in a couple of maple grilling paper with some onion, a couple slices of yellow peppers, some fresh garlic and lemon. That could balance everything off very nicely. Then serve it all with maybe a nice brown rice pilaf. and a garden fresh salad. I am already hungry!