Saturday, September 17, 2016

Fajita Friday At Work [Phone Photo Dump]

I have a really great staff where I work, from top to bottom. Every now and then, my Director and I like to do things to show our appreciation to them.  Friday we did an impromptu Fajita Friday at our Knoxville office.  Here are some of the phone pics from the day and some tips about how I plan to cook at offsite locations.

The flier that we put together.  I like the menu because it has a lot of prep work that can be done ahead - I did 75% of the work at home Thursday night.  Things like shopping, meat trimming, making seasonings & marinades, making the rice, prepping veggies, and loading up everything.

Normally we would use skirt steak and thighs for fajitas but I find it's easier to feed bigger crowds using flank steaks and chicken breasts.  

Did a little quality control and taste testing the night before. I used our BGE Mini-Max with GrillGrates.  I use them or a raised grid almost exclusively on the Mini-Max because the coals are so close to the cooking surface. [FTC Disclaimer: GrillGrates are an equipment sponsor of this blog but this is not a sponsored post.]

When cooking offsite for tailgates and such, I frequently turn to my Char-Broil Kettleman grill because it's light in weight but it's not a lightweight.  It's a great general purpose grill with plenty of space since it has 22.5" grates versus the standard 18.5".  I also like the TRU Infrared grates because they prevent flare ups and infrared heat doesn't dry out your food like hot air does.  [FTC Disclaimer:  Char-Broil is one of my premier sponsors but this is not a sponsored post.]

This is the "backyard" of our Knoxville office.  Not bad, right?  This is the highest point in town and from the top of the ridge, you can see across the whole city and to the Great Smoky Mountains.  It's rather peaceful and has a nice stone lined grilling area.

Firing up some coals in my chimney starter

I prepped all of the veggies the night before.  After slicing, I toss them in some oil, lime juice, and tablespoon or so of Meat Church Season All. Gallon zip top bags are the friend of the tailgate griller.

I scored the skirt steaks and marinated them overnight with my fajita marinade.  Same with the chicken breasts.  Another time saver for tailgate and offsite cooks are these disposable cutting boards that come on a roll. We use them at BBQ contests and they are a huge time saver!  Plus my picnic tables are gross....I'm trashing them and getting new ones.

Once onsite, I shake off the excess marinade and season the meat with some dry rubs.

The rubs are my NMT Fajita Seasoning and Albukirky's Green Chile Rub. We love that green chile rub, it works on so much stuff, from eggs to briskets.  Kirk is a fellow egghead and we have used his stuff for probably 5 years or more now.  

We also brought my Char-Broil CB500X grill for grilling the veggies using a vegetable wok.  I consider this grill to be our camp grill for the past 2 years but it makes a good one for tailgating too.  It's not much to look at but it's a rugged little beast.  It's compact but has a good bit of space, an adjustable charcoal tray, and cast iron grates. 

Everything coming together.  I cooked the flank steaks about 5 minutes a side.

The chicken took longer, about 6-7 minutes a side.

One reason I like doing flank steak instead of skirt steak is that some folks at my office like their meat medium.  Flank steaks are thicker at one and and slender the other so one end was medium rare like this and  medium at the other end. 

No plated shots.  I was hungry and once everyone got their plates, I was ready to eat.  But we had a good time together and shared a great meal.

We aren't the Smoky Mountains but Knoxville's highest "mountain" was smoky that afternoon.

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