Desk full of ingredients

 
Brine in an ice bath to cool off

 
All the rub

Packed fridge, food is ready to grill

  The beast

 
Loins on the grill

 
Loins cooking (picture from vent hole, closes I can get to a grill cam)

49 pounds of chicken thighs on the grill.

 
Flipping the chicken 

 
Chicken Cooking (vent hole grill cam)

 
My helpers, couldn't have done it without them.

I am finally getting a chance to write about the BBQ Party we had at the office with our clients.  It was a lot of work, but I definitely had a blast preparing all the food and getting it cooked.  I ended up cooking 30 pounds of pork loin, 49 pounds of chicken thighs, and about 20 spicy black bean burgers.  We pretty much had something for everyone. 

The preparation started last Friday (9/5/2008), when I starting making the brine for all the meat and continued that into Saturday.  Friday I was making brine from about 6 P.M. till about 1:30 A.M.  Then again on Saturday from 1 P.M. till about 10:30 P.M.  I also made all rub needed for the meat on Saturday during that time frame.  On Sunday, all I did was chop up a bunch of onions for the black bean burgers.  Monday started off with putting the pork loins into the brine around 7:30 A.M.  Then that evening I put together about 50 black bean burgers (only needed about 20 at the party though). 

Tuesday was BBQ day, started off in the morning by removing the pork loins from the brine, rinsing off, brushing with olive oil, and applying a good coat of rub onto the pork loins and let refrigerate till time to toss them on the grill.  Next moved to putting the chicken thighs in the brine for an hour and a half.  Once that hour and half was done, I removed the chicken thighs from the brine, rinsed off, patted dry, and applied a good coat of rub, and back into the refrigerator. 

Now I had to get outside to get the grill going so I can get the pork loins cooking.  First had to figure out this rental grill.  It was a dual propane tank beast with four burners.  The grill didn't have good temperature control, either a burner was off or on high.  And to get a burner lit, the one before it had to be lit.  I would have liked to be able to use the 1st and 4th burners and place all the meat in the center.  For the pork loins this wasn't much of a big deal as we didn't use up much of the space.  I just used the first two burners since we had plenty of space.  Once the internal temperature reached about 110 degrees, we flipped the pork and sauced them off with a Archer Farms North Caroline BBQ Sauce from Target.  The Archer Farms line of BBQ Sauces are an authentic and wonderful set of sauces.  I rank them up with there as one of the best store bought sauces you can find.  Once the temperature reached around 135 degrees, flipped them over again and placed sauce on the other side.  I was going to let the cook till about 150-155 degrees and let them finish in the cooler, but they cooked really quick after this and pulled them off at around 160 degrees.   Once done, we pulled them off the grill, double wrapped in heavy duty aluminum foil, then a towel and placed in a cooler till it was time to server. 

Now it was time to get the chicken cooking.  We started with the same plan of using the first two burners and were able to get all 49 pounds of chicken on at the same time on the grill.  We let them cook for about 15 minutes (started with skin side down), flipped and placed BBQ Sauce on.  For the chicken I used Archer Farms Kansas City Style Sauce.  Then finished off from there as it was serving time was coming.  We were able to keep the chicken warm on the grill through out the entire party, and even at 9:30 P.M. at night the chicken was coming off the grill very juicy and good.

About 20 minutes before serving time, we placed a handful of black bean burgers on the grill over direct heat for about 5 minutes per side.

It was now serving time, and the crowd hit us pretty quick.  Thankfully I had two great helpers helping me with the grill.  I would not have been able to get it done without them.  For about the first 30 to 45 minutes of the dinner we were constantly carving up the pork, and bringing out more chicken.  The amazing part of it all it seemed like people were eating through out the night, which was a good sign it was a success. 

As things slowed down and I had time to think about how everything went, and a great feeling of success just hit me real quick and kept me going through out the night.  Specially with all the people coming up and giving us compliments.  I have always felt like I made good BBQ, but to do it for a large crowd like this was the most amazing grilling experience I have ever had.  Now I cannot wait till get to the point some day to start up my own catering business and get into the BBQ competitions.

The night did have a few challenging moments, specially with the chicken.  It was very difficult to control the temperature of the grill as the temperature control did not work.  We were running out of propane of the first two tanks and had to switch in the middle.  To get things going faster we decided to turn on the other burners and use direct heat for a while, and within a couple of minutes the flares up started big time.  But we kept our cool, and were able to get the chicken out of the flames fairly quick and overcame that challenge successfully.

Scott and Troy were my two helpers and they were an extreme help.  I was able to leave them at the grill to take care of the food as I made sure we were stocked up on meat in the serving trays and do other tasks that needed to be done.  I could not have done this without them!

You know you work for the greatest company when they give you chances to do your other hobbies.  I have grilled many things at work now, and then finally being able to do this was great.  This is just one of many things that make Geonetric the greatest company to work for.

To make all the brine, I went through:

• 10 Gallons of water
• 7.5 Cups of kosher salt
• 6 2/3 Cups white sugar
• 7.5 Cups soy sauce
• 10 teaspoons oregano
• 10 teaspoons sage
• 2.5 Cups olive oil

To make a single batch of brine:

• 1 Gallon of water
• 3/4 cup kosher salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground sage
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Mix all the ingredients in a large non-reactive pot and heat to boiling.  Remove from the heat and let come down to room temperature (or place in an ice bath to cool it off quicker).  For the pork loins, let it sit in the brine for 24 hours, and the chicken for 1 1/2 hours.

To make all the rub, I went through:

• 20 tablespoons black peppercorns
• 20 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 20 teaspoons chili powder
• 10 tablespoons whole cumin seed
• 20 tablespoons granulated garlic
• 2.5 cups brown sugar
• 10 tablespoons oregano
• 40 tablespoons paprika
• 20 tablespoons brown mustard seed
• 10 tablespoons celery salt
• 20 tablespoons kosher salt

For a single batch of rub:

• 2 tablespoons black peppercorns, finely grounded
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon whole cumin seed, finely grounded
• 2 tablespoons granulated garlic
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 4 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons brown mustard seed, finely grounded
• 1 tablespoon celery salt
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt

Mix 1 ingredient at a time into a bowl and mix well.  Place on the pork loins and chicken thighs 4 - 8 hours before grilling.

For the black bean burgers, I went through:

• 18 cans of 19.5 ounce black beans
• 6.75 cups chopped white onions
• 6.75 cups dry bread crumbs
• 54 tablespoons of chunky salsa
• 9 teaspoons whole cumin seed
• 18 teaspoons Sriracha Hot Sauce

For single batch of black bean burgers:

• 2 19.5 ounce cans of black beans, drained, rinsed, mashed with the back of a spatula.
• 3/4 cups finely chopped white onion
• 3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• 6 tablespoons chunky salsa
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seed, finely ground
• 2 teaspoons Sriracha Hot Sauce

Mix in the mashed black beans and chunky salsa.  Mix very well and repeat with the Sriracha Hot Sauce, then cumin, chopped white onion, then bread crumbs.  It is essential that you do the bread crumbs last, so everything doesn't bind together until you have mixed in the other ingredients first.  If you do the bread crumbs earlier, it will be extremely difficult to mix in the other ingredients.  Grill 5 minutes per side over direct medium heat.  Serve with salsa and guacamole.  I actually forgot to bring out the salsa and guacamole at the party until it was a little late.