Thai Marinated and Grilled Shrimp Skewers and a Review of the Emeril XL Grill

Hello Tuesday and the 1st of November! I cannot believe that the next holiday is Thanksgiving! Wow…what happened to October?! I can tell you one thing that happened in October…Halloween Madness at the Bunkycooks last night!

I think there was a bit of inspiration from our friends Denise and John at There’s a Newf in my Soup! when it came to the Halloween craziness. They are the ultimate Halloween party people!  We had not decorated like this in about 6 years, but yesterday, we went wild and really got into it. The decorations at the house were so frightening that the children would not come to the door and we had to go out in the driveway to give the kids their candy. This picture says it all. Pretty creepy, huh?

Would you take candy from her?!

On another note – my good friends (and one of my site sponsors) at Metro Kitchen asked me if I would review one of Emeril’s new products, so I chose this indoor grill. Mr. B is not a grill master. He will cook on the charcoal grill, but he is not a huge fan of the smoke and trouble of preparing the grill and cooking outdoors most days. Even the gas grill is not a favorite, so, I thought this might be an option for us when he’s just not that into it or it’s too cold outdoors.

We have been using the Emeril XL Grill for several months and have cooked many items on the grill including chicken, meats, seafood and vegetables. The grill has two independent heating elements so that you can cook at two different temperatures at the same time. The cooking area is large enough that you can prepare grilled meats for 6 people comfortably and up to 8 with smaller pieces of meat. It also is very simple to clean after use.

It is perfect for people that either do not have an outdoor area where they can cook, are restricted from using gas or charcoal grills, who do not like cooking outdoors (Mr. B on occasion) or for those months when it is too cold to cook outside or snow is covering your grill. 😉

This size pork chop cooked quite well on the grill

We found that thinner to medium cuts of meat work best and cook more evenly on the grill. This is of particular importance when you want your meats cooked through (like chicken and pork chops). Thicker cuts of meat required lower temps and more time to cook properly. Steaks work well if you like your meat rare to medium. You can set the grill on a high temperature to give the meat a nice sear on the outside.

The pork has a nice sear and grill marks

Smokin’ hot!

We cooked a whole chicken cut in to eight pieces and then marinated it.  We found that the skin browned very quickly and unevenly (since not all sides are touching the grill). It was hard to get the chicken to cook through entirely. The chicken will cook, it just takes awhile. The pieces with bone-in that worked best were the chicken thighs since they are flatter and more consistent in the thickness. It was more difficult to get the pieces with bone-in that are a more uneven shape (leg, breast) to cook evenly.

The grill gets quite hot so that you can sear meats nicely