Cast Iron

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Homemade Egg McMuffins

A touch of butter on a properly seasoned cast iron griddle… medium heat… eggs…. firm up… flip over and press down… finish up to perfect doneness.

Served with pan fried bacon and toasted english muffins.

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The dogs chewed my toaster cord in half so until it is repaired, I’ve been toasting on a flat cast iron griddle.  I actually like it a lot better.

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Grilling Chicken On Cast Iron

Lodge Cast Iron makes some nice products.  They are quality cast iron, made in the USA, and sold at incredibly good prices.  Here is a link http://shop.lodgemfg.com/

I was at Walmart the other day to restock up on Corelle dinnerware (which is also great – they just don’t play nicely with a tile floor – and my numbers were dwindling).  I noticed this Cast Iron Grill pan:

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I never saw the point in these before, but then again, never used one…  But the price was less than $20, so I figured I’d get one…. well I liked it so much I ended up with two :)

So far I’ve cooked Pork Chops and Chicken Tenderloins.  Here is a picture of the chicken from lunch today.  I must say, some of the best chicken I’ve ever eaten.  Perfectly seared, drizzled in salt, pepper, lemon, and butter, it was cooked completely but soooo tender and juicy.

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This deserves a longer post, but I’ll put the rundown here for reference:

  • Rinse tenderloins in sink and shake off excess water
  • Liberal amount of kosher salt and pepper
  • Get grill pan(s) screaming hot (starting to smoke) and lay the chicken on it for about 3-4 minutes until the underside has nice grill marks.
  • Turn chicken over, turn burner to LOW, and let other side also get grill marks (another 3 minutes or so).
  • Turn over every 1-2 minutes brushing butter on the freshly turned up side and drizzling fresh lemon juice on each side.  Continue this until internal temp reaches 165+ in the thickest part.
  • Let rest for 5 min in a pile on a plate.

Enjoy!

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Smoked Chicken And Cheese Wrap

Being in the possession of some freshly smoked chicken breast (Thanks Ezra!), I made a smoked chicken and cheese wrap.   Chunks of smoked chicken and chunks of Boar’s Head Munster cheese into a cast iron skillet until sizzling.  Flour tortilla into another skillet with a dollop of butter until browned on both sides.  A little bit of mustard and mayonnaise wrapped up with the sizzling chicken and cheese mix…. it was divine.

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Baked Mac ‘n Cheese

So the other day we cooked up a couple of pounds of macaroni, strained it, and added a little bit of butter to keep it from sticking together.  Then into a pot with milk, several bags of shredded cheese, some bbq seasoning, salt, pepper, and a can of cream of celery soup.  Then it got baked for about an hour with cheese and breadcrumbs sprinkled on top.

It was pretty good.  Not bad at all, but not amazing.

Leftovers went in fridge.  A couple of days later, I needed a quick dinner for some of the kids, so I threw some of the leftovers in a well seasoned cast iron skillet and heated it up on high heat until it was nicely sizzled.

Best.Mac.And.Cheese.Ever.Period

In my whole life I never had better mac ‘n cheese.  I’m not sure exactly what made it the best, but here is a picture, and we’re going to have to try this again sometime.

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One-Off Cast Iron

I had an incredible talk with Craft Pattern today, about making a custom cast iron machine frame.

http://www.craftpattern.com/

They really took the time to talk me through the process and helped me understand the different techniques used.

Isn’t it great when you get to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about?

Have you considered cast iron as a possibility on any of your projects?  I hadn’t until recently, but now a whole new world of possibility has opened up.

In addition to casting, they offer full CNC machining services on the castings, so it sounds like a one-stop-shop.