I don’t have a lot of skill sets to brag about at this stage in my life.  However, there is one area in which I feel I am slightly above average: grilling.  Unfortunately, until you’ve tasted any of my steaks or signature appetizers, hot off of the grill, you’ll have to take my word for this.

One of the reasons that I’ve been able to hone this grilling skill is simple: competition.  You see, there is a friendly family competition between myself, my father and my brother-in-law to see who is the true Grill Master General.  Every summer, each household takes turns hosting the others and preparing the greatest cookout possible.  It’s a good time for family to get together and hang out, but it has also become a savvy game of one-ups-man-ship with each host trying to outshine his competition.

My brother-in-law has claimed several victories, as has my father.  But if we were keeping score (which, of course, we say we’re not), my recollection has me in first place overall.  For the record, if asked about this, I’m sure they will both deny my self-imposed championship reign.

One of the reasons that I’ve had some success in this area (besides Angie taking care of 100% of the prep work) is that I’ve made a conscious decision to go “all in” at every cookout.  My goal?  To make sure that our cookout is the one that everyone talks about when our self-imposed grilling season is over.  One of the techniques I incorporated in the past was to prepare two different entrees simultaneously on two different grills (one gas and one charcoal).  Another time, I broke out a mini blowtorch (just for show) to brown the Brie cheese resting on top of everyone’s filet.  This past summer, I decided I was going to break out the big guns and use a secret recipe from a friend of mine named Dave Waters.  Dave is one of the few people on Earth that I’ll actually admit to being a much better griller than me.

He has a recipe for grilled chicken quarters that is to die for.  With some persuasion, Dave was kind enough to share his secret with me.  I can’t tell you what the special seasonings were, because…you know…then I’d have to kill you.  But I can share that the recipe called for me to spray the chicken on the grill every fifteen minutes or so.  First with liquid smoke and then with red wine vinegar.  Easy enough, right?  Well, here is where my dilemma started.  I had been less than diligent in keeping my grill clean.  The grates were spotless, but there was just a lot of gunk (yes…that is a technical grilling term) built up underneath the grates from years of grilling.  I knew that spraying a liquid of any kind on to the meat would cause more grease drippings, which in turn, could lead to some nasty flare-ups with the flames.

I thought about just grilling the chicken with the secret seasoning and foregoing the liquid smoke and red wine vinegar.  Then I thought back to my grilling strategy… “all in!”  I wasn’t going to do this half way.  I was going to go “all in” and either look like a Grill Master Extraordinaire or go up in flames…literally.  So I went for it.  And the plan, along with the chicken, did indeed go up in flames.  And not just any flames.  These flames were so monstrous that neighbors on either side of us were looking on in horror.  My daughter had dialed 9-1— and was just waiting for the high sign to dial the final 1.  To make matters worse, I panicked and threw flour on the flames, which made them dance even larger.  I realize now that I was supposed to use salt.

Fast forward thirty minutes and we were able to extinguish the fire and pull the chicken off of the grill.  All of our family guests were seated around the table, trying to be polite and eat their “blackened” chicken.  I thought this had a nicer ring to it than “chicken burnt to an inedible crisp.”  The politeness didn’t last.  It wasn’t long before this cookout became the butt of many jokes.  Nobody has let me off the hook for this debacle and I doubt they will anytime soon.  I even received a black chicken made of glass as a Christmas gift. Thanks Mom!

But here is the lesson I took away.  I had the choice to play it safe and skip some risky steps when preparing the birds or to jump in with reckless abandon and try to make this the best meal possible.  Yes, I failed miserably at making this the best meal possible.  There’s no denying that.  But I still achieved my goal: To make sure our cookout was the one everyone talked about when the season was over.  Whenever we go “all in” and give 100%, we won’t always be successful, but we will always make an impact!