Broiling Basics
The Anatomy of a Broiler
My cooking method of choice is probably the most underutilized kitchen appliance – the broiler. Most of us have a broiler but either a) don’t know it is, or b) are too intimidated to use it. Trust me - once you get the hang of the homie Mr. Broiler, you’ll be hooked. Not only is it quicker and easier than a grill, but it requires less clean up as well.
So you may be wondering, @Farmo, where the hell is this magical broiler you speak of? Most standard kitchen ovens have it in one of two locations. Either in the main chamber of your oven, just look inside and see if there is a burner or electric coil up top. If it is not there then most likely you have a broiler at the bottom pull out drawer of the oven. This area is often overlooked because most moms like to use this as a storage area for extra pans (shout out to my Moms)
Think of your broiler as essentially an upside down grill. Whatever foods you like to grill, you can broil as well. The name of the game when it comes to broiling is to cook hot and fast. That means you want to have whatever meat you are broiling to be relatively thin so that it cooks through without burning on the surface. For chicken breasts I like slicing them thin down the middle (think hamburger not hotdog) so I can get a crispy outside with little burnt edges and juicy inside
The Broiling Rig:
First off you need to invest in one crucial kitchen item, a wire cooling rack. Like this one from Amazon. It should not cost you more than about 10-15 bucks. Your basic broiling rig should be as follows. Take your favorite baking pan, line it with a sheet of foil (to catch all the drippings) and place the cooling rack on top. This rig will be a go to for most of my broiling recipes because of its ease of use and simple clean up. The char marks and cook on the chicken is almost the same if I had made it in a Tandoor.
Chicken Tikka before and after going in the broiler. The char marks and cook on the chicken is almost the same if I had made it in a Tandoor!
That's it! Yes, it really is that easy. You can translate most grill recipes to the broiler with some tinkering. This is also a great setup to mimic the flavors of a Tandoor oven at home. You can use this technique to impress your family and friends with restaurant level of flavors and complexities. Best of all you can now enjoy homemade tandoori chicken in the dead of winter.
