Grill Pan

I might have a new favorite use for my grill pans; quesadillas! I have been making quesadillas for my kids for years but it never popped into my head to make them with my grill pan until a few weeks ago.  I wanted to play around with them a little before I posted but now I have a few insights to share.

Grill Pan Quesadillas

As far as the general construction of the quesadilla I prefer using a single large tortilla folded over into a half moon with a cheese filling in the middle.  I have tried putting the filling between two small tortillas but found that the hassle of flipping them wasn’t worth the effort.  For the filling let your imagination go wild but keep your audience in mind.  For my kids I stick with cheese and diced chicken.  For adults some good additions include jalapenos, black beans, smoked pulled pork and caramelized onions (not all at the same time of course!) My secret tip is to apply a thin layer of refried beans onto the tortilla before adding the cheese.  You wouldn’t expect this to make much of a difference but it really pushes a good quesadilla into the realm of greatness.

My family is bi-polar as far as tortillas are concerned.  Half of us are fans of flour tortillas and half of us insist upon “low carb” tortillas due to our expanding waistlines.  A BIG LEARNING is that flour tortillas will easily get beautiful grill marks.  In contrast, I don’t think I could put grill marks on a low carb tortilla even if I used a blowtorch!  I haven’t tried this with corn tortillas but I suspect they would turn out great.

As far as grilling the quesadillas it is as simple as you might expect.  Preheat a lightly oiled grill pan over medium heat for a few minutes and add the tortilla to the pan.  Gently press the tortilla with a spatula to encourage good contact with the ridges on the pan.  After three minutes or so, flip and repeat.  Although I lightly oil my pan I do it because I think it helps the tortilla brown up better, not to help with sticking.  I am not sure that the oil really helps with the browning but it is an old habit that works for me.

I was very impressed with how well the flour tortillas took up the grill marks.  My kids very much prefer these over my standard quesadillas.  Compared to quesadillas made in a regular frying pan these look much nicer and have a better “crunch factor”.

If you are looking for ideas or equipment check out my page on grill pan starter sets!

I made a grilled ham and egg sandwich with cheese for lunch and it turned out pretty good.  The egg was hard fried and placed upon some deli ham and toped with American cheese.

The grill pan was preheated for five minutes then the sandwich was grilled on each side for 3 minutes.  I used a foil wrapped brick to press the sandwich.

I used a wheat burger bun for the bread.  You want something with substance to stand up to the pressing.  Regular white bread usually falls apart on me.

It was raining cats and dogs a while back so it was back inside to the grill pan for some steak.   I picked up some pretty New York strip steaks at the store.  I really prefer ribeyes but they are fatty enough to cause the kitchen to smoke up if you cook them on a grill pan.

I hit the steaks with some salt and pepper and let them rest on the counter for 30 minutes and preheated my grill pan for 5 minutes over medium low heat.

The steaks were cooked for 6 minutes per side and were slightly rotated after 4 minutes to get a little cross hatch action.

Grill pan New York strip steak

The 12 minutes of cooking took these guys to “medium well”.  Pretty good eating.

I did these steaks a few weeks later.  Pretty much the same routine; salt, pepper and rest at room temperature.  Then into a preheated grill pan for 5 minutes a side (took it to the medium side of medium rare).

More New York Strip Steaks!

Below is a video of a different approach to using this pan for a New York strip.  This is actually a product demonstration from Lodge Cast Iron.  I was a little amazed when I watched this.  They add oil to the pan, which causes a lot of smoke, and finish the steak in the oven.  I am not a fan of the approach but I guess it works for some folks.

If you need a little more inspiration check out the video from Jamie Oliver.  I have not used one of his grill pans before but I think they look neat.  I like the bulls eye that turns red when the pan is the right temperature.  I always enjoyed watching Jamie so I was tickled to find his video on cooking the perfect steak in a grill pan.

I prefer using a grill pan for cooking shrimp over an outdoor grill.  Shrimp cooks so fast that it doesn’t really have time to benefit from a charcoal fire.  If you cook these guys on an outdoor grill you have to use skewers or risk losing the shrimp between the grates.  A grill pan lets you easily get some nice grill marks on your shrimp without the hassle or risks of an outdoor grill.

I started with a half pound of peeled and deveined 30 count shrimp.  I marinated the shrimp for thirty minutes in a mixture of the juice of two lemons, a tablespoon of hot sauce, a tablespoon of minced garlic, ½ cup chardonnay and ¼ cup olive oil.

I drained the marinade and patted the shrimp dry with paper towels.  I added the shrimp to a pre-heated cast iron grill pan and cooked them for about three minutes per side.  The shrimp took some nice grill marks, did not stick to the pan and did not smoke up the kitchen.

I used the shrimp to top off some seasoned rice although they would also be excellent over pasta.

Grill Pan Shrimp

These mushrooms are tasty and easy to make but make sure you do not skimp on the marinade time.  I like a pan with no or very low sides for this as it makes reaching in and flipping the mushrooms pretty easy.

• 4 portabella mushrooms
• ½ cup olive oil
• 4 TBS minced or grated onion
• 5 TBS balsamic vinegar
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced

Wipe the top of the mushrooms with a damp paper towel to clean.  Remove the stem and discard or save for other uses.  Mix the oil, vinegar, onion and garlic.  Place the mushrooms cap side down and distribute the marinade equally into the cavities of the mushrooms, reserving one tablespoon of the marinade.  Add the remaining tablespoon of marinade to a wide shallow bowl and stack the mushrooms on top of each other, cap side down, in the bowl.  Allow the mushrooms to marinade for at least an hour.

Preheat your grill pan on medium low for five minutes.

Drain the marinade from the mushrooms and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Place the mushrooms onto the grill pan cap side up and grill for five minutes.  Flip the mushrooms after five minutes so the cap side is now down and grill for another five minutes until the mushrooms are done.

I like to finish with the cap side down so I have the option to get creative and add breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, diced tomatoes or anything else that strikes my fancy to the inside of the cap during the last five minutes of grilling.

The mushrooms can be treated like a burger and served on a bun with tomato and lettuce.  I also like to serve them as a side dish so I get the visual benefits of the nice grill marks.

This recipe uses boneless, skinless chicken thighs and a margarita marinade.  The thighs take up a lot of room while cooking so you will need to either use a double burner grill pan or work in batches with your single burner pan.  The thighs grill up pretty quick so working in batches shouldn’t be a problem.

• ½ cup fresh lime juice
• 1 oz orange juice
• 1 oz good tequila (Sauza, Patron, etc)
• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs

Trim any large deposits of excess fat from the chicken thighs and place in a 1 quart zip top plastic bag.  Add the lime and orange juice along with the tequila to the zip top bag, set the bag into a large bowl and then into the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Remove the thighs from the marinade and pat them dry with a paper towel.  Lightly oil the thighs (a quick spray with a non-stick cooking oil would work fine) and season with salt and pepper.  Allow the oiled chicken to rest at room temperature for about fifteen minutes.

Preheat your grill pan on medium low for five minutes.

Add the thighs to the grill pan and cook four minutes per side flipping only once.  Make sure than when you add the thighs to the pan that the entire side is exposed to the grill. I have found that if you start with the side of the thigh that would have been the “skin side” down that the grilling is much easier.  The “bone side” of the thighs is often pretty mangled and all the loose dangly bits can stick to the grill easier than the relatively smooth surface provided by the “skin side”.  By the time it is time to flip the “bone side” has usually firmed up a little.

After the thighs have grilled for eight minutes remove them from the pan.  The thighs are great when topped with salsa and served with sides of yellow rice and refried beans. You could also slice up some onions and peppers, coat with oil, salt and pepper and grill them up for a chicken fajita dinner.

This recipe is an adaptation of a Filet with Cabernet Sauce recipe from Epicurious. For this recipe you would want a 10-12 inch grill pan with low to medium sides.

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 filet mignon steaks (about 1 ½ inches thick)
• 1/3 cup chopped shallots
• 2/3 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1 tablespoon drained capers
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

45 minutes before you want to serve, lightly oil both sides of the filet and season generously with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Allow the filets to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Once the filets have had 30 minutes to warm, preheat your grill pan over medium heat for five minutes.

Place the filets into the hot grill pan and do not touch them for five minutes.  After five minutes the filets should have developed a nice set of grill marks and should release easily from the grill pan.  Turn the filets over and do not touch them for another five minutes.  After the filets have grilled for approximately ten minutes total remove them from the grill pan and let them rest on a platter while you make the sauce.  Five minutes per side should give you a steak cooked to Medium.  Medium Rare would be a little less than four minutes per side while Well Done would be about seven minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the grill pan along with the chopped shallots and sauté for about a minute.  Stir in the mustard, capers and wine making sure that you are using the liquid to release the frond (a nice word for grill crud).  You are building a sauce and cleaning your grill pan at the same time in this step.  Let the mixture simmer for 2-3 minutes until slightly thickened.  Add the remaining butter and parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce over the rested filets and serve immediately.