WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — It’s no fun when rain throws a wrench in cookout plans and chases us indoors. If it happens to you, there are ways you still can enjoy the taste of an outdoor barbecue using indoor cooking methods. Here are five of them.
Oven
You can use your oven as a barbecue by preheating it to 500°F with your baking pan in the oven. For meats, it is recommended that you bake in a shallow baking tray with a wire rack insert.
The key is to bring your food up to temperature as quickly as possible.
To go even further, you can add liquid smoke for a woody or charcoal flavor. Remember this because we can use it for every method.
For more information, check out this instructional from KitchenAid
Pressure Cooker
A pressure cooker can get you the tenderness and juiciness that you want out of grilled meats. Sear your meats in a pan first, then pressure cook with a little broth for a quick roast.
If we just sear our meats we won’t get the fall-off-the-bone texture we’re after. This is where the pressure cooker comes in. Sear first to blacken the exterior and lock in the juices, then pressure cook to soften the insides.
For an in-depth recipe, check out this video from Sam the Cooking Guy on Youtube.
Reverse Sear
For those who don’t have a pressure cooker or the right baking trays, you can always reverse sear.
For this method, you simply bake your meats to the desired internal temperature, then finish in a pan for a better-looking (and tasting) exterior.
Searing alone cooks the meat at a constant (and slow) rate, which will make it overcooked before it makes it soft. By baking first we get the meat cooked to perfection, then we sear to get the outside to the desired crustiness.
Here’s a step-by-step guide from Binging with Babish.
Sous Vide
Fine dining made too simple. That’s the promise of sous vide (cooking an item in a vacuum-sealed bag in warm water). If you happen to own a machine that allows you to do it, you probably know the restaurant-quality results sous vide cooking can provide in an extremely easy way.
While we can’t substitute the grill for a sous vide, we can substitute the smoker. Cooking meats in a sous vide over 24-28 hours will give us the same juicy result as an all-day smoker.
