As the temperature climbs, so does the craving for barbecue. We turned to three of Las Vegas’ best chefs to find grill recipes that will sate every hankering. Try Korean barbecue with food-truck-pioneer-turned-successful-restaurateur Roy Choi’s succulent kalbi, go for classic barbecue with American comfort food master Michael Mina’s slathered-on St. Louis-style ribs or up your grill game with respected French chef Hubert Keller’s lamb lollipops.
Fire up the barbecue and make these mouthwatering meats:
KALBI PLATE
Roy Choi, Best Friend in Park MGM
Aside from serving kalbi in his Best Friend restaurant, Choi revealed in his book L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food that he enjoyed ordering the dish when playing cards in the casino.
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
Marinade
1 cup soy sauce
½ onion, cut up
1 kiwi fruit, peeled
½ cup garlic cloves, peeled
½ bunch scallions, roughly chopped
½ cup mirin
1 cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup sugar
½ cup Asian sesame oil
2 ½ tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
4 tablespoons canola oil for the grill
1 ½ pounds boneless or bone-in short
ribs, thinly sliced
Suggested Sides
White rice
Macaroni salad
Kimchi
Instructions
- Combine all the marinade ingredients in a blender and puree.
- Pour the pureed marinade over the short ribs and massage it through the meat with pressure and delicious intent. Marinate it, covered, in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to 2 days.
- Meanwhile, cook some white rice. You know how.
- Heat up a grill (or a grill plate if indoors) for 5 to 10 minutes. Season the grill with oil.
- Grill your short ribs until charred, about 4 minutes on each side. When they’re done, they should glisten and have bits of burned but delicious layers.
- You can either put everything in a bowl (rice, kimchi, macaroni salad, kalbi) or place each one separately on a paper plate, Hawaii style, and grub.
LAMB LOLLIPOPS WITH SPICY KETCHUP
Hubert Keller, Fleur by Hubert Keller and Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Ingredients
3 pounds ground lamb shoulder
3 tablespoons merguez spices*
½ tube harissa
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
*Merguez Spices
3 tablespoons ground cumin
3 tablespoons ground coriander
1½ teaspoons ground paprika
1½ teaspoons ground anise seed
Spicy Ketchup
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup pureed piquillo pepper
½ tablespoon harissa
Tzatziki
1 cup yogurt
½ tablespoon garlic, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
½ tablespoon mint, finely minced
½ tablespoon dill, finely minced
1 cucumber
Salt and pepper
Garnish
½ cup micro cilantro
24 7-inch bamboo skewers (soaked in water)
Instructions
Spicy Ketchup
Using a small mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate.
Tzatziki
- Shred the cucumber with the skin on, but seeds removed. Transfer into a small mixing bowl.
- Add the yogurt, garlic, lime, mint and dill. Season with salt and pepper and mix together.
- Refrigerate until serving.
Lollipops
- In a large bowl, mix by hand the ground lamb shoulder with the spices and the harissa. Increase the amount of harissa if you like it spicier.
- Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours so that the spices will develop.
- Weigh the lamb mix into 2-ounce balls. Form into small patties, the shape of a slider. Skewer each of the lamb patties and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Heat up the grill to hot.
- Brush the lollipops lightly with olive oil, season with salt and grill them on both sides about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Present them on a round or long rectangle platter. Top each lollipop with a dot of spicy ketchup and decorate with the micro cilantro.
- In a small container, on the side, serve the tzatziki sauce.
CLASSIC ST. LOUIS BBQ RIBS
Michael Mina, International Smoke in MGM Grand
“This simple rib recipe and method is always a slam dunk,” Mina says. “They can be done ahead of time so there is no stress when pulling together food for a gathering.”
Ingredients
1 full rack St. Louis pork ribs
1/4 cup French’s Yellow Mustard
4 tablespoons pimentón dulce (sweet smoked paprika from Spain)
4 tablespoons barbecue dry rub of your choosing
½ cup barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Brush both sides of the ribs with yellow mustard.
- Combine pimentón and barbecue dry rub and dust both sides of the ribs liberally.
- Wrap ribs tightly in plastic wrap and then in heavy-duty tinfoil. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
- Preheat an oven to 300 F. Place the foil pack of ribs on a baking tray and roast for 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove from the oven, carefully unwrap and assess tenderness. The ribs should be tender but not falling apart. If they need more time, rewrap and continue cooking.
- When ribs are tender, remove from oven. At this point, you can cool them down in the foil or unwrap and proceed with glazing to serve immediately.
- We recommend grilling the ribs and basting with the barbecue sauce to glaze. Alternately you can broil the ribs and baste with the sauce to glaze.
- To serve, cut the rack into individual ribs.
