Chimichurri Mixed Grill
I like this best made with spicy merguez and Italian cheese and parsley sausage.
I like this best made with spicy merguez and Italian cheese and parsley sausage.
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 4 large garlic cloves minced
- 1 1/4 cups white wine vinegar
- 1 cup finely chopped parsley
- 1 jalapeno minced
- 3 pounds hot sausage coiled or links
- 3 pounds sweet sausage coiled or links
- 2 dozen chicken wings split into drumettes and wing pieces
- 4 dozen littleneck clams scrubbed
- Carbohydrate 3.18869332377531 g
- Cholesterol 277.29306245 mg
- Fat 80.5416335550833 g
- Fiber 0.218666662772497 g
- Protein 66.1688148025 g
- Saturated Fat 27.1250515367583 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (465g)
- Sodium 2162.29743140127 mg
- Sugar 2.97002666100282 g
- Trans Fat 9.15996630820834 g
- Calories 1030 calories
Step-by-step
- To make the chimichurri sauce, combine the vinegar, parsley, olive oil, garlic, jalape?o and salt in a bowl. Let the chimichurri sauce stand at room temperature for 1 to 4 hours.
- Light a grill. For coiled sausage, cross 2 long skewers through the sausage, making an X. For sausage links and chicken wings, pierce each piece crosswise with 2 parallel wooden skewers, held about 1/2 inch apart, threading 4 or 5 rows on each pair of skewers. Grill them over a moderately hot fire, turning once or twice, until crusty and cooked through. Transfer to a large platter and cover loosely with foil.
- Stoke the fire with additional charcoal; for gas grills, increase the heat to high. Add 1 tablespoon of the sauce to each of two 10-inch metal cake pans and divide the clams between them. Set the pans on the grill, cover the grill and steam the clams until they open, about 8 minutes. Serve at once and pass the remaining sauce separately.
Charred sausage casings snap sharply against the teeth, giving way to rich, spiced meat that cuts through the aggressive acidity of a raw herb sauce. Preparing this sprawling spread requires careful management of heat zones, particularly when combining dense proteins like chicken wings and bulk sausage with delicate shellfish. Resting the chimichurri at room temperature for one to four hours allows the harsh bite of raw garlic to mellow into the white wine vinegar without cooking the parsley.
Mastering the Skewer and the Fire
Threading coiled sausages and chicken wings onto dual parallel wooden skewers prevents the meats from spinning when flipped over open flames, ensuring uniform contact with the grill grates. Skewering items in pairs creates stable units that can be rotated quickly as flare-ups occur over the charcoal. While direct heat renders the fat and builds a crunchy exterior on the poultry and pork, indirect zones prevent scorching before the interior reaches safety temperatures. When steaming the littleneck clams in metal cake pans directly on the grill grate, trap the heat by covering the hood tightly so the steam circulates evenly.
- If the chimichurri tastes too sharp, let it rest longer or add a splash of warm water to soften the acid before serving.
- Soak wooden skewers in water for at least thirty minutes prior to threading to prevent them from burning on a moderately hot fire.
- Discard any clams that remain tightly closed after eight minutes of steaming.
