BBQ on Saturday - Inspire me!

[Iwasbornin1993]

So myself and OH are hosting a family BBQ this weekend and I'm severely lacking in ideas!

Spurned on by the burger-and-sausage-less BBQ thread I'd love to do a few adventurous dishes that will really impress though I will still do burgers and sausages because I'm a coward.

Can you please inspire me with your tastiest and most impressive BBQ dishes? And does anyone have any recipes for a nice fruit punch to serve?

There is going to be 15 adults and 5 kids, no budget restrictions unless we're talking caviar and champagne marinades and luckily no specific dietary requirements to consider!

[PartyFops]

Asda are doing some lovely garlic and herb chicken breasts at the moment and maple pork ribs. I don't normally go for the pre marinaded meat, but we bought the for a camping BBQ and they were great!

In fact, since we have been home I have bought the chicken as part of a family meal.

[PartyFops]

giant shell on prawns marinaded in garlic chilli and olive oil?

[theknackster]

home made seekh (lamb mince, onions, harissa paste, chopped corriander) and prawn & chorizo (the thin sliced out-of-a-packet variety) kebabs always go down well at ours.

Those are two, different kebabs, of course, not one 'taste car-crash' combination!

[Sallyhasleftthebuilding]

Cold pasta, cucumber tomatoes and anything else, cover in mayo.
Bread sticks and dips, chicken covered in honey, or lemon or both!

[misscupcakes]

If you have adventurous family (and are not adamantly sticking to to 'no burgers/sausages' ), you could get some unusual meats to try. We picked up a small BBQ box from here:

www.exoticmeats.co.uk/mixed-exotic-meat-packs.html

And it had things like llama sausages, zebra burgers, etc. Good conversation starters!

We recently spent a lot of time before a BBQ preparing lovely side dishes (coleslaw, potato salad, etc.) and no one even touched them - everyone just scoffed the meat!

[Smcgettigan79]

These - I'm making them for my little brother's pre-wedding BBQ in a couple of weeks and we are all a bit excited!!

For those who can't be bother to watch the whole thing they are basically burgers but stuffed with either veggies/chilli con carne/any other delicious things you can think of - then wrapped in bacon and topped with cheese and then BBQ'd!

Just in and around my face please!

[mrsmeerkat]

What about some nice homemade burgers and brioche rolls and salad with pomegranate seeds

Not too different but little nicer

[Iwasbornin1993]

Thanks so much for all the suggestions so far! Writing most of these down to suggest to OH when he gets home!

Party - giant shell on prawns sound like a must! Will definitely do those!

knackster I'm trying to picture everyone's faces if I served up seekh, prawn and chorizo kebabs all on one skewer - though it probably wouldn't be the strangest thing I've cooked them before now!

Cupcakes my OH would absolutely love some exotic meat dishes so will definitely check that out - thank you! Not sure whether the delivery would be in time for us for this weekend though? Will look into it!

We're definitely a meat-loving family so I will do side dishes but won't go OTT on the amount of those! Cold pasta salads will probably be a winner, plus maybe a few veggie kebabs thrown on the BBQ!

[Iwasbornin1993]

Smchettigan79 - wow those look amazing! would certainly go down a storm in this family! We might just have to try them out before Saturday - for quality control purposes only of course

Brioche buns added to my list thanks mrsmeerkat!

[Iwasbornin1993]

Smcgettigan79* sorry!

[misscupcakes]

You can pick up from their warehouse if you're nearby (Ripley, Derbyshire) and arrange it - that's what we did.

If not, you may have luck getting some stuff from supermarkets - Iceland have a range of speciality meat, but I've not tried it yet :)

[Roussette]

I did a bbq recently and one thing I cooked that went down really well was this lamb koftas. I have to say they were bloody delicious. I did a dip thing with them that was orange and rosemary.

[Iwasbornin1993]

We're in the NW so a bit too far from Ripley unfortunately! There's an Iceland quite close to us though (I think!) so might be worth a look!

Roussette those koftas look great and more importantly for me - easy to make - so thank you!

[pinkpanda101]

Beer can chicken (Google for recipe ideas and instructions)
Cooked 4 of these on Sunday for 7 adults & 5 young teens (plus a sausage each) - they take about an hour each on our gas BBQ. I did 2 garlic lemon and 2 chilli paprika. Gorgeous

[Eminybob]

m.allrecipes.com/recipe/14713/souvlaki/

Pork souvlaki kebabs. Really simple but really tasty.

[Iwasbornin1993]

Thanks for all the suggestions! Going to be so hard whittling them down! Might just have to do them all

Fingers crossed for sunshine on Saturday now!

[Smcgettigan79]

Let us know what you end up doing! Good luck x

[Iwasbornin1993]

Just wanted to say thanks again for all of your suggestions, the weather stayed lovely yesterday so the BBQ was a great success!

Smcgettigan79 I think you are my family's favourite person ever now we gave the burgers a go (filled with chilli, jalapeños, cheese and American mustard) and they went down an absolute storm! Very messy but that just made it better we thought

We also did -

Knackster's seekh kebab suggestion - very tasty!
Chicken, chorizo, bell pepper and paprika kebabs
Party's shell on prawns with garlic, chilli and oil (wish I'd bought more prawns though as I didn't get to try any before they were all gone!)
Fresh sardines done Portuguese style with rock salt, olive oil and lemon
A few different types of sausage from our local Butcher's (sweet chilli flavour went down best!)

All served along with a few different salads, veggies and a thrown-together fruit juice, rum and amaretto punch heavily improvised by OH

[Smcgettigan79]

Amazing - i am currently lying on my sofa having just got in from my brother's bbq - stuffed full of beer can burgers! They are sooooo good! X x x