Postby marsh » Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:16 pm
Hello, my name is Marshall, and Nick Mihos was a close friend of mine. Someone sent me a link today to this thread. I would love for Nick's product to be available again, so I am happy to help you in any way you want. You can reach me via email or phone number. I can provide that contact information to you, just ask.
I work for a major poultry company that provided raw chicken to Nick for charity events and store demos. I cooked side by side with him several times, and he taught me so much. Our friendship grew and reached beyond work, and I would visit him in Grove, OK, up to the time of his death in 2007. Near the end he was so weak that he would "supervise" me sitting in a lawn chair in the garage, drinking scotch and smoking a cigarello. The last thing we grilled were two whole chickens, cut in half. There were a few key things I learned from Nick, (which may be common knowledge to you guys, if so, my apologies for sounding remedial):
1. Season the meat the night before, and don't overdo it. Thouroughly covered, but not pancaked all over it.
2. Use hardwood charcoal, not briquettes. He used Hasty Bake.
3. Apply his liquid marinade to cooked meat after each turn (don't apply the marinade to raw meat)
4. Perhaps most important... When you take the meat off the grill, apply marinade, then cover with foil and let stand in either a side smoker, or oven for 20-30 minutes. Not necessarily a heated source, just somewhere enclosed where heat will not be lost. It's at this point when the meat really draws in the flavor.
5. The key flavors in his seasoning are paprika, onion, and garlic. The key ingredients in his marinade are canola oil and citric acid. The acid penetrates the meat causing the flavor to really be drawn into the meat.
6. This was probably more of a quirk than anything, but I still do it to this day, and it makes me smile. After you've turned the meat, bang your tongs on the grill several times. He said you're knocking any uncooked juices etc off of your tongs that could contaminate the fully cooked meat.
Nick was one of a kind, and I miss him. I still have several cases of his marinade, but I've ran out of his seasoning. I currently use a paprika based seasoning that's similar to his, but not quite the same. It still produces delicious chicken wings, and every time I grill them I think of Nick.