Rotisserie Pan Soup, Barbacoa style

Enough teasing.  Here is my favorite sentence in the instructions of a recipe:

With the precision of a steady-handed circus performer, carefully remove the pan of soup from the bottom of the grill. [Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen]

That sentence has everything - specific instructions, a colorful allegory that explains things better than a picture could, a grill - it's a thing of beauty.
*My second favorite sentence comes from Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way.  It's part of his recipe for Una Vaca Entera.  (Yes, "One Entire Cow".)  It goes:

I must confess, after a lifetime of following fancy French recipes, that it gives me great pleasure to write the following list of ingredients:

1 medium cow, about 1400 pounds, butterflied, skin removed

2 gallons salumera

2 gallons Chimichurri

This soup is a great idea for a side dish when you're cooking on the rotisserie; you're going to have fat and meat juices dripping into the pan anyhow, why not make use of them?  And the soup is delicious.  I was going to recommend using homemade stock instead of water, but you don't need it.  The dripping juices from the meat give you more than enough flavor.

Recipe: Rotisserie Pan Soup, Barbacoa style

Equipment:

• Grill with Rotisserie attachment (I used a Weber kettle with the Rotisserie attachment; my kettle is  this Weber Grill and the rotisserie attachment is this Weber charcoal kettle rotisserie)
• Aluminum foil pan (9"x12")

Ingredients:

• 3 redskin potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed, diced into ½" cubes
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced into ½" pieces
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 can Garbanzo beans, drained
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• hot water to cover, probably 1 quart

Directions:
1. Prepare the soup: Combine all the soup ingredients in your pan, except for the water, and toss with the salt.  Let sit at room temperature while you prepare the grill.

2. Prepare the grill: Prepare your rotisserie as directed for your main recipe, then use the pan with the vegetables as the drip pan. Once the pan is in the grill, add the water to just cover the vegetables.
*It's much easier to get the pan in the grill when it doesn't have the water in it.  Be careful, and don't burn yourself when you add the water.

3. Cook the soup: Cook your main recipe, with the soup simmering underneath it. You want to cook the soup for at least 1 hour, and preferably 2 hours. Check the soup every half hour or so, and add more water if it is needed. The amount of evaporation will depend on the heat you're cooking at. With the barbacoa recipe, there isn't much evaporation, because we're cooking at a low temperature.

4. Remove from the grill: After the main rotisserie recipe has been removed, it's time to get the soup. To quote the master again:

With the precision of a steady-handed circus performer, carefully remove the pan of soup from the bottom of the grill. [Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen]

I remove the pan of soup directly onto a sheet pan that I have ready.
*The more you walk around with a foil pan full of boiling liquid, the more likely you are to scald yourself when the foil collapses.  The sheet pan supports the foil pan, so you don't have to worry about it.

5. Skim the fat and serve: Skim any fat you can from the top of the soup.*  Taste for seasoning, and add more salt (probably another teaspoon, at least) and pepper to taste.  Transfer to a large serving dish, or into individual bowls.  Serve the soup as a first course, or as part of the main course with some of the rotisserie dish cubed and added to the soup.

Variations:
*Rotisserie Pot Roast Soup: Basically, change the flavor profile by skipping the Mexican pieces.  Cook a rotisserie chuck roast with just salt and pepper as seasoning. For the soup, replace the can of garbanzo beans with a drained can of diced tomatoes. Serve by cubing the chuck roast and adding it to the soup.

*As I mentioned in the opening, this doesn't have to go with rotisserie chuck roast; any rotisserie roast will work with this idea.  Here are a few suggestions.

Notes:
*Traditionally, this is served as a first course, before the roast.  Serve with condiments to add to the soup. Good choices would be salsa, some sprigs of cilantro, grated Queso Anjejo, and hot sauce (especially a Chipotle Hot Sauce).  Pickled red onions also go really well with it.

*This soup tends to be a bit fatty, due to the drippings from whatever is being rotisserie roasted above it. Don't forget the degreasing step!

*I know, I'm getting repetitive.  I don't care.  Be careful when removing the soup from the grill!  If you have oven mitts or grill gloves, wear them.*
*And don't wear open toed shoes. Or flip flops, like I was doing while those pictures were being taken. I'm just lucky I have the precision of a steady handed circus performer.


**A clown counts as a circus performer, right?  Right?  Oh, never mind.

Questions? Comments? Other ideas?  Other favorite recipe instructions?  Leave them in the comments section below.

Related Posts:
Click here for the companion recipe, Rotisserie Chuck Roast, Barbacoa Style
Click here for my Rotisserie Pan Potatoes recipe.
Click here for my other rotisserie recipes.

Adapted from:
Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen

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Check out my cookbook, Rotisserie Grilling. Everything you could ask about the rotisserie, plus 50 (mostly) new recipes to get you cooking. It's a Kindle e-book, so you can download it and start reading immediately!

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