Fabulous Fajitas!

I've been eating more Mexican food lately.  This started because my friend Nick and I went to El Perico, a local Mexican restaurant that is unbelievably good.  With this food in mind, I decided to try my hand at some beef fajitas.  For a first run at this, I think they turned out great! 

First I made a marinade.  I did this 2 nights ago.  I had only intended to let the steak marinate for 1 night, but it went 2 nights due to a change in our plans.  The marinade was based on this recipe.  I only made 1 minor adjustment.  I added cilantro.  Here's the marinade recipe:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup lime juice
1/3 cup water
4 cloves minced garlic
2 TBSP Olive Oil
2 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (hickory)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp dried cilantro

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a plastic bag.  Place desired meat in the bag and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.

Okay, I used flank steak for the meat.  I had a 1.2 lb flank steak and it marinated for almost 2 days.  I'm sure 24 hours would have been plenty.  Here's what I did tonight to assemble the fajitas.

Ingredients:
1-1.5 lb Marinated Flank Steak (using marinade above)
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow onion, sliced
2-3 TBSP Fajita Marinade
1 TBSP Olive Oil
1/4 tsp salt
Southwest seasoning to taste
10 - 6 inch flour tortillas

Directions:
1 - Remove the steak from the marinade, wiping off the excess.  Grill or Broil to a medium doneness.  Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
2 - While steak is resting, add reserved marinade and olive oil to a hot cast iron skillet.  Once the oil and marinade sizzling, add the vegetables and salt and stir fry for 10 minutes.  For additional spice, add southwest seasoning at this point.
3 - Slice the steak, across the grain, into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick strips.  Add the strips to the skillet and stir fry for an additional 2 minutes.
4 - Place the tortillas on a microwave safe plate, cover them with a towel and microwave for 45 seconds. 
5 - Serve fajita beef and vegetable mixture with tortillas.  Add refried beans and cheddar cheese on the side if you want.

This was SOOOOO good.  I did add some southwest seasoning.  I liked the extra kick, but I think next time I'll leave it off so the marinade comes through even more.  The marinade is unbelievably good.  I loved this dish and can't wait to make it again!

Quick Tomato Soup

Tonight I made Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese.  It's cold and windy here, so that felt like a really good meal.  Rather than opening a can of Campbell's I decided to make my own soup.  I found a recipe on Allrecipes that gave me a good idea, but then I tweaked it and came up with a Tomato Soup that my wife said is the "best tomato soup she's ever had".  I've been doing a lot more recipe tweaking lately. :-)

Here's the recipe...sorry that I forgot pictures.

Ingredients:
1 - 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 - 11.5 oz can V8 Tomato Juice
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup veggie stock
1 Parmesan rind (or probably 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese)
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried parsley

Directions:
1.  Add crushed tomatoes, tomato juice, stock and Parmesan rind to a large pot.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes.
2.  Remove any remaining Parmesan rind.
3.  Remove from the heat and add basil, garlic powder and dried parsley and blend gently with an immersion blender.
4.  Add heavy cream, butter and sugar.  Return to the heat until butter is melted.  Serve immediately.

This is a rich soup with lots of great tomato flavor.  We ate it with grilled cheese and oyster crackers.  I can't wait to make this one again!

Turkey Enchiladas

I'm pretty happy with this meal I made tonight.  I was trying to find something to do with our leftover turkey.  I saw a recipe for Turkey Enchiladas...I wasn't keen on the particular recipe I found, but I liked the idea.

So, off to HyVee we went to get tortillas, cheese and enchilada sauce.  Unfortunately, the brand of enchilada sauce we like was gone, so I quickly googled on my phone and found this recipe for a quick enchilada sauce.  So we got some tomato sauce and I decided I'd give it a shot.  I ended up modifying the recipe for the sauce quite a bit, and I'm really happy with the results.  I even added chocolate, so it probably counts as a mole (MOL-AY).

Here's the recipe for the sauce:

Ingredients:
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup canola oil
3 TBSP Chili Powder
3 TBSP Semi-sweet or Dark Chocolate
2 TBSP Wheat Flour
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Emeril's Southwest Seasoning
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion salt

Directions:
1.  Combine oil, flour, chili powder and minced garlic and heat over low heat to form a roux.
2.  Stir in remaining ingredients, bring to a low boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes.  The sauce will thicken as it cooks.

The flavor of this sauce is very similar to some mole I had at my favorite mexican restaurant in town, so I think it's fairly authentic.  It has a mild-medium heat and lots of flavor.  I had semi-sweet chocolate chips, so that is what I used. 

So now that I had the sauce, it was time to make the enchiladas.  Here is the recipe I used for the enchiladas:

Ingredients:
4 multi-grain tortillas
8 oz. shredded Cheddar-Jack Cheese
Enchilada Sauce made above
2 cups shredded turkey (you could use chicken)
1 diced bell pepper (red or yellow would be best)
1/2 diced yellow onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 TBSP olive oil

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Add oil, onion, bell pepper and garlic to a saute pan and cook vegetables until tender.
3.  Add turkey (or chicken) to saute pan and heat through.
4.  Add two ladles of sauce to the turkey/vegetables and mix thoroughly.
5.  Spoon about 1/2 cup of the turkey/vegetable mixture down center of each tortilla.  Top with 1-2 tablespoons of cheese. Roll up and place seam-side down in 9x13 dish.  For best results, grease the baking dish first. Top with remaining sauce and cheese.
6.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Serve immediately.

As I said above, I'm very happy with how this meal turned out.  I thought it was very close to the enchiladas I had two weeks ago at my favorite Mexican Restaurant here in town.  I'm so excited to make this again real soon! 

Championship Dip

Today, we held our 2nd Annual Department Dip Day contest at work.  The rules were simple, anyone who wanted, could bring in a dip (sweet, savory, salsa, etc.) and the department would provide the dipping vessel (i.e. chips, pretzels, veggies, etc.).  Everyone would sample the varying dips, and then vote for their top 3.  A first place vote was worth 5 points, a 2nd place vote was worth 3 points and a third place vote was worth 1 point. 

We had 19 different dips entered in the contest.  Interestingly, not 1 salsa.  Anyway, my Buffalo Chicken Dip won first prize.  I get bragging rights, and the Henck Cup, named after the winner of our first dip day contest.

I'm pretty thrilled since this is the first time I've made this dip.  I found the recipe a couple of months ago, and decided on Monday that it would be my entrant into the contest.  I based the dip off this recipe from allrecipes.com, but I modified it to fit my tastes.  I should have taken a picture, but I failed.  However, if you like Buffalo Chicken Wings, you will really like this dip.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1 cup Frank's Red Hot
2 cups cubed grilled chicken (dice it up very small)
3/4 cup Bleu Cheese Dressing
1/4 cup Bleu Cheese Crumbles
1 cup Mild Cheddar Cheese

Directions:
1 - Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2 - In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese and Frank's Red Hot until well blended
3 - Add chicken, cheeses and dressing to the bowl and mix
4 - Pour mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and bake for 30 minutes
5 - Transfer to a crockpot to keep warm.  Serve with tortilla chips.

Homemade French Dip Sandwiches

I've gotten a lot of criticism from certain people about not blogging, so I thought I'd share a recipe tonight. 

We have our Catholicism study in about an hour, so we ate early tonight.  Since we were being sorta lazy this afternoon, I did a crock pot meal .  I made French Dip Sandwiches, which turned out to be super easy and super good.

Ingredients:
1 3-4 lb. Beef Roast
1 cup beef stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
Steak Seasoning (use whatever steak seasoning you prefer)
1 TBSP Minced Garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
Hoagie Rolls
Sliced Provolone Cheese

Directions:
1.  Prepare Roast by trimming off excess fat.  Liberally rub steak seasoning and minced garlic on the roast.
2.  Put beef stock, soy sauce, thyme, black pepper and bay leaf in a crock pot on low.  Add roast and cook on high for 2 hours, then on low for 2 hours.
3.  Slice roast beef thin and serve on hoagie rolls topped with provolone cheese.  For extra goodness, place the rolls (buttered) with cheese under the broiler until cheese is melted and roll is golden brown.
4.  Serve with the au jus left in the crock pot.

I love French Dips, and this was a really good one.  I can't wait to make this again!

Super Awesome Rib Cooking Method

I've shared my experience with smoking ribs on this blog before, and it's been mixed results.  I was planning to try again today, but then David's baseball team won their first round tournament game, which meant they would be playing baseball today.  But, I had already put the rub on the ribs, so I knew I had to get the ribs made this weekend.  I decided to try cooking them faster than normal and see if I could get them tender that way...as I said, mixed results with low and slow.

So, I fired the smoker up to 250 degrees (that's about as hot as I can get my smoker), and put the ribs on the smoke for 2 hours.  I used St. Louis Style Spare Ribs.  After two hours, I brought them inside and wrapped them in foil.  Usually when I do the foil wrapping, I put a little cider vinegar and BBQ sauce on the ribs.  Frankly, I didn't think this helped at all.   After watching several episodes of BBQ Pit masters, I decided to try something I saw Johnny Trigg (the rib king) do.  I put honey, brown sugar and butter on the ribs, then sealed up the foil and put them on the grill at 400 degrees.  I let them go 1 hour and 15 minutes at 400 degrees...then tested them for tenderness.  To test for tenderness, you pick the ribs up with tongs, and the ribs should bend about 90 degrees but not tear apart.  The tenderness seemed about right, so I glazed the ribs with my sauce for 15 minutes and served them.

I have to say, these were the best ribs I've made, by far.  The smoke flavor came through, with a nice smoke ring.  The ribs were tender, but you could still leave a clear bite mark.  The addition of the brown sugar, butter and honey in the foil wrap added a little extra sweetness that came through nicely.  I'm really happy with the way these ribs turned out.  I forgot to take a picture and now they are gone.  Can't wait to make them again! 

As an aside, I served the ribs with both my traditional sauce and a new spicy sauce that David requested.  To make the spicy sauce, I simply made my traditional sauce, but I doubled the black pepper, then added 1 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 tsp of Frank's red hot and 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper.  The result was a sauce that hit you with sweet, then followed up with a pretty good burn.  David loved it, and I thought it was pretty good too.

The Reason for Bad BBQ

Today I was instant messaging with my good friend Nuke during lunch.  I was lamenting the fact that we don't have good barbecue where I live, with the exception of a food truck that is only open part time.  We don't even have a Famous Dave's, which is top notch chain BBQ.  You would think that a community with a reported metropolitan area of over 250,000 people would have some good ole' BBQ, but alas, we do not.

Nuke asked me if I had any theories as to why it was this way, and it hit me like a bolt of lightning...Democrats are to blame for the lack of good barbecue around here! 

Before you say "Jake, you're nuts", hear me out.  Where I live in Iowa is an increasingly Democratic area.  We have a democrat Congressman and we voted for Obama in the last election.  Add to that the fact that the best BBQ comes from the South and Texas, traditional Republican strongholds, and one can easily see that Democrats are to blame for the lack of good BBQ in my city. 

But let's take it a step further.  What do Democrats value?  Farmer's Markets!  And we have several kick butt farmer's markets around here.  I don't think I need to say any more.  I believe my point has been made.

With this knowledge, I'm now resigned to the fact that I will have to make my own BBQ or travel for good BBQ until such time as the Republicans seize control of the population in my little corner of Iowa.

Championship Chili!

Today at work, we had a Chili Cook-off.  I decided to bring a Buffalo Chicken Chili for 2 reasons:

1 - It was different, so I was hoping it would stand out.
2 - We had a Daytona 500 party yesterday and it was requested that I make a spicy chili.

Well, I won the Chili Cook-off!  My first food victory!!!  More importantly though, my 11 year old said it was the best chili ever!

I pretty much followed the recipe that I found on Allrecipes, but I did make a few modifications and I scaled the recipe up to ensure I had enough chili to handle both the Daytona 500 and the Cook-off.  As it turns out, I had just enough.  The modifications that I made were to get the chili thicker which I loved, but it also resulted in it getting really dried out at the very end of the day, but it still tasted really, really good.

Here's how I made this Buffalo Chicken Chili:

Ingredients:
1.5 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
2.5 pounds Chicken Breast
1 cup diced carrots
1.5 onions, diced
4 celery stalks, finely diced
7 garlic cloves, minced
7 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1 - 28 oz. can Crushed Tomatoes
2 - 15 oz. cans tomato sauce
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 - 15 oz. can red kidney beans
1 - 15 oz. can white kidney beans
1 - 15 oz. can black beans

Directions:
1.  Season chicken breast with salt, pepper and southwest seasoning.  Bake at 375 for 50 minutes, then dice/shred.
2.  Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet.  Add onions, carrots, celery and garlic to melted butter/oil and cook for 3-4 minutes until vegetables are tender.
3.  Add vegetables, chicken, tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, beans, hot sauce and spices to a crockpot.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours, stirring occasionally.  If you need to cook it faster, run the crockpot on high for 1-2 hours.

This will make a really good chili with just the right amount of heat.  The chicken creates a unique flavor and texture.  It's not like eating a bowl of buffalo wings, but there is enough tang from the Frank's Red Hot that it does capture the flavor of buffalo wings.  This recipe will make a lot, so scale it down if you aren't cooking for a party and a chili cook-off. 

Fajita Pizza - My New Favorite

It's been a busy week of unpacking, cleaning, working, painting and cooking.  Tonight, we finally had a little break, so I made pizza.  A favorite of ours comes from one of the Pampered Chef Cookbooks, but we've adapted it just a bit for our liking.  It's called Fajita Pizza, and here's how you make it (Note the recipe below ends up making enough Fajita topping for 1 and 1/2, 12 inch pizzas.  My youngest son doesn't like anything except pepperoni pizza so I make one pizza half pepperoni/half fajita):

For the pizza dough, I like to use this recipe I found online.  It's pretty easy and doesn't have to sit all day.  It turns out to be thin and crispy, yet still chewy.  For one stop cooking, I'll duplicate:

Dough Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup warm water
1 package (3/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cornmeal for sprinkling
Sugar to activate yeast

Directions:
1 - Mix sugar with water.  Sprinkle yeast into water and let stand for 5 minutes (until foamy)
2 - Add flour, salt and olive oil to the water/yeast mixture.  Knead with a stand-mixer for 6 minutes.
3 - Let stand, covered, for 25 minutes
4 - Divide in half and roll out 2, 12 inch crusts (use flour to prevent sticking)
5 - Sprinkle pizza peel with cornmeal so that crust will slide off peel

While the dough is standing/rising, I make the Fajita topping;

Fajita Topping Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 chicken breast, diced (approximately 8 oz.)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2-4 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Southwest Seasoning (Emeril's is good)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup salsa

Directions:
1 - Add olive oil and chicken to a pan and cook until chicken is no longer pink
2 - Add red and green bell peppers, onions and garlic to the pan and cook until tender
3 - Add Southwest Seasoning and Salt to the chicken/vegetable mix and cook for 2 minutes
4 - Add Salsa, stir and remove from heat

Making the Pizza:
Ingredients:
Pizza Dough (see above)
Fajita topping (see above)
8 oz. Shredded Colby Jack Cheese

Directions:
1 - Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2 - Place pizza stone in preheated oven for at least 20 minutes (I just put it in when I turn the oven on to preheat, which I do when I start making the dough)
3 - Roll out pizza crust (prepared above) on a pizza peel that has been sprinkled with cornmeal
4 - Put approximately half the cheese on the crust
5 - Add the Fajita mixture until the pizza is covered
6 - Top with remaining cheese
7 - Slide pizza onto stone and bake for 20-22 minutes

If you do this right, you should get a crisp crust that still has some chew to it, and a really good pizza with some good, bubbly cheese.  Making the crust from scratch is key...we used to use a store bough crust and it was ok, but the homemade crust is so much better.

Another BBQ Adventure

I love my new smoker!  On Friday, I had a friend coming over to watch the Iowa-Oklahoma Bowl Game.  I decided I wanted to smoke something, and that something was pulled pork.  So, I bought a pork shoulder (3.2 lbs, boneless) and dressed it up with my favorite Pork Rub and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours.  Here's the rub recipe (I use it for ribs as well because it just works for pork):

Pork Rub:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne

Just mix it all together and you have the magic pork rub. 

After 24 hours, I took the pork out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature.  While it was doing that, I preheated my smoker to 225 degrees...I tried really hard to keep the smoker between 225-250 degrees on this one.  Then I threw on the pork shoulder and added the hickory wood.  I added more wood chips every 45 minutes or so for the first 4 hours.

After 2 hours, I started spraying the pork with a "mop" that was really simple...1/4 cup water and 3/4 cup cider vinegar.  This helped keep the pork from drying out.

After 4 and a half hours, the pork was at 145 degrees...you want it at 190, so I wrapped it in the foil and put it in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour to git 'r done.  I figured this was ok since after 3-4 hours, you really don't impart much smoke flavor.  Plus, it was getting cold outside which was making it more difficult to keep things warm.

After the pork reached 185, I pulled it from the oven and let it rest for 1 hour.  During this time, it came up to 192 degrees.  After an hour I shredded it and served it on white junior hamburger buns with my homemade barbecue sauce.  I also provided pickles for those who wanted it.  My friend and my wife both ate some, and gave it rave reviews.  The next day, my son had a sandwich, but used Famous Dave's Devil's Spit sauce instead and loved it.

I thought it was a really good first attempt at pulled pork.  I'm excited to try a full, bone-in, pork shoulder next.  That will take all day to cook.  I am thinking I might need to play with different woods too, though I really like the flavor I get from hickory.  Also, I learned an important lesson about smoking when cold...it takes longer!  I should've known that.

Anyway, another great experience with my smoker.  That was a great investment!

Buffalo Wings...at home!

Like a beacon of hope in the darkness, today when I checked my e-mail, I had a weekly update from allrecipes, and included in the food offerings was a recipe for Buffalo Wings.  I could pretty much live off Buffalo Wings and BBQ if it was healthy to do so.  Sadly, it's not, even if you eat celery with your wings.

As an aside, one of my pet peeves on recipe websites are when people give a recipe a 5 star rating, then you read their review and they changed just about everything about the recipe.  I'm fine with minor tweaks, but check this one out from the Buffalo Wing Recipe I used (note, I left the typos and spelling errors):

"This recipe is pretty basic with most wing cooks. I on the other hand jazz them up with the Frank's hot sauce, or you can use your favorite. Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon juice and garlic. If you want to mello the flavor, add a half a stick of butter. Heat all those ingredients up togetherand pour over the wings when they come out of the peanut oil. If you really want to have what I call "rip your lips off hot" add a small amount of chilli powder and or cayanne to that mix. Now your talkin' cookin' HOTWINGS, "GMAN" style"

Seriously!  Just post your own recipe...geez!  And really, if you are going to claim that your cooking is good enough to be called GMAN style, then learn how to spell CAYENNE and CHILI correctly!

Ok, glad I got that off my chest...now back to the topic at hand.  I made this recipe for wings tonight.  I did have to tweak it because I didn't want to deep fry the wings in a gallon of peanut oil.  And really, who wants to buy a gallon of peanut oil?  So I "pan fried" them.  Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
Enough peanut oil to fill an electric skillet or cast iron skillet to 1/4" depth of oil
25 wings
1/3 cup unsalted melted butter
1/2 cup Frank's RedHot
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1 Tablespoon Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat the oil to 375 degrees (I used my electric skillet for this).
2. Prep the wings by rinsing with cold water.  Pat the wings dry and gently add them, 1 at a time, to the oil.  Cook for 10 minutes, then flip to the other side and cook for another 10 minutes.  This should get it done, but you can check with a meat thermometer.  The wings should be at 180 degrees.
3. Add the melted butter, Frank's RedHot, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper and Red Pepper Flakes to a bowl and mix until combined. 
4. Add the cooked wings to the sauce and toss to coat.
5. Serve with celery, carrots, blue cheese, ranch, or whatever else floats your boat.

This turned out to be a really good wing (see picture above of the actual wings I prepared tonight).  It's not what I understand the flavor of a "traditional" Buffalo Wing to be, but I've never actually eaten a Buffalo Wing in Buffalo, NY, so perhaps I don't know what the true flavor is.  That said, I really liked these wings and I will make them again.  They have plenty of heat (my lips were burning when I finished, but it's a good burn), but the garlic powder adds a nice twist.  Think "traditional wing" with a garlic/pepper kick and that will get you close.  I am so excited that it is possible to make really good wings at home, without a deep fryer!

If I was making these for a large group, I'd probably make multiple batches to tweak the spiciness.  For a more mild wing, I would think leaving out some of the black pepper of all of the red pepper would do the trick.  For a hotter wing, more red pepper would git 'r done.  Try these out as Super Bowl Sunday approaches!

Hickory Smoked Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to all my loyal readers out there.  I appreciate all 6 of you.  :-)  This year, in addition to my family, my job and my health, I'm thankful for my smoker...and I got to put it to use again today.

It is just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving this year.  With temperatures being in the 60s, I decided to smoke a turkey breast for our thanksgiving turkey.  Along with mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, dinner rolls and pumpkin pie, it's been a really great Turkey Day.

So, for those of you who have a smoker, here's what I did to smoke a turkey breast, which turned out to be one of the best tasting turkeys I've ever eaten. 

I bought a 6 lb turkey breast, which is just about right in terms of leftovers for sandwiches.  Last night, I made the following brine, which I found at my favorite smoker cooking website.  Smoker-cooking.com has all the tips and techniques needed to make great smoked food.  I used the techniques found on that website for the last 2 smoked meals I've made, and both have been great.

Here's the brine;

Ingredients:

1 gallon 1 cup 1/4 cup 1 Tbs 1 Tbs 1 Tbs 1/2 Tbs 1/2 Tbs 1/2 Tsp 1/2 Tsp 1/2 Tsp

water Morton kosher salt white sugar onion powder garlic powder paprika white pepper powdered ginger mustard powder powdered sage nutmeg

I boiled the water, then added the sugar and salt.  Once the sugar and salt was dissolved, I added the remaining ingredients.  After the brine had cooled to room temperature, I put the turkey breast in and refrigerated for 9 hours.

After 9 hours, I removed the turkey from the brine and washed the brine off.  I then let the turkey "rest" in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

Next, I dusted the cavity of the turkey with the following rub (dry ingredients only).

1/8 cup 1 Tbs 1/2 Tbs  1 Tsp 1 Tsp 1 Tsp 1/2 Tsp 1/4 Tsp

vegetable oil onion powder paprika garlic powder kosher salt white pepper powdered ginger powdered sage

After dusting the cavity, I added the vegetable oil and put the wet rub all over the outside of the turkey.

Now, on to the smoker.  Again, I only had hickory wood, but I like hickory flavor, so no big deal there.  I got the smoker to 250ish degrees and held it there.  I cooked the turkey at that temperature for a little over 5 hours (gotta get that white meat to 160-165).  I added 2 handfuls of hickory chips every hour for the first 3 hours (the chips had been soaked in water since last night).  I also basted with butter 3 times over the 5 hours.

After 5 hours, I pulled the turkey breast off the smoker and wrapped it in foil for 20 minutes to let the juices settle throughout the meat.  I then carved and served. 

The turkey was really moist and very flavorful.  I liked it better than the Alton Brown Roast Turkey I made at Christmas last year, but my wife said that while this one was really good, she liked the Alton Brown Roast Turkey better.  So, I guess I have 2 turkey recipes to roll with in the future.

Finger Lickin' Good BBQ Chicken

My second foray into smoking meat products came yesterday when I smoked some chicken legs and thighs.  I did 10 legs and 8 thighs, which was just about the maximum amount of food I could fit in my little smoker. 

To make this chicken, I did extensive research to determine the best cooking methods.  I went to roughly 8 websites before deciding on a cooking method.  Giving credit where credit is due, I found the brine and rub recipe at www.smoker-cooking.com, but I'll duplicate it here for 1 stop shopping. 

First I made the following brine...combine 1 gallon of boiling water with 3/4 cup of salt, 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons Paprika and 1 tablespoon ground black pepper.  Ensure the salt and sugar is dissolved before adding paprika and pepper.  This is enough for roughly 3-4 lbs. of chicken.  I made 2 batches of the brine.

For separated thighs and legs, they only need to brine for about 90 minutes, so after chilling the brine, add your chicken for 90 minutes or so.  There are suggestions online for brine times, so just dig around...you can find everything for cooking online.  I brined my chicken for 90 minutes.

After brining, I rinsed the chicken and dusted with the following rub:

2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon crushed oregano
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon powdered cayenne pepper

While I was preparing all this, I was also preheating my smoker.  I got it to 240ish degrees Fahrenheit.  I loaded the chicken, and then added 2ish handfuls of hickory chips to the coals for the smoke.  The hickory chips had been soaked in water for 4-5 hours.  After about 45 minutes or so, I added another 2ish handfuls of hickory chips.  Total time on the smoker was 1 hour and 20 minutes, which got the chicken to 140 degrees.

Then, because we were hungry, I moved the chicken to my gas grill to finish.  I had the gas grill set to 350 or so, and I let the chicken go for another 30-40 minutes.  I was having difficulty with my meat thermometer, so I may have gotten the chicken past 180 degrees, but dark meat is flexible, so it was still juicy.  For the last 15 minutes on the grill, I was brushing with my homemade sauce, which let the sauce caramelize nicely.

I served the chicken with extra sauce for those who wanted more.  The chicken was moist and delicious.  The hickory smoke added just the right amount of flavor, the rub and the sauce came together nicely, and finishing on the grill was a good move as it allowed the outside of the chicken to crisp, while still keeping the inside moist.  I served 4 adults and 6 kids, and there was nothing left over.  I cannot wait to make this again...it was a lot of work, but very worth it.

Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

Today I was really excited to watch Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos.  Had I known that Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos were going to play terrible and lose 45-10, I would not have been so excited.  But, alas, I was excited so when I made this week's meal plan, I planned a recipe for the crock pot so I could get it going well before the game started.

For the last 2 years, my wife and I have made several attempts at a vegetable beef soup with mixed results.  We made all these soups without recipes.  Some soups have been really good, others have been average at best.  As we all learned from past chili experiences, I'm better off with a recipe.  Today, I think the soup turned out really well, and I actually remember what I did to cook it, so I'm going to document the recipe on this blog so we have it for future reference.  Note that I didn't completely make this up.  I reviewed several recipes online and took themes from them to make this soup, so this is a variation on 5 or 6 different recipes that I looked at.

Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients:
1 - 1.5 lb. stew beef
1 yellow onion, diced
3 large russet potatoes, cubed
32 oz. beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz.)
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (16 oz.)
1 TBSP Italian Seasoning
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Black Pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Olive Oil

Directions:

1. Heat Olive Oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add stew beef and cook until brown.
2. Add diced yellow onion to the skillet and cook until onions appear translucent. 
3. Combine beef and onions with the remaining ingredients in a crock pot.  Cook on high for 2 hours then on low for approximately 4 hours.  Stir once per hour.

This soup turns out to be very hearty.  It has the typical beef soup flavor with an Italian flair to it due to the tomatoes and Italian seasoning.  The black pepper brings a little heat, but not in an overwhelming way.

I loved this soup, and my oldest son liked it a lot too.  My wife gave it 3 out of 5 stars, but I learned for the first time in our wedded life that she's not a big fan of stewed tomatoes, which would be a problem since that's essentially what happens with the diced tomatoes. 

I will be adding this one to our rotation, especially if the Broncos ever get better.

It's All About Experience

As I mentioned in my last post, my son and I got a smoker and we were planning to smoke some ribs.  Well, we executed that plan on Sunday, and overall, it was successful.

We got an inexpensive Master Forge Charcoal Smoker from Lowe's so in case we didn't like it, we weren't out a lot of money.  This smoker is really easy to use.  You load some charcoal  and wood chips in the bottom of the smoker, then put water or some liquid in the water pan above the charcoal/wood. Above that there are 2 racks for food.  When cooking, the meat gets smoked, of course, but the water also steams the meat to keep it moist.

We followed a cooking method for ribs that I found online, which was supposedly for "competition" ribs.  This involved putting a rub on the ribs 24 hours before cooking, then cooking at 225-250 for 3 hours.  After 3 hours, you wrap the ribs, loosely, in foil with apple juice and return it to the heat.  Then you cook for another hour, then unwrap the ribs, sauce them for 30-60 minutes over the heat and serve.

The ribs turned out very tasty.  I made my own sauce and rub which makes a good combination.  Most importantly, I loved the hickory smoked flavor.  Now, the downfall is that the ribs weren't as tender as I would have liked.  From what I understand, "competition" ribs aren't fall off the bone like you get at Chili's, but should pull off the bone easily.  The key is to be able to get a clean bite mark in the ribs.   These ribs came off the bone, but it was a little work.  We'll have to work on that next time.

Here's what I learned this weekend:

1 - Kids don't have patience for 5 hours of cooking, so my son and I will continue to tackle this little by little.
2 - Next time I make ribs, I'm going to wrap them in foil a lot sooner.  I think most of the smoke flavor was imparted in the first 90 minutes and I think more time being wrapped would make the ribs more tender.
3 - I can get away with using less charcoal.  I didn't realize that having a bunch of food on the top rack would affect the temperature gauge as much as it did.  When I took the ribs off, the temperature shot up 30 degrees.  So, I probably cooked the ribs too hot...you live and learn.
4 - I'm going to try something easier next time, like a pork loin, turkey breast or brisket. 
5 - Smoking is a fun way to cook...I am really looking forward to my next adventure and I hope my son will help a little more each time.

My BBQ Sauce Recipe

My son and I bought a smoker a couple of weeks back. Today we are preparing to smoke some baby back ribs tomorrow. Nothing like picking one of the hardest things for our first venture into smoking.

This summer, I stopped buying barbecue sauce in a jar and starting making my own. I just thought it would be fun to make my own sauce, plus there is a lot of preservatives in store bought sauces that I can do without.  I'm actually cooking some of this sauce right now and it is making the house smell so good that I thought I'd share.

This recipe is a fairly simple barbecue sauce, adapted from the Neely's Recipe on Food Network.  I'm finding more and more that I prefer simple recipes because they are easier to make and they always seem to taste good.  Sometimes a ton of ingredients just muddies the flavor.  If you follow the link to the Food Network, you'll see that I haven't changed this recipe much. 

Ingredients:
2 cups ketchup (I prefer Hunt's)
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 TBSP brown sugar
5 TBSP white sugar
1/2 TBSP black pepper
1/2 TBSP onion powder
1/2 TBSP ground mustard
1/2 TBSP garlic powder
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 TBSP liquid smoke

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients.  Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, for 1 hour 15 minutes.

I've tried a few other barbecue sauce recipes and this one is the best, and it's super easy.  If you like tomato/ketchup based barbecue sauce, you will like this.  It ends up being sweet and tangy with a peppery kick at the back of your throat.  I think this recipe tastes very similar to Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy, just not quite a sweet.

Where's the Beef?

Wendy's has been running a commercial where a young guy buys a "Where's the Beef?" T-Shirt at a Goodwill-type store, and then as he's walking around, everybody is reading his shirt out loud.  He super confused because he's too young to remember the commercial, until he arrives at a Wendy's and sees a sign that says "Here's the Beef."  It hearkens back to the commercials of 25+ years ago where the old ladies are asking "Where's the Beef?" about burgers that compete with Wendy's.  Wendy's is bringing back this old catch phrase to highlight their newer, slightly bigger burgers and better toppings.

Today we were driving back from visiting family and we stopped at Wendy's.  Being super hungry, I decided to try one of the new burgers.  I got a double bacon cheeseburger...yes I'm going to regret that later.  I know as a food guy I'm supposed to show disdain for fast food, and I generally do.  But, I have to say, this was a darn fine burger.  The burger patties were thick and juicy, and the bacon was actually a thick cut of bacon so it added a ton of flavor.  My mouth is watering now just thinking about how good it was.

I hope I don't lose points as a "foodie" for this.  I was forced to eat McDonald's on the trip and that was miserably bad...hopefully that earns points back.

Famously Good

Ok, I'm probably going to catch grief for this one, but I really like Famous Dave's Barbecue.  I know it's a chain BBQ restaurant, and I'm sure those from the south will tell me that it's not nearly as good as the BBQ you get in Memphis or Texas or Kansas City.  But as a guy who grew up in the midwest who just wants some good hickory smoked ribs or pulled pork, it's pretty darn good.

This weekend, we were outta town in a locale that is not exactly a BBQ hot spot.  My family all really likes BBQ, especially my 10 year old.  He loves Famous Dave's spare ribs.  So, last night we went to Famous Dave's, and it was sooooooooo good.  I had the Georgia Chopped Pork, which I smothered in Rich and Sassy sauce.  I got the Spicy Green Beans and BBQ Chips as my sides.  I love to dip the BBQ chips in the different sauces.  My mouth is watering right now thinking about how good it was.

Some other items around the table included Baby Back Ribs, Spare Ribs and BBQ chicken.  Also, Buffalo Wings...they have really good Buffalo Wing sauce at Famous Dave's.  All of the food was very good. 

I still look forward to getting to take a trip to the south for some "real BBQ", and I'm planning to get a smoker and learn a little more BBQ cooking myself.  But, for now, when I'm in the midwest and I see a Famous Dave's, it will be very hard for me to pass it by. 

Now That Was Tasty

Living in Iowa, our grocery store is HyVee.  Back in April, HyVee announced a partnership with Celebrity Chef Curtis Stone, which I thought was really exciting because I've seen Chef Stone on the Food Network before.  Chef Stone is providing recipe ideas for HyVee shoppers, and a few weeks ago, we saw the recipe for Seared Steak with Caramelized Onions and Gorgonzola.  I followed the recipe exactly, so I won't rewrite it here.  Follow the link if you want to make it.

Here's what I would suggest if you decide to make this.  Make a lot of the onions...they are soooooooo good!  Also, the Gorgonzola is really powerful, so I would recommend going easy on the cheese.  I made this recipe using New York Strip steaks, but I got less expensive steaks because I was dressing them up.  I just tenderized them a little bit by pounding, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled them.  I cooked them for 4 minutes over high heat, and then moved them to the cool side of the grill for 7 minutes.  This got the steaks to medium well.  These were 5 star steaks.

For a side dish, I made one of our favorite grilled sides...roasted potatoes with red peppers.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 russet potatoes diced, skin on
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:
Combine olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and whisk together.  Toss the potatoes and peppers in the olive oil mixture.  Wrap the potatoes and peppers in non-stick aluminum foil, sealed tightly. 

Preheat grill to 400 degrees.  Cook potatoes and pepper packet on the grill with the lid closed for 45 minutes.  Serve immediately.

This was a magical combination, and was pretty easy to make.  Try it some evening at your house and let me know what you think.

Now Thatza Pizza!

As I wrote in "The Art of Scrambled Eggs", I have a few cooking mentors.  Last night the friend who taught me the egg whisking vortex method, made pizza for us, and tried to teach me along the way.  Being from the East Coast, this guy is a true pizza snob, and I say that in a good way.  We've had this guy's pizza before, but maybe I wasn't in the right mood, because even though that pizza was good, the pizza last night was possibly the best pizza ever.  I'm not much of a salesman, but I could sell that pizza.  Until last night, I never understood what the big deal was about East Coast Pizza.

Well, here's the big deal, as I can tell.  The crust is thinner and gets a crisp on the bottom, and the sauce is a bit sweeter and just tastes more fresh.  For me though, the crust and the crisp was the key.  We made 2 types of dough for the crust, a warm water dough that was a bit thicker and a cold water dough that was wafer thin.  While the warm water dough was easier for a novice like me to work with, the cold water dough was my favorite.  I pretty much botched my attempt at rolling out the cold water dough, but we salvaged it and it turned into a good pizza anyway. 

A few other tips I picked up:

1 - More basil, less oregano in the sauce.
2 - My pizza oven has never been hot enough...gotta get it over 500 degrees.  We were cooking at 525 last night.
3 - The baking stone has to be in the oven when you start...preferably for 20 minutes, so it is nice and hot.
4 - I need to get a pizza peel.
5 - Toppings don't matter if the sauce and crust is right.
6 - Anchovies are really good, but use the sparingly.

I also learned to toss a pizza last night.  I think I was successful on 5 of 6 attempts.  So, not bad for a beginner.  I'll have to try making pizza at home and see if I can come close to duplicating what I learned last night.  I also have to figure out how to do something really well so I can teach my friend something...maybe I can help him with his golf game.