The BBQ Blog

The Mighty Bacon Explosion

2009-01-09T10:00:00.003-05:00

Fair warning, your cholesterol levels might go up just clicking on this link.

http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion/

Basic Summary:
- Lattice of bacon
- Two pounds of sausage
- More bacon
- BBQ sauce and rub
- Rolled into a tube and slow smoked with a glaze

Baja BBQ Firepack

2008-05-29T09:50:00.004-04:00

I've been a reluctant fan of the flammable charcoal bag for awhile. For those who don't know, its a small bag of match light charcoal. One simply lights the bag and the entire thing burns up, igniting the coals. Very convenient for grilling on the go, but with the downside of utilizing lighter fluid which can ruin the flavor.

The Baja BBQ Firepack utilizes the same concept of prepackaged charcoal, but also includes a built in chimney function, allowing you to ignite the coals through natural air induction. Designed by Mike and Maaike and produced by Lazzari. Link found on MoCo Loco.

Summer is almost here!

2008-03-29T11:33:00.000-04:00

Army Green Smokey Joe

2008-03-16T12:59:00.004-04:00

I'm sorry this blog never updates. Its hard to grill in the city, in winter, with no porch. I've moved a lot of my culinary adventures into the kitchen, like the soft lazy old man I've become. But I just caught sight of this badass new color available in the Smokey Joe and had to post about it.

And of course there is a coordinating portable grill tool set:

Everyone knows the Smokey Joe is the mobile urban grilling tool of choice. Easily rides along in the car or a tote bag for portable charcoal action when and where you need it. And now it has an awesome shade of army green. Looks like its a special edition color only available at Crate & Barrel, similar to the equally awesome Weber Performer, my dream grill for the day I own a house with a porch, that they had last year in a nice grass green. Looks like that one has been updated to match in army green as well.

Tailgating Prep: Patriots vs Bills

2007-09-22T18:38:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow Matt and I are going to Foxboro to watch the Patriots make their record 3 and 0 at the expense of the Buffalo Bills. I'm pretty pumped because this is actually my first regular season game and I expect the atmosphere to be intense. The Bills haven't won a game this year and all signs are pointing to blow out, but it should be exciting regardless. The weather is going to be sunny and in the upper 70s, and the grilling is going to be epic.

We're going to try something new, since this is a 1pm game: breakfast on the grill. We expect to be at the stadium around 10am and firing up Matt's 22" Weber with a brand new griddle. I'm bringing pancake batter, eggs and home fries. We expect to spend another two hours grilling post-game, while we wait for the traffic to clear and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. A visual preview...

I never would have thought you could improve on my bacon jalapeno poppers. Well it turns out you can, to the tune of mixing chopped bacon and sharp cheddar into the cream cheese before stuffing them. I may die of cardiac arrest at 30, but at least I can say that I got to eat these.

Some boneless country pork ribs, rubbed and ready for the grill:

Some Patriot's endorsed brats:

And some buffalo chicken wings, because why not:

Happy Labor Day

2007-09-03T20:13:00.000-04:00

I was reading the summer grilling issue of Cook's Illustrated today. I'm not sure if this is always the case, but it seems like with each recipe their goal was to improve on something that was commonly accepted at levels of mediocrity. For example, the section on fajitas pegged them as generally being bland chunks of chicken and peppers that required excessive condiment application to disguise their lack of flavor.

I'd never thought about it that way: we always tend to enjoy the condiments as much as everything else. How can you go wrong with fresh guacamole, salsa and sour cream? I saw the author's point however. You should be able to do enough with chicken that it can stand on its own. The recipe in question was for a quick marinade, primarily lime, cilantro and jalapeno based, with a suggested marinade time of just 15 minutes.

To compliment this, we chose another recipe from the same issue for a dill cream cucumber sandwich. One interesting technique highlighted here was for maintaining the crunchyness of cucumbers. It involved putting a ziplock bag of water on top of the sliced cucumbers to help squeeze out the internal water. In addition the slices were tossed with salt which further drew out the internal moisture. The result was supposed to maintain the delicious crunch of
a freshly cut cucumber, even after being dressed.

As should be no surprise when working under the written instruction of Cooks Illustrated, both dishes turned out to be a success. The chicken was tender and flavorful, and each primary ingredient in the marinade was distinctly noticeable after grilling. The cucumbers were every bit as crunchy as expected, and the fresh dill and sour cream dressing was a refreshing compliment to the citrus spice of the fajitas. Even a quick tip on covering your tortillas with a dish towel after taking them off the grill made a huge difference, keeping the tortillas warm and supple instead of hardening once they come off the heat.

MIT BBQ & Tailgating Prep

2007-08-16T13:14:00.000-04:00

Today when I was walking around outside work I noticed that someone had set up a BBQ stand in the plaza next door. Actually I think its been there most of the summer but I've never wandered over and checked it out. Today I walked past and noticed that the sign says its run by I Smell Smoke, a BBQ team name I recognized from various other BBQ-related blogs. Unfortunately I didn't have any cash and assumed they weren't equipped for debit card. Looks like the menu was primarily pulled pork sandwiches with chips and soda. I'm going to have to make this stop next week.

Tomorrow Cassie and I are going to a night time Patriots preseason game versus the Titans. Should be a great evening. The best part about August preseason games is the warm tailgating afternoons and the lack of pressure on winning. Last year we went to a game about this time, but this year we're going to do it right and head out earlier in the afternoon.

I'm starting to put together a menu for the afternoon and thinking it will center around a slow smoked encore to the ribs I did on vacation.

Seasoned Skewers

2007-08-02T10:43:00.000-04:00

On a trip up to Maine to see my parents this past weekend we celebrated my upcoming birthday a little early. True to past form, bbq equipment played a heavy theme this year. Rather then one round up of the fun new grilling widgets, I thought I would examine one at a time. First up, the interesting Seasoned Skewers: naturally flavored wooden skewers for infusing flavor and aroma into kabobs.

The box came with three different flavors: citrus rosemary, garlic herb and mexican fiesta. For tonight's trial we were making kabobs out of chicken jalapeno sausages, mushrooms and peppers, and I chose the garlic herb skewers to go with it. My assumption was that the flavor wouldn't be able to compete very well with the flavored chicken sausage, and that the peppers have so little contact area with the skewer that there wouldn't be much transfer to those either. The mushrooms however have a nice neutral flavor, absorbent flesh and abundant contact area. The next time I experiment with these skewers I plan on using a more neutral ingredient combination such as some slightly seasoned chicken or shrimp.

The skewers come with a small recipe book and some nice packaging. The aroma after opening the vacume sealed plastic pouce that each flavor comes in was quite strong but appealing. The skewers are wide and flat, presumably to help transfer the flavor via more surface area. The instructions said to let the kabobs sit for 15 minutes before grilling, so I went out and lit up ol' Smokey Joe.

The chicken sausage comes precooked, so we're really just heating things up and adding some nice grill color. Because of this I let the veggies, particularly the sensitive mushrooms, define how long the kabobs stayed on the grill. We were having some corn too so I let that cook by itself for awhile before adding the kabobs. Total cooking time was roughly 20m, probably only half of that actually involving the kabobs. I'm not going to embed the photo here because some people might find it incredibly gross, but while the grill was working its magic Cassie and I observed an enormous, lepoard spotted slug emerge from a hole in the pavement. If that sounds like something you'd be interested in seeing a good macro photo of, click here and here.

When we took the food off the grill the aroma garlic herb aroma was noticeable and pleasent. It didn't seem artificial as I had assumed it would. When we sat down to eat my expectations regarding how the ingredients would react to the flavor was pretty accurate. The strong hot pepper flavor of the sausage dominated, the peppers didn't have much flavor to them, and the mushrooms were strongly flavored. What I hadn't counted on was the actual aroma that the skewers delivered to the kabobs. Even the sausage had a deliciously interesting aroma to it. I'm looking forward to trying the other two flavors, and hopefully tailoring some more interesting combo recipes to their specific qualities. Overall I would say that despite appearing to be slightly gimmicky on first pass, these skewers can really add some aromatic presence to the proper kabob ingredients.

Recipe: Cassie's Sangria

2007-07-12T08:11:00.000-04:00

By popular request!

Ingredients:
• 1.5 liter bottle of red wine (merlot or cabernet)
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup berry or peach brandy
• 1/2 cup triple sec
• Juice to taste (orange and/or peach, optional)
• 1 Orange
• 1 Lime
• 1 Green Apple

Mix all the liquids in a large pitcher. Chop the fruits into small (roughly quarter inch) cubes, leaving the peel on the fruits. Add these to the pitcher and stir. Add orange or peach juice to taste if desired, maybe 1/2 a cup.

Chill overnight for the best results!

Fantastic Filet

2007-07-07T19:32:00.000-04:00

For our final cookout in Provincetown, Cassie pick up a mutual favorite: thick cut filet mignon. I haven't cooked steaks in some time, and I was looking forward to applying some recently acquired knowledge around cooking fast and building up a crust. Its hard to throw off the "low and slow" mantra of the BBQ, but when it comes to steak cooking as fast as possible is the key to victory.

Cooking steaks indoors during the past winter, I had been working on the technique of pan searing with butter to build up a delicious crust and lock in as much flavor as possible. Working with this I whipped together some butter with cracked pepper and rubbed the outside of the steak with this. When the coals had just died down and were still glowing I put on the steak to cook for about 4 minutes per side. The butter and intense heat performed as expected, and the filet was deliciously crusted on the outside and incredibly flavorful on the inside. This was sort of a last minute unplanned cookout, and it ended up providing us with a main dish that certainly rivaled the careful preparation that went in the 4th of July ribs (could it have been the 7/7/07 luck?!)

Sadly missing form this photographic documentation is the delicious potato salad Cassie made, and some leftover kabobs form the Fourth.

Fourth of July Beach Cookout

2007-07-04T21:38:00.000-04:00

Grilling on the beach was something I'd really been looking forward to doing this year, and it did not disappoint. Around 5pm the wind started to pick up a little and cleared away all the sun bathers, so we though it would be a good time to light the coals. It was slightly challenging getting coals started in direct wind without the charcoal chimney I normally use. Once the flame caught I put the lid back on leaving a 2 inch game over the side with the coals banked. This in conjunction with the side air vents on the Smokey Joe Gold seemed to keep things burning.

I wanted to let the ribs smoke for at least an hour, using the apple wood chips I had found in the local hardware store. To tide us over, I made some kabobs with fresh pineapple, onion, peppers and shrimp. These cooked real fast, and kept us entertained while some more of that delicious corn we had on sunday was streaming. One thing I noticed was that the shrimp readily absorbed the smokey flavor and also dried out rather quickly. I'm not sure if this was because they were on the small size for grilling, or if it was because they had been pre-cooked when we bought them. Either way, I'm going to have to delve into shrimp grilling a little bit more and try to crack this. The fresh pineapple was delicious as usual.

The ribs cooked for just about an hour and a half, with the rub forming a delicious looking crust. I brushed them down with some Sweet Baby Ray's honey bbq sauce and let that caramalize for another 15 minutes. Just as we were getting ready to take them off a few drops of rain sizzled on the grill lid. As we got the ribs inside it just started to pick up so we dodged a bullet and enjoyed our meal while watching the storm go by.

Please note Cassie's delicious home made sangria in the above photo. The ribs were delicious, with just enough of a smoke ring around the inside to convince myself that one can take a serious stab at doing actual barbecue on a grill, even a small one like the Smokey Joe.

//update: the Flickr photo group Bar-B-Qued Ribs asked for me to submit that photo to them! Super cool, check out all the food porn they've collected.

Prepping for the Fourth

2007-07-03T17:42:00.000-04:00

We are really looking forward to having a nice cookout on the beach for the Fourth of July. Today we took a walk down to the market and picked up some supplies needed with the following menu in mind:
• Babyback ribs, to fulfill my mission discussed previously
• Shrimp and pineapple kabobs
• Fresh corn
• Homemade sangria (Cassie's specialty)

The kabobs are intended to be a quick-cookin snack to keep us happy around the grill while the ribs can slow cook their way to deliciousness. I followed the trimming and prepping instructions from amazingribs.com to prep the ribs, and also cut the rack in half so it would fit on the Smokey Joe without a problem:

I found a pre-made pork rub at the store, not ideal but better then buying all the spices and other ingredients for a homemade rub in bulk and then leaving them at the beach house to never be used again. It went on pretty well so I have good expectations for it.

Vacation Begins

2007-07-01T20:25:00.000-04:00

Today Cassie and I arrived in Provincetown on Cape Cod and spent a wonderful afternoon of doing precisely nothing. Eventually we got around to venturing out and acquiring some of the goods that make doing nothing so much better, specifically food and beer. At the local hardware store I picked up a Smokey Joe Gold and some charcoal. We weren't looking to break into any culinary circles quite yet, so the evening menu consisted of some good corn and a few hot dogs.

The Smokey Joe Gold has one neat feature that my alley grill at home lacks: a built in handle that also serves to lock the lid in place, making it possible to carry the grill while the coals are still somewhat hot. I'm thinking this should make it feasible to take the grill down to the beach, a whole 20 feet away from our porch, to grill in the sand on of these nights, and then bring it back up after cooking. Can't imagine a better fourth of July.

BBQ Video: 2007 Blue Ridge BBQ Festival

2007-06-30T08:59:00.000-04:00

Take a look at a few tasty tid bits from the 2007 Blue Ridge BBQ Festival.

Cleaning out the fridge: vacation time!

2007-06-28T21:12:00.000-04:00

Cassie and I are leaving for Cape Cod this weekend, so we made an attempt at cleaning out the fridge. A quick survey turned up the following items:
- 3 chicken breasts
- 3 burrito burrito size tortillas
- 2 bell peppers
- 1 onion
- Salsa
- A small chunk of cheese

Fajitas ahoy! I had a bottle of jerk marinade on the shelf. We cut up the chicken into finger sized pieces and let it soak in the jerk sauce with some pepper flakes (store bought jerk is never hot enough) for a few hours. This was quickly grilled with the veggies on kabobs for a tasty fajita filling. Not too bad for left overs. The jerk sauce went well with the corn salsa and sweet peppers.

I plan on doing some grilling on the beach while we're on the cape, so although I may be absent from posting for a week, expect some good stuff on my return. Hopefully Matt will be able to keep the blog moving with some Independence day cook out goodness.

Weekend Update

2007-06-25T07:39:00.000-04:00

Despite the hype of my previous post, scheduling didn't work out for an afternoon of rib smoking. I am happy to report that break-through success was obtained in another area: the elusive buffalo bleu cheese burger. This was something I had attempted back in August 2005 with mixed results. The primary problem at that time was that I was trying to mix the hot sauce with the hamburger before forming the patties, which resulted in them not staying together on the grill.

This time around, I tried a technique used in this video, simply basting the ribs with the hot sauce during the cooking process, which worked great. I also used crumbled bleu cheese and found that it diffused through the center of the burger much better. I'll post a recipe for this in the near future.

I also made a fantastic gazpacho this weekend following this recipe and highly recommend it. The rosemary grilled croutons are fantastic.

Friday BBQ Links

2007-06-22T14:40:00.000-04:00

5 Rules for what makes a good BBQ joint from the Kansas City Barbeque Society by way of White Trash BBQ.

My favorite:
Rule Five: Dust and flies. Contrary to what the NYC DOH preaches, a good barbecue joint needs some dust and flies. If the place is too clean - who's paying attention to the pit. No flies? What do they know that you don't?

Mentioned earlier today, amazingribs.com is a wealth of information about how to prepare, rub, smoke and sauce pork ribs, with special attention paid to adapting professional smoker technique to the home BBQ. Awesome.

And last but certainly not least, The Naked Whiz's Lump Charcoal Database, another welcome to addition to the permanent Links section of our site. Without the internet you can bet there would be no easily searchable index of all the various lump charcoal available.

Taking a Run at some Serious Ribs

2007-06-22T07:54:00.000-04:00

In the run up to Memorial Day we stumbled into some fantastic ribs purely by chance. The ribs had been an afterthought at the store, the rub had been assembled out of on-hand ingredients the day of the cookout, and the sauce was whatever we could find in the fridge and stretch out with some molasses and ketchup. The ribs were thrown on the back of the grill and forgotten for a few hours while we cooked a number of other items. In short, we ignored and/or blatantly broke every rule for smoking ribs on a grill. And yet, as noted in the relevant blog post, they ended up being amazing, and probably the highlight of the entire grill-a-thon. BBQ is a series of happy accidents.

This weekend, with a weather forecast for "awesome", I'm looking forward to trying some ribs utilizing the techniques outlined on amazingribs.com, specifically their detailed instructions on smoking ribs with a Weber kettle (and if you haven't been paying attention, we've recently been adding links such as amazingribs.com to the new Links section of the blog). The plan as of now is to try out this maple chipotle sauce I've had my eye on, and combine it with the Memphis Magic Dust rub for some extra spicy flavor.

As a side note, the ever excellent video blog Townie News, home of Fitzy Fitzgerald and covering all relevant Boston sports news, featured an excellent commentary on two critical components to a successful summer: beer and grilling. check it out (crude language and humor, but if you're reading this blog that shouldn't be a problem right?).

Grilled Barbecue Chicken Pizza

2007-06-20T10:42:00.000-04:00

With my recent desire to rid my digestive system of its daily intake of high fructose corn syrup, I have been making some of my condiments from scratch. My most recent experiment has been a thick, homemade tomato sauce. With the recipe for homemade bbq sauce perfected, it occurred to me that I had all the fixin's for my absolute favorite pizza in the entire world: Barbecue chicken.

It was early AM on Tuesday morning when I started pondering what my dinner plans for the evening were going to be. After taking a quick inventory of my refrigerator, I decided that grilled meat wasn't going to get the job done by itself. What I did have was some raw pizza dough, a package of chicken breasts, some fresh mozzarella, and six ounces of my homemade BBQ sauce. All we were missing was the tomato sauce.

The tomato sauce takes no more than fifteen minutes if you know what you are doing and I had twenty to spare. First step was to boil water for the tomatoes. The recipe requires five peeled vine-ripened tomatoes and the boiling water helps peel the skin right off. While the water boiled I chopped up the onion, celery and garlic and tossed it all into a pan coated in olive oil. Once I had the onion and celery frying up, I peeled and finely chopped the tomatoes and added them to the pan. With ten minutes to spare, the major grunt work was out of the way. I added the brown sugar, basil, parsley, lime juice, soy sauce and two tablespoons of tomato ketchup. The sauce was ready with two minutes to spare and the whole house smelled amazing.

Time for work.

Hooray! Time to grill this mother. After starting the coals I took out the pizza dough that I had rolled out onto a baking sheet before work and laid down an even healthy coat of my sauce while leaving a 1.25" border for the crust. Next, I sliced up the raw chicken breasts into thin strips and laid them out liberally over the whole pizza surface. I spread spoonfuls of the bbq sauce over the chicken strips and then laid down a thick layer of freshly shredded mozzarella. Topped the whole thing off with a small sprinkling of oregano (Thanks Papa Gino's).

I grilled the pizza still on the baking sheet for easy transport and no mess. Tin foil would have worked as well, but it's not a ridged surface and I'm all about function, baby. There's no real specific time frame for grilling this as it all depends on your coal amount and placement. Because I typically place the coals in a sloped pile on one side of the grill I rotated the pizza 180 degrees halfway through to ensure an even crust. The pizza crust should be firm and the cheese golden before removal.

The end result was a delicious and quick weekday meal for me and my roommate Mariel. Because the ingredients are cheap and the sauce and mozzarella can be used again, it's a great option for doing pizza one night and pasta the next.

Great BBQ Theme Ad Campaign

2007-06-19T14:56:00.000-04:00

Check out this ad campaign for the Grain Foods Foundation. Great stuff. More information about the agency and credits as well as two additional ads from the campaign at adsoftheworld.com.

The Gracious Bowl

2007-06-12T17:19:00.000-04:00

Found a cool food blog today, The Gracious Bowl, about great homemade soups. Of particular interest is today's recipe for a grilled chicken lime soup. Marinated chicken is combined with grilled vegetables to make a killer looking summer soup.

Hopefully they won't mind me linking to this image, because it really says a lot more than I can about how good this recipe looks:

Turkey Burgers

2007-06-10T22:48:00.000-04:00

Matt has been working on an interesting variation to the typical grill burger, and this Sunday he was gracious enough to share the work in progress with us prior to watching the season finale of the Sopranos. A turkey burger topped with a homemade salsa-esque chopped tomato sauce and freshly shredded mozzarella, I can verify that this bird burger has wings. Hopefully we can look forward to an official recipe post this week.

Fresh corn on the cob, jalapeno poppers and some marinated steak tips rounded out the meal, and certainly left us feeling more satisfied than the conclusion to the Sopranos.

BBQ Video: Chicken fried bacon

2007-06-04T14:24:00.000-04:00

Although not technically BBQ related, this video needs to be shared. How can one appetizer appear so deliciously appetizing and appallingly disgusting at once?

Recipe: Italian Stuffed Chicken

2007-06-02T17:52:00.000-04:00

Straight from our Memorial Day madness comes our recipe for Italian Stuffed Chicken. This is a great recipe to try when you want to mix it up a little while pleasing everyone.

Ingredients:
• 4 Thick cut chicken breasts
• 1 Cup lite Italian dressing
• 6 oz. fresh spinach
• 2 Cloves chopped garlic
• 4 Tbsp. ricotta cheese
• 4 Tbsp. shredded parmesan cheese
• 4 Tbsp. shredded mozarella cheese
• Ground pepper
• 4 tsp. Mrs. Dash seasoning blend
• Toothpicks
• Mesquite or hickory woodchips (optional)

Prep:
Start preparing the chicken by washing the chicken breasts and placing them in a marinade of the Italian dressing up to five hours in advance of grilling. About a half hour before lighting the coals you should soak two handfuls of the woodchips in water.

When you are getting ready to cook, take the chicken out of the marinade and place them on a plate. On a cutting board, take each chicken breast and cut into the meat sideways creating a pocket. Chop the garlic cloves into small pieces. In a medium frying pan, cover surface with olive oil and add garlic and spinach. Sautee spinach for two to three minutes until spinach has shrunk and cooked through.

Remove frying pan from heat and set spinach aside on small plate or dish. Stuff each chicken breast with a tablespoon of spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and mozarella cheese. Adjust measurements to fit your specific chicken breasts. When chicken is stuffed, pin the stuffed pocket shut with a toothpick and lightly season the top of the chicken with the pepper and Mrs. Dash.

Grilling:
Place to chicken breasts on the back of the grill to cook with indirect heat. Drop handful of woodchips onto coals and cover the grill. Grill meat for about twenty minutes flipping the chicken periodically. Applying the leftover marinade to the meat throughout the grilling process can help keep your chicken moist and emphasize the Italian flavor. When internal temperature has reached approximately 170 degrees F, remove chicken from grill and serve. Also remember to take out the damn toothpicks.

Serves 4.

Recipe: Matt's Barbecue Sauce

2007-06-02T14:03:00.000-04:00

Here's an easy does it recipe for a delicious basic barbecue sauce. While your average store bought barbecue sauce can do an adequate job, they are chock full of high fructose corn syrup which is largely responsible for our growing nation of butterball children. This recipe works great as both a marinade and a sauce.

Ingredients:
• 2.5 Tbsp. Molasses
• 1/2 Cup Tomato ketchup
• 1 Tbsp. Butter
• 2 Tbsp. Brown sugar
• 1/3 Cup Finely chopped onion - Red or white
• 3 Cloves Finely chopped garlic
• 1 Tbsp. Red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. Soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. Spicey Mustard
• 1 Tbsp. Lime juice
• 2 tsp. Worcesteshire sauce
• 1 tsp. Ground cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. Ground pepper
• 2 tsp. Salt (Sea salt preferred)
• 1 tsp. Oregano

Prep:
Coat small frying pan in olive oil over medium heat. Add finely chopped onion and garlic and cook for two to three minutes, stirring occasionally. Add molasses. ketchup, butter, lime juice, vinegar and brown sugar to the skillet. Stir. and cover.

In a small measuring cup, mix cayenne pepper, ground pepper, salt and oregano. Add mustard, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and seasoning to frying pan. Stir in ingedients and cover over low heat. Let frying pan simmer for several minutes, stirring occasionally.

Makes 6 oz. Serves 2-3.