Sunday, March 11, 2012

Stuffed Fritos - March Madness Food

Stuffed Fritos....

stuffed fritos, Big Green Egg appetizer,

Your argument is invalid.

I made a game grub menu for today's ACC Championship Basketball game featuring our beloved Tarheels against the Florida State Seminoles.   I'm not a huge sports fanatic, usually sports are just an excuse to grill and chill with friends.  But college basketball is my favorite sport and March Madness is MY favorite time of the year.  There is so much drama starting today with all of the underdogs, Cinderella stories, and upsets. 

Our menu was

Tip Off Course:  Armadillo Eggs (smoked cheese stuffed jalapenos wrapped in sausage and smoked)
Half Time Course:  Grilled Hot Wings
Crunch Time Course:  Stuffed Fritos

But first, funny story about last night.  Trevor spent the night at his buddy's house with a dozen other 12-13 year olds for a birthday party and the police ended up getting called.  It's not like it sounds though.  Apparently they were being rambunctious and playing hide and seek at 10pm (on a Saturday night).  A neighbor came down banging on the door to complain because it was making his dog bark.  He was so belligerent to the single mother that other neighbors ended up calling the police on him.  If he had complained to me I would have had to ask, "Were you ever a kid or did you come straight out of the womb as an @$$hole?"

Okay, back to the food.  I'll cover Armadillo Eggs in another post but the stuffed Fritos...yeah, they are as awesome as they sound.  They are kind of like a one bite taco, but even better.  I learned about these from Frank From Houma on the GreenEggers forum in 2009.  They are ri-donk-ulous as tailgating or party food but they don't hold for too long, so serve them right away.

And yes, you could do them in an oven.  But it's beautiful, get outside and grill, you know you want to.

stuffed fritos, Big Green Egg appetizer,

Stuffed Fritos
Source:  Adapted from Frank From Houma 

Ingredients
2 bags Fritos Scoops*
1 lb ground beef 93% lean*
1 cup colby jack cheese, shredded
1 packet taco seasoning
1/4 cup salsa or Homemade enchilada sauce
2 Tbsp roasted red pepper, finely diced
2 Tbsp cilantro, finely diced
Southwestern Sauce*

Instructions
  1. Preheat a charcoal grill set up for indirect heat to 350f*.
  2. Mix the beef (yes, raw), cheese, enchilada sauce, taco seasoning, red pepper and cilantro thoroughly.
  3. Pick out the 48 most perfectly formed Frito Scoops from the two bags.  
  4. Stuff about 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture into each Frito Scoop.  
  5. Roast on the grill until the meat registers an internal temperature of 165f which should be right at 20 minutes.  
  6. Serve immediately topped with Southwestern Sauce
Notes
  • Scoops.  First, it HAS to be Frito Scoops, not just Fritos.  You need the size.  In a perfect world, you would need only one bag, but a good bit of each bag will be broken or unevenly formed.  
  •  Lean Beef.  This is the only time I ever use lean ground beef.   Anything else will render too much fat and soak the Scoops in grease, not good eats.  
  • Southwestern Sauce.  I just used 2 parts homemade ranch dressing, 2 parts homemade enchilada sauce and 1 part sour cream. 
It was a 2 Egg day since cooking at different temps.  See all the Bradford pear blooms?  Achoo!

Big Green Egg wings, Game Day appetizer
Wings were the half time course but I post too many wings already, so no post for them.

Photo Credit to Alexis.  Doing the "spin and toss in sauce"  in the last 10 minutes of the wing cook.

Big Green Egg wings, grilled wings
Wing Porn.

stuffed fritos, Big Green Egg appetizer,
Stuffed and ready to go on the grill. 

stuffed fritos, Big Green Egg appetizer,
Finishing on the grill.  Try to eat just one, just try it.
Hope you guys have all had a great weekend!  Guess what?  We lost an hour of sleep last night but we gained an extra hour of grilling time for the rest of the summer!