Monday, June 8, 2015

Burnt End Potato Bombs

This is one of my favorite ideas in a long time - Burnt End Potato Bombs.


They are burnt ends inside of a twice baked red bliss potato and drizzled with au jus.  Yeah, I know, right? 

Burnt ends are one of the best things in BBQ.  If you frequent Kansas City BBQ joints or have ever smoked your own briskets, then you have probably had these magic morsels of meat. They are the "point" from a smoked brisket that are cut into 1 inch squares, re-seasoned, possibly sauced, and then put back on the smoker.  As they say around here, they are "to die for".

This past weekend I was doing a practice cook for my brisket for BBQ competitions.  It was a 13.5 pound packer brisket.  I separated the point and the flat.  I injected both with Butcher's beef injection and then seasoned them with a combination of 4 rubs. 

I put it on the Grill Dome at 3 in the morning.  Wood was 3 splits of hickory.

It was a stubborn brisket and it cooked longer than any I have done with this method.  At 202°F it was still firm as a brick so I let it ride.  It got up to 205°F and stayed there another 90 minutes before it was probe tender.  Thank goodness this was practice!

Burnt ends going back onto the Grill Dome for another spin.

Practice brisket turn in box.  Yep, we actually go to the trouble of building blind boxes in our practice cooks.  We do EVERYTHING we do at a competition.  This was "turned in" right at 1:30PM on Saturday, just like if we were at a competition.

So here we were Saturday afternoon with two dozen burnt ends with no place to go when my muse bitch slapped me upside the head with the idea of a burnt end inside of a twice baked potato.  Well, when the muse hits you like that, you don't wait around.  


Baked some medium size red bliss potatoes for about 45 minutes at 425°F.  Before cooking I rubbed them with oil and seasoned with garlic salt.

The first batch we used a 4 cheese Mexican blend.  The second batch I used Boars Head 3 chile colby jack which was spot on perfect with this dish.

I sliced off the tops and scooped out the insides into a bowl with the cheese.  It was about 1/2 cup of cheese and half a stick of unsalted butter. I also add some salt and BBQ rub. Mash all of this together.

I placed a reheated burnt end into each potato, filled around it with the potato mix, and then over stuffed it on top with more of the potato mix.  Then I seasoned the tops with more of the BBQ rub.  You can make these ahead of time up to this point and refrigerate them. 

Back onto the Grill Dome kamado grill until golden and cooked through, about 20-25 minutes longer.

These were drizzled with au jus but we have also liked them topped with sour cream and drizzled with BBQ sauce too.

These are pretty flippin' fantastic if I do say so myself.

Sure there are BBQ places that serve a "loaded baked potato" or "hawgback potato" which is a big baked potato stuffed with bbq (pork or brisket), cheese, butter, sauce, and more but if you eat one of those, it's your meal.  These aren't just smaller versions of that.  They are twice baked and the burnt ends put them over the top. 


[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  Grill Dome is a sponsor of this blog and our competition team.  We have no affiliation with Boars Head.  We also have no affiliation with whoever makes that melon ball scooper and I'm too lazy right now to go downstairs to find out who makes it.