Monday, June 11, 2012

Texas Beef and Muenster

I smoked a beef brisket (flat only) Saturday on my Big Green Egg and I'll post more about that in my next post. 


What is even better is the lunch that I made from leftovers yesterday.  It's a sandwich with sliced beef brisket, caramelized onions, muenster cheese, and spicy BBQ sauce on kickin' Texas toast.

These were supposed to just be a lunch to hold us over until a chicken was done smoking.  But it ended up being our favorite thing of the weekend, with all of us grunting noises of approval as we devoured them.



This is a rif on Trevor's favorite sandwich from Dead End BBQ - their Tennessee Grilled Beef and Cheddar.    Alexis uttered sacrilege that these were even better than the Beef and Cheddar.  I don't know if I would go that far but they were rather awesome.

Texas Beef and Muenster
source:  Inspired by Dead End BBQ

Ingredients
  • 8 slices Texas toast
  • 1/2 cup Chipotle Cilantro butter (recipe follows)
  • 1 1/4 lb sliced beef brisket
  • 1 cup au jus or beef broth
  • 4 slices Muenster cheese
  • 2 sweet onions, sliced thin
  • 1/2 cup Fischer and Wieser Texas Pit BBQ sauce
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400f.
  2. In an oiled skillet preheated to medium-low, caramelize the onions.  Be patient and keep the heat low, you aren't sauteing them.
  3. Toast bread 4 minutes per side and remove (this will only be lightly toasted).  Melt the chipotle butter and brush lightly on both sides.  Toast another 2-3 minutes until golden brown and remove.
  4. Switch the oven to broiler mode.
  5. Dip the brisket slices in the au jus/broth.
  6. Take 4 slices of the toast and top with the brisket and cheese.  Place under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly, about 30-45 seconds.
  7. Top with the onions, bbq sauce, and other slices of Texas toast.  
  8. Slice in half and serve

Chipotle Butter
adapted from Southern Living

Ingredients
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, softened (1/2 cup)
  • 2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
  • 1 chipotle, seeded and finely chopped
  • 1 Tbsp finely chopped green onion
  • 1-2 pinches salt
  • 1-2 pinches black pepper
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients together, combining thoroughly.
  2. Place on wax paper and form into a log.  
  3. Roll up and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.  Keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Fischer and Wieser Texas Pit BBQ Sauce
The idea to smoke a brisket was partially thanks to Fischer and Wieser, who had sent us a bottle of their new  Texas Pit BBQ Sauce.  I have used Fischer and Wieser products for a while, including their Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce.  My mother-in-law used their Habanero-Mango sauce for the cobia she made two weeks ago.  So I had pretty high expectations for this new product.

The all natural ingredient list is water, tomato paste, lime juice, sugar, onion, honey, pasilla chiles, salt, garlic powder, cilantro, paprika, and onion powder.  I normally don't list ingredients but that sounds more like something you make at home.




Appearance
Texas Pit BBQ Sauce has a medium thickness with some chunkiness (is that a word?).   The picture below shows how you can see the chile pulp and seeds in the sauce.

Both are the sauce, one is just spread thin so you can see the bits in the sauce.

Aroma
Texas Pit BBQ Sauce has a smoky chile aroma.  If I was blindfolded, I would SWEAR you were holding a jar of chipotle peppers under my nose.  But there are no chipotle in it.  It also doesn't have any liquid smoke (Greg Rempe's favorite sauce component....okay, maybe not).  That leads me to believe that they must char the pasilla chiles when making this sauce and that is something I really like.  

Taste
Kapow!  This stuff is strong right out of the bottle but in a good way.  It has a surprising amount of heat for a  product geared toward the general public, but I have noticed that as a food trend over the past few years.  Heat that used to be found only in hot sauces and special products is now working its way onto grocery store shelves.  The smoky bold flavor worked well on the brisket and it really made the sandwiches shine. 

Overall
I am impressed and I think this is my favorite spicy commercial BBQ sauce.  I'm glad to see it is carried locally because I will most definitely be buying more of this kicking sauce.  I can't wait to try it on some beef ribs.  Granted it is a bit pricey at $8.95 a bottle but I think the taste and quality is worth it.  

[Standard Disclaimer]  I received a complimentary bottle of Texas Pit BBQ from Fischer and Wieser; however, we have been a paying customer for 2 years.