Jerk Chicken Shawarma - Culinary Worlds Collide

Are you looking to try something new on the grill this Summer?  Try this!

I love the bold, almost pungent flavors of chicken shawarma. I also go head over heels for the earthy, aromatic taste of jerk chicken.

So it only makes sense that I had to combine the two styles into one - the Jerk Chicken Shawarma.

Sliced jerk chicken, roasted garlic lime sauce, seasoned sweet potato fries, and pickle on naan bread.

Authenticity

This dish is styled after its Middle Eastern and Jamaican influences, but it is NOT an authentic representation of either.

Jerk Chicken

Jerk chicken is a celebration of spicy, smoky, and aromatic goodness. 

• Bone-in vs Boneless - While I like both versions, for the past several years my go-to has been boneless, skinless chicken thighs. They seem to take the marinade more quickly and they cook faster.
• Marinade - All things equal, I like to use this recipe for Marinade for Jerk Chicken. But I also like the classic Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning and I cut that with an ounce or two of orange juice, a splash of lime juice and 2 ounces of peanut oil.
• Pimento Wood - For peak authenticity, pimento wood is the ticket. However, it is a slow growing wood so Jamaica has tight restrictions on the export of pimento wood. Honestly, quality lump charcoal works for me.

Sirloin Beef Kebabs with Pineapple Chile Rice Pilaf

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This is a simple and quick recipe that we have made several times this year. It's one of those low-effort, high-reward dishes. 

We picked up a nice pair of Certified Angus Beef top sirloin steaks at Food City and I decided to make a classic - teriyaki steak kebabs. Skewers laden with peppers and onions were the obvious pairing. The sweet and spicy pilaf with pineapple and Fresno chile added big flavor and some originality. 

Petite Fillet with Garlic Peppercorn Sauce

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Let's get the recipe out of the way first since people hate scrolling through the typical food blogger stuff to get to the recipe. This is a simple white sauce variation that is creamy, savory, and as the name implies - it has a peppery kick.

Mini-Surf and Turf - Petite fillet with creamy peppercorn sauce, snow crab legs, and asparagus.

Bahamian Pork Chops with Pineapple Herb Sauce

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"That's the best pork chop I've ever had!" my wife exclaimed.

Bahamian Pork Chops with Pineapple Herb Sauce
Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes
Gold Rum Glazed Carrots

But big news, first. Two members of the Nibble Me This grilling team got married in December! My sister, Rhonda, and Sean tied the knot in a family wedding on Exuma in the Bahamas. 

NMT Grilling Team members Rhonda and Sean getting married on Jolly Beach on Exuma in the Bahamas.

Brisket, Butts, and Chicken Cook 4 October 2024

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Is this thing still on? 

I noticed our freezer stock of BBQ was looking a bit bare.  So, last weekend, I fired up my big smoker to smoke a brisket, two pork butts, and some chicken. 

Here are some notes from that cook. I hadn't been cooking a lot so this time, I was trying to use up a lot of products that I had on hand.

Meat Prep

• Brisket - 
• Meat - It was a 17.44 lb USDA Choice brisket that I wet aged for 28 days. I prefer CAB briskets but with the cost of beef these days, I buy what I can get for a decent price that looks good.
• Trim - Minimal trimming, just enough to get the fat cap about 1/4" thick and to achieve an aerodynamic shape so the smoke flows over it. If I was cooking this on a Big Green Egg I would have gone with the competition trim and split the point and flat sections.
• Injection - I used Butcher's Original Brisket injection. I used that mostly for competitions. At home, I'll often just use seasoned stock or nothing at all. 
• Seasoning - I gave the whole trimmed and injected brisket a 12-hour dry brine. I used Four 41 South's Fat Henry's Classic and Gentry's Beef Brigade. I put that on a tray and rack, covered it with a plastic food bag and stuck it in the fridge.

Rue Morgue Burger - A Bunless Burger Delight

The Beef Rue Morgue is a wild bunless burger that starts with a bed of crispy golden fries. Then it is layered with Edgar’s drunken chili, queso, a thick burger, and topped with a perfect sunny-side-up egg.

This is my version of the Beef Rue Morgue, one of the fabulous burgers served at Poe’s Tavern in Atlantic Beach, FL. Any trip back home isn’t complete for me without a trip to this Edgar Allen Poe-themed tavern because of its killer burger lineup.

Crispy fries, drunken chili, creamy queso, and a perfectly cooked burger with a sunny-side-up egg on top...yes, please!

You don’t need a recipe for a burger, but here’s what I was thinking and what I did to make mine tasty and delicious like theirs.

Of course, I cooked mine on a Big Green Egg grill but a flat top would be good too.

Gorgonzola and Roasted Garlic Sauce for Steaks, Beef Roasts, and Burgers

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This is the recipe for the sauce that we served with reverse-seared beef tenderloin at the 2023 Chain of Lakes Eggfest. We won 1st place there and this sauce was definitely one of the reasons that we did so well. A lot of folks asked for this recipe so here it is. 

About Gorgonzola Sauce

This sauce is rich in texture and flavor. Loaded with heavy cream, the sauce is like velvet. It has the flavor trifecta with gorgonzola cheese, green peppercorn, and roasted garlic. It is excellent on:

• Beef roasts, such as beef tenderloin or rib roasts,
• Steaks, including ribeye, porterhouse, strip and filet, and
• Big juicy burgers!

Green Peppercorns

Green peppercorns are just black peppercorns that aren't sun-dried. 

• Green peppercorns have a fragrant aroma and have a more fruity flavor.
• Green peppercorns have less heat and are less astringent in flavor than black peppercorns.
• Green peppercorns are more tender, so I crush mine in a mortar and pestle to get rustic, coarse bits for my sauce.
• Substitute - If you can't find green peppercorns (I mail order ours), you can probably find those little pepper grinders full of tri-color pepper in any grocery store. Coarsely ground tri-color pepper will work, just dial back the quantity to about 1 teaspoon.

Here's the recipe.

Appetizer Idea: Fried Mashed Potato Cakes with Brisket and Pimento Cheese

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I smoked a brisket last weekend and while it was tender, delicious, and amazing, that is just the start of this post.

One night last week, I made twice-baked potatoes with some of this tasty brisket and leftover pimento cheese that Alexis had made.

Twice-Baked Potatoes

The process is simple. 

• I baked two large Idaho bakers on the Egg until they were tender. 
• I sliced the top off and scoops the steaming potato pulp into a large bowl. 
• There I added about a cup of chopped brisket and a heaping amount of pimento cheese. 
• I stuffed most of this mix back into the potato shells.

I put the potatoes on a tray into a Big Green Egg set up for indirect heat and running at 350°f. I topped them with a few pats of butter and let them run for 20 minutes.

2023 Chain of Lakes Eggfest

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Once again, I'm super proud of the Nibble Me This grilling team. Last weekend, we cooked in the 2023 Chain of Lakes Eggfest and the hungry crowds voted us as the 2023 Champions.

I couldn't ask to cook with a better group of friends and family.

But even better, this grilled food festival is an annual fund-raiser hosted by Mannix Pools and Grills for Girls Inc. and the local Boys and Girls Club. The top 3 placing teams - TromboKing, Pork's Peak, and Nibble Me This - not only donated our cash prizes back to the charities but the 3 teams also MATCHED that with an additional donation, totaling $5,000 extra for the two clubs.

Here is a look back at the event.

Planning

Before we light the first fire, Rhonda (team captain and my sister) and I plan it all out.

• What to serve - We look at things that are crowd favorites, can be prepped ahead of time, and have short cook times so we can keep the food coming out.
• How much to serve - We create a demand forecast by taking the number of ticket presales and typically double that to account for walk-up sales.
• What to take - We coordinate our equipment & supplies lists so that team members bring everything we need but not 2 and 3 of everything since space is a premium.

Pre-Prep

Since we only have 2 hours before gates open on the event day, we have to smoke our green chile-seasoned pork butts during the week. Rhonda did two of these for Jordan's Drunk Pickles and I did one for the Smoked Pork Taquitos.

Eight-pound pork butt seasoned with Albukirky's Green Chile Seasoning. For smoke, I used Jealous Devil Smoke Wood blocks that I cut down to cubes for the kamado grill. I used the Thermoworks Signal with a Billows fan to run the Big Green Egg grill at 250°f.
Thermoworks Signal [Affiliate Link] (currently $59 off)
Thermoworks Billows [Affiliate Link]

Avocado, Chorizo, and Pepper Jack Cheeseburger

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A chorizo, avocado, and pepper jack cheeseburger is a delicious twist on the classic American cheeseburger. This burger features a juicy patty made from ground chuck and topped with gooey melted pepper jack cheese. We crown it with creamy avocado and flavorful chorizo. The combination of smoky, spicy, and creamy flavors creates a mouthwatering burger experience that's sure to satisfy any craving.

Alexis was craving a griddle-cooked burger while I wanted mine grilled. No problem. I used my modular cast-iron grate from Craycort, which let me swap a grate section out with a griddle plate as shown below.

I've been using cast iron grates from Craycort for about 14 years. In addition to being a fantastic cast-iron grate, the modular design lets you add other components like this griddle, a vegetable wok, or a chicken throne. 
Craycort

Not that you need a recipe for a burger, but here is what we did.

New Year's Day Pork Butt

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I was only planning on smoking that brisket for New Years' Day but Food City had pork butts for $1.49 per pound and I couldn't resist picking one up. 

Smoked pork butt finishing on the Big Green Egg.

Meat Prep

I kept it simple. I started with an 8.7-pound Smithfield bone-in pork shoulder butt roast.

• Trimming - None needed.
• Injection - I injected it with a simple solution of 12 ounces of apple juice and 2 tablespoons of kosher salt.
• Seasoning - I heavily coated the pork butt with Fire and Smoke BBQ Company's Second City Sweet BBQ Rub. I covered it and let it dry brine for 6 hours in the fridge. 

New Years Eve Brisket Cook

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We welcomed in 2023 by smoking a whole brisket and a pork butt overnight on New Year's Eve. Here's my notes about how the brisket cook went.

Meat Prep

I started with an 18-pound USDA Prime, Certified Angus Beef Brand whole brisket.

• Wet aging - I wet-aged the brisket in the original packaging for a few extra weeks.
• Trimming - I did a competition-style trim, meaning I separated the point from the flat. I mainly did that so it would fit in a large Big Green Egg but I also like getting bark on all sides of the point.
• Injection - I injected it with 2 cups of plain beef stock, skipping the typical phosphate-basted injections used in competitions. 
• Seasoning - I used Thunderbird's Bravo Bark Builder for Beef and let it dry brine for about 6 hours before smoking. Usually, I do at least 10-12 hours but I was short on time and figured that some time was better than none, right?

This brisket was a long boy! That meant I pretty much had to trim it comp-style, which separates the point and the flat. Otherwise, it would be too long to fit inside one of my large Big Green Egg kamado grills. 

Product Review: Thermoworks Signals and Billows

[FTC Standard Disclosure] I paid full price for my Thermoworks Signals and Billows. I used Thermoworks products for over a decade before recently agreeing to become an affiliate seller for Thermoworks. All links in this post are affiliate links and I earn a commission if you purchase through these links.

Last week, I was speaking with a relatively new user of kamado grills and he wasn't familiar with electronic controllers. That made me realize I had not yet written up my review of the Thermoworks Signals/Billows combination for controlling smokers/grills.

• Thermoworks Signals BBQ Alarm Thermometer with WiFi and Bluetooth Technology (currently 239)
• Thermoworks Billows Temperature Control Fan Kit (currently $79) 

Here is the Signals controlling my large BBQ pit while smoking 3 briskets.
I own 6 models and 3 brands of controllers.
I have used this controller for 18 months.
So this is an in-depth, thorough review.

Intro to Electronic Controllers

Electronic Controllers are equipment that uses some type of processor (CPU) and a fan to control the temperature of your smoker/grill at a chosen temperature. It's a feedback loop. The CPU reads from a probe inside the grill and if the grill temperature is less than the chosen temperature, the CPU tells the fan to cut on. The fan will stoke the fire, increasing the temperature. The CPU checks back for the result and readjusts. It's more complicated than that, but that's the gist. 

• Advantages
• Consistent monitoring leads to a consistent fire (within variables)
• SLEEP! It's nice to sleep during overnight cooks without having to worry about the temperature dropping or the smoker getting too hot.
• Things can still go wrong when using a controller, for example - the grill runs out of fuel, airflow gets restricted, the temperature probe fails, or power failures.
• Learn fire management first! I strongly recommend people use the manual controls of their grill or smoker for six months before starting to use an electronic controller. There's no substitute for knowing how to manage the fire on your grill.

Credit: Thermoworks

So now that you know WHAT an electronic controller does, HOW WELL does the Signals/Billows combo do that? 

Signals Features

The Signals is the CPU or "brains" of the controller. It is what monitors and analyzes what's going on in your smoker/grill and it's what tells the fan what to do.

Four Channels

The Signals is a 4-channel cooking thermometer that is useful for BBQ, oven roasting, deep frying, sous vide cooking, home brewing, and candy making. You can monitor 4 meats or 3 meats and 1 cooking temperature probe at the same time.

Connectivity and Smart Technology

The Signals device has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology. The smartphone app unleashes the full power and flexibility of the Signals unit. More about that later.
TIP for Wi-Fi - Most home routers today offer 2.4GHz (longer range) and 5GHz (faster speed).  Most grilling areas are far from the router so most BBQ and grilling devices are designed for the 2.4GHz. If you experience connectivity issues with grilling equipment, make sure the 2.4GHz setting is enabled on your home router. 

It's Alarming!

Having Fun With a Wok Stove

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Have you ever cooked on a wok stove? I stumbled across this 13" clay stove on sale for like $20 at my local Asian supermarket and couldn't resist it. It sat in my garage for a while but I recently got the chance to play with it.

Clay stoves are ubiquitous across Asia. China has the wok stove, Thailand has the tao charcoal burner, Vietnam has the lo than, the Philippines has the ulingan or kalan de uling, and Japan has the hibachi and hotpot. I have zero experience with these but live-fire cooking is live-fire cooking, so let's play with this grill of sorts.

How It Works

This clay stove looks and functions a lot like the internal parts of a kamado grill, only smaller in size.

• Hot coals go into the top part, resting on the ceramic grate with holes.
• A cooking vessel (wok, pot, grate) rests on the three clay knobs.
• The airflow is from a wide-open vent on the bottom.
• So temperature control is basically a matter of the quantity of coal. More coals hotter, fewer coals cooler.

There is a removable section that theoretically lets you add coals. I've also seen cooks use this to insert pieces of wood to add smoke to the equation.

Fall 2022 North Florida Eggfest - St John' County

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The North Florida Eggfest is held each Spring but this year, Pinch-a-Penny decided to squeeze in an extra Fall version. The Nibble Me This grilling team couldn't wait to cook at this event when we found out that the proceeds were going to Operation BBQ Relief. 

When the smoke cleared and the crowd voted, we won 2nd place. Congratulations to Cline's Custom Meats Butcher Shop for besting the reigning champ (that would be us!).

Our team celebrated our 2nd place finish with jello shots with friends.

Here's a look back at the event through the mobile phones of our team members.

Preparation

Just like KCBS BBQ competitions, the key to a successful and fun Eggfest is doing as much prep as humanly possible before you've stepped foot on the event grounds. 

My North Florida Eggfest started with a longer-than-usual drive since I had to drive through the remnants of Hurricane Nicole. The traffic frequently came to a standstill adding about 90 minutes to the normally 8 hour drive.

So the team started without me. Here Rhonda was making green chile smoked pork - one of the key ingredients of the perennial crowd favorite Jordan's Drunk Pickles. I spy two Thermoworks Chef Alarms in the background being used to monitor the internal cooking temps.
Thermoworks Chef Alarm [Affiliate link]

We coat the butts with AlbuKirky Green Chile Rub and smoke them until they are an internal temp of 200f+ and probe tender. So it takes a while.

Sean explaining the work they had done over the summer to create their new grilling area. Or he might have been fibbing about the last fish he caught...he's a fisherman after all.

Sean and Carson using the Blackstone griddle to prep some of the ingredients for the breakfast casserole. Rhonda and Sean's new grilling area makes me BGE green with envy!

Pre-cooking ingredients wheen possible is a great way to minimize on-site work and the amount of cleaning at an Eggfest.

Have to make the jello shots as part of the prep!

Breaking up the green chile smoked pork for the pickles.

Laurie shredded Swiss cheese for the pickles.

Scott, Carson, and Sean coring the pickles so we can stuff them at the Eggfest. We get about 35-40 servings per jar, and we have done as many as 1200 for a single event. We did just under 500 for this event and we didn't have a single leftover pickle.

Here's everything that goes into the pickle - green chile pork, Boar's Head ham, Boar's Head salami, and Swiss cheese. 

Laurie, Scott, Sean, and Carson taking a break while I'm in the background cooking. That's only fair since they cooked all day while I was driving.

Rhonda has some of our food festival awards lining the back wall of her new outdoor kitchen.

Eggfest Day

It's finally here! Typically you have an hour or two to start cooking before the gates open so you have to hit the ground running.

The first action for the Eggfest is getting your Eggs fueled and up to temp so you can start cooking. For this Eggfest we had two demo XL Big Green Eggs to use, plus we had Carson and Rhonda's Mini-Maxes to use for searing, warming up sauces, etc.

Rhonda always does such a good job with creating our menu board for the event.

Here's our menu for this food festival. The back side of the board also had our dueling breakfast casseroles listed.

Laurie, Sean and Scott getting ready to tackle pickle stuffing time.

Where did all the pickles go?

There they are! 

Carson getting the grills ready for a day full of action.

Memorial Park is a beautiful location. It's on the water, has nice flat, even ground, and the ancient oaks provide a welcoming canopy.

Me trimming up two beef tenderloins.

We slow roast the beef tenderloin to temp and then sear off a section when we are ready to serve them later in the day. The seasoning is my NMT Umami Steak recipe.

The two skinnier portions have already reached full temp but these two larger butt ends of the tenderloin needed about 10-15 more minutes. Things are busy so we monitor the temps with a Thermoworks Smoke X2 so we don't accidentally overcook them.
Thermoworks Smoke X2 [Affiliate link]

The park was set up with teams lined up on two opposite sides.

The Menu

Dueling Breakfast Casseroles

The first thing we served was dueling breakfast casseroles. Carson made his version which uses a hash brown base with bacon, onions, peppers, eggs, seasoning and cheese. Sean made his version with a biscuit base with cheese, seasonings, green chiles, eggs, and sausage gravy. Both are fantastic recipes and I will get them up on the site before two long.

Laurie, Scott, and Sean getting ready to serve the first batches of breakfast casserole.

Carson getting his kick butt breakfast casserole ready.

Jordan's Drunk Pickles (Recipe here)

We change our menu around, but we HAVE to do Jordan's Drunk Pickles EVERY time, or the crowd revolts. These delectable fire-roasted treats are a Cuban sandwich stuffed into a pickle!

Stuffing the pickles is a team effort. On the left, Scott is squirting 2 lines (no less, no more) of mustard into each cored pickle half and then Ed and Laurie are stuffing those with the meat and cheese mixture.

Onsite hot and cold storage is important at a food festival. These are ready and waiting to go onto a grill, as needed.

Carson cooking a batch of pickles. They go about 20 minutes at 350f, with a spritz of pickle juice 2 or 3 times to build the flavor.

Grab them while you can because they disappear quickly!

Jordan's Drunk Pickles are named after Rhonda's son, who is no longer with us.
This lets us honor his memory in a fun and tasty way.
And yes, the pickles are so popular that when we run out, we have a "Next Drunk Pickles" sign to let people know when the next batch is coming out. 

Reverse Seared Beef Tenderloin with Bourbon Cherry Sauce (Recipe Here)

With the holidays coming up, we thought it would be good to share our Reverse-Seared Beef Tenderloin with Bourbon Cherry Sauce. Whole or center-cut beef tenderloin roast is an exceptional centerpiece for the holiday meal.

We kept the smoked roast warm and then when ready to serve, I would sear it off on the Mini-Max for a few minutes per side.

The Mini-Max is a beast for searing roasts and steaks because the coals are close to the grate.

The roasts are already cooked to temperature, so I'm going strictly by color here.

I also made the bourbon-cherry sauce the night before so all I had to do was warm some up alongside the roast.

I spread a little of the NMT Umami Steak Seasoning on the board before slicing. This rub has 3 types of dried and ground mushrooms, which have natural flavor enhancers that bring out the flavor of the beef.

Sliced and ready to serve.

We served the bites drizzled with the cherry bourbon sauce in 2oz portion cups

Tender and delicious!

Chris Lilly's Skillet Mac and Cheese

We also made Smoked Mac and Cheese with gouda, Gruyere, and cheddar cheese. We basically follow Chris Lilly's (6 or 7 time BBQ World Champion...I've lost count) skillet mac and cheese recipe from his second book, Fire and Smoke. I actually got to help out with the production of that book and I highly recommend it for any aspiring griller.  Fire and Smoke [Affiliate Link]

Loaded with Gruyere, gouda, and cheddar, you know it's gonna be good!

Serving up the mac! Sean and the president of the Nibble Me This fan club, my father.

Thai Sticky Wings

This recipe was in my first book, The Kamado Smoker and Grill Cookbook [Affiliate Link]. The sauce recipe for these wings is amazing on wings, pork chops, shrimp, you name it! 

Carson and I pre-roasted the wings to temp and kept them warm in a Cambro hotbox. Then when we needed them, we'd grill them for a few minutes and sauce them up.

Laurie preparing pickles for service while I'm saucing a batch of wings.

We serve the wings on crispy noodles and garnish with chopped cilantro and crushed nuts. We kind of forgot the nuts this time but they were still amazing.

More wings...

With the teams lined up on either side, the center of the park made for a natural gathering place for the crowds.

Serving It Up NMT Style

The reason we love Eggfest instead of KCBS-style BBQ competitions is that we get to interact with our guests. We give them our best tips and recipes, discuss techniques, or just shoot the bull with them. I still like competing in traditional BBQ contests but it's the interaction that motivates us.

Carson and I manning the grills. Everybody on our team cooks but I'd say Carson is our grill master. His first jobs were back of the house in commercial kitchens and he knows how to crank out the food.

Sean, Laurie, Rhonda, I and Scott serving and talking with the crowds.

We are known for cutting up and I don't mean just beef :) 

Laurie and I dancing with the hip bump action to the sound of Bad Dog Mama

.

Carson taking a minute to hang out with my dad. He's known Carson since we were wild teenagers back in the 80s.

The crowds enjoying the music and resting up for a 2nd or 3rd round of food.

Bad Dog Mama played a fantastic set, doing some wild mash-ups of different songs. I would absolutely go see their show if they are ever up our way in Knoxville.

We got to see a lot of our favorite friends at this event, too many to name them all and we didn't get pictures with many of them this time. Here's Donny Leeper, long-time friend of NMT, who was our neighbor for this event. 

Donny's dog Charley found a friend with my dad.

Charley also knew that when we sliced beef tenderloin, he was getting a few scraps here and there!

What an absolutely beautiful day for this event.

It was so good to get to see our friends Alicia and Scott Wehner, who were there representing Jealous Devil.

Toasting our day with jello shots.

Back at Rhonda's house, we cooked up a batch of smash burgers for dinner.

The perfect end to a fun day spent with old friends and family!