Five Tips: Smoked Chicken & Best In Smoke

Best In Smoke

Food Network's new barbecue competition show starts tonight (Sunday) at 10pm and runs for 4 weeks.  Six teams with renowned pitmasters compete through a series of cooking challenges, vying for a $50,000 prize.  Friday I had the opportunity to discuss the show with host, Chef Bryan Caswell, in a conference call with a few other bloggers.

The show clearly is not intended to be a behind the scenes look at a KCBS style BBQ competition.  This doesn't mean a lot to most people but some competitive barbecuers will declare, "That is NOT BBQ - it's grilling" if it isn't ribs, chicken, brisket, and pork done low and slow.  Chef Caswell took that question straight on and said that there was no way to make everyone happy.  Bbq means a lot of different things to different people and gave a great example of how both his grandmothers make gumbo.  Both say theirs is the best and the other doesn't know how to make gumbo.

The show challenges do involve live fire, wood, and a protein, "mostly smoking".  The pitmasters get to use their own smokers, which is a good thing in my opinion.  There will be some dramatic moments for sure and Mother Nature gets a bit snippy along the way.  One very interesting comment that Chef made was that he thought the major regions of US barbecue were represented well but then threw in an "except for _________".  The interesting part is there was someone representing that region in the competition so I guess the implication is that he/she/they sucked.   You have to tune in to find out what that is all about.

I'm looking forward to the show tonight.  I'd like to say I'm impartial, but I'm not.  I'm pulling for Chris Lilly and Ken Hess to win it all. 

Five Tips for Smoked Chicken

[My Five Tips series are not how-to tutorials.  These are meant to be quick tips that I would share if we bumped into each other in the grocery store and you said, "Hey, I'm grilling/smoking ________ tomorrow, got any pointers?"  These are ideas that consistently work for me, regardless of the recipe I'm doing.] 

All that talk about barbecue made me hungry, so I smoked a couple of chickens that afternoon.  We have grilled a bunch of birds this year but it has been a while since I smoked some.  When I bit into the finished product, I remembered why it is worth taking the 3-4 hours extra.  The heavenly hint of smoke and the tender, juicy meat got raves from the whole family.

Hanging out in my Big Green Egg.

Brine

Soaking your bird for 3-4 hours in a seasoned brine helps ensure a moist chicken and adds flavoring.  For two birds I use 3/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp peppercorns, 1 Tbsp dried minced garlic, 1 Tbsp fennel seed, and enough water to fill a 2 gallon container.  

Spatchcock 

Beer butt chicken my arse.  Chicken on a throne is cute I guess (unless you're the chicken) but it is a set up for uneven cooking temps.  You're putting the breast (most likely to dry out) in the hotter/higher part of your cooker.  A spatchcocked or butterflied bird lies flat and in a narrower range of temperatures for more even cooking.  Just my opinion, but it's the right one;)

Wood You?

A lot of people will tell you to use a mild fruit wood for smoking chicken because poultry takes on smoke easily.  Some will specifically tell you not to use hickory or oak.  I disagree, I like hickory for chicken and turkey.  I like to use 2-3 fist sized chunks of hickory and 1-2 chunks of cherry buried in my coal for grilling chicken.  

Mop

I don't bother mopping my ribs, brisket or butts but I religiously mop my whole chickens every 30 minutes.  This literally cooks on layer after layer of flavor.  The mop should be thin, not thick.  My favorite mop is 1 cup of KC Masterpiece Southern Style BBQ Sauce (or your favorite commercial sauce), 3/4 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup light beer, 1.5 teaspoon of salt, 1.5 teaspoon black pepper, and 1 tablespoon of chipotle/garlic hot sauce.  

Smoke It Up

I smoke my chickens at 250f for about 3 1/2 to 4 hours.  I take them out when they hit 160f in the breast and 180f in the deep thigh.  

Bird 1

Bird 2

Blogger Get Together

It's hard to believe that our East Tennessee blogger get together at Larry's is just over a month away, on June 19th.  

Double click on the above for details of our upcoming blogger party. We discovered that we scheduled it for Father's Day, but decided to proceed - treat Dad to a day trip to Almost Heaven South. Several folks have already committed, but we'd like to hear from everyone by June 1 who plans to attend - email Larry at grandpop1@yahoo.com. We want to be sure we have plenty of food, but don't want to overbuy.

Five Tips: Steak Fajitas

We make steak fajitas often around here.

But instead of rehashing another steak fajita recipe, I'm just going to do something different.  Usually when someone catches you off guard and asks, "How would you cook [insert item here]", then you have about 30 seconds to give them a crash course answer.  That's what I'm doing here, five quick tips for steak fajitas.

1) What's your beef?  Skirt steak is most traditional, but I prefer flank steak or flat iron steak. 

2) Use a bold marinade - The key "notes" in a flank steak marinade are lime juice, cumin, garlic, chili powder and your signature spices.  The marinade should be strong since the marinating times are usually shorter (just a few hours) for fajitas.  (SEE 5 before your put the beef in the marinade.)

3) Cook temps/times - Grill direct at 450f for 4 minutes a side or until it hits 125f internal.  Don't overcook these, they should be medium rare.  Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing very thin.

Seared on my Craycort Cast Iron Grates.

4) Grill 'em all - Almost anything that goes into a fajita should be grilled first, just my opinion.  Grill the onions, peppers, or whatever veggies while you grill the steak.  Grill the tortillas for 20-30 seconds a side.  You don't have to grill the cheese, ha ha.

5) Power boost - This is one of my trademark secrets...oops, I done let it slip.  Save 1-2 Tablespoons of uncontaminated marinade and whisk it into 1/2 cup of sour cream.  Add some of this to your assembled fajitas  

Here's the marinade I made up last night....

1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 ea jalapeno, seeded and diced
1/2 ea habanero, seeded and diced
2 ea roasted red pepper, diced (jarred variety, use 1 fresh roasted)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp turbinado sugar
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp dried minced garlic
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp oregano, dried
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp dried chipotle powder

Run it all through a processor until somewhat smooth and then marinate your meat for 2-4 hours.

Ain't No Thing But A Bean Thing

My favorite local news station WBIR did their "Homegrown" feature on Bush's Beans this week.  

The timing could not have been better.  Because to kick off the grilling season (for you heathens that don't grill all year 'round), Bush's Beans is sponsoring the cook outs of 10 food bloggers this month to get the word out about their Grillin' Beans.  

I was thrilled to be picked because I have been using Bush's Beans for 15+ years and Bush's Beans is a local company, employing a LOT of people in the Knoxville area.  Their Grillin' Beans flavors are relatively new (3 years, I think) compared to their 100+ year history.  

This isn't a "sponsored" picture.  These are actually SOME of the Grillin' Beans we already have in our pantry, not free samples that they have sent me.  I was smoking two chickens today and was going to serve the Smokehouse Traditions Grillin' Beans with them.  I have always used Bush's Beans if I have the choice so I'm proud to get to help represent them.  

So stay tuned in the next few weeks for the cookout and a Grillin' giveaway of a cookout kit of assorted cookware, grilling tools and a supply of Bush's Grillin' Beans.

[Standard Disclaimer] but I loves me some Bush's Beans.  

Mexican Rotisserie Pork Loin Tacos

I wanted to try making tacos al pastor last night.  If you are not familiar with them, it is kind of like a gyro, only it uses pork on a huge vertical rotisserie.  The meat is sliced off in pieces for the tacos.

Photo Credit:  Wikipedia taco al pastor entry

The only problems were

1. I didn't have 6 hours of prep time, 
2. I've never made them before, and 
3. I didn't have a vertical rotisserie.  

But I've never let being short on time, inexperienced, and under-equipped stop me before (wait, that sounds bad....).

Here is what I came up with on the fly using a regular rotisserie on my Brinkmann charcoal grill.  These little units are fantastic.  You can get a "universal" one that fits most charcoal or gas grills like this Mr. BBQ model from Target for $29.99.   You can spend more for heavier duty motors, but mine was a $30 unit and it's done well over the past year.

Mexican Rotisserie Pork Loin Tacos

3 lb pork loin, boneless
1 ea large sweet onion

1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp turbinado sugar
1/2 tsp Mexican oregano
1/2 tsp dried minced garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried chipolte pepper, ground

Toppings
black beans, cheese, sour cream, cilantro

Score the fat cap side of the pork loin.  It's not 100% necessary but I also like to tie my pork loin roasts to keep them more uniform in shape.

Mix the spices together for your dry rub and season your pork loin.  Use all of the seasoning for one 3 lb roast.  It might seem a little heavy handed but it will balance out. 

Place the roast onto your rotisserie rod and secure with the two end pieces.  Stick the onion on whole, you don't have to even worry about peeling it, the onion paper will burn off.

Set your grill up for indirect heat with the coals not directly under the rotisserie like this.

You might notice some of the coals in the picture are grey and some are just starting to catch.  I put 1/2 chimney full of unlit charcoal into the grill.  Then I added 1/2 chimney of lit charcoal.  This gives a longer burn time.  The lit coals provide the initial heat and then the unlit ones catch and maintain the heat as the others die down.  I was using regular (aka "blue bag") Kingsford, not Competition. 

As you cook it on the rotisserie with the grill lid open, the fat will start to render down and the roast will start basting itself as it spins.

You want to keep the temperature medium high around 400f.   I test it by holding my hand at the height of the pork roast, where I should be able to only hold my hand there for 3-4 seconds before having to pull it away.  That's a subjective measure but it works for me.  Cook until the roast hits an internal temperature of 145f.



Pull the roast at 145f and let it rest for at least 10 minutes on a raised rack.  It took 1 hour and 15 minutes last night but go by your temps, not cooking times.

The temp will rise 5-10 degrees during the rest.

Cut the roasted onion into wedges.  To mimic the shavings from tacos al pastor, slice very thinly at angles to get thin wedges of roast.  You are not trying to get whole slices all the way across.

Serve on flour tortillas with toppings of your choice.

I was quite happy with how this turned out.  It was perfectly cooked, tender on the inside, crispy on the outside.  The rub basted with the pork fat delivered the flavor I was looking for.  It might not have been authentic tacos al pastor but it was authentically good!

Cinco de Mayo: Grilled Mexican Corn

I ate a LOT of great food at Kingsford University in March.  Seriously good food.  Here is one of my favorites from that weekend and it's just in time for Cinco de Mayo* this week:  Grilled Mexican Corn.

Chris Lilly made this as his take on a Mexican street vendor favorite.  Grilled corn rocks on its own but when you add a tangy mayo/yogurt/lime coating and a spicy cheese sprinkle....get out of here!  

I'm pleased to report that when I made it, it was just as good as that Saturday night when Chris and Ken Hess made it for us.  The recipe works, but I found it makes more like 10-12 ears (and I was doing half ears, so it would be 20+ half ears). 

Grilled Mexican Corn

Photo courtesy of Grilling.com & Kingsford.

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup plain yogurt
• ¾ cup mayonnaise
• 5 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 cup Cotija cheese grated fine
• 4 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6-8 ears corn

Instructions

In a small bowl combine the yogurt, mayonnaise and lime juice. In another small bowl combine the Cotija cheese, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin and salt.

Build a charcoal fire for direct grilling using Kingsford® charcoal. While the grill is heating, remove the corn from the husks. Grill the corncobs directly over the hot coals (approximately 450˚F) for 6-7 minutes turning every two minutes until kernels start to soften.

Remove the corn from the grill and apply a light coat of the yogurt mixture to each cob. Sprinkle each corncob liberally with the Cotija cheese mixture, and they are ready to serve.

Recipe created by world champion pitmaster, Chris Lilly, on behalf of Kingsford® charcoal

Chris Lilly

Coal fired corn on the cob brings out the best flavor!

The tangy mayo/yogurt/lime juice base is mouth watering.

The spicy cotija cheese mixture puts it "out of this world good".

For this and some other ideas, check out Grilling.com, where I am one of their VIP Bloggers (don't let that affect your opinion of them, it's a great site!)

*Yes, I know that Cinco de Mayo is mostly an Americanized holiday and it IS NOT Mexico's Independence Day.  But being a "melting pot", we like to take every other nations' holidays or events and make them our own, such as; St. Patrick's Day and Oktoberfest.  And you know what?  That is not a bad thing.  It gives us a chance to celebrate aspects of the people that make this country great.  I mean, we MADE UP Mother's Day and Father's Day, no one gets all jacked up about those holidays. 

Let's Go All The Way

Nah I'm not talking about this wretched song from the '80s....



Do you remember the very first time you ever thought to yourself, "Wow, that was the best thing I've ever eaten!"?

For me, the first two times both involved being at my grandparents farm near Elizabethtown, NC.  Once was the first time I ever had bbq.  The second time was when I had my first "all the way" burger from Melvin's (aka The Pool Hall).  The wonderfully greasy burger with it's slaw and chili dripping down my 7 year old hands stamped a memory in my head that has lasted a lifetime.

While "all the way" implies putting everything and the kitchen sink on it, in the Carolinas, it means only four items:  chili, slaw, onions, and yellow mustard.

Yesterday I spent the day recovering the yard and deck from the storm.  The siding of our house is totaled, we have gutters damaged, and our roof has to be replaced.  But I'm happy to have those problems because it means that I still have a house standing.  

Made with pieces of broken siding and glass in my yard.

It's weird seeing my grilling area and Big Green Eggs without a canopy but I was glad to finally be able to cook outdoors again last night.  I quickly decided to cook "all the way" burgers and dogs.  

FWOOMP - SPLAT.  That's the noise made by cleaning wet debris and muck out of a gutter and letting it fall 12 feet to the ground.  FWOOMP - SPLAT is also the sound that canned chili makes as it escapes the vacuum of the can after months of captivity and falls into the pot.  Appetizing thought, right?  That is why I don't use canned chili.

To make good "all the way" burgers, you need to make a great chili. In the past I have used this  A & W clone but I wanted to try a new one this time so I consulted one of my favorite barbecue resources - AmazingRibs.com.  Meathead produces an excellent website, it's truly a "resource" with it's helpful  information packed articles.  It's what NibbleMeThis wants to be when it grows up.  If you don't already use AmazingRibs.com, go check it out.

After an email exchange with Meathead, I ended up picking his All-Purpose Chili Sauce recipe.  I made it as written and let it simmer for 2 hours while I finished up on the roof.  

I fired up my Big Green Egg for the first time since Thursday and grilled a few Lay's beef hot dogs.

I dressed them up "all the way" but something didn't seem right....

I know what it is!  It was too neat, you never get an "all the way" dog like this.  They wrap them up, smashing everything together in the paper.

Ahhhh perfect!  

If you don't get chili and slaw on you, you didn't use enough!

Then I grilled burgers.  Normally, I make 1/3rd pound burgers that leave me stuffed.  But Melvin's Burgers are smaller guys, that's why I can always eat two.  So I carefully weighed out the burgers in 4 ounce patties and they turned out to be the right size.  I used 1.5 lbs of 80/20 ground chuck, 1 egg, salt & pepper, and 1 piece of toast ground up.  I use toast to make bread crumbs instead of canned ones because it's more moist and I think it gives a better burger texture.  

The dogs and burgers were exceptionally good.  Everyone loved the chili sauce so I think it will be my new favorite.  The cinnamon was a unique addition and it brings a fantastic note to the chili, I wouldn't have thought of adding it to chili. 

It feels good to be grilling again! 

Egg Central Took A Direct Hit

Fortunately, we are all safe and sound. 

Egg Central took a pounding from large hail.

I'm pretty sure my First Up shelter is toast, ya think?

This is about 30 minutes afterward, they were bigger when the fell.

Having lived through this in 2002 I know that the roof of our house is totaled.  Another round is headed this way right now, just minutes away.

But given what hit Tuscaloosca today, what's going on in the rest of the world, I still feel lucky and fortunate.  Stay safe everyone.

UPDATE:  Second round finished it off but we are well.

BBQ Rib Class at Dead End BBQ

We're fortunate to have Dead End BBQ in Knoxville, TN.  Not only do they make fabulous bbq and the best brisket in Tennessee, each year Dead End BBQ presents a series of barbecue and grilling classes.  They bring in the established names with world champion pedigrees like Mike Davis and Chris Lilly.  But they also include equally talented local gurus like Billy Bob Billy of Holy Smokers Too.  This year they have added grilling dynamo, Robyn Lindars of GrillGrrrl.com and Grilling.com to conduct one of her women's grilling clinics that Alexis will be attending.

The classes are first rate.  They are taught in the comfortable covered patio area at Dead End BBQ.  It seats 32 so it's the perfect size for a class.  Big enough to accommodate you but small enough to ask questions without having to shout.   The exceptional staff wait on you the entire class, a notable difference.  Your drinks are kept full and the tables bussed constantly.  One of my favorite amenities is the overhead camera and large screen TV so everyone can see what the instructor is doing when prepping something on the table.  

Yesterday I took the rib class taught by co-owner George Ewart.   George is a funny guy - when I walked in, he kidded around and asked if I was going to be able to learn anything from the class since I'd just been to Kingsford University.  Learn I did!  Here are some of the highlights of the day.

First off, we got to try a new appetizer they are going to offer - Pond Gap Pups, named after the local part of town.  They are de-friggin-licious, seriously.   From what I could tell, Pond Gap Pups are small hush puppies with some bbq rub and a little pulled pork in them.  In flavor, they are kind of like a cross between a hush puppy and those sausage cheese balls.  Perfect bite size flavor bombs.  I'm going to have to kidnap the rooster and pig mascots from the patio until George tells me how they make them.

George discussed strategies behind making a good bbq rub.  If making a rub with brown sugar,  spread it on a tray dry it out in a 150f oven to get the moisture out of it first, before adding to the rub.  I hadn't heard that before but I will definitely be using that tip from now on.  Then we each made a batch of dry rub.

On of the most hands on classes I've had, loved it.

Next, George compared and contrasted the types of pork ribs, discussed sourcing options, and showed how to cut a St. Louis style rib. I picked up a tip on using the 4th rib as a guide, I always just went by feel.

 

George playing a loin back harmonica!  Kidding - juxtaposition.

Then it was time for us all to practice removing the membrane. 

 

Time to rub our ribs.  Here's a simple tip, yet it is the biggest thing I walked away with because this little step helped me make a sweet rib that I like.  Normally I don't like sweet ribs.  Before putting the rub on, dust the rib with black pepper.  I've always just let the pepper in the rub suffice.  But this helped contrast the sweet at the end.  This one tiny detail made a big difference for me.

 

Rubbed up and ready to go into the smoker.

 

While our ribs smoked, George talked about smoking pork.  One thing I didn't know is that there is a vein that should be trimmed out because it is tough and won't render.  It is above the bone on the non-fat cap side.  Here George demonstrates how tough it is by holding up the 8lb butt with it.

 

Then we got to have some pulled pork.  There is no better bbq than pork right off of the cutting board will still hot.  

 

Ever reheat pork and it dries out?  Warm a little honey to get it less thick, add a little BBQ rub to it and stir it into the pork.  

Next we all pledged allegiance to the brisket....

Just kidding, George was talking about where it comes from.  Brisket is George's specialty and he gave us the "up and downs" of brisket.  An "up" comes from a cow that was in excess of 1000 lbs, a "down" is less.  They have found the "downs" have worked better for them and have more marbling.  Another thing I learned is that I need to be more aggressive in my trimming on my next brisket.   Then we sampled one of the smoked briskets, dipping in the mouth watering au jus that was juiced up with George's secret.  What?  I can't tell you.  Go take the class :)

Finally it was time to foil the ribs.  I haven't foiled ribs in over a year, I've been smoking them naked with good results.  But yesterday we used a version of the butter/margarine-honey-brown sugar method that a lot of comp teams have used.  

Apparently, the stress of teaching the class was too much because George went bananas.  

 

He shared a dessert recipe with a highly technical name - Banana Thing.  He smoked a mix of bananas, brown sugar, and cinnamon until they were syrupy like this. (15-20 minutes at 275f...ok Howard, it was 274, ha ha)

Then he put them in pieces of puff pastry, brushed them with butter and put them back in the cooker until the pastry has cooked.  Then a simple drizzle of chocolate sauce.  

 

I don't eat sweets so I relied on Howard Pollock to be my Taste Correspondent.  After he finished groaning in approval and licking his fingers, he said that they were excellent.

We each made a glaze for our ribs.  You want me to put HOW MUCH of that sweet stuff in my glaze?  Really?  Oooookay.  Then we painted our ribs with the glaze.

 

.

Finally they were done around 2pm.  

 

I bit into my rib and was surprised at how much I liked the flavor profile.  It is a sweet rib that I actually enjoy.  This is good because I have always cooked ribs differently for my family (they like sweet) than I did for myself.  Now I have one that can make the whole family happy.

I had a great day at Dead End BBQ and even this old dog learned a few new tricks (actually 3 pages worth, I didn't share all or most of them here).  Thanks to George, Robert, and the staff at Dead End BBQ for a fun and educational Saturday.  It is well worth the cost of the class, I recommend them to anyone interested in BBQ, whether you are a competition cook or just a back yard enthusiast.

Register for upcoming classes at Dead End BBQ

May 22, 2011 - Mike Davis of Team Lotta Bull.  George said registering for this class gets you entered to win a Yoder smoker.  

June 18, 2011 - Robyn Medlin-Lindars of GrillGrrrl.com will teach a LADIES ONLY grilling class. 

[Standard Disclaimer] - I have no affiliation with nor do I receive compensation from Dead End BBQ.  Although I do plan to extort the Pond Gap Pup's recipe from George and Robert.