Product Review: Kirk's new Albukirky Anchonero Hot Rub and Sauce

Kirk Muncrief is a longtime fellow Egghead and BBQ food blogger friend of ours.  He also makes and sells a few rubs and sauces.

His Albukirky's Green Chile Rub has long been a favorite of ours.  It has a bold but simple flavor profile of black pepper, green chile, garlic and salt that is fantastic and outside of the usual rub flavor profiles. This Summer Kirk has introduced his latest concoction - Albukirky's Anchonero Hot Rub and Hot BBQ Sauce.  

It wakes up food with the fire of habanero and the smoke of ancho chiles.

When I was writing up my notes, one sentence said it all - It wakes up food with the fire of habanero and the smoke of ancho chiles. Those two chiles are the namesake and foundation of both the rub and sauce.  Ancho chiles are dried/smoked poblano chiles which are pretty mild and as a dried ground chile add a sultry smokiness to foods but not too much heat.  Habanero chiles are a small orange chile that packs a lot of heat with a slight citrus-like flavor.  

I used the rub and sauce on some bone in pork chops and grilled them on my Grill Dome kamado grill.

These weren't thick pork chops so I just grilled them direct at 400°f about 5-6 minutes per side.  The grates pictured are from Craycort.  Those inserts come out and you can put in griddles, chicken thrones, or a vegetable wok.

I grilled some corn as a side but went with a sweet rub on that.

Wow!  This rub announces itself with authority.

This past weekend we made a couple of Tex-Mex style smoked pork butts.  I seasoned one butt with just the Green Chile Rub, which is always a favorite of ours.  I seasoned the other pork butt with a moderate layer each of the Green Chile and Anchonero rubs.

I had thoughts that I might have used too much of the Anchonero rub but pork butts have a lot of meat volume to surface area ratio so you can go heavier with seasonings compared to say - a pork chop.

I smoked both butts on a Grilla pellet cooker.  I was going to use one of my kamados but I had an unrelenting migraine and needed this cook to be as easy as possible.

The butts developed a nice color.

We got quite a smoke ring from the pellet cooker.  Pulled the meat and since we were using it for tacos at work, shredded it.

For work, we served them food truck style with the Tex-Mex pork, cilantro-lime slaw, pico de gallo, and topped it off with the Anchonero sauce.

This is not your same old Southern BBQ sauce.  It had Kirk's golden Albukirky touch and a Southwestern flare.

Before I give my thoughts on these, I should explain my heat preference.  I like foods that the general public would consider spicy but chileheads would find laughable.  So I like things such as Cholula hot sauce or ground chipotle powder.  

Anchonero Hot BBQ Rub ($6 per 6 oz shaker)
For the Anchonero Hot BBQ Rub, it is on the upper range of my heat tolerance.  It has sugar, paprika, and garlic but the predominant flavors are heat and a smoky-earthiness.  The texture of the rub is fine and it brings a nice bright red color to foods.  Depending on your heat preferences, I'd say go lightly with it on small cuts like chicken and chops.  It absolutely rocks on big cuts like the pork butt.  Everyone at work gave me very favorable feedback about it.  This is definitely a great "something different" for pork butts.  Anchonero pork butts are perfect for tacos, nachos, and heuvos rancheros.  

Anchonero Hot BBQ Sauce ($6 per 16 oz bottle)
For the Anchonero Hot BBQ Sauce, I'd say Kirk nailed the name - it is part hot sauce, part BBQ sauce.  For me, it starts off warm, picks up heat and finishes with a kick in the back of the throat.  It has turbinado sugar in there but you won't get a lot of sweet in the flavor profile, it pretty much gets straight to "the flame dance".  

Funny story.  When I first did the pork chops, I put the rub on pretty heavy and I could barely eat mine - it was "flames shooting out of the nose" hot.  My adult son ate them as leftovers and said that they were some of the best I've ever made and that the sauce was amazing. So your heat preference will go a long way in whether you will like this new line or not. After trying it on several things, I give it two thumbs up but it is what it says it is - a HOT sauce and a HOT bbq rub. 

Breaking Bad was set in Albuquerque and one of my favorite quotes from that series sums up how much Albukirky Anchonero Hot BBQ Rub you should try at first on chicken, pork chops, or ribs - 

"If that’s true, if you don’t know who I am, then maybe your best course… would be to tread lightly."

This stuff is great, but it does have a kick to it on smaller cuts of meat so tread lightly.  That said, it's also now going to be my first "go to" recipe for Tex-Mex style pork butts.  Everyone at the office loved it.  Thanks, Kirk!

[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  We know Kirk and he gives us free or discounted product from time to time but we also buy product from him at full price.  Albukirky's is a small business, owned and operated by a great BBQ dude. We received no compensation for this post.

Char-Broil: Orange Sriracha Pacific Rim Chicken Legs

Looking for an easy but tasty recipe for the grill this holiday?  You should check out this recipe that I created for Char-Broil - Orange Sriracha Pacific Rim Chicken Legs.

They are easy and the sauce is ridiculously good.

Fire Roasted Meatloaf Casserole

A leftover meatloaf sandwich is one of the most perfect fridge diving foods.  But sometimes you want to try something different and I came up with this recipe in my head before I even had leftover meatloaf.  I cooked that Grilla Meatloaf just for this recipe and then Alexis and I ate every bit of it before it could even get cold.  So the next day we made TWO Grilla meatloaves just to be safe from our own gluttony.

This really isn't as much a recipe as an idea for a recipe.  Feel free to use your own favorite meatloaf, tomato gravy, and/or mashed potato recipes. Obviously it is a lot like a shepherd's pie but I think it's a heck of a lot better.  

Fire Roasted Meatloaf Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 batch Grilla Meatloaf, cut into 1-1.5" thick slices
• 1 batch tomato gravy
• 1-2 cups shredded cheese
• 1 batch roasted garlic mashed potatoes
• 1 1/2 tablespoon sweet BBQ rub
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Instructions

1. Set up grill for indirect heat and preheat to 350f
2. Place the meatloaf slices in a layer in a lightly greased 2 quart casserole dish.  (We used an 8" x 11.5" x 2" casserole dish.)
3. Cover the meatloaf with a layer of the tomato gravy and top that with shredded cheese.
4. Spread or pipe mashed potatoes on top of the casserole.  Sprinkle rub and parsley evenly across the mashed potatoes.
5. Put the casserole in your grill and fire roast until heated through, about 45 minutes.
6. Drizzle with the sauce and serve.

Notes

• We used Meat Church Deez Nuts for the sweet BBQ rub.  
• For the BBQ sauce I used my leftover glaze from the meatloaf which was 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup Blues Hog BBQ sauce, and 1/4 cup brown sugar.
• I did the tomato gravy as written except - we simmered for 15 minutes, used an immersion blender and THEN added the bacon.  We also added roasted garlic and more salt and black pepper.

We used the Grilla pellet cooker for this recipe because we wanted easy and steady heat.  This recipe would also rock in a kamado grill because they work like a brick oven.

The Grilla uses electricity but it isn't an electric cooker.  It uses electricity to run an auger that pushes compressed wood pellets into the cooking chamber.  But after the 8 minute warm up period, all of the heat is provided by burning the real wood pellets.  You can even see the flame through the Grilla window.

I learned my lesson and made two meatloaves in case we devoured one before we could use it in the recipe.

Glazing the meatloaf.  I like a tangy, tomato based glaze but if you like the brown gravy style, that works for this recipe too.

Did I mention that I love meatloaf?

Chop up the end pieces to fill in any gaps.

The tomato bacon recipe we used has a good bit of bacon in it and it adds a great flavor to the casserole.  

We used sharp cheddar cheese but you could go with any cheese you like.  You can shred blocks or just use slices.  Pepper jack cheese would also be a great way to go, especially if you went with a Tex-Mex or Southwestern flavor profile.

You can just spoon the mashed potatoes in but I like to use a piping back just for appearance's sake.  We did our basic mashed potato recipe using a blend of Yukon gold and red bliss potatoes, sour cream, roasted garlic, butter, salt, and pepper.

We used a sweet BBQ rub but you can do whatever seasonings you want.

 

Roasting your casserole higher up in your grill will keep the bottom from burning and get better browning on the top of the dish.  It gets the heat reflecting down from the top lid.

Just like the cheese and rub, whatever BBQ sauce you use should either complement or contrast the meatloaf that you use.  We just used some extra meatloaf glaze and it was perfect for this.

Uh oh....looks like the meatloaf sandwich now has competition for being the best way to use leftover meatloaf!  

Willy's Brisket Burgers

When BBQ competitions roll around, I head to Willy's Butcher Shop in Knoxville to get our pork butts and wagyu brisket.  They are also my go to place for other wagyu beef, dry aged steaks, craft sausages, and other high end meats.  When we were picking up our competition stuff, Willy had some thick, great looking burgers made out of ground brisket.  You know we had to buy some.

Custom beef blends for burgers has been a trend over the past few years.  We learned about Chris Lilly's perfect burger blend at the inaugural Kingsford Invitational in 2012.  It had brisket, oxtail, and short rib in it.  We also covered custom beef blends at Grill Talk at the kitchens of Certified Angus Beef last year.  Mike Vrobel of Dad Cooks Dinner and I went with ribeye, short rib, and sirloin flap (like skirt steak).  Another good blend is brisket and flank steak.  

Notice that almost all of those have luscious, fatty beef mixed with leaner, beefy cuts.  But here is Willy rocking the ground brisket burgers - 100% brisket.  I was worried that they might be too fatty but these were crazy good.  Because these burgers were extra thick and very cold (I had them in the Yeti with the competition meats for most of the day), I cooked them at a slightly lower temp and for longer.  Normally I would just straight grill my burgers 4-5 minutes a side.

Since these burgers are loaded with succulent fat, I used a bit of a bolder rub, spicy cheese, and that chile crema I posted a few days ago to balance out the flavor.  Oh yeah, I also used some of our home cured and smoked bacon (pork belly from Willy's, of course).  They were fantastic - the best we've had this year.

Willy's Brisket Burgers

Makes:  4 huge burgers

Ingredients

• 4 half-pound brisket burgers
• 4 slices pepper jack cheese
• 8 strips cooked bacon
• Hatch chile and cilantro crema
• 4 toasted burger buns

For the Burger Dry Rub

• 2 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp NMT fajita rub
• 1 tsp mild chili powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin

Instructions

1. Preheat your grill to medium heat (350-400°f) direct heat.  
2. Mix together the dry rub ingredients and season the burgers all over. 
3. Sear the burgers for 5 minutes a side and then check your internal temperatures.
4. Move the burgers to indirect heat, top with cheese, close the lid and allow to finish cooking to your desired final temperature, about 5 minutes for medium.
5. Serve with the crema drizzled on top.

Finally bought a Kick Ash Basket for my Mini-Max. We originally got them for our large kamado grills just so we could take the coal out and cool them down quickly at BBQ contests.  But now John and I pretty much use them whether competing or at home.  They aren't needed but they sure make reusing your leftover coal and clean up easier.  

I wanted a big bold flavors to balance the succulence of the burgers, so I went Southwestern.  I used our fajita seasoning recipe but you can just buy one if you aren't so inclined.

Willy's shrink wraps his burgers to keep them fresher, longer.  This squeezes them in a bit so you need to flatten them back out a bit and put a dimple in the middle as shown.  That will help keep them from drawing up with a bulge in the middle.

Here's a tip I picked up from BBQ competition chicken - don't forget to season your sides because that is the first place the judge is going to bite.  Same thing goes for burgers. 

We use our Mini-Max mostly for small, quick cooking things like burgers and steaks.

Yeah, the burger looks cool but look at how the rendered brisket fat coats those Grill Grates like a lacquer finish! 

Is there anything better than grilled burgers on a sunny Saturday afternoon?

I put my homemade raised grate over the Grill Grates to let these burgers finish roasting to temp. Like I said, normally I would just straight grill them but these were not only extra thick, they were very, very cold.  

I love this burger because while it doesn't have a ton of toppings, it still has a LOT going on.

So what is your favorite burger?  Do you have a favorite blend or just like ground chuck/sirloin/round?  Favorite toppings?

[Standard FTC Disclaimer]  I received no compensation for this post.  I paid full price for my Mini-Max, Kick Ash Basket, and our meat from Willy's.  I got the GrillGrates for free from Brad, but we have been fans of each other's work for several years since we met at Eggtoberfest in 2010.

Fire Roasted Grilla Meatloaf

One of my favorite things to fire roast is meatloaf.  It is one of the ultimate comfort foods to me.  Meatloaf with sides of mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and some greens is better at putting you to sleep than Ambien.  The best meatloaf is making a leftover meatloaf sandwich at 2 or 3 in the morning (speaking of Ambien).  

I like all kinds of meatloaf.  Ones that blend pork, veal, beef, and/or sausage together are tasty but so are ones made just from ground beef.  I like ones with brown gravy as much as I do ones with a sweet tangy tomato based glaze.  I like meatloaf with big coarse chunks of sauteed veggies and ones that have everything so ground up it's basically just sausage.  I enjoy meatloaf that is stuffed with boiled eggs.  I guess what I am saying is:

I will eat meatloaf on a boat,

I will eat meatloaf with a goat.

I will eat meatloaf made with lamb,

I like meatloaf, Sam I Am. 

We made this recipe specifically to go into another recipe.  Well, we weren't very successful in using it in that other recipe, mainly because the two of us ate the entire thing when it was done.  It started off with "just a taste" and you know how that goes.  It's pretty basic but oh so good.

I don't like to cook meatloaf in bread pans because it just sits in it's own rendered grease.  They have special wire rack loaf pans that will act as a bread pan but let the grease get away from the meat.  Personally, I just free form mixture in the shape of a loaf and that's it.

For the BBQ sauce, you want something bold, sweet, and thick.  For these two batches, I used Albukirky's Duke City Sweet from my friend, Kirk. Another good one to use is Grilla's Thick and Bold BBQ Sauce which is the sauce that won us 2nd Place at the Memphis In May World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest.  

Fire Roasted Grilla Meatloaf

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/2 medium sweet onion 
• 1 jalapeno chile, seeded and diced
• 1 tablespoon roasted garlic or chopped garlic
• 2 pounds ground chuck
• 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup BBQ Sauce
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 teaspoon season salt  
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
• 1/4 tsp celery seed

For The Glaze

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup BBQ Sauce
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Instructions

1. Saute the bell pepper, jalapeno, onion, and chopped garlic in butter until the veggies are tender, about 8 minutes.  (Skip the garlic if you are using roasted garlic, it's already cooked).
2. Mix together the ground chuck, red bell pepper, chopped or roasted garlic, and panko bread crumbs.  
3. Whisk together the eggs, BBQ sauce, black pepper, season salt, kosher salt, granulated garlic, and celery seed.  Fold this mixture into the ground chuck mixture until well combined.
4. Form the meat loaf mixture into the shape of a loaf and refrigerate it for one hour.
5. Set up your grill to indirect heat and preheat to 350°f. For a pellet cooker, just turn it on and set to 350°f.   For a kamado style grill like Big Green Egg, Grill Dome, or the Kong, this would be using a heat deflector or plate setter.  For a gas grill, this will be turning on some burners but leaving 1-2 of them off and your food will go over the areas where the burner(s) are off.  For a kettle grill, just bank the coals to the sides, put a drip pan next to the coals and the food will go on the grate above the drip pan.  
6. Put your meatloaf on the grill, close the lid and let it cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 125°f.  
7. While the meatloaf is cooking, whisk together the ketchup, BBQ sauce, and dark brown sugar until well combined in a small bowl.
8. Brush the glaze over the meatloaf to coat the top and sides.  Put the loaf back on the grill with the lid closed and cook it until it reaches an internal temperature of 160°f, about another 30-45 minutes.
9. Remove the meatloaf from the grill and let rest 5 minutes before slicing to serve.

We used 3 grills making this.  I could have done it all on one but I like to keep in practice on using all types of grills.  Yes kamados are my go to grill but like they say in business - if the only tool in your tool belt is a hammer, you'll treat all of your opportunities like a nail.  

I roasted a batch of garlic on the Mini-Max.  About once a month we'll buy a bunch of heads of garlic and roast them just to have on hand.  Substitute roasted garlic for any recipe that calls for regular garlic and you'll get a richer garlic flavor and no bitter edge. 

Slice off the tops, drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper.  Roast indirect at 350-400° until tender and lightly browned - 60 to 90 minutes.  Then carefully (zey hot!) squeeze out the pulp and discard the rest.  We keep ours on refrigeration for about a week and use it in everything until its gone (< - - - Vampires hate him).  

I sauteed the veggies on the side burner from my Char-Broil Professional.

I mentioned in my Memphis in May post that I had used a pellet cooker and hell didn't feeze over.  In fact, Alexis and I both really liked the Grilla pellet cooker because it was so easy to use and did a bang up job cooking. We were on the Grilla Grills pro team and it was one of the cookers that we had available for use. Fast forward a few weeks and Grilla gave me one of my very own.  I have a review post coming up but suffice it to say I love this thing so far.

The Grilla pellet grill is a head turner, isn't it?  Pellet cookers like this are heated by burning small pellets of wood and they control temp by adding more or less pellets using an auger.

Since I don't use bread pans, the grease is going to have to go somewhere.  I use a resting rack over a foiled quarter sheet pan to catch the grease.  

Did you notice that the grill lid opens sideways?  That makes it easy to check on your food without letting all of your heat escape.  Typically I open it just a crack to see, I opened it more here for the picture.

Ready to sauce.  This is one of my favorite basting brushes. Normally those sets of grilling tools are pretty much crap.  But my brother bought me a set a few years ago from Williams Sonoma and it still rocks (Thanks Jeff!).  Other than a burn on the handle of the tongs, they still look great and function perfectly.  I like the length of the brush and the angled tip makes it easy to baste right on the grill.

Usually I never sauce anything until the last 10 minutes of cooking but for meatloaf I make an exception, I like it to really cook on there.  It's up to you, if you like it still gooey, then wait until your meatloaf reaches an internal temperature of 145°f to sauce it.

Finished! 

So what was that recipe that was going to use meatloaf as an ingredient?  It's a fire roasted meatloaf casserole that was killer.  I'll post that shortly.

*I am not a medical authority and I've never taken Ambien, this was creative license.

[Standard FTC Disclaimer] I received a Grilla pellet grill from Grilla Grills for helping out on their Memphis In May dream team....I was the nightmare part, lol.  I am not contracted with them nor do I receive any compensation from them.  

Tex-Mex Sauce: Hatch Green Chile and Cilantro Crema

We made this sauce tonight for some fajitas that we were grilling.  It was pretty fantastic and would be a great sauce for any kind of Tex-Mex food.  It's heat level is mild as written but you can add hotter chiles or just kick in some dried chile powder.  

Hatch Green Chile and Cilantro Crema 

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup Mexican Crema
• 4 ounce can Hatch diced green chiles
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon grilled lime juice
• 1 teaspoon NMT Fajita Rub

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients together and pulse in a small food processor or blender (aka Ninja-Bullet thingy). 

You can substitute sour cream for Mexican crema but most grocery stores stock crema in the refrigerated Latino foods section. 

I have ordered frozen Hatch chiles but I hadn't seen them available in cans before today.  Food City has them in their Latino dry goods section (ironically they DON'T carry crema).  If you can't find them just use canned diced green chiles.

Operation BBQ Relief - Volunteer Drive and Giveaway

Operation BBQ Relief (OBR) is a fantastic organization that feeds the victims and first responders in the wake of natural disasters.  It started after the 2011 Joplin tornado disaster.  Just a few BBQ guys were wondering what they could do to help.  So they did what they knew how to do - feed people. Since that time, OBR volunteers have responded to 29 disasters in 18 states feeding over 700,000 people.

OBR relies on the great American barbecue network family for talent and equipment.  Buy you don't have to be a pitmaster to help.  OBR needs registered volunteers to do everything from serving, packaging, loading, and plenty activities that you can do even if you burn toast (or in the BBQ community, boil your ribs).  

That's right - they aren't asking for a dime.  They are just asking you to take a few minutes to register to volunteer to help if a disaster strikes in your region.  Right now if you volunteer (or update your info for existing volunteers), you can get entered into this kick ass prize package!  

Prize package worth over $500 includes: 2 Panel Grill Grate Set & Spatula; Snake River Farms Grilling Package; Pelican 35 Qt Cooler; OBR Swag.

Who is #IAMOBR? You are! Sign up to be an OBR volunteer, join our mailing list & share this post on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. 

• Registering as a volunteer qualifies you to win. 
• Earn a bonus entry for each time someone clicks on the link you shared. 

1.      Go to http://woobox.com/tdnbyt  and complete follow the registration giveaway form

2.      Go to www.operationbbqrelief.org/register/ to register or update your profile. 

[This giveaway is run by OBR at the above listed links, not here.  You don't have to comment or do anything on my blog - just go register and share.]

Scenes From Memphis In May 2016

Last month we competed at the Memphis In May World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest - or as I like to call it, "the Sodom and Gomorrah of BBQ" because of the sheer spectacle and excessiveness.  I was fortunate to have been invited to cook on Team Grilla which was made up of several great teams including Draper's BBQ, Charcoal Cowboys, Crow Creek BBQ, Susquehanna Smoke BBQ, Brother's BBQ, and a few other folks.  

I could write a book about our experiences but I'll leave it to a big photo summary.  But the long and short of it, I had a great time with friends, learned from my teammates, and oh yeah.....we got on stage with a Second Place in Tomato Based BBQ Sauce.  

Cookers

Here are shots of some of the cookers that teams were using.

Tuffy Stone rolled into Memphis with his shiny new double barreled Jambo.  Pretty, isn't it?

Johnny Trigg, The Godfather of Ribs, came to battle in the biggest category at Memphis in May.

This rig has a little wear on it but it looks like it can handle it's own.

I thought this offset smoker looked pretty bad ass.

This stainless steel smoker is HUGE. I think the diameter was about 4 to 5 feet.  

We used a pair of Tucker cookers, an Old Hickory, and Grilla's new Kong kamados.

The Kong is Grilla's entry to the kamado grill market and it's what we used for our Ancillary Categories entries.  At 21+ inches across the interior, this is a huge kamado!  As shown they are $799 delivered to your door, shipping included.

Team Booths

At most BBQ contests, "team booth" means a few pop up canopies in a 10x20 space or a trailer by itself.  At Memphis In May everything is bigger, wilder, and just a bit ridiculous.  "Team booths" are often multi-story structures with professional lighting and sound systems.  Ours was on the small side and had an event tent with subfloor, a trailer, and two pop ups.

Since this is a World championship, each year there is a "host" country named and this year it was Canada.  So you will see a lot of Canadian references in the themes this year.

See what I mean?  This is a "team booth".