Steak Fajita Bowls

[FTC Disclaimer] This post is sponsored by the Certified Angus Beef ® brand in conjunction with a social media campaign through Sunday Supper LLC. All opinions are my own.

Fajita bowls are a favorite at our house.  First, they are delicious. Second, they are suitable for using up ingredients in the fridge. Third, because you get to pick and choose your ingredients, they accommodate the picky eaters in your family.

Fajita bowls are a fajita without the flour tortilla. 

• They have a base of seasoned rice.  I like to use either cilantro lime rice or a Mexican style rice.  
• They have a grilled protein.  Typically this is steak or chicken that has either been marinated or heavily seasoned.
• They have a melange of grilled peppers and onions.
• The rest of the ingredients are up to you.  We like to make a buffet of ingredients and let everyone compose their own fajita bowls.  Some of the ingredients we put out are:
• avocado 
• black beans
• tomatoes
• fire roasted corn
• Mexican crema
• Cotija cheese
• Shredded Oaxaca cheese
• Tortilla strips
• Pico de gallo
• Store bought black bean and corn salsa for those shortcut nights
• salsa verde
• cilantro

The main attraction, of course, is the grilled steak.  Skirt steak is more traditional, but I like the thickness of a good flank steak.  I start off with a Certified Angus Beef® Brand flank steak that I bought at our local Food City. 

You can buy pre-made fajita seasonings at the grocery store.  Typically those are made for 1 pound of meat so you would need to buy 2 for a good sized flank steak. I prefer to make my own NMT Fajita Seasoning Dry Rub recipe, and that is what we used for this steak.

I score my flank steaks by running a sharp knife across the surface making 1/4" deep cuts, which open it up for seasoning and give the edges a neat texture once it is sliced.  TIP:  Hold the steak stretched out like this when seasoning it.

Holding it open like that lets the seasoning get down into all of the nooks and crannies.

This recipe is based on the worst recipe from my book, The Kamado Smoker and Grill Cookbook. 

Actually, the real recipe is delicious, a sinful way to have cobbler for breakfast.  But I decided to upsize the recipe from a small skillet to a Dutch oven and somewhere in the writing process, the milk and flour did not get doubled while everything else did.  Ugh! 

That recipe was more for breakfast, a sort of cross between cobbler and cheese Danish.  This one is a dessert – sweet with sultry notes of smoke and bourbon mixed in.

Bourbon Cherry Cobbler with Smoked Ice Cream

Ingredients

• Premium vanilla ice cream

For the filling

• 3 cups cherry pie filling (about 1.5 cans)
• 1 cup premium cherries, drained
• 1 ounce bourbon

Baby Back Ribs on an Offset Pit

[FTC Disclaimer]  I have a contract with Oklahoma Joe's Smokers but that is unrelated to my blog and social media channels.  I am not paid to promote their products or publish content about them. Whenever I post them here, it's because I just felt like using Oklahoma Joe's for a particular cook.

I'm still breaking in my Oklahoma Joe's Smokers® and smoked these pork loin back ribs.  Here's a little insight about that cook.

Baby Back/Loin Back Ribs

Ever since Chile's came out with their infectious jingle, it seems that all loin back ribs got lumped in as "baby back ribs".  Technically, baby backs are loin backs that weigh less.  Here are some tidbits on these tasty ribs.

Korean Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps with Hoisin Onions

[FTC Disclaimer] This post is sponsored by the Certified Angus Beef ® brand in conjunction with a social media campaign through Sunday Supper LLC. All opinions are my own.

Optimum grilling season is here!  Sure I grill all year long but it is much more enjoyable when Daylight Savings Time changes, warmer temps arrive, and the grey winter skies take a hike.  

Earlier this week, Alexis found a gorgeous Certified Angus Beef® Brand flank steak at Food City, and I couldn't wait to get it on the grill.

Of course, Springtime means trying to fine tune that "beach body."  Flank steak is a wise choice for that because according to Men's Health, flank steak is low calorie, high protein, and is rich in flavor. So we decided to make these Korean(ish) Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps with Hoisin Onions - they have the big taste but won't give you a big waist.

Korean Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps with Hoisin Onions

Ingredients

Jerk Chicken Wings

I made some Jerk Chicken Wings this week.  The flavor of jerk chicken makes me weak in the knees.  

Like Cajun food, some mistakenly thick of jerk food as just "hot."  Instead, it is highly seasoned.  That powerful blending of earthy, spicy, sweet, acidic, and smoky tastes are a wild party on the palate.    The Jamison's refer to it as an "assertive combination" in their highly regarded book Smoke and Spice.

• Jerk food is typically seasoned with seasonings like allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, thyme, onion, and Scotch bonnet chiles.  
• This seasoning can either be a dry seasoning or a wet paste/marinade.  
• Pork and chicken are used most often. 
• A favorite commercial jerk marinade that can be found in stores is Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning.  
• The marinade recipe that I have used and loved for years is Jamaican Jerk Chicken from the book Sugar Reef Caribbean Cooking [Amazon Affiliate link] by Devra Dedeaux.

I use the marinade recipe as written in the link above except for a few alterations.

• I use turbinado sugar instead of white sugar.
• I use Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead of Soy Sauce
• I use habanero instead of Scotch bonnet chiles because they are more readily available.  But when I can get the Scotch bonnets, I use them.

2018 Chain of Lakes Eggfest

The inaugural Chain of Lakes Eggfest, presented by Mannix Pools and Grills, was held last weekend in Winter Haven, FL.  Teams of spectacular grilling teams gathered lakeside under the moss-laden oaks to fire up a plethora of Big Green Egg kamado grills.  

Photo Credit:  Laurie Walls

They came from all over the country to

• have a bit of a grilling throwdown,
• serve creative and tasty grilled bites to hundreds of "tasters,"
• have a blast with friends, and
• most importantly, to raise money for Girls Inc. and the Citrus Center Boys and Girls Club.

I wasn't able to attend this year because I had to have a little work done "under the hood" 3 days earlier and wasn't released by my doctor.  But Team Nibble Me This was there and kicked ass without me. 

From L to R:  Carson, Rhonda, Sean, Carrie, Marcia, Laurie, and Scott.

I may not have been there in person but I definitely was in sprirt....and Facebook.  I stalked my friends' Facebook accounts to see what was going on.  [Note:  I have tried to give credit based on the Facebook page where I found it; however, some pictures appeared on multiple pages.]

We like to get an AirBnB rental so the team can all be under the same roof.  Our team members roll in on Thursday/Friday and get right to prepping the food.  You have to be fully prepped or you will be "in the weeds" on the day of the event.  

Friday Night - Meet and Greet

Friday night is the "meet and greet," a social event that lets cook teams, sponsors, vendors, attendees, and the organizer hang out together.  The day of the Eggfest is too crazy for socializing much, if at all.

The trophies were on display at the Meet and Greet.  These bad boys are actual grilling grates custom made by East Georgia Metals.  If you have a design in mind for your grill, they can make it. Photo Credit:  Teena Schweier

Flank Steak and Broccoli Stir Fry

[FTC Disclaimer]  We are proud to be sponsored by Certified Angus Beef® Brand; however, this is not a sponsored post. I am personal friends with Chad Romzek, the owner of Kick Ash Baskets.  I have no affiliation with the Ceramic Grill Store, the source of the wok and spider rig.  I am a student at Rouxbe Online Culinary School, but I am not an affiliate partner and receive no benefits from them. I have no affiliation with Thermoworks.

I've been trying to eat a bit more heart healthy and stir-frying is an excellent technique for doing that without sacrificing flavor.  Earlier this week we made this Flank Steak and Broccoli Stir Fry on one of our kamado grills.

Advantages of Stir-Frying

Stir-frying offers several benefits, even more so for stir-frying on a kamado style grill. 

• Stir-frying is low-fat because it utilizes leaner cuts of meat, such as flank steak, shrimp, flat iron steak, chicken breast, and skirt steak.
• Stir-frying is a balanced diet meal because it encourages the use of more vegetables, especially fresh seasonal ingredients.
• Stir-frying's high heat cooking retains more color and nutrients of the vegetables.
• Stir-frying is economical because it extends smaller portions of meat with more veggies.
• Stir-frying helps clean out some of those leftover ingredients in your fridge.

Stir-frying over the intense heat of a kamado style grill (Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, etc.) offers an advantage over stir-frying inside.  According to Rouxbe Online Culinary School, heat is one of the most essential elements of stir-frying.  Most home stovetop ranges are only rated at 15,000 but while a commercial wok burning can draw as much as 200,000 but.  A rocket hot kamado grill can out produce your stovetop any day of the week. 

That said, you can cook this inside.  Just use the hottest burner that your range top has.

Flank Steak Broccoli Stir Fry 

Ingredients