CAB Manhattan Filet with Creamed Spinach and Twice Baked Potatoes

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Have you ever had the Manhattan filet? I learned about this excellent cut from the Snake River Farms folks at Kingsford University back in 2011. It's essentially a NY Strip cut into two filets. I like this cut for the portion control and because it gets a little more crust on your filet.  

Here's a Manhattan filet that we made this weekend, along with the classic sides of creamed spinach and a twice-baked potato. 

Manhattan Filet with Creamed Spinach and Twice Baked Potato

Here's what we did for each item.

Manhattan Filet

The pictures tell the story for this one.

Buffalo Chicken Smash Burger

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I've been enjoying smash burgers lately, and something occurred to me. I don't recall seeing smash burgers made from ground chicken. It sounded good, so I decided to give the idea a whirl on Saturday while our favorite college teams played basketball. 

Buffalo chicken smash burgers are spicy and fun gameday food.

They were slightly crispy, spicy, and absolutely delicious; we both loved them. If tomatoes were in season, I would definitely add a slice but hothouse tomatoes in the Winter just make my taste buds sad. I almost added some bacon but thought it might overpower the flavor of the chicken. I'll make them this same way again, no doubt. 

Tips for Working with Ground Chicken

Raw ground chicken isn't as easy to work with as its beef counterpart. Here are a few tips to make the process go more smoothly.

• Ground chicken is extremely tender, almost mushy. Keep it quite cold until the last minute.
• Wash your hands with cold water before handling the chicken.
• Ground chicken tries to stick to anything that it touches, so I spray my burger press and deli sheets with spray oil (Pam, etc.). 
• Ground chicken is bland, so don't be shy with the seasonings.

Here's what we did.

Buffalo Chicken Smash Burgers

Shaved Steak Fajitas on the Big Green Egg

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This is my quick and easy version of fajitas. It features thin pieces of shaved steak seasoned and cooked in a hot skillet or griddle. You get a lot of delicious, crispy edges this way with more of the Maillard reaction for flavor.

Fajitas with shaved steak, peppers, onions, and chipotle-lime crema.

Normally, I will either marinade or dry brine a whole flank or skirt steak, then grill it and slice it for fajitas. But for this version, I take a pound of shaved steak and cook it like I would for Philly steak and cheese. I season it with a Southwestern or fajita seasoning as it is cooking so no time is needed for marinating or dry-brining. 

Shaved Steak Fajitas

By www.nibblemethis.com

Published 12/3/2020

Ingredients

Gringo Jalapeno Smash Burgers Sliders

 [FTC Standard Disclosure] We received no compensation for this post. I am fortunate to cook with the Flavor Anonymous guys at Memphis in May each year and recently they were kind enough to send me a box of their exciting rubs and seasonings.

Hungry? How about this triple-decker smash burger with bacon and layers of roasted jalapeno cream sauce? 

Don't panic, that's not as big as it looks - it's only a slider. A slider with a half-pound of beef on it but still a slider. 

The Gringo Jalapeno sauce is a cream sauce with fire-roasted jalapeno and the Dirty Gringo rub from Flavor Anonymous. This rub has Southwestern flavors with smoky chiles that bring a lot of flavor to this sauce. I originally made it as a dip for hot wings but it also goes great on burgers.

Gringo Jalapeno Sauce for Wings and Burgers

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter, unsalted
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup half and half
• 1 jalapeno, fire-roasted, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon Flavor Anonymous Dirty Gringo rub
• pinch or two of salt to taste

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Asian flavors, especially Thai, make my mouth happy. This easy Thai Peanut Ground Beef recipe is no exception.

The heat and tastes that the peanut sauce brings to this recipe put a smile on my face and a song in my heart...or is that my belly? Either way, we love it so much that I've cooked it a few times in the past two weeks. 

The idea for this recipe came while making The Recipe Critic's popular Korean Ground Beef and Rice Bowls recipe. 

It was delicious and super easy. But even still, I immediately knew that I wanted to make a Thai Peanut version of it. You can also make this into Thai Cashew Ground Beef by swapping out cashew butter for peanut butter. That's how we made it the first time; both renditions are lip-smacking good. 

These would also be fantastic as the filling for lettuce wraps.

Thai Peanut Ground Beef

Fire-Roasted Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Shells

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The days are getting shorter, which means it is time for me to start turning more to comfort food. Cheese stuffed shells are something that we frequently make when we have leftover meat sauce for spaghetti. Our base recipe is a simple cheese filling, ut it is easy to experiment by adding spinach, sausage, or other ingredients to the mixture.

Fire-roasted Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Shells on the Big Green Egg.

Of course, you can make these in the oven but cooking them on the Big Green Egg gives them the enhanced fire-roasted flavor.

Here is how we make our Fire Roasted Spinach Stuffed Shells on the Big Green Egg. One tip: If your leftover meat sauce is extra chunky or "rustic," you might want to pulse it in a food processor. I think it is easier to work with a finer texture sauce with this one. 

Fire Roasted Spinach Stuffed Shells

Shaved Steak Tostadas

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 Life has been very busy in our house. Work and home improvement projects have collided to interfere with my time available for cooking so we have been doing a lot of 30-minute meals. 

This is one that I threw together last night - Shaved Steak Tostadas. These tostadas are loaded with skillet seared steak, peppers, onions, queso sauce, enchilada sauce, tomatoes, black olives, and green onion. 

This started with a package of Certified Angus Beef® Brand Shaved Steak that I bought at my Food City. They just started carrying this product but it has fast become a staple here for quick and easy dishes. The obvious use is for steak and cheese sandwiches but it is also great for Korean bulgolgi, stir fry, and Mexican beef dishes.