Also known as Cowboy Candy, these tiny morsels of love pack heat and sweet in every bite! Use on top of burgers, nachos, or the pulled pork I made last weekend. They are also a great addition to a salad, salsa or you can eat them right out of the jar.
Start with 2 pounds of jalapeños, about 2 dozen peppers. Slice into 1/4” wheels, leaving the seeds and veins in place (this is where you get the heat). Smoke for 60 minutes in a single layer. Make up a brine of 3C apple cider vinegar, 5C brown sugar and 3T pickling spice. Bring the brine to a simmer and stir until the sugar is melted.
Once the jalapeños are smoked, place into a mason jar and cover with the brine. Let cool to room temp and refrigerate overnight. Have a Mexican Fiesta the next day!
I love Baked beans, but I’ve never tried to make them from scratch. I have always bought the stuff in a can and doctored it up. Not this time!
Started with the sauce. One 44oz bottle of ketchup, two cups of BBQ sauce, a small bottle of hot sauce, 2C of brown sugar, 1 can of porter beer, 1/2C apple cider vinegar, 2T yellow mustard, 2T pulled pork rub.
Mix everything in a Dutch oven until well blended. Additionally, add 4 cans of drained navy beans and 4 cans of great northern beans.
Dice one onion and add in about 4C of smoked pulled pork. Then mix everything together and smoke at 225F for about 2 hours. Stir every 30 minutes, or so. Additionally, sprinkle in some heat if you want to warm things up even more.
These were absolutely delicious! May never buy Busch Baked Beans again!
Double stuffed? Oh yeah! A traditional bacon and cheese stuffed jalapeño nestled inside a smoked and sauced mini-meatloaf smothered in bacon!
This recipe will make 8 mini-meatloaves. You will need:
4-12 jalepenos
1# bacon
8oz cream cheese
1/4C cheddar cheese
1/4C BBQ rub
2# ground beef
1 egg
1/4C buttermilk
1/2C chopped onion
1/2CC BBQ sauce
2T BBQ rub
A bit more BBQ sauce to baste at the end
Start by frying up the bacon into tiny bacon bits. Add about 1/2C of bacon bits to the cream cheese, cheddar cheese and 1/4C rub. Reserve the remaining bacon. Mix the bacon/cheese/rub mix together until well blended.
Cut the top off 4 of the jalepenos and cut the pepper in half lengthwise. Carefully remove the inside and just leave a shell. Stuff each of the 8 halves with the cheese mix. You will undoubtedly have more cheese than you need, so cut the remaining jalapeños in half, but leave the stems on. Stuff each as you did the first 8.
Place all the stuffed jalapeños in your smoker on the lowest setting for 3 hours. This will soften them up a bit and give your meatloaf an even greater smoke flavor. When done, reserve the stemmed halves for stuffed jalapeño snacks.
Mix the beef, egg, buttermilk, onion, BBQ sauce and 2T of rub together to form your meatloaf mix. Drop each stuffed pepper into the bottom of a mini-loaf pan and cover with 1/8th of the meatloaf mixture. Press well into pan and refrigeration for 30-60 minutes to firm up the loaves.
Remove the loaves from the pan and transfer to your smoker at 250F until 160F internal temp, about 3 hours. During the last 30 minutes, brush additional BBQ sauce on each loaf and sprinkle with the remaining bacon.
Enjoy!
Stuffed jalepenos. Those on the left with the stems are for straight up eating. The pan on the right will go in each meatloaf
Got this idea from my cousin, who found a FB post from Daniel Dobrzenski (good Irish kid) who appears to maintain a much more extensive site than this at cookingintheyard.com. Hope that’s enough credit to post it here, as these are delicious!
Get about 10 jumbo dill pickles. Cut them in half, and scoop out the seeds, like you would a melon, leaving a little pickle canoe to stuff. Brown 1# of ground beef and distribute across the pickle canoes. Hit everything with your favorite rub, followed by 8oz shredded cheddar. Take 1# of thin cut bacon (should be just enough slices) and wrap each pickle. Hit with some more rub and smoke for an hour at 225F.
After an hour, crank the heat up to 350F and cook until the bacon crisps up, about 15-30 minutes. Turn the heat back down to low and lather on your favorite BBQ sauce. Let setup for 10-15 minutes, remove from heat and serve. You can add your favorite dip, ketchup, mustard, mayo whatever to round them out, or just eat them straight off the grill.
Saw this recipe from Jeff Phillips on smoking-meat.com. I’ve made burnt ends from Brisket, Chuck Roast, Pork Belly and hotdogs, but never thought to try a pork butt. However, after walking through Meijer yesterday and finding one on sale for under $2.00/pound, I bought the smallest $12 one they had. What could go wrong with that? NOTHING!
My approach is a bit different from Jeff’s. I rubbed it with an appropriate rub and let it sit out while the smoker came up to temp at 225F. Let it ride the grill for about 6 hours, doing nothing to it, until it got to 170F. Pulled it from the grill, let it rest for about an hour, then cut it into 1″ squares. Since I didn’t start this journey until mid-afternoon, I refrigerated it until the next morning.
Melted 1 stick of butter with about 1/4C of my favorite hot sauce. Tossed the nuggets with the butter, hit it with more rub, and returned them to the smoker at 225F for 7 hours, stirring every 60-90 minutes and adding more rub occasionally. Hit them with a nice slathering of BBQ sauce and let them go another 2 hours. Pulled the pan from the grill set it at an angle to run off the butter and fat that didn’t get absorbed, letting the whole thing rest for about 30 minutes. Turned the burnt ends into sandwiches with pickles and onions. The McRib ain’t got nothing on this!
My son and I both reflected that if we had not known better, we would have thought these were beef rather than pork. So much better and leaner than pork belly, as I trimmed the fat away before cubing the meat. Will not hesitate to do this again!
Like a Tomahawk Ribeye, these thick cut Cowboy Ribeyes make Fred Flintstone look like a vegetarian! Just over 2″ think and weighing in around 3 pounds each, they took every method of cooking that I know to make them perfect!
So let’s start with the picture above. The bone-in Cowboy Ribeyes are obvious. The smaller steaks are filets for those without the appetite to gorge down a huge hunk of meat. Everything came from Sam’s Club. Matter-in-fact, the Cowboy Ribeyes were marked down 25% because their ‘sold by’ date had arrived. For $35/steak, I had to ask if they had more! And there is nothing wrong with having beef dry age a bit.
These spent 6 days in my meat fridge. Seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder and pepper, sitting on a wire rack, and flipping after 3 days, the dry aging makes the steak more tender and bit earthy in its taste.
About 4 hours before eating, the steaks went into the smoker. One hour for the big ‘uns, 30 minutes for the filets. Smoker was set for 165F. Just enough to get some smoke flavor into the meat.
We then moved to the sous vide at 125F for 3 hours to get everything up to temp. Each steak was vacuumed sealed and a Meater temp probe on one to keep track of the internal temp. The sous vide ensured that the entire steak would be cooked through.
Now to the direct flame sear. Seasoned with Jeff Ruby steak seasoning before dropping them on a cherry red hot grill. Two minutes/side to get them nice and perty. Pulled them around 130F, rested for 10 minutes to a perfect medium rare.
Served with a smoked twice baked potato and a Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuit. I ate about a quarter of the steak at this sitting, then proceeded to slice the leftovers thin and had 2 roast beef sandwiches and steak and eggs the next morning. The Cowboy Ribeye is just the gift that keeps on giving!
Had dinner at Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse over the weekend. Daughter asked for the bacon jam as a topping for her steak. Always thought that was something served on toast, but I’m here to tell you it was the bomb! Chunks of bacon with caramelized onions and shallots, mixed up with plenty of sugar. It’s delicious on its own, or topping a steak or a burger, if you haven’t had this before, you need to try it.
Start with 1 1/2 pounds of bacon cut into 1/2″ chunks. I am partial to my own bacon here. Brown the bacon and reserve 3T of grease for sautéing.
Slice 1 white onion and 2 shallots. Sauté with the bacon grease until dark and caramelized, about 15-20 minutes. Return bacon to the pan and add 1/2C apple cider vinegar, 1/2C brown sugar, 1/2C maple syrup and 1/2C black coffee. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes.
Using homemade bacon gives this a good smokey flavor, but if you want more smoke, combine the vinegar, syrup and coffee and smoke for 30 minutes before cooking it in the pan.
Happy New Year! My wife decides to buy heart healthy nuts from Costco to promote good eating. Raw, unsalted, bland and blah. Her definition of ‘good eating’ is different than mine, so lets spice things up!
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter for each cup of nuts you use. This recipe had 3 cups. Toss the nuts in the butter, than add 1 tablespoon of seasoning salt per cup to the nuts. If you like things hot, also add 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper to the whole mix. Mix everything evenly and either place on a screen or on a cookie sheet in a 225F smoker for an hour. Stir the nuts every 20 minutes or so. Let cool and enjoy!
During the fresh peach season, a smoked peach cobbler is the perfect sweat treat after dinner.
In a large cast iron skillet, melt 2T of butter. In a bowl, toss 3 pounds of yellow peaches, pitted and sliced, with 1/4C of smoked simple syrup. Add to the skillet.
In another bowl, mix together 2/3C flour, 1t baking powder, 1/2t cinnamon, 1/4t salt.
In yet another bowl, cream 1/2C butter with 1/2C sugar, 1 egg and 1t vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture and spoon batter on top of peaches. Sprinkle the top with raw sugar.
Preheat your grill to 350F. Cook for about 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. If peaches are starting to look done, but the crust isn’t there yet, just place under a broiler for a few minutes to finish. Let sit for a few minutes so you don’t burn layers of skin off your mouth.
This version of mac & cheese uses 4 cheeses, including American, which gives it a unique, stringy and delicious consistency. For a heavier, main dish, substitute gnocchi for the macaroni.
3C coarsely grated cheddar cheese
2C shredded mozzarella cheese
1C finely grated Parmesan cheese
2C (7oz) shredded American cheese
2.5C whole milk
1t salt
1t paprika
1t mustard powder
1/2t chili powder
1/2t ground nutmeg
1/2t garlic powder
1# any dry pasta. I used cavetappi in the picture, or 32oz fresh gnocchi
1/2C heavy cream
Minced chives or parsley for serving
If using a dry pasta, prepare according to the package directions.
Mix together the cheddar, mozz and Parmesan, set aside.
In a large cast iron skillet, bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat. Add the salt, paprika, mustard powder, chili powder, nutmeg and garlic powder. Whisk and cook for about 2 muinutes.
Add in the cooked pasta or fresh gnocchi. Stir to coat and cook for about 2 minutes
Add the American cheese, stirring until it melts and slightly thickens the sauce. Add the heavy cream and half of the shredded cheese mixture. Stir until all the cheese melts.
Move the whole dish to your smoker set for the lowest setting. Smoke for 60 minutes, stirring every 15-20 minutes to effectively blend the smoke flavor throughout.
Top the dish with the remaining cheese and place under a broiler until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling, about 5 minutes. Let cool for a couple of minutes, garnish and serve.
The above picture was taken during the smoking stage, before topping with the additional cheese and broiling the top.
