Cooked some pork chops on the SNS Kettle last night. 3 decent chops, bone in, that I wet brined for about 6 hours in a 6% salt water solution. I then allowed them to dry off for about an hour while I was getting the grill going and enjoying a bourbon and soda. When I had the SNS Kettle running about 275F, I put a tbsp of MMD on the chops, put a bit of oak on the fire for smoke, and onto the grill they went. 35 minutes later they were at 140F internal, I gave them a good sear and pulled in the house. Served about 5 minutes later.
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CHNeal when I first met my wife, she hated pork chops. I vowed that I would get them cooked in a way that she would love. A couple years ago, I got this dialed in pretty good to the point where she asks me to cook them now. And I do it that very simple method I just outlined, no fancy anything to it.
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For lunch today…
…started with basic mirepoix…
…add diced tomatoes, other goodies and cooked a bit…
…made a roux…
…put it together, added some Parmesan, half and half, basil, salt and pepper…
…and I discovered Creamy Tomato Basil Soup!
Got this recipe from here and it’s the best tomato soup I’ve ever made or eaten. The home made croutons helped.
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Allon As a kid, I grew up eating Campbell’s tomato soup and that’s all I thought was good for a long time. My mom did make it with milk so it was cream of tomato, which is my preferred tomato soup. This is the richest tasting I’ve ever made and had. It contains 4 cups of chicken broth,
1 1/2 cups of half and half, and a cup of Parmesan cheese. 😋
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Smoked Pulled Chicken with Eastern NC BBQ Sauce!
Smoked chickens at 225F for 30 minutes to impart a little smoke and then cranked the heat to 325°F until the IT reached 160°F in the breasts to allow for carryover to 165°F. Pulled chickens after a 15 min rest and mixed in Scott Bailey’s recipe from THEREALSHOWBBQ on YouTube for Eastern NC BBQ Sauce! Piled it high and topped with a little slaw (and a little more sauce). ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!
Here is his recipe for authentic Eastern NC bbq sauce. 2 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 Tbs Crushed Red Pepper, 1 tsp Black Ground Pepper, 1 tsp Kosher Salt, 1 Tbs Hot Sauce, 1 Tbs Brown Sugar optional…Mix together, serve immediately or store in a mason jar. *I recommend make it a day ahead to let all the flavors come together!Attached FilesComment
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Thank you WayneT HotSun & @Allon
Next version I’ll make will be the Lexington BBQ sauce WayneT. Love that stuff! HotSun Just mix it by hand or literally shake it in a bottle or mason jar. The longer it sits the better it gets. Very vinegar forward if you’ve never had it. I grew up on the stuff eating pulled pork (or BBQ as it’s known here in NC) -
Thank you holehogg I appreciate your kind words. All the best and cheers to you!
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Well, you can't win them all. For weeks I've been looking forward to making my first batch of pastrami. On Saturday, I posted the cook of a brisket flat and noted that I was curing the point. I took the flat to 204, with the thinnest parts probing tender, wrapped it hot and held for three or four hours in a cooler. I was hoping for carryover and further softening up, but it actually tightened up on holding. It was also pretty dry. The flavor and moistness were fine, though, on Monday when I reheated some slices in some beef broth.
But, oh my, that point cook. I followed Meathead's procedure. I used an entire batch of his pastrami rub on the point this morning and put if on my Kamado at 250 instead of 225. I did a tight foil wrap at 170 as he says. I was a little concerned then that I didn't have a black bark. However, the recipe says brown crust, so I went ahead (no crust to speak of, though). I cooked to 203 as he calls for.
The good news is that I at least carried out the curing step well enough, since the internal color was right and uniform:
The problem is that even with cutting against the grain, this was tough. The connective tissue didn't come close to finishing its rendering. The flavor on a sandwich was fine, but I didn't dare pile very high since biting through some of the pieces is a challenge.
I'm trying a few things to see if I can salvage this thing. I'm home alone tonight and hope to have it for dinner with my wife tomorrow or Thursday. After eating the sandwich, I collected up the juices that were in the Texas Crutch foil and rewrapped it with fresh foil. I put it into the oven at 225 for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I don't hold out much hope for improvement, though, as it didn't probe significantly better after this treatment. I left it wrapped in this foil with its juices and gave it an hour on the counter to try to absorb them. Then I put cling wrap over that and chucked it into the fridge.
That sandwich was around 3 pm. I'm eating granola for dinner while pouting.Comment
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Prepped two chucks for shredded beef, which was my second attempt at this. I prepped last night with my own all-purpose beef rub, dry brining overnight:
I started my smoker at about 7:30 this morning, ambient temperature at 45F and humidity at about 90%. I got it setup with indirect heat, set the Inkbird to 224F and put in some hickory and mesquite for smoke. Here is about 1 hour in:
I am really starting to appreciate using a drip pan. I have been getting liquid gold from my cooking and this one was no exception.
The temps were wild again, so I just had to babysit more than I wanted. After I hit about 170 on both pieces, I moved them to a pan, added some veggie broth, and braised them covered with foil.
I had to run an errand and when I got back, the internal temp was 213F....oops. Here they are right after I pulled them:
I let them rest for a couple hours and they became this:
I shredded them, saved the braising stock and drippings (yum). It was a little difficult to shred due to being overcooked, but it worked out okay. Here is about half of what I shredded:
This turned out really well, despite being overcooked. Lots of intense smoke flavor, without the ashtray taste. I'm not sure if you can see the smoke ring in the pics (I'm color blind), but it is definitely there. This yielded a lot of pulled beef. We had it for dinner and everyone enjoyed. I'll freeze some for a later date.
Special thanks to texastweeter for the suggestion to add a liquid about halfway through, which fixed the problem I had the first time. I did not fail.
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A little pre-thanksgiving test run. My SIL has a restricted diet due to Crohns and is following vegan/gluten free diet so it limits what i can make for her.
Below is a soup I was considering. This was a Thai red curry butternut squash soup, finished with croutons, a squeeze of lime and cilantro. Recipe from Woks of Life. Really good and easy to make and will likely be added to the thanksgiving menu (croutons on the side)
Last edited by shify; October 11, 2022, 06:17 PM.Comment
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Simple fare for our dinner tonight. Polish sausage and potato’s w/ butter, garlic and onion.
My daughter is a fend for any form or style of potato so I eat more of them then I should, but damn they are great!Comment
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Taco Tuesday! Picked up a couple lbs of flap meat. Dry brined while I made the marinade, which is juice from an orange, lemon, and a few key limes; a little cumin and paprika, finely chopped cilantro, splash of vinegar, and a little avocado oil.
Meat sat in the marinade from midday until time to cook tonight - about 5 hours.
Planned to cook over charcoal, but my chimney starter was MIA and my weed burner is on the fritz, so I slapped it on the Blackstone. Still came out great!
Topped with some fresh made pico de gallo and nom, nom, nom.
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Peruvian Chicken…………why oh why haven’t you been in my life!
I gotta tell you all this did not disappoint! It may be one of my top favorite chicken dishes after tonight! This is the Sam the Cooking Guy’s Peruvian Chicken recipe referenced above and I also made the Aji Sauce (spinach style vs. iceburg) from here on AR to go with and the pairing is just DYNAMITE!
Even the wife said this was a make it again meal, and don’t wait! Next time, I’ll bust out the 22 and cook over charcoal, using one of the whole chickens I have in the freezer and go spatchcocked.
But, this has been missing in my life and I now have Peruvian Chicken!
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HotSun Your whole chicken looked great! I do think the basting I did throughout the cook helped. When I put the chicken on the grill, whatever marinade I had left, I brushed on. Then as the thighs cooked, I added two more times what I pulled from the marinade prior to adding chicken. And I do this for any type of marinated chicken as well, as I feel it really brings out the flavor. But thank you again for sharing the info, otherwise Peruvian Chicken will still be missing from my life
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It’s Tuesday and that means tacos!
I hadn’t made tortillas in at least a month so I knew going into today that I had to do that, and here’s the action shot. Obviously I’m going to post the puffiest one so I can mislead you all into thinking I have this tortilla thing figured out but alas, I do not. I’m not sure I ever will. Most were not picture worthy so after maybe 10 tortillas when I gave this one the last flip and tap and then this happens… so rewarding. It’s like winning the tortilla lottery! I still don’t know that it makes a difference taste or texture-wise but puffy or not they’re still fun to make and delicious.
The finished stack minus a few that the family stole hot off the press.
I know, I know, I need to get a linen for the inside of the tortilla warmer. The paper towels are a little tacky but they do work very well in collecting moisture.
The kids had gringo tacos but that’s not why we’re here. Here’s a hint:
Yup, I’m officially an unapologetic birria fanboy. This was the last of a batch I made a month or so ago but I’m looking forward to trying a new recipe for my next batch. I reheated it in a pie dish to make it easier to soak the tortillas which worked really well. On to the action shots…
The front left taco is mine which includes some very ripe red homegrown jalapeño. It added a really nice background flavor and subtle heat and it just became a staple for these going forward. My bride is heat averse so hers is sans-peno but it was her idea to try pepperjack for the cheese this time go figure, which was great.
Those little crunchy pieces of cheese.
Spicy, crunchy, cheesy, beefy, greasy goodness. I’m getting hungry again looking at this.
I was done after two but my tastebuds said I wasn’t so I had another, much to the dismay of my stomach.
On a side note, after devouring her first taco my better half mentioned that the last time we had these we used store bought corn tortillas and those "were good, but these are so much better." I had to agree.Comment
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Allon That's one of the nicest compliments I could receive. Thank you! When it comes to eating and drinking, life's too short to do less than your best with what you have. One of my favorite food quotes is in Italian: Chi mangia bene, vive bene. It means, who eats well, lives well.
. Seriously, nice work 
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