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**Sid P** · October 29, 2026, 06:59 PM

I’ve never had nor made birria, but my favorite YouTuber has a recipe he calls "Lazy Man’s Birria", and I decided to give it a try. It couldn’t be any more simple, just a 3# chuck roast in a crock pot with a tablespoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, Mexican oregano, chili powder, and cumin, along with a cup of beef stock (more about that later), and a 7oz can of chipotles, cooked on low for 8 hours. Immediately after the cook:

It’s runny because I used a QUART of beef stock instead of a cup, despite the fact that I read the recipe several times before I started.

We’re a flour tortilla family, but he recommended corn for this dish, so I went with it. I can’t believe Aldi has 12 packs of El Milagro corn tortillas for $.65!

Dredge the tortillas in the juice before putting them on the griddle.

Add cheese after flipping, then meat a couple minutes later.

Fold over and cook each side until cheese is melted, and the tortillas are browned.

I went barebones on toppings - just onion, cilantro, and lime.

I forgot to take pics of the finished tacos, but they were very tasty. Maybe it was the Mexican oregano, which I’ve never used before, but these were the first tacos I’ve cooked that tasted like they could have come from a restaurant or food truck. I assume they’ll be even better when I use the correct amount of beef stock 🙄🤦‍♂️.

**Smoke em if you got em** · October 30, 2026, 04:46 PM

Two C-Links of Kreuz Market's Original sausage and two links of my homemade Jalapeño Cheddar, recipe courtesy of Dayne's Craft BBQ
from a Meat Church episode.

**Smoke em if you got em** · October 30, 2026, 04:49 PM

My wife makes the best French Onion Soup I ever had.

**Smoke em if you got em** · October 30, 2026, 04:55 PM

Baked Shrimp Scampi. Recipe from Brooklyn Brothers on YouTube. Dipping baguette bread in that sauce is amazing!

**Skip** · October 30, 2026, 05:35 PM

What to do with leftover Chuck Roast? Add Smoked Mushrooms to it and make Beef Stroganoff and serve over Wide Egg Noodles.

**SheilaAnn** · October 30, 2026, 05:41 PM

I just planned cooks for the next few days and y’all are changing my mind with all this #inspiration 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

**Michael_in_TX** · October 31, 2026, 10:35 AM

Last Sunday I had at a restaurant the most amazing tacos de pollo al pastor and I was determined to try to duplicate that. So, I tried. As the kids say on the internets, "There was an attempt."

I'm calling this one a salvageable failure. In hindsight I know exactly where I went wrong, thankfully.

Now, I've done tacos al pastor several times before -- and that was key to how I messed up. I couldn't find the recipe I had been using, so I settled on Rick Bayless' one (https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/pastor-style-tacos/). I usually can't go wrong with Rick's recipe, but this one was a little lacking. The marinade tasted "flat." I may have used too much pepper soaking liquid and diluted it. It also had no heat whatsoever. (Granted, many Mexican dishes do not, contrary to the expectations of Americans.) I had a small can of crushed chipotle chiles that I added and it greatly improved the taste.

Then I did the misstep. I added the pineapple. Why wouldn't I? It's al pastor. Al pastor has pineapple. Well, 99% of the al pastor recipes are pork, in which you need the pineapple as a tenderizing agent. For chicken thighs you do not want that. I marinated the thighs for about 5-6 hours and then grilled them.

Wow....they fell apart, and not in a good way, not in a shredded way, in a disintegrating way. I could barely flip the chicken on the grill as every time I tried to pick up a piece with tongs, it fell apart in two, sometimes three pieces. It was like self-dicing chicken! And I couldn't get the char I wanted and moreover, the chicken overall had a slightly mushy feel.

Next time, no pineapple (you can't taste it anyway).

At the restuarant, they served the chicken in a bed of grilled jalapeños and bulb onions, each sliced lengthwise down the middle. I couldn't find bulb onions, so I just used a yellow onion. Here's the onions and jalapeños getting happy. (This part did go right lol.)

To serve everything, I decided to taco it all up and here is where I made my second mistake. I used the wrong tortillas. Michael, you live in Texas 1.2 miles from an HEB, how can you possibly use the wrong tortillas? Well, I had a pack of HEB's made-in-store Mitad y Mitad tortillas that I needed to use up. These are corn & flour tortillas (mitad y mitad is half & half in Spanish) and I love them for enchiladas. (These are not the pure flour ones that we basically consider a religious artifact around here.)

Unfortunately, I had never tried to crisp them on the grill before. They need to go longer than a flour one. When they puff, they are still a ways from being done. These turned out quite gummy and not good. They look good, but they were not good.

(I do like my cilantro, don't I?)

Here's a text exchange with my wife...who apparently did like all of this:

I salvaged it for last night. The chicken had firmed up a bit overnight in the fridge and wasn't as mushy. I diced up the jalapeños and onions, mixed with the chicken and some Mexican rice. Now, this was good. Not perfect, but very good.

I will do this again, but certainly no pineapple and if I use tortillas they'll be the HEB flour ones. I may also seek out a different marinade. The one at the restaurant definitely had some heat to it and a depth of flavor that was missing from Rick's. (To be fair, Rick does state repeatedly his is a simplified and quick version.)

**jayjordan** · October 31, 2026, 03:30 PM

Chicken and andouille sausage gumbo.

Veggies prepped

Cajun napalm

Veggies in the roux

Everything in the pot

Everyone said it was good

**SheilaAnn** · October 31, 2026, 05:30 PM

Last nights pizza under horrible lighting….

**RichieB** · October 31, 2026, 06:11 PM

2.25# chuck roast in the slow cooker. As much as I enjoy cooking on Kettle or Pit Barrel, this is my favorite way for this cut. Brined overnight. Course pepper grinded on prior to cooking. Carrots and baby red par boil and dropped in with the roast. In at 10 out at 5 at 203. Double wrapped in heavy duty foil with juice from the roast and in oven with light on. When ready to eat, oven at 275 for 20 minutes. Made gravy from the roast juice with corn starch mixed with water. Added to the pot and allow to thicken. Dang good

Fell apart. So tender.

Delicious.

**SheilaAnn** · October 31, 2026, 08:21 PM

Chowdah!

I couldn’t find the Manila clams I wanted, so I settled for Bar Harbor brand canned. TJ bread bowls due to poor planning. I was happy.

**TheAmazingJohnJ** · October 31, 2026, 08:39 PM

My son and I have been trying a bunch of different rubs, and last night we did chicken wings. Dry brined for a couple hours, then sprayed with duck fat. Smoked at 225 for an hour, then finished at 400 for 30 minutes.

**TheAmazingJohnJ** · October 31, 2026, 08:56 PM

And then tonight, gave moink balls a shot. Hit with a combination of Meat Church Hickory and Sucklebusters Sugar Daddy. On the Recteq at 225 for about 90 minutes, then sauced and finished at 400 for about 20 minutes.

**Michael_in_TX** · October 31, 2026, 09:14 PM

Did Chicago tavern-style pizza again, this time sans giardiniera. It turned out very good, but I forgot to rotate the pizza halfway through the cook. (My oven, like many, cooks hotter in the back than the front.) So the front half of the pizza didn't get quite as crackery as the back half, which was perfect. The middle was a little cakey....I think I put too much sauce. I really need to measure that to keep it to no more than 3/4 of a cup.

I did a full four-day ferment on the dough and yes, absolutely, you can taste the difference. It almost tastes as if I had used beer instead of water.

Here we are about to go in the 500 F oven. Toppings are Kenji's sauce, full-fat low moisture mozzarella, Canadian bacon slices (felt like something less fatty than pepperoni tonight), and hot Italian sausage. (And yes, with a pizza of this style, a sheet tray makes an excellent pizza peel. It really works!)

Here we are out of the oven. If you look closely, you can see the edge of the pizza on the right side (what was towards the back of the oven), is more done that the side on the left.

Yeah, didn't quite nail the crispness on the front-of-oven side.

Still, very good pizza. And the dough, being only like 50% hydration is incredibly easy to work with. I'm almost of the frame of mind that this style of pizza should be everyone's first pizza. It is extremely forgiving.

I also love using cornmeal instead of semolina flour for the "ball bearings" on the peel. The cornmeal, as it toasts, imparts a subtle almost popcorn-like flavor that is really good.

**Jerod Broussard** · October 31, 2026, 09:32 PM

Some of my homemade sausage out the Air Fryer with a potato, also out the AF. RFX IS AWESOME! Small potatoes graph quick in a 400-F AF.

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Show Us What You're Cooking! (SUWYC) - Volume 43, FALL 2026

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