Smokin a Fatty!!

Well thats what they call them.

1LB Ground Chuck

1LB Hot Jimmy Dean Sausage

onion

musrooms

garlic powder

ground pepper

paprika
cayenne

shredded sharp chedder cheese

Started out by chopping the onions and mushrooms and then sautee them with EVOO. Set these aside. Next mix up the ground chuck and sausage. Flatten the meat out, I did this on some plastic wrap. Next I sprinkled on the garlic powder,ground pepper, paprika, and cayenne. I then placed the mushrooms,onions and cheese in the middle of the meat.

Next I rolled this up. I used the plastic wrap to assist in this process. I finished it off by wrapping it with bacon.

Placed this into the smoker at 220. I used some mesquite for this. I let it smoke for 3 hours or until the IT hit 160. I also put in some ABT's in a little later so they werent done yet so I took the fatty out and wrapped it in foil until the ABT's were done. The ABT's were a little different this time. I halved the jalapenos and keep the halves together. I then placed the cream cheese mixture with cut up sausage links in one half and then topped it with the matching half wrapped in bacon put it in the smoker.

Here is the fatty cut in half.

Heres dinner. What a plate!!

First Smoke

7-2-08


My wonderful girlfriend surprised me with a Bradley Digital Smoker for my Birthday. Is she a keeper? I think so.I think she is now regretting getting me the smoker..:) I cant stop talking about it.

I decided for the first smoke to create some ABT's (Atomic Buffalo Turds) Not sure where the name came from. Basically you can take a jalapeno and put whatever you want in it and its good.My First Try:

10 Jalapenos (Halved lengthwise)

10 strips of bacon

1 pkg cream cheese (soften)

1/2 bag of shredded cheese blend 4-cheese

breakfast sausage links

garlic powder

onion powder

honey

Halve jalapenos lengthwise. If you dont want the kick clean out the jalapenos(seeds and rib)Mix up the cream cheese,cheese,garlic,onion,honeyTake mixture and place into half of jalapenosTake a breakfast link and put into the jalapenosTake a piece of bacon and wrap around jalapeno and secure with toothpickContinue until all are used

I started by preheating the BDS at around 300. Once preheated I placed1 hour worth of Apple into the smoker and let it go. Checked on the ABT's after 1 hour and left them on for another 15 minutes.I am going to take these to the girlfriends parents for the 4th. Not sure how they will stand up to a reheat. I tried one after it cooled down. Not too bad. Maybe less garlic next time. May try more smoke and a little lower heat.

Next up on Sunday..Pulled Pork

Nice Butt

So here it is. My 2nd smoke. The rub and vinegar sauce I found on some of the smokin forums. I did however adjust the rub to replace Kosher salt with the celery salt. I might not have mentioned this in the previous post but I did pick up a remote wireless temperature probe. This is a must have. The outside unit has a probe that goes into the meat. The indoor unit displays the temp, so you dont have to open up the smoker every time you want to check it. This only has one probe though, there is another one out on the market that has dual probes, one for the cabinet temp and one for the meat. Or two for the meat.

Pulled Pork Rub

1C Paprika
2 1/2 TBS ground black pepper
2 1/2 TBS celery salt
2 1/2 TBS chili powder
1 1/2 TBS garlic powder
1 1/2 TBS onion powder
1 tsp cayenne powder
7 1/2 pound Boston Butt Pork (From Albertsons)

The night before I prepared the butt by taking some EVOO and spreading it on the butt. I then sprinkled the rub on the butt and then rubbed the butt. I wrapped it up in plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge over night.

5am Loaded 4 hours worth of Apple pucks into the BDS and preheated to 220. Took the butt of of the fridge and unwrapped it. Applied more rub.

5:30am Loaded the butt into the BDS and started the smoke

10:15am Checked IT 145

12:30pm Checked IT 159

4pm Checked IT 170

8pm IT was at 190

Went to the BDS and opened up. Wow what a site. The smell was awesome, I had to suffer smelling this smoke/cook all day. I checked temp of the rest of the butt and it was good. Pulled the butt out and wrapped it in foil to rest. Very hard to resist, the smell was intense.
Let it rest 30 mins which was hard to do as we were ready to eat. We pulled the meat apart. Man it was awesome. Just fell right apart. Just used a couple of forks and got the job done.


I created a Vinegar based sauce earlier it went something like this:

1C white vinegar
1C cider vinegar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 tsp cayenne
1TBS red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Finished:
































I prepared my pulled pork on a bun covered with some cole slaw and some of the sauce. My girlfriend put a little bit of honey BBQ sauce on hers without the bun. It would have been GTG without anything to tell you the truth.

All in all awesome, I think. The girlfriend said "Quite tasty!!" I asked her if she would say anything else and she said "I would have said it needs a little work or not bad."

I am hooked on smokin now. It took a while, but I knew from what I have read that if you want to produce good results its got to be low and slow. Nothing good is going to happen fast.

Went to Tom Thumb last night. They had brisket on sale for .99/LB. Got a nice size brisket and put it in the freezer.

I think I am going to try some smoked salmon or chicken next.

Lets Try Chicken!!

7-13-08

In being fair to all of the food groups(Pork,Beef,Chicken,Beer), I thought it would be a good to try some chicken out in the smoker. I found this recipe on one of the smoker forums and it looked too good to pass up.

4 skin on chicken thighs

1 stick unsalted butter

7 cloves garlic this might have been a little much..:)

chopped basil leaves

I mixed the softened butter, chopped garlic, and chopped basil up in a small bowl. I let this set for a little bit for the flavors to get happy.

I then took the thighs and gently lifted up the skin on one end and placed a spoon full of the butter mixture under the skin. Next I smooshed this all around under the skin being careful not to break the skin. I then took a piece of bacon and wrapped up the open end of the chicken and secured it with a toothpick. On the piece that I was claimed I also tucked some chopped jalepenos under the skin and put a little hot sauce on it.

I preheated the smoker to 220 and placed 2 hours worth of mesquite in. When the smoker was preheated I put the chicken in. Cooked until the IT was safe, this took about 2 hours.

I took them out of the smoker. To really crisp up the skin and bacon I put them in the oven on broil for 3 minutes on each side.

Oh yeah to go along with the chicken I made up some roasted potatoes (Thanks to Stan the man). Took some red new potatoes chopped them in half, red onions not really chopped just cut in large chucks, and a few garlic cloves. Put these on a baking sheet drizzled with EVOO and dried parsley. Mixed them around on the sheet and placed the potatoes cut side down. I then placed them into the oven for about 45 mins at 425.

Ok so on to the results.