https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7L7MnlUqhM

Concept is simple: Smoke our chili base and meat in a smoker then mix it all up at the end: Here’s the two basic part recipe:

Chili base:
2 large onions, diced
3-4 cloves minced garlic or 3 tbsp pre-minced garlic
3 large bell peppers de-seeded and diced.
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 can (15.5 oz) red kidney beans( rinse and drained)
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 can (28 oz) petite diced tomatoes

For the “meatloaf”
2 -3 pounds 80/20 ground beef. (your preference on fat %)
1 tbsp Wash your sister (Worcestershire) sauce
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1 tsp Montreal steak seasoning

Heat up some olive oil and get the onions, peppers and garlic going until the onions are transparent, then add the rest of the chili base ingredients. Mix it all up and set aside.

Mix up the meatloaf ingredients and make a flat round meatloaf no wider than your Dutch Oven.

Get your smoker going to about 225-250 with some mesquite chips and place the loaf over the chili in the smoker.

Should take about 4  hours to smoke until the ground beef is 165 internal.

Take the loaf out and mince it up to the size you want for your chili. I chop mine into about 3/4 inch chunks. You should have an awesome smoke ring from that meat soaking up all that smoke and the chili should be sucking up that smoke the whole time too.  Mix it all up and enjoy!

Recipe serves 4-6

• 2 lbs chicken breasts, pieces or tenderloins. I used tenderloins.
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons Garlic Grappa Spice Blend -OR- one tablespoon each garlic powder & Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 Chipotles in Adobe sauce, chopped fine.
• 1.5 cups chopped spinach ( plus 5-6 whole leaves for (garnish)

Using a 12″ cast iron skillet, brown the chicken in the olive oil a couple of minutes to get them started.

Once the chicken is browned, set aside and mix all of the other ingredients in the skillet. Now’s a good time to insert a BBQ sensor if you use one. I use the ChefAlarm  Set alarm  for 165.

Whisk until the cheese melts then place the chicken back in. Roll the chicken around in the sauce to get them all covered.

For my smoker, I used one chimney of coals over a half as many unlit coals and threw 3 hickory chips on top.

Using the Vision Kamodo (yours may vary) I opened the intake and chimney all on 2. On my smoker that’s the low side of medium open on all dampers. YMMV.

The smoker temp started at 125, and ended at 325 2 hours later, just as the chicken hit 165.  Add some fresh spinach leaves as a garnish, let them smoke a bil til they wilt, should only take a few minutes. Remove from the smoker, let set a bit for the sauce to thicken and enjoy!

• 4 lbs short ribs
• 3 jalapenos
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes  ( Or use Smoky Bourbon pepper blend if you have it handy….. has habaneros)
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 tomato, beefsteak
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper
• Mashed potatoes or polenta

Preheat your oven to 325 then get to work on the sauce ingredients.

De-seed and remove the placentas from the bell pepper and the jalapenos. Dice all of the peppers, onion and tomato, set aside in a bowl.

Get your nice cast iron skillet, add the oil and brown all sides of the ribs, then set aside.

Now put all the stuff you chopped up into the pan with the garlic, salt, pepper, pepper flakes, lemon juice, everything but the meat should be in the pan.

Cook until the onions are translucent, then place the ribs in a single layer in the sauce. Dribble the sauce over the ribs then place the pan in the oven, covered (tin foil was fine) for 3 or so hours or until the meat is falling off the bone…… Check a couple of times to add water if the sauce is drying out, and dribble the sauce and drippings over the ribs.

Serve over mashed potatoes or polenta, enjoy!

I have been blogging and cooking all sorts of things, mostly using the least expensive thermometers and monitoring devices I can find. (I’m broke as a joke.) Results have been hit and miss. Things often come out overcooked even though I followed directions to the letter. I’ve found better results with meats once I learned about letting them rest after cooking, but still coming out overcooked in many cases.

I picked up a  ThermoPop and ChefAlarm while at ThermoWorks.  I gathered up the cheaper thermometers I had in the BBQ drawer from thermpro, Sharper image, Weber and a couple of those silver dial thermometers and checked them all in a ice bath and boiling water to check their accuracy.  They were all within 2 degrees of 32F for the ice bath but the boiling water showed a range varying 26 degrees between them. The ThermoPop and ChefAlarm were both dead on at 32 degrees in the ice bath, and read 204.3 and 204.4 respectively in boiling water. (I’m at ~4250 feet altitude). This is where the largest variance between the different thermometers was found. The silver mechanical dial thermometers were the farthest off, and the other digital thermometers ranged up to 19 degrees off of 204 degrees. With that kind of variance it’s easy to see how BBQ’d meats can go from decent to overcooked. Plus the ThermoWorks products read the temperatures far faster than any of them. This means you have your BBQ open for a shorter amount of time and the BBQ temperature recovers faster when you are done reading.

I did my first cook with the ChefAlarm on a couple of pork roasts, and set them for 140 with the BBQ temp ranging around 260-280. I used Tonguespank Applewood Chipotle rub on one, and Honey Habanero  rub on the other.

The audible alarm on the ChefAlarm can be adjusted pretty high, I could hear it across the street when it was done! I pulled the meats and had them rest in a glass pan and they continue to heat in the middle, up to 150, at which point we served it up. Delicious, tender and not overcooked. I’ll be cooking lots of meats that often wound up overcooked and see how much better accurate temperature readings change the results. The ThermoTorks thermometers will offset their cost by saving ruined BBQs.

Recipe is for a 12″ cast iron pan.

• 3 lbs russet spuds
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 2 cups peas and carrots
• Fine chopped onion
• 2lbs 93% lean ground cow
• 3 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 Tablespoons minced garlic
• 3 Tablespoons all purpose flour.
• 2 Tablespoons Garlic Grappa Spice blend, or generic Italian spice blend.
• 1 Cup broth (chicken or beef)
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce.

Spuds:

1. 1/4 then boil the spuds in pot with 1 tablespoon salt, then simmer til soft ( 8-10-  minutes)
2. Drain then place back in pan, mash til smooth.
3. Whisk in milk, 1/4 stick of butter & egg, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Filling:

1. Heat 12″ cast iron pan over medium heat
2. Melt in the leftover 1/4 stick of butter
3. Add carrots, peas and onions, dash of salt, cook til soft ( 5 minutes)
4. Add ground beef, cook til browned. Break it up as you go.
5. Add tomato paste, garlic and spices and cook for a minute.
6. Mix in flour, cook another minute or so
7. Add Worcestershire sauce and broth, stir well.
8. Season to taste
9. Simmer and mix until filling thickens up where you like it, 10-12 minutes.

Start your broiler.

• Layer the spuds onto the filling with wide spoon or one of those rubber spatulas.
• Make a design into the top, something with ridges.
• Broil 5-6 inches from the broiler until the ridges crisp up.
• Let it cool and firm up 10-15 minutes.

Devour with 5-6 of your friends. Or, package into individual lunch containers for the week if you have no friends.

A Basic Bourbon Marinade is easy. These flavors are all basics that work well with beef.

Mix this up and score the fat on the brisket criss-cross style to let the marinade soak in then marinade the brisket overnight in a big ziplock bag.
Double the recipe for a full size 10 pound brisket:

1/2 cup  Sugarhouse Distillery Bourbon ( I guess any bourbon will do if you cannot get this…)
1/2 cup  brown sugar
1/2 cup  mustard
1/2 cup  oil
1/2 cup  Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon HOT sea salt (unless you brine first)

Once ready, I also rubbed some Tonguespank Garlic Grappa into the cuts and on the brisket for a little more spicy garlic zing.

I lit the coals and brought y fancy new kamado grill up to temp and placed the little guy on the top rack with some drip pans beneath. Figure about 1-1.5 hours per pound of brisket at 225-240 degrees.

Cook until internal temp is 190, then take it out to rest. It will continue to cook a bit, and the temp will get to 200. Once rested, slice across the brisket and enjoy!

I have always wanted  big fat kamado grill but the Big Green Eggs are just too expensive. My little clay pot smoker did its best but just could not handle a brisket or multiple racks of ribs. Plus the Vision has a nifty pull-out ash pan, electric start and easy to top and bottom vents.

First up: Brisket.

Spicy Smoked Chicken legs ( or wings):
Taking a page from Steven Raichlen’s BBQ Bible, I turn up the heat a bit and make these great little legs for me ( also good for wings, just triple the number of wings)

• 4-6 chicken legs
• 1 bundle of cilantro, chopped.
• 2 Tsp coarse salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 4 jalapenos, chopped
• 1/4 cup Sriracha ( Or your favorite hot sauce) for 4 legs, 1/2 cup for 6.

Mix all ingredients together and set aside 1/2 cup or so for glazing later. Marinade the legs with the rest in a ziplock bag for 1-2  hours. When ready to cook, place the bone ends toward the heat and arrange on the grill as shown.  Smoke at 250 for an hour or two until the internal temp is 155-160, then use the rest of the remaining sauce mixture to glaze the chicken, and finish off the cook until their internal temp is 165.

Sweet Soy glazed smoked chicken legs:

Marinade: Marinade the chicken in a ziplock bag  at least 2 hours, 12-15 is better.

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Sugarhouse Distillery Bourbon (or any bourbon I guess).
• 4 tbsp minced garlic
• 6-8 chicken legs

 Sauce:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup Sugarhouse Distillery Bourbon ( or any bourbon I guess).
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons cold water

Bring everything but the cornstarch and water to boil over medium heat in a saucepan, then simmer until reduced to about 1 1/4 cups. Save half a cup for serving with the chicken.
When ready to cook, place the bone ends toward the heat and arrange on the grill as shown.  Smoke at 250 for an hour or two until the internal temp is 155-160, then use the rest of the remaining sauce mixture to glaze the chicken, and finish off the cook until their internal temp is 165.