Fatty 3/22/10

Fatty

3/22/10

Chef-Boy-Arnie

Ingredients

3 lbs Bacon
2 lbs Breakfast sausage

1 lb Pepper Jack cheese slices

2 Jalapeños peppers

1 Medium sized sweet onion

1 oz Fresh spinach

2 oz Rib rub
2 oz Barbecue sauce
2 1 gallon Ziploc bags
4 Pieces of wax paper roughly 16 inches long

This recipe is enough for two Fatties

Cut the tops off of the jalapeños and discard.

Dice the jalapeños up (for a little less heat clean the seeds and membrane out of the jalapeños)

Dice the onion with the jalapeño

Make both of the bacon weaves. (This is time consuming, but worth it.)

Lay out 2 pieces of the waxed paper. Each weave will take 14 pieces of bacon

Lay 7 pieces of bacon side to side on each piece of waxed paper

Lay a piece of bacon on top of the odd numbered pieces of bacon (1)

Fold the even numbered pieces of bacon to the left

Unfold the even numbered pieces of bacon

Fold the odd numbered pieces of bacon to the right

Unfold the odd numbered pieces of bacon

Lay a piece of bacon on top of the odd numbered pieces of bacon (3)

Lay a piece of bacon on top of the even numbered pieces of bacon (2)

Fold the even numbered pieces of bacon to the right

Unfold the even numbered pieces of bacon

Fold the odd numbered pieces of bacon to the right

Unfold the odd numbered pieces of bacon

Lay a piece of bacon on top of the odd numbered pieces of bacon (5)

Lay a piece of bacon on top of the even numbered pieces of bacon (4)

Fold the even numbered pieces of bacon to the right

Unfold the even numbered pieces of bacon

Fold the odd numbered pieces of bacon to the right

fold the odd numbered pieces of bacon

Lay a piece of bacon on top of the odd numbered pieces of bacon (7)

Lay a piece of bacon on top of the even numbered pieces of bacon (6)

Fold the even numbered pieces of bacon to the right

Unfold the even numbered pieces of bacon

Sprinkle the bacon weaves liberally with rib rub and set them aside for now.

Put 1 lb of Breakfast sausage in each of the Ziploc bags and roll out flat and even

With a very sharp knife cut one side and the bottom out of each of the Ziploc bags and flip the sausage over on the other two pieces of wax paper

Smear barbeque sauce on the bottom two thirds of the sausage

Add fresh spinach

Add a half pound of sliced pepper jack cheese to each fatty. From here on keep the filling on the bottom third of the sausage

Add the jalapeños and onion

Fry, crumble, and add the bacon to the mix

With the help of the waxed paper roll the sausage and filling up like a jelly roll. Then move them to the bacon weave and discard the sausage waxed paper

With the help of the bacon waxed paper roll the sausage roll up in the beacon weave and discard the bacon waxed paper

I lined the bottom of the AmeriQue with foil and selected 3 ounces of hickory (more or less)

I set the cook temperature to 225⁰ and the probe temperature to 160⁰. Three hours later the fatties are up to temperature and ready to come out of the smoker. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the finished product.

Let the fatties rest for 10 minutes before slicing. You should be able to get roughly 20 half inch slices out of each fatty, a thicker slice can be made if you desire. Serving options are endless. You may serve them as they are; add more barbeque sauce, on a biscuit with mustard or catsup, with your favorite cracker, or with eggs. The time of day you serve them will most likely determine how you serve them. They serve up well as a snack, an entrée, or a party staple.

Hindsight;

Defiantly a keeper!!

It takes roughly a half an hour to put two fatties together, but it is well worth it.

It is always a hit.

Leftovers reheat well in the microwave.

Wrap slices of Fatty in a paper towel to warm up in a microwave prior to serving.

I may want to try sliced fresh mushrooms sometime.

Fatties can be served up many ways;

Alone

With your favorite cracker

As a sandwich on bread or a biscuit with catsup, mustard, or barbeque

Smoked Beef Brisket 3/12/10

Smoked Beef Brisket

3/12/10

For my first attempt at smoking a brisket I selected an 18 lb USDA select packer.

I read about everything I could find on smoking a brisket and settled in on two really good articles. Smokin Okies’ Brisket 101 and Mainely Dave’s Beef Brisket in the Cookshack Smokette both are from http://forum.cookshack.com/groupee

Chef-Boy-Arnie

I took the brisket out of the cry-o-vac bag and washed it with warm running water

Just to keep things simple I’ll be using 4 pieces of hickory for the smoke

At an hour to an hour and a half per pound the smoke should take somewhere between 18 and 27 hours. Seems long, but I haven’t been steered wrong yet.

My plan is to put the brisket in the AmeriQue before I head to work in the morning somewhere around 6:20. I have a full day tomorrow and will not return home before 9:30 PM. I’m a little anxious about it, but I really want to try this.

Then I sprinkled Cook Shack Rib Rub on it very liberally, put it in a bag and put it back in the fridge for the night

5:30 AM it is 40⁰ and rain is predicted.

I got the brisket out of the fridge and let it rest on the counter for about a half hour while I got the AmeriQue ready.

6:25 AM into the AmeriQue it goes.

I set the cook temp to 200⁰ and the probe temp to 190⁰ and as Ron Popeil says “set it and forget it”

3:30 PM OK I can’t stand it; I called home and had the wife check on the brisket. It is 145⁰ so I have her turn the cook temp up to 225⁰.

She said it smells good.

10:30 PM The brisket is 165⁰ and its time for bed. The aroma is mouthwatering; I want to peek so bad I can’t stand it.

5:00 AM Saturday morning; OK I’m up and very anxious to check on my brisket, but our grand puppy spent the night so I have to take care of her first.

5:30 AM Per the AmeriQue it had kicked into hold 50 minutes ago and the brisket has cooled to 145⁰.

Time to come out! The temp probes feel like they’re in butter.

I thought the hard part was going to be not peeking. Not taking a sample before I double wrapped the brisket in foil and towels before putting it in a cooler was downright cruel and inhumane.

Ready to eat

I let the brisket sit in the cooler for 3 hours before I separated the point from the flat and began cutting it up. Still nice and juicy with just a hint of pink

The dinner plate has all I was able to slice. The rest of it fell apart. The point was particurally tender.

The tub in the back is the discard pile.

Hindsight;

22 hours smoke time. I thought the smoke flavor was a little light. The Misses liked it just the way it was, which was a huge improvement from her first comment “Eeewe! It looks like a big piece of charcoal!”

The brisket had a good flavor, but I think I will inject the next one. I just don’t know what I’ll use…. yet.

Smoked Chicken Breast, Turkey Tenders, & Baked 3/20/10

Smoked Chicken Breast, Turkey Tenders, & Baked Beans

3/20/10

It’s the first day of spring and we have 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground.

Time to fire up the AmeriQue and at least pretend to enjoy the weather.

Chef-Boy-Arnie

I went down to the local West Liberty Foods outlet store to pick up a few things and the turkey tenders told me they wanted to come home with me. Then I headed to the local grocery store to grab what I set out to get, a package of fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Back at home I got the chicken and turkey ready by liberally sprinkling them with Cookshack Spicy Chicken Rub. I sealed them in a bag and put them in the refrigerator to get acquainted with each other for a while.

For side dishes I decided I wanted to do some double-baked potatoes and baked beans. Nothing too fancy, for the baked beans just I grabbed a can of baked beans from the pantry. I baked the potatoes at 375⁰ for an hour and fifteen minutes. Since I just couldn’t leave the beans alone I added about a teaspoon of minced garlic to them. I wanted to add a little Tabasco™ to the beans, but I’ve been cooking a bit too spicy for the wife’s liking lately so I thought I give her a rest.

After the potatoes cooled enough to handle I scooped out the insides, being careful not to scoop too close to the skin. I mashed the scooped out potatoes with a little milk, butter and Cheddar Monterey Jack cheese.

I put the mixture back into the potato skins. When the time is right they will go back into the oven at 400⁰ for about 20 minutes.

After the turkey and chicken marinated for roughly 4 hours I loaded the AQ, set the cook temperature for 225⁰ and the probe temperature for 165⁰.

I selected a piece of apple wood for the smoke

Ready to eat

The potatoes came out of the oven

Hindsight;

The double-baked potatoes turned out well.

Increase the second bake to 25 minutes

This was an easy side dish well worth the extra effort.

The baked beans were no effort at all and had a nice flavor.

The turkey tenders and chicken breasts were moist, but the rub turned out to be a tad bit too salty and spicy for my liking. Three hour smoke time

The leftover turkey and chicken will be diced up and used in white chili, salads, and another version of double-baked potatoes. Hopefully those dishes will tone down the salt and spice.

Baked Beans with Beef Rib Meat 3/25/10

Baked Beans with Beef Rib Meat

3/25/10

Chef-Boy-Arnie

Ingredients

Nothing too fancy, for the baked beans just I grabbed a can of baked beans from the pantry. I think we got these on closeout sale at Aldies™. Since I just couldn’t leave the beans alone I added about a teaspoon of garlic powder and a tablespoon of yellow mustard to them. I wanted to add a little Tabasco™ to the beans, but since I already snuck the mustard in I figured I better not.

I was fixing some stuffed Jalapeños also and I had a little chopped smoked boneless beef rib left over so I thought I’d throw them in also.

The bottom of the AmeriQue and the top of the smoke box are lined with aluminum foil. I usually spray the racks with some kind of cooking oil to help with cleanup.

The cook temperature is set for 225⁰ and the cook time is set for 4 hours, and I decided to add just a few hickory chips for a light smoke flavor mostly for the burgers.

Ready to eat

Hindsight;

This is a very simple easy recipe

4 hour cook time. Probably only needed 2-3 hours, but they were in with other things

The smoked boneless beef rib added a nice flavor to the beans, but they were chopped a little too fine.