Juicy Lucy!

Well, I have come to find out that I had previously been cooking this burger under the wrong name. A burger made with two patties and cheese in the middle is in fact called a Juicy Lucy....or so says The Travel Channel's Man vs. Food. Just having the name correct added that special bit of magic that makes this one of my favorite burgers!



I used some good ol' ground beef (nothing fancy here) and made two fairly thing patties. Next I folded up a piece of Amercian cheese into fours and placed it in the middle of one patty.



After that I formed the two patties together into one (and repeated the process 4 times) and then cooked the burgers on the grill (at about 400 degrees) for 8-9 min on one side and then flipped to the other side for an additional 8-9 min. I let the burgers and primarily the cheese, cool for a few min and then served with some sweet potato fries. Careful, the cheese stays warm for quite a while (which is great)! Hard to beat a good homemade burger!

Quick posts on Wings

I have been on the road for many weeks in a row, so being home for a full weekend with good weather, I took full advantage of the Egg and cooked Saturday for lunch and dinner and Sunday for lunch.

Saturday for lunch, I went with wings because it had been a while and while there is nothing new here, I think I figured out my optimal method for cooking wings. I smoked the wings for an hour or so at nearly 400 degrees (probably somewhere closer to 390 degrees). This allowed for me to still smoke the wings to have nice juicy meat and yet get the skin hot enough to crisp up nicely. I previously waffled between cooking them direct or smoking them at a much lower temperature....this compromise worked nicely!

Blackened Fish

Here is some blackened Mingo Snapper that we caught in the gulf.



Pretty simple cook here, just some blackened seasoning and a quick dip in the skillet. Served with some new potatoes, this was a very good meal (and helped put a dent in my tremendous stash of frozen fish)!

Gone Fishing!

I am fresh off a deep sea fishing trip with some friends and took some time to enjoy the fruits of our labor with some grilled amberjack filets. An excellent time was had by all.....well, except for this poor guy who turned into dinner tonight!


Just getting home I needed to do something quickly, so I basically used a simple marinade of a mixture of things that I had at my disposal, primarily Italian dressing. I set the grill up for a direct cook at 400 degrees and cooked the fish directly on the grate.


After about 10 min, I pulled the fish off because it was starting to flake. I served the fish with some twice baked potatoes that we had and just had to heat up. The verdict was that it was a pretty good meal. I think I pulled the fish just a bit early in an effort to not overcook them. But is was still really good, and I have not cooked fish very often, so I just need to cook some more fish to get better.

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

Tonight I had to capitalize on the great weather and did some teriyaki pork tenderloin. I used my Soy Vay teriyaki sauce about two hours prior to the cook after I had scored the meat on the side with the fat cap.


I wanted a fairly quick cook, so I just went with a direct set up and a temperature of approximately 325 degrees. While this cooked a little quicker than I would like it created a nice crispiness on the outside, which was fantastic with the pecan smoke flavor.


I pulled the pork at 145 degrees internal temperature and served with new potatoes; it was excellent! I just wish I had thought to invite some more people over to share in this wonderful meal!

Boneless, Skinless Thighs

Well as much as I cook chicken, I have actually never cooked boneless, skinless chicken thighs. So I picked some up from the store for a quick dinner.

I first rinsed them and patted them dry. Next I sprayed them with some EVOO and then rubbed them down.




I then let them sit for a couple of hours in the fridge uncovered. Next came a pretty simple direct cook at about 300 degrees flipping frequently and basting with Suck Creek Wings Spicy BBQ Sauce. I must say, if you like dark meat these are excellent. You can get them nice and crispy on the outside but still wonderfully juicy and moist. It had been a while, but man it was good to get back out on the patio tonight with the grill going!

Valentine's Day

With three kids at home, including a 3 week old, a romantic dinner out with the wife on V-Day is pretty much out of the question. But like many, I have come to appreciate a well cooked meal at home especially if you can do a little something special to spruce things up and miss the crowds (and the large tabs!). So with a little wine, my wife and I tried the Prime Filet again (see a couple posts ago), and it was every bit as good as I remember it. Excellent Valentine's dinner!

BBQ Chicken Pieces

Tonight I cooked a BBQ chicken (in pieces) for my family. I also had a couple of request for basic ol' bonless, skinless so you will see that on there as well.


I rinsed and wiped down the chicken and then added a light coating of EVOO. Next came a liberal application of Evan's Rub and then the chicken was off to the fridge. Based on what I have read on various blogs, if you leave the meat uncovered in the fridge for a couple of hours it will dry out the skin and allow for a crispier cook.




I cooked the chicken at with a direct cook at 250 degrees for about 1.5 hours flipping every 30 min. I started off skin side down. After the second flip I started applying my BBQ sauce. Now, I was not able to leave the chicken in the fridge to dry out for very long so I cranked the heat up a bit and flipped the chicken frequently to crisp up the skin.

All in all, it was delicious, and with a little better organization and time management it would have been perfect.

Super Nachos

I knew I was going to try this dish as soon as saw it done by Chris with Nibble Me This. They looked so good on his blog and it seemed like a nice change of pace for a Boston Butt cook.


So basically, all I did was cook a butt on the Egg and then set up a Nachos Bar for some self served pulled pork nachos for my small Super Bowl gathering. It was excellent! Thanks Chris!

New Born Filet

Ok, so there is no such thing as a new born filet....at least that I know of. Let me explain. We welcomed a new addition to our family this week and we have had a great support network of family and friends bringing food and helping out in various ways. Tonight we had some friends of ours bring us some prime filet from the local butcher shop for our dinner tonight.

I must confess that to date I have been a supermarket meat kind of guy. So I don't know if it was the cut of meat, or my second go round with the filet on the BGE that caused the significant improvement, but needless to say, my wife and I enjoyed one of the better steaks we have had in quite a while!

I basically just seasoned the steak with a little coarse salt and fresh ground pepper, with a splash of Dales sauce. From there it was your basic T-rex cook.



I had the egg up to just under 700 degrees and seared the meat for about two minutes on each side and then shut everything down and just let the steaks continue to cook for another 3-5 min till the meat temp was 140 degrees. This was a nice cook just shy of Medium, which is exactly how my wife likes her steaks.



The end result....Absolutely fantastic. I mean this was as good of a steak as I have had in a long time and it made for an excellent dinner and evening!

30 Min Brine

I was loading up on some BGE charcoal from my local supplier and they were giving away a free box of 30 min brine. How can you pass that up?


So I thought I would smoke a chicken tonight with a variety of veggies. First I prepared my veggies so they would be ready to go, then I followed the instructions to get the brine ready. I also made sure not to neglect the oft overlooked key ingredient to every good cook!


So after brining the chicken, no longer than 30 min according to the instructions, I threw the chicken and veggies on the Egg for an indirect cook at about 375 degrees. I used apple wood chips for the smoke.


I cooked the chicken for a little over an hour till the breast meat reached 175 degrees, all the while occasionally stirring the veggies. When everything was done, I pulled it off, carved it up, and chowed down!


At the end of the day, it was pretty good, but I did not think the 30 min Brine provided enough flavor to not need some added rub or seasoning, which I elected not to add. Oh well....a so/so meal on the egg is better than any fast food I could have picked up, and the veggies were right on time.