Brent's BGE Blog

Juicy Lucy!

2011-06-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-05-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-30T19:18:00.001-07:00

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

2011-02-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-13T19:04:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-29T17:02:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

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.

Overboard on Appetizers

2010-11-27T19:32:00.000-08:00

Well, after a long day of watching football, eating fajitas, and suffering through a gut wrenching Iron Bowl, my buddy and I got a little over exited in our celebratory cook for dinner and ended up with an absurd amount of food for just 4 adults. I must say that I was proud of our appetizers. They really stole the show from our wings. We had jalapeno poppers and mushrooms stuffed with cream cheese and salami wrapped in bacon....I get hungry just remembering those bad boys!

Day after Thanksgiving Fajitas?

2010-11-27T19:18:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's right...at our house we went with all to popular tradition of Fajitas on the Egg on the day after Thanksgiving. I had a buddy over and we were cooking most of the day and watching football. We decided to do something a little different so we went with Fajitas. I got this recipe from Nibble Me This. It was great. I followed it to the T except I did not have any Tequila for the marinade, so just click on the above link for the recipe. The finishing sauce was the perfect touch!

I used a Flank Steak that was nearly 2lbs and while it was great, I prefer my meat to be a little thinner in a fajita so I might a different piece of meat next time. But that is just me.

After about 5 min per side at a temp of about 500 degrees, we threw some veggies on the grill (yes, I need a cast iron skillet!), and then served everything up for a nice holiday lunch!

Random, Recent Dinners

2010-11-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

Chicken Wings....

Thin Crust Pizza....

Smoked Meat Loaf....

Quick Dinner / Quick Post

2010-10-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

Chicken and Veggies:

I cooked this chicken on a raised grid over the veggies and smoked the meat at about 400 degrees till the meat was about 175 degrees. I am not sure it is possible to overcook anything on the Egg! I love it.

Meat Loaf!

2010-09-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

The first (and maybe the only) non-Egg related post on this site is about my Mother's meat loaf. This happens to be the only non Egg item that I really cook, so this turn of events is really not all that surprising!

Here is the recipe and some pics from my favorite dish as a child (and today I must confess!).

Mix the following ingredients:
-1/2 tsp salt (heaping)
-1 tsp sage (heaping)
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 cup bread crumbs (heaping)
-1 cup milk
-2 eggs

For the sauce/topping, mix:
-1/4 tsp nutmeg (heaping)
-1/3 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup ketchup
-3 squirts mustard

The add between 1 - 1/2 lbs of ground chuck.

At this point, you put/form the meat loaf into a loaf pan (?) and then spread on the topping. Then bake between 1 hour 15 min and 1 hour and 30 min. I cooked this one for exactly 1 hour and 15 min and it probably could have used another 15 min or so.

I must say that my Mother's meat loaf is always a little different than mine, so she is either not giving me the entire recipe or her constant use of the word heaping and her scientific measurements of "squirts" of mustard lead to a little bit of variation in recipes. Having said that, if you follow the above recipe to the T, then the outcome is a fantastic night of some of the best comfort food around.

The Search for Perfect Chicken Wings

2010-09-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

I love wings. I think they are easy to cook, relatively quick, and delicious. I love wings.

Having said that, I am constantly looking to improve my wing grilling skills. I find that I am constantly in a battle between smoking the wings for ideal tenderness and cooking them over direct heat for exterior crispiness. I know that I can do both during the same cook but that is a bit of a pain.

So this time, I did some BBQ wings and decided to smoke them but at a much higher temperature than I normally would.

I smoked the wings at about 325 (ish) for approximately 1 hour and 20 min. I was somewhat disappointed that the skins had not crisped up a little more (they were still a bit rubbery looking) so I removed the plate setter and then charred them up for abour 10 min over the open flame.

This did the trick and the wings were excellent after I tossed them in some BBQ sauce and served them hot. However I still came away feeling like there has to be a better way......thoughts?

Chopped Chicken Sandwiches

2010-08-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Tonight I wanted to do some quick and easy comfort food. I cooked a BBQ'd spatchcocked chicken and then turned that into chopped chicken sandwiches with chips.

After the chicken was done, I just chopped up as much meat as I could and then placed all of the chopped chicken in a bowl. I then tossed the chicken in my BBQ sauce and served it up on plain buns with some chips and ate till I was almost sick. I love food!

Family Bonding

2010-08-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Partially inspired by a late night viewing of a TLC "Top 10 BBQ Joints In The Country" show, and partially inspired by wanting to have a good dinner for the beginning of a week long Father/Son bonding extravaganza,......thats right SHARK WEEK 2010....., I cooked ribs. Nothing better than some fall off the bone Baby Back Ribs followed by hanging with your 6 year old watching Air Jaws!

Left Overs

2010-07-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

We have had some internet issues so I meant to post this a few days ago, but I got in 3 cooks in 3 nights! The left over chicken became BBQ chicken pizza!

Buffalo Chicken & Veggies

2010-07-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

I was feeling sporty tonight and decided to cook two nights in a row, which has been a rarity of late. So just as I was about to bust out a big hard back cook book, I thought I would check on my list of blogs that I follow to see if there was something there first. The first site I went to was Food-Fire and the first thing I saw was a recipe for Buffalo Chicken.....so that is what I did.

This is basically a spatchcock chicken cook where you put the veggies in a dish on top of the plate setter and then the chicken on the grate on top of the veggies. The juices from the chicken flavor the veggies, and I also like the smoky flavor that the veggies soaked up being on the egg.

I started with some veggies that I chopped up and put into an aluminum pan. I then lightly coated the veggies in olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper. I then spatchcocked the chicken (I do completely remove the back bone) and coated it with olive oil and rubbed it down with my favorite rub not forgetting to get some under the skin.

I then put the chicken on the grill over the veggies, and cooked it skin side up for the first 30 min. I cooked everything with a mixture of Pecan wood chunks and Apple wood chips. After 30 min, I flipped the chicken and stirred the veggies. I cooked for another 30 min and then pulled the veggies and covered them tightly in foil. For the final 15 min or so, I basted the chicken with Suck Creek Wings hot sauce until the chicken hit 160 degrees in the breast.

I then carved up the chicken and served it with the veggies. It was excellent and I truly have to give all the credit and thanks to Food-Fire because this meal just entered the rotation!

New York Pizza

2010-07-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

First let me say this is not a post about me making real New York pizza.....I wish it were! I just got back from a week in the Big Apple for a mixture of business & pleasure and I got to take in some of the best pizza in the country. My three favorites are John's, Lombardi's, and Grimaldi's.

So having been away from my egg and wanting to do something rather quick, I decided to cook some pizza. Now I was a bit lazy tonight and just went with the pre-made crust. Partially to add some NY flare, and partially because I felt bad about using the pre-made crust, I used fresh chucks on mozzarella on one pizza. Ripping the mozzarella by hand and placing it on the pizza to melt in the oven is the way that they do it at Lombardi's and it definitely made a big difference to all those present. I will no longer be using the bags of shredded cheese, that is for sure. Man, I love pizza!

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

2010-06-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight I did some pork tenderloin on the BGE and it was excellent. Not sure why I have not done more with tenderloin, but I will in the future.

Tonights meal was simple. I first marinated the tenderloin for about 4 hours in some Soy Vay Teriyaki marinade. You could easily do this for 24 hours if you were so inclined. Next step was to fire the grill up to about 350-375 degrees prepped for an indirect cook. I also added some cherry wood for a little smoke flavor.

I cooked the tenderloin for about 35-40 min until the internal temp reached 150 degrees. I then removed the plate setter and left the egg open to get some flame going and put a little char (and I mean little) on the pork before pulling it off, taking it in, slicing it up, and devouring it!

There was too much meat for just my wife and I so it looks like someone just scored some pork biscuits for breakfast!

Father's Day Cookout

2010-06-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to be honest when I say this year's father's day did not go as scripted. With work issues on the brain and a very sick daughter keeping my wife and I up for basically 48 straight hours, I almost bailed on cooking all together. I was supposed to do ribs for a larger group, but it ended up just being my wife and I, (and our screaming children) eating wings. I did a batch for my wife and then I did some BBQ wings for me, to try a little something different. After rinsing the wings off, I coated them lightly with EVOO and then dusted them with John Henry's hot wings seasoning. I then cooked the wings direct on about 300 for approximately 30 to 40 min and then kicked up the temp to about 400 degrees for the last 10 min or so to crisp them up. After that, the wings with the rub on them went swimming in some Suck Creek Wings Spicy BBQ sauce......delicious!

Combo # 1....sort of

2010-06-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

I said earlier that I am traveling a lot this month and do not have time to grill very much, and when I can, it usually has to be pretty quick. So my version of fast food tonight was just some good ol' burgers and fries. Like a better version of a fast food combo. Cooked the burgers on high seasoned them which a variety of things that I could grab easily from my spice cabinet, and they were very tasty. You can see in the pictures below that I tried the intentional indention in the patties to keep them from blowing up into giant meatballs on the BGE and it was successful, although I again made the burgers a little too big (is that a problem?).

Whole Chicken

2010-06-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

My wife and I invited my parents and sisters to come over and eat with us last night and I was looking for something good and easy to whip up. I decided chicken was the best option. Instead of going with the beer can route or the spatchcock option, I simply threw two whole chickens on the grill and it was simple and tasty.

Basically all I did was take to whole, young chickens, rinse them off and then pat them dry. I then coated them with EVOO and rubbed them down with a good BBQ rub.

I then threw them on the Egg for an indirect cook at about 375 degrees for approximately 1 hour. For the record, I would prefer to cook the birds a little lower and slower, but I was not able to break away from work to allow myself enough time. So despite the slightly rushed cook, the chicken turned out beautiful and I carved it up and served it with some sauteed veggies and potatoes. Very nice and very simple! I am about to head out on the road for work quite a bit this summer so cooking opportunies are not going to present themselves as often as I would like so quick and easy options on the egg are going to be what I have to bank on.

Dinner Party

2010-05-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it was our turn to host supper club so I was faced with the somewhat daunting task of cooking for about 20+ people. Everyone was bringing a different side item or dessert but I was responsible for all of the meat and so the most practical choice in my mind was Boston Butt.

After having practiced a few weeks ago without using my BBQ Guru, I was prepared and I will skip to the end to tell you it was excellent both at the dinner party and as leftovers a few days later. Here is what I did.

I started with 2 Butts that were between 7-8lbs each. After applying a light coat of yellow mustard, I rubbed the butts down with Evan's Spice. I then refrigerated the meat for approximately 6 hours.

I am now also using some new charchol called B&B, which I get at Academy Sports...I find it to be bigger chucks that work better for longer cooks, and it is cheaper than BGE branded coals. So I filled the fire box to the brim and put the butts on at 8:30 pm. I placed a drip pan beneath the meat, on the plate setter, filled with apple juice (not sure how much this helps with moisture, but it makes me feel better). For smoke I used a mixture of Hickory and Pecan (my personal fav).

The painful part about not using the Guru comes when I stay up from 8:30 to a little after midnight keeping an eye on my temp, which I kept around 230 degrees, and also had to set the alarm for a temp check at 3:00 am and 6:00 am. Once I was up the next day, I would check on the fire every few hours or so anxiously waiting for the meat to hit 200 degrees.

Finally, the meat hit 200 degrees at 4:30 the following afternoon....20 hours on the BGE! The bark was incredible on these butts.

These wound up being the best butts that I have cooked to date and the real secret for me was in the presentation. I pulled the pork like normal but took the extra step to chop the pulled meat and that made all the difference. I also made sure (unlike some dinner parties I have been at) to chop up lots of the bark to mix in with the meat. As I said, everything was excellent, I got lots of compliments....and best of all, I do not have to host supper club for another year!

Suck Creek Wings

2010-05-27T19:18:00.000-07:00

I had my father in law in town the other night and realized that I had cooked my whole repitoire of food for him (all 6 items) except wings....so it was time to bust out the Suck Creek Wings sauce!

I cooked a batch of hot wings with the Suck Creek sauce and a batch of sweet soy wings. I have gotten into the habit where I cook my wings with a minamalist spirit. I take the wings out of the pack, rinse, and throw them on the grill over direct heat at about 300 degrees. I cooked them for about 25-30 min flipping them every ten min or so. After 30 min, I increased the heat to 400-425 degrees and cooked the wings for an additional 10 to 15 min to really crisp them up (that is how my wife likes them).

I then took the wings off and cut them up and dipped and coated them in either the warm sweet soy sauce or the warm Suck Creek Wings sauce. I served these with my current favorite side, sweet potato fries, and had a great meal.

Simple dinner from Food-Fire.com

2010-05-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

As I always struggle with new ideas for dinner, I was especially appreciative to see a post on a blog that I follow, Food-Fire, that discussed cooking a quick simple meal. Basically following the lead, I dusted a couple chicken breasts with some dry BBQ rub and threw them on the grill and served them with some sweet potatoe fries and home made BBQ sauce.

Nothing fancy, but a good quick meal none the less!

Boston Butt with no Guru

2010-05-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

First let me say that I have not been posting much recently, but it is not because I have not been cooking but rather, I have not been cooking anything new. And while I have posted on Butts before, this time I got it right.

I was doing a large Boston Butt for mothers day (the meat was over 9.5 lbs) and I was also practicing for a large group cook that I have to perform in a couple of weeks. This time I just rubbed the butt down and threw it on the egg for 18.5 hours at 225-235 degrees. I did not have any problem losing the fire and did not have to add any coals. I know this is not unusual for most eggers but I have had that problem the last two cooks. This time (although it pained me) I did not use my BBQ Guru. I assumed the blowing of the fan on the coals was causing the coals to burn faster. It seems like I was correct, although I am now beat from getting up at 12, 2, and 5:00 am to chedk to make sure the fire did not go out. While that is a pain, it is a bigger pain to lose your fire late in the cook.

Anyway, have a look....it was delicious!

Seattle, what a great city!

2010-04-19T11:15:00.001-07:00

I have been travelling a lot recently, and thus have not had a lot of time to cook anything new or to write about it. However, I was very pleased with a recent trip that I took to the west coast.

Aside from being a good business trip, I absolutely fell in love with Seattle. What a great city! Excellent food, great wine, and a plentiful beer selection....what more could you ask for? It helped that I had excellent weather the whole time I was there, but the mixture of big city, water activities, and mountains in the distance (Mount Rainier was visible the whole time), made Seattle one of the more charming cities I have ever been in.

Pike's fish market is wonderful with excellent food and I was so impressed that I just had to try it out for myself. So I brought back some Halibut fillets, Halibut cheeks, and scallops to try to cook up at home.

I will be brief and let you know that it was excellent at home....but not nearly as good as the real thing out in Seattle. I pan seared all the seafood (after applying a light coat of flour) with a little olive oil, garlic, seasonings, butter and lemon juice.

Again, it was all very good and we served everything with garlic bread, roasted potatoes, and salad.

At the end of the day, I learned that Halibut is excellent fish, the cheeks are the best cut of the fish, and Seattle is a great place to spend some time!

Pizza Rolls

2010-03-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my father's birthday and the day after is my sisters, so we all got together tonight at the house to have a birthday dinner. My father is nearly as big of a pizza fan as I am so there was not really any question about what he would want me to cook. He has never had my pizza so I planned on doing a sausage & pepperoni thick crust pizza (my favorite) but I did not want to have the hassle of doing multiple pizzas on the BGE. That presented a problem as one pizza is not enough for everyone.

Well, it just so happens the night before a buddy of mine was telling me about a favorite dish of his that his wife cooks....Pizza Rolls (I will refrain from making a joke about Geno's here). I thought I would give them a whirl.

I bought two Pillsbury thin crust pizza crusts and rolled them out on a greased cookie sheet. I then coverd the crust with a light coating of egg whites, added a very light amount of sauce and multiple toppings, and then rolled the crust back up. I then brushed more egg whites on the outside of the rolls and stuck them in the over for about 15 min at 400 degrees.

One roll was just cheese and one was a BBQ chicken roll. I sliced the rolls up and served the cheese roll with marinara on the side and the BBQ chicken roll with BBQ sauce on the side.

These were excellent and made for excellent appetisers, and coupled with my go to pizza, there was plenty of good food for everyone.

"Cheese" Burgers & Dark Beer Brats & Homemade Fries!

2010-03-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

I have not updated this blog in 2 weeks and there are a couple reasons for that. First, while I have still been cooking with the normal frequency, I have been cooking many of the same things that I have already posted on, and I cannot find a reason to repost these meal descriptions. Second, I have been out of town with the family on Spring Break.

Well, we just got back into town and today is my daughters birthday so I wanted to grill out (of course the torrential rains and cold weather would return for the occassion). So I needed something that did not require a lot of preperation and something that I had not yet done so I could post something here.

I decided to try a couple new things. First were Dark Beer Brats that I read about in my BGE cookbook and the second was Burgers with homemade fries.

First thing I did was empty about 4 bottles of dark beer into a pot with about 6 brats and brought it to a boil. I cooked them for about 15 min until they were a nice grey color. I was careful not to overcook them so they did not split. I then transferred them to the grill over direct heat to char them up.

Next were the burgers. I called these "cheese" burgers because they are what my buddy calls middle burgers where he makes a thin patty then puts a slice of american cheese on it and then puts another thin patty on top of that and seals up the edges. These were excellent, with the only caution being that you must guard against making the burgers to big.....but then again, who really complains about a burger being to big used worcester, soy, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper to season the ground chuck).

Finally, I cut about three potatoes into long strips and soaked them in cold water. I then coated them in olive oil and seasoned them with pepper and rosmary (the rosemary was the only deviation from the recipe from Macon Dinner. I cooked these in the over on about 450 degrees for nearly an hour because I like them crispy!

All in all I was very pleased with everything and currently feel like I will not need to eat again for 2 days.

Boston Butt

2010-03-06T18:25:00.001-08:00

Boston Butt is just about my favorite thing to cook on the Big Green Egg. I would do it more often but it is truly an ordeal. This is my third one and both of my last two cooks were 21+ hours. They say that you do not need to add any additional charcol, but I have had to do that both of the last two times. Either way the result is excellent. I will get right into how I did this one.

First, I started at about noon on Thursday with a 6 lbs, bone-in, Boston Butt. I placed the butt in a tray and applied a coat of regular yellow mustard all over the meat. This is not really for taste, but rather to help the dry rub adhere to the meat. I then used a commercial dry rub (I am still out of Evan's Spice) and coated all sides of the meat.

I then wrapped the butt and the tray and stuck it in the fridge until it was time to put it on the grill. I wanted to have pulled pork sandwiches for when my father-in-law got into town around 6 pm on Friday night. So anticipating a 20 to 21 hour cook, plus time for cool down, I decided on putting the meat on the grill around 8:30 Thursday night.

For this butt, I decided to inject the meat with Canjun Injector's Creole Butter. This was the first butt that I ever injected, and to be honest, I am not sure that it made a ton of difference. The meat is always so moist and juicy when it comes off an egg after about 20 hours that I am not sure injecting makes a huge difference when you are cooking on an egg. Having said that, it was kinda fun and I will probably do it again in the futre because it is not that difficult and I am sure it can only help.

I then placed the butt on the grill fat side down with a drip pan below it filled with apple juice (again, not sure this makes much of a difference either). I think many people do this differently and place it on their fat side up, but you have to know your audience and my wife hates fat (yes, I have told her it is the best part) and so I just can't help but think that if I let that slab of fat melt all the way through the meat (as delicious as that sounds) she will not be as big of a fan.

The next 15 hours or so was easy. I set my BBQ Guru to cook the meat at 220 degrees, until it reached an internal temperature of 200 degrees....and the Guru worked marvelously. I awoke the next morning to find the Egg just chugging along at 220 and the butt coming along nicely. The next part is where I always get in trouble. I left the house for a few hours and came back to check on the meat after it had been on the grill for about 18 hours. I decided to busy myself because it will drive you crazy to sit there and watch the meat hit the various plateaus and see the temperature rise quickly, stay stagnant for hours on end, drop back a little ,and then rise quickly again. I mean sometimes it seems like the meat will never get to 200 degrees.....but I digress. When I checked it after 18 hours, the fire was dying.....the flame was down to 170 degrees (Guru was blowing away to no avail) and the temperature of the meat had actually dropped.

So I had to take the butt out while I added more charcol to get the fire back going. This is always dissapointing to me, because I do not want to open the grill until it is done. From that point forward, which was about 3 more hours, I cooked the meat at 260 degrees becuase I was getting impatient.

Finally, after about 21 hours the Guru told me the food was ready!

The first time I ever cooked a Boston Butt on the egg, I thought I did something terribly wrong and burned the hell out of it. It was then that I let it cool and then pulled some of what I thought was burnt crust off the meat and tried it. What I found was the best tasting "bark" that I had ever eaten. I am not sure I had ever really had any bark before (the smoke charred outer crust that has some real juicy meat/fat attached to it as well), but from that moment on, I was in love.

So we let Butt rest for about an hour and then pulled it and covered it in my home made BBQ sauce and served with baked beans and mac & cheese. It was delicious. And I can already speak from experience, the leftovers are every bit as good!

It's All In The Sauce

2010-03-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

It was not until I started cooking more frequently that I began to really notice how much a good sauce can make or break a meal. This is especially true for BBQ Sauce. There are so many different variations of BBQ sauce that it is ridiculous. For me, and it may sound strange, but I like my sauce to be both sweet and spicy. I like a tomato based sauce with a sweet taste but with a little kick on the back end. My favorite commercial sauce (if you can even call it that as you have to mail order it by check or pay pal) is Suck Creek Wings Spicy BBQ. Due to the time delay of having something shipped to you, and the spontaneity of my cooking adventures, the time had to come where I could make my own favorite sauce. After several attempts, I think I have got it. This is a nice BBQ sauce that has a sweet taste with just enough of a spicy kick at the end to make you take notice. It will go perfectly with the Boston Butt that is currently on the grill (more on that tomorrow).

Here is how it is done:

2 cups of ketchup
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 1/3 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup honey
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons hot sauce

Combine all ingredients except ketchup in a sauce pan and cook on medium until for 10 to 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Add ketchup and cook for 30 minutes.

How many ribs?

2010-02-28T19:58:00.001-08:00

The question I posed last night is how many ribs can one man cook on a large big green egg. Before I even begin to let you know what I think the answer is, let me say that it does not get much better than staring at this at 8 am.

Ok. Now back to the question at hand. The answer is that if you are stacking ribs up into one gigantic hunk of meat you can really cook a pretty ridiculous amount at one time. I did 5 slabs and for me it was little too much. I mean it was not a tremendous problem, but making sure all the slabs got a good coating of sauce was a bit difficult and messy.

I did not have my typical dry rub from Evan's Spices, and with the quantity of ribs, I did them all wet. I usually like to have some wet and some dry. I basically cooked them in my normal style (see previous ribs post), with the only difference being that I was a little more generous with the brown sugar this time. On a side note, I have yet to reach the point where I feel like I have used too much brown sugar. Overall, everything went well...without too much trouble, I fed 8 adults with 5 slabs of ribs (with some left overs for the in-laws), but going forward I still think it is easier to pay more attention to a smaller batch of food.

Pale Ale Beer Bread

2010-02-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I am definently flattering Gray because I stole this recipe directly from his blog Grill Knuckles. To that end, I am not going to repost the ingredients here, so if you are interested go check out the post on his blog. I only strayed from the original recipe in one instance, I used a good ol' Southern Sweet Water 420 extra pale ale. The pale ale makes for a nice twist to beer bread.

(You know I am going to have to try a Guinness Beer Bread very soon.)

After mixing all the ingredients and scraping them into oiled loaf dish, I put the bread on the Egg for an hour at 350 degrees. We are celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday tomorrow and I thought we might enjoy some bread with the cook out. Tomorrow we will see how many ribs one man can possibly cook at one time on a large BGE.

BBQ Chicken!

2010-02-14T12:49:00.000-08:00

There is perhaps nothing I like better than a good ol fashion weekend cookout. I am talking about when you have company over for hours and you cook with no predetermined time frame and nothing to do the next day. The grill is lit and the beer is flowing and I am about as content as you can be.

Well, that is excatly what my wife and I did yesterday when we had two other couples over and their children for some good BBQ. I decided to cook some chicken and I obviously wanted to make a good impression, so I went for the half chicken approach.

I had two young chickens (approx 4lbs each) and split them first by removing the back bone. The next step is to have them skin side up and to press down with your hand in the middle of the breast until you hear the breast bone break. Then just use a good knife to split the bird down the middle.

I was doing 1/2 chickens for the men and split chicken breasts for the women. I then coated all the chicken in EVOO and applied a BBQ rub.

I then smoked the meat at around 225 degrees for a couple hours. I used a mixture of pecan chunks and apple chips in the fire. I started the meat off skin side down for about 25 min, but I acually think this is more trouble than it is worth (especially if you are using a raised grid) when you are cooking them indirect. During the cook, I sprayed the chicken down with apple juice and covered them with some of my own BBQ sauce. I did this about every 20 to 30 min. I pulled the meat off when the breast meat hit 165 degrees. This took longer than expected but I think that was because I had so much meat on the grill it hurt the air circulation.

When it was all said and done, I served this chicken with potato caserole and baked beans and it was excellent. The meat was juciy and it made you remember why the good old classic of BBQ chicken is hard to beat!

Soy Vay Terriyaki Chicken

2010-02-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night we tried a little something different. First a friend of mine has been raving about this Soy Vay Veri Veri Terriyaki sauce that he found in the Asian section of his grocery store, so we tried that. Second, everything I read says that if you really want to cook good chicken (especially for BBQ purposes) you are cooking chicken thighs. We have never really cooked thighs. So I thought I would give the two a try.

I marinated 4 chicken thighs overnight in the Soy Vay Terriyaki sauce www.soyvay.com and then cooked them indirect at around 270 degrees for about an hour or so. I cooked them skin side down for about 20 min and then flipped them over and left them alone. I am not sure this made much difference. When the internal temp reached 170 degrees, I moved the thighs over the flame, skin side down, to crisp up the skin.

This chicken combined with some Asian rice or noodles is an excellent meal. I also reccommend using the Soy Vay as a dipping sauce with the meal.

Sausage & Pepperoni Pizza

2010-02-10T18:33:00.000-08:00

More pizza! There can never be enough pizza. I was flying solo tonight and set to task to knock out the kids dinner and mine all in one shot. Recently (when my wife is eating with us) I have been using the pre-made grocery store crust. This is because it is safe and predictable and does not make a mess. It tastes excellent...and it tastes like cheating.

When I make my own crust, there is really no guarantee of anything except for the fact that I will make a huge mess. But it is fun! So tonight, I sort of split the difference. I did not mind experimenting with my own crust because it was just me and the kids, but I did not have as much time as usual so I settled with a dough ball bought from Publix Bakery.

I am one of those annoying people who will talk on the phone while in the line in the grocery store and to prove that, I was actually on the phone while I spoke to the woman behind the counter in the bakery. So I think I missed her telling me something like "we are out of the normal dough, but I do have this dough that will rise so much that it can only be described as Super Thick Crust"....but I am getting ahead of myself.

I first rolled the dough out on my pizza peel, which I had already coated with flour and yellow corn meal. I then made the usual for me and the kids...italian sausage and pepperoni (pepperoni only on the portion for the kids). I always empty the sausage from the casing and brown it on the stove.

As you can see this was some thick crust and perhaps I should have just split the ball and then rolled it out even thinner than I did, but again I was pressed for time.

I then cooked the pizza on the plate setter on the BGE at around 475-500 degrees for about 15 min. It was towards the end of this cook that I noticed how much the dough had risen, so I cooked it a little longer than normal to make sure it was done all the way through.

So at the end of the day, I ended up with a thick crust pizza when I was expecting a thin crust pizza at the beginning of the night. This is typical for the types of things that happen when I play around in the crust preparation phase of pizza making. Luckily for me tonight, it was actually very good and did what many store bought crusts cannot, which is truly be something different from store bought oven pizza.

All in all it turned out well and like every time I cook pizza....I am one step closer to making the perfect pie.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

2010-02-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

I love pizza...there is just no other way to say it. One of my favorite pizza's is a good BBQ chicken Pizza. At our house, it is one of my wife's favorite things that come the egg. It also is an excellent way to use up left over smoked chicken.

I was in a hurry today so I just used a pre-made crust from the grocery store(you can make your own and it feels like you have accomplished more, but this is safe, quick, and easy) and made the pizza with some sweet BBQ sauce, fresh cilantro, and chopped smoked chicken. Pretty simple and pretty excellent. Cooked at about 475 degrees for about 12-15 minutes, it is a great option for a quick weekend lunch.

Open Faced Smoked Chicken

2010-02-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been another week on the road and another week missing cooking on the egg (I missed my family as well...for the record). So, despite seemingly perpetual rain,I was cooking tonight.

If you could not tell already from this blog, I am not a complicated eater. I like the simple things. What I especially like though is to find a wide variety of ways to cook my favorites so they do not get old. I am sure over time (and with the help of lots of beer) I will experiment and try many new things...but for tonight, I needed comfort food.

So, I decided I would cook a whole chicken and then pull & chop the meat and have some open face BBQ chicken sandwhiches. To start, I prepped the chicken for a cook "beer can style". This is a pretty easy and quick way to smoke a bird. I rubbed the chicken down, in and out, with John Henry's Pecan rub and then cooked it for approx 2.5 hours at 250 degrees. I used a combination of pecan chuncks and apple chips for the smoke.

When the chicken reached 170 degrees in the breast it was done to my liking. I then carved the meat, and with a little of the skin, chopped it all up on a platter.

Served on buns with a little Sticky Fingers Habanero Hot BBQ sauce (out of my normal Suck Creek Wings Spicy BBQ), combined with some roasted potatoes and baked beans.....it hit the spot!

I think the next variation of the norm will be some good ol fashion BBQ chicken that I was drooling over today on www.thesmokering.com. Split whole chickens and chicken thighs smothered in spicy BBQ sauce does sound good!

Meat and Potato!

2010-01-28T16:47:00.000-08:00

I have been out of town a lot recently and I was getting the itch to throw some red meat on a fire and in a wonderful stroke of luck, my buddy who runs the blog Macon Dinner (www.macondinner.blogspot.com), posted his most recent cook of filet mignon and baked potato and it looked so good I was reminded that imitation is the best form of flattery. So filet and baked potato it was for me!

I bought two smallish filets from the store and came home and basically kept it pretty simple. I rubbed the steaks down with a little kosher salt, black pepper, and Tony C's for a little kick.

The next step is to fire up the Egg to 700+ degrees. Take it from me, you want to becareful of a flame this hot! Sear the steaks for about 2-3 minutes per side.

After you have seared both sides, it is time to shut down all vents and basically let the steaks bake in the trapped heat of the egg. I do that for about another 5 minutes or until the meat reaches approximately 140 degrees, which in my opinion is a very nice medium rare to medium. The steaks have a nice crisp exterior while still being wonderfully juicy. I like to put a little bit of garlic butter on top of the steak and let melt but I did not do that this time as we were in a hurry. This is more for presentation anyway, but isnt that a large part of the fun?

Beer Can Chicken

2010-01-25T20:50:00.001-08:00

I have been out of town and missing the egg, so right on the heels of a big chicken wing lunch, I did a beer can chicken for dinner. This was my first beer can chicken and it was very easy and very tasty.

I used one whole chicken approx. 4lbs from Publix. I washed it and patted it dry prior to rubbing it down with EVOO. The next step was to rub the chicken down. You can use practically anything....or practically nothing depending on your tastes. It it all going to taste great. This time I used a liberal amount of John Henry's Texas Chicken Tickler rub.

I then used about 3/4 of a Yeungling Light (trying to get rid of some stuff people left in my beer fridge) in stand designed for beer can chickens. Then cooked the bird for about 2 hours, or until it reaches 175 degrees in the breast. It was an indirect cook at about 300 degrees. I used Cherry Wood for the smoke flavor. Remember to add more rub down the neck of the chicken once you have it set up so it spills down the cavity of the bird and into the beer. This just adds to the flavor!

That is about it...the only thing left to do is to carve the bird and enjoy!

Wing Sampler!

2010-01-23T11:58:00.000-08:00

I was trying to figure out what type of chicken wings I wanted to cook for lunch and I could not decide, so I cooked three different kinds. I did Sweet Soy Wings (see last post), Traditional Buffalo Wings, and Spicy BBQ Wings.

I cooked the wings indirect at 300 degrees for approx. 45 min turning every 15 min or so. Then I removed the plate setter and cooked the wings direct increasing the temp to about 425 degrees for another 10 min or so just to crisp them up.

I had the Sweet Soy Sauce along with the other two sauces heating up on low during the cook and when the wings were done I let them go "swimming" in each sauce. The Buffalo wing sauce that I used was the mild Suck Creek Wings sauce (my favorite) and I also used the Suck Creek Wings Spicy BBQ sauce.

At the end of the day I had several of each type and they were all excellent. It was hard to pick a favorite. Great meal!

Sweet Soy Wings

2010-01-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

I cooked some sweet soy wings tonight and they were very, very good. I saw this recipe on Evan's website and followed it to the T. Very nicely done....if I did anything different next time it would be to remove the plate setter and grill the wings direct the last 15 min or so of the cook to crisp them up. Check out the full recipe and video at www.evanspices.com/recipe-blog.

Baby Back Ribs!

2010-01-09T12:38:00.001-08:00

I had the inlaws over to enjoy some baby back ribs prep for playoff Saturday! Baby Back Ribs are one of my favorite things to cook and my wife likes the variety you can do with them so we did three different types. I cooked 3 slabs of ribs total and did two slabs wet and one slab dry. Of the two wet slabs, I did one sweet and one spicy.

First, I removed the membrane from the backs of the ribs and cut each slab in half. Then I applied different dry rubs on all three slabs. On the slab that was going to remain dry, I used a liberal amount of Evans' Spice, which a buddy of mine makes and it is always excellent. On the two slabs that I would baste with BBQ sauce I used John Henrys dry rub (both the Alabama Butt Rub and the Pecan rub).

I used my BBQ guru for the first time and got the pit temp up to 220 degrees. I put the 6 half slabs in a v-rack for space and cooked indirect for 2 hours. I then pulled the ribs and wrapped them in aluminum foil. Prior to sealing up the aluminum foil, I poured apple juice in the bottom of the foil boat and sprinkled brown sugar and drizzed honey over the top of the ribs. I then put the six foil packets directly back on the grill grate to cook for another 2 hours at the same 220 degrees (gotta love not having to do anything with the temp thanks to the Guru....but watch for the dampeners and vents being too open and the temp rising!). After that, I unwrapped the ribs and put directly back on the grate for another 30-45 min and basted two of the slabs with BBQ sauce.

For the sweet ribs I used Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet BBQ sauce and for the spicy, I used Suck Creek Wings spicy BBQ. If you have not heard of Suck Creek Wings, go to www.suckcreekwings.com, they make amazing wing sauce and BBQ sauce.

Overall, they were excellent and best enjoyed with a couple nice Titan IPA's (Great Divide Brewery)!

BBQ Guru...

2010-01-08T12:27:00.001-08:00

I ordered a BBQ guru DigiQdx and it just came in. I can not wait to try it out. No more 3am wake up sessions to check on a Boston Butt that is cooking overnight!

First Post

2010-01-05T20:37:00.001-08:00

First let me say that I know nothing about blogging, which is ok because I knew nothing really about grilling and certainly nothing about grilling on a Big Green Egg when I got one this past November. It has been a basically two months, several great smokes, multiple pizza disasters, and 1 burnt gasket (on the second grill ever, which may be a record) and I finally think that I am begining to get the hang of it.

I am starting this blog simply to document what I am cooking on the BGE and to help me remember what I cooked and if it worked out.

I am a novice griller with delusions of grandeur, a short memory, and a soft spot for a burning fire and a cold beer.

Here are some pictures of things that I have done over the past two months on the BGE...