National BBQ Day?

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
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Coolidge, AZ
Seems that in addition to Memorial Day, it is also National BBQ Day. In that honor I got myself a grill basket. Another round with Pepper Poppers and BBQ Chicken today. Also grilled quash. Maybe I can get the poppers to hold together when I flip them now.

What are you eating today?
 
I have my MasterBuilt pre-heating now. I have two 2.5lb meatloaves prepped and ready to go along with two nice sized chicken leg quarters. I'll put everything in the smoker about 1pm at 250° with applewood chips. It'll be ready about 5pm or so. Bobbie cut up some onion that I'll toss in the smoker for a short while, then caramelize it with potato chunks. Add some salad and we'll eat good tonight!
 
Had lamb kebabs yesterday, like Sharon said, keeping it simple today. Too many projects to spend much time cooking.

Carol, Do the poppers low and slow, no need to flip them. Esp if you have them cut in half.
 
Did my cooking last night...made the mistake of starting a 4 pound pork loin at 10:00 PM. In an untried smoker, to boot. It was finally done about 3:30 this morning, lol. :rolleyes:

But I CAN say good things about my new remote thermometer, the iGrill Mini from iDevices. I can use my phone to monitor the cook via Bluetooth, and it has a 150 foot range. :thumb:
 
Carol, Do the poppers low and slow, no need to flip them. Esp if you have them cut in half.

I can't adjust the distance from the heat to the grill. i can adjust the heat. The first time, the heat was too high and I brned one side of he bacon, so I turned the heat down to medium for the other side. This time I was going to put them in the basket along with squash slices and grill on medium ans flip to do the other side. Other suggestions?

Also I have boneless chicken thighs I want to grill and brush with BBQ sauce. How long per side for them? Thanks for the help.

Got asked on FB about making poppers. Hope you weigh in. I am the worst possible resource for cooking instructions. :rofl:
 
Change of plans, my wife wanted Grandma Ard's tacos, so made those instead.
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Good memorial day meal. :)
 
Did my cooking last night...made the mistake of starting a 4 pound pork loin at 10:00 PM. In an untried smoker, to boot. It was finally done about 3:30 this morning, lol. :rolleyes:

But I CAN say good things about my new remote thermometer, the iGrill Mini from iDevices. I can use my phone to monitor the cook via Bluetooth, and it has a 150 foot range. :thumb:

What kind of crazy time were you expecting it to be done? Faster or slower?

Love the looks of that temp probe. Thought it was pretty cool, but thought to myself, dang, wish I could also monitor the temperature of the smoker as well.

Guess what?

They have an I-Grill 2 that has the capability to track 4 temp probes... It's on my amazon wishlist if anyone wants to buy it for me. :rofl:
 
Change of plans, my wife wanted Grandma Ard's tacos, so made those instead.
Good memorial day meal. :)

We made Cochinita Pibil (spicy pork stew) from Cooks Illustrated last weekend. The first night we did it with soft tacos like the recipe called for.

for leftovers, I folded up the meat in softened tortillas and fried them up like this until they were crispy. Oh my, I highly recommend do this for tacos. Way easier than trying to make a taco shell and fill it later.
 
I think I'm going to require a slightly more detailed explanation of those ... for research purposes.

Use thinner corn tortillas, spread a meatball sized piece of hamburger about 1/32" thick across the whole tortilla using a butter knife, salt & pepper. Heat oil in a pan (1/2" deep or so) to medium heat or when a few drops of water in the bottom start to bubble/pop good. Fry each taco for a few seconds or until they start to curl a little, fold in half and fry until meat is just cooked, about a minute or so, drain and place onto a paper towel lined dish. I use a pan large enough for 4 at a time, two folded cooking and can start two others. When I'm done the tortillas are still soft, but a little higher heat and you can have crispy shells, just have to watch a little closer and fold sooner.

You will find that some shells are thinner and cook faster or are thicker and have to cook at a lower temp, just have to experiment. We've done this with flour tortillas as well, but found that seasoned ground beef works better with them.
 
Smoker Time!

Now that our company has left, I'll take a minute to post the goodies.


The prep: 4lb lean ground beef, 1lb Italian sausage, 1/2lb ground pork, seasonings, eggs, etc. for the meat loaves. For the chicken leg quarters, brine overnight, then dust with fajita seasoning and paprika.

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In the smoker at 250°. At 1.5 hours into the smoke, meat loaves and chicken are taking some nice smoke.

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Now 3 hours in and I wrap the chicken and put a couple of sliced onions drizzled with margarine in to smoke.

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Time to eat! Meatloaf has rested a few minutes, so I start slicing.

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One side was sliced russet potatoes I fried in a large wok, then added the onions for the last few minutes.

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The chicken leg quarters will be saved for a meal for LOML and me later in the week.

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;)
 
Thanks Darren, I can work with that :). I made some crispy fried chicken tacos with cabbage topping the other day (basically a thin tempura of about 40% corn starch and 60% flour with a crush of pepper, salt and cayenne add enough beer to make a thin batter, dip and fry). So I have a good chunk of a pack of tortillas (Cindy wasn't willing to wait for me to make those as well) and some grease that needs using so this should fit right in.

Dang Bill you went all out there!
 
What kind of crazy time were you expecting it to be done? Faster or slower?...

I was figuring on about 3, maybe 4 hours. Not 5 1/2, lol. I was using an old Brinkman bullet smoker with an electric heating element in it...no thermostat at all.. This was my first time using it, so I wasn't sure how fast it'd cook. It held a nice steady 215 to 220 degrees as long as I didn't use an extension cord. At one point I added a pretty heavy 15' extension cord (don't recall the wire gauge) to get the smoke away from the back patio and the temp dropped to about 200º.
 
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