Smoker is rolling! Brisket and venison roast.. Yum

The past year has been crazy with photography jobs,  filming the show, and other work related events.   Keeping up with friends kind of slipped onto the back burner so Shelly and I decided to have people over at least 1x a month to try and have some semblance of a social life.

Its really nice taking a whole day off to relax and cook for friends and family.

Today’s menu includes…..

Memphis style BBQ venison roast,   Texas style smoked brisket,  green beans, roasted butternut squash with rosemary and garlic, and home made rolls.     Possibly a pound cake for desert.

My job is to man the smoker so here is what I have rolling.

Rubbed a venison roast in Memphis style BBQ rub and put it on the bottom rack.

Top rack has a flat cut brisket rubbed with a Texas style brisket rub.

Couple chunks of apple wood and a handfull of hickory nuts providing smoke.

Venison roast should be done in 4 hours and sliced thin for lunch meat.

Brisket is going to get 1 of 2 treatments depending on the wife’s plans for the oven.

1. Smoke until our dinner guests arrive at 6pm. This is the least desired option since my smoker seems to have trouble maintaining temp and it might not be tender enough.

2. Smoke for 2-4 hours, mummify in foil and place in oven at 500′ for exactly 60 minutes then turn oven off and don’t open oven for 4 more hours under pain of death. This has always resulted in tasty tender brisket.

What are you making today?

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You can cook a chicken with a brick ??

This month we cook with Grill Master and Charcoal Snob  Paul Holzschuh  (pronounced Hole-Shoe)

We show you how to make your own charcoal in the back yard with a minimum of equipment and expense.   Pretty cool.   Now I have all the high quality natural lump charcoal I want.  No petrol flavor in my BBQ !

Paul also shows us how to grill a whole chicken in under 30 minutes using a brick !   Yes a brick… well a paver or big flat rock works  just as well.     Yeah yeah,  I was skeptical myself …..until I had some.    Its good,  REALLY GOOD!   Somehow the brick keeps the juices in the chicken making it one of the best ways to grill chicken.    One of the awesome things about this  technique  is that its very easy and the skin doesn’t burn into an asphalt like consistency.     It did take me 2 tries to get it just the way I like it, but now its a no brainer.

My Weber grill cooks a little cooler than Pauls with the lid on and all vents open so I had to adjust the time to 15 minutes per side.  (gave the second side an extra 5 minutes)    I guess I should mention that I have a “thing” about chicken….I like mine well done.    SO ….15/10 minutes is probably the “correct” time but I freak out when I have squishy chicken so I cook mine 15/15 minutes.

BRICK CHICKEN

1 whole chicken with back bone removed (use poultry shears)  and sternum cracked from inside with sharp knife. Don’t cut all the way, just break the bone so the  chicken  lays  flat when finished.

Lightly oil the chicken with Olive Oil

Basic Seasoned salt.

Good sprinkle of granulated garlic

Sprinkle of Oregano

Teaspoon of Rosemary  (crush with your fingers and sprinkle on chicken.

Brick Paver or flat rock wrapped in Foil  (keeps the grit off your bird)

DIRECTIONS

Start a chimney of charcoal and spread an even layer of hot coals in the grill.

Clean and prep grill.

Prepare Chicken by washing then remove the backbone, split the sternum and lightly oil.

Sprinkle with basic seasoned salt, garlic, oregano, and rosemary.

Put chicken skin side down  on grill and place brick on top of chicken.  Cover and grill for 15 minutes.

Remove brick to clean spot and flip chicken.  Replace brick, cover grill and cook an additional 10-15 minutes depending on your grill and desired doneness.

Allow Chicken to rest 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!   (Photos to follow when I figure out what memory card they are on)

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Grill Smoked Turkey With Apple and Rosemary

A big thanks to Paul Holzschuh for sending in this tasty recipe!

I grilled my first whole turkey this weekend, and Rainsley and I were pretty happy with the results.  Here’s how it went down:

Grill Smoked Turkey with Apple and Rosemary

11lb bird soaked in water with about a ½ – ¾ cup Kosher salt, ¼ whole peppercorns (mixed) ¼ cup sugar, and 2 of the Zatarain’s boil in a bag.  I brought a cup of water to a boil with the salt, peppercorns, and sugar until the salt and sugar dissolved.  I let it cool and added it to the other water, the turkey and the boil in a bag.  One of the boil in a bags I stuffed in the cavity.  This brined for 24 hours.

I fired up the Weber on day 2 and set up for indirect heat.  It works best if you spread the coals in a ring along the outside edge of the grill so the bird can sit in the middle. (Paul likes to use natural lump charcoal and hickory chips)  While the coals were going I pulled the bird from the brine and rinsed it several times.  Then I rubbed the turkey with a mixture of:

3 Tbs Olive Oil

3 Tbs Lemon Juice

3 Cloves garlic

3 Tbs Fresh Rosemary

2 Tbs Fresh Marjoram

3 Tbs of the Basic Seasoning Salt

(these are all estimates)

Finally, I stuffed the turkey with a lemon quartered, an apple quartered, and fresh sprigs of Rosemary, Sage, and Marjoram.

On the grill it went over a pan of water with the remnants of a cheap bottle of white wine.

After about an hour and a half, I started basting it down with a mixture of rosemary, salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar, and a red onion.

It was one of those crazy days where I was able to get the heat way down low and cooked it for almost 4 hours.  I probably could have pulled it at 3½, but it was still very juicy.  Wrapped the turkey up for a couple of hours and let it set.

Rainsley whipped up some asparagus and rice pilaf and there it was.

Paul

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Memphis Style BBQ Ribs

Hey gang!  Thanks for watching the show and visiting our website.   One of the best things about cooking is tinkering with a recipe until it becomes something unique.   I love to try alternate ways of making a recipe and seeing what comes of it.

Memphis Style BBQ Ribs

Memphis style ribs.

In the rib show we explained how to use indirect heat on the Webber grill to make tender smokey ribs.

So  “What can I do if I don’t have a Webber grill?” Fear not, you can use any charcoal grill or even a gas grill and still get great ribs using the indirect method.

For charcoal grills,  pile your coals on one side of the grill, or put them on both ends of the grill leaving a gap in the middle for your water pan.    Put an 8×8 foil baking pan on the coal rack and fill with water.  Place ribs on the cooking grate over the water pan and there ya go.  Be sure to add some wood chips for smoke and keep the fire low by using your vents.

For Gas Grills put a smoker box on the cooking grate if you have a radiant heat or direct burner gas grill, or pull up one side of the cooking grate and put the smoker box on the lava rocks if your grill has them.  What is a smoker box you ask? A smoker box is  a small iron box that you put your wood chips in to create smoke  when using a gas grill.  The vents in the box limit air flow so the wood chips tend to smolder rather than flame producing smoke for cooking.   You can pick them up at home improvement stores in the grilling section or specialty stores.  They are nice since they produce smoke but contain the ash keeping your grill clean.    You can make your own disposable smoker box by wrapping some soaked wood chips in foil and punching a few holes in the foil with a fork to let the smoke escape.

The basic set up is to fire one side of the gas grill, add your smoker box to that side and put your ribs on the other non-lit side of the grill.   Start with the burner on low and adjust the temp as necessary.  225 is ideal.

Alternate Mop Sauce

Mop sauce of some type is very important for long slow cooking on the grill or smoker so your meat doesn’t dry out.   The mop sauce will add flavor as well.

One very easy and tasty alternate mop sauce I have used on the Memphis Style Ribs is Dr. Pepper.  Yep, a can of soda.  I was out of vinegar and couldn’t make the mop sauce so I rooted around in the fridge and found a can Dr. Pepper so that is what I used.   It adds a bit of sweetness and just a hint of the Dr. Pepper twang.   Since that discovery, I have marinated my ribs in it for a couple hours prior to rubbing them.    Mmmmmm Good!

Feel free to reply with your tips, tricks, and recipes for tasty ribs!

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