Barbecue Breakfast "Fattie" Roll

Sliced BBQ Breakfast "Fattie" Roll

Took a bit of a break here, lately, from writing up my cooking exploits. I needed a bit of time to experiment and come up with some new ideas. There were some good, some bad, and some ugly -- but this one, you're sure to love! 

I've made something similar to this once before for dinner, but with different ingredients inside. That's the beauty of the "fattie" roll -- you can put just about anything you want in it and it'll still taste great! This time, I woke up and decided I really wanted a good, hearty, old-school breakfast -- but grilled. I'd cook just about anything on a grill, given a choice.

Basically, it's an omlete wrapped and rolled up in a layer of Italian sausage, then that is wrapped in thin strips of bacon. The roll is then grilled over indirect, medium heat until it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees and the bacon is crisped.

The prep-work for this meal is a little time consuming but well worth it. I began by dicing up a few things for the filling. I decided on Portabello mushrooms, green bell pepper, and Vidalia onion. I added a little olive oil into a shallow pan, then sauteed until the onion began to look slightly translucent. I then whisked three eggs together in a separate bowl and poured it into the pan with the other ingredients, making something similar to a fritatta. 

Meanwhile, I took about a pound of Italian sausage filling (not in a sausage casing, just the raw sausage meat) and squeezed it into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. With a rolling pin, I flattened the meat out into a sheet until it filled the bag corner to corner. I cut away the bag along the edges and flopped the sheet of sausage meat onto a large piece of heavy-duty foil, which was pre-rubbed with Pam spray. 

Once the sausage sheet was laid out, I began putting in the filling. What I learned from previous experience is that it's usually best to only put the filling over about one third of the sausage sheet, that way it rolls easily. I added some shredded cheese over the top of my omlete/fritatta-looking filling and began rolling the sausage around it, similar to a Swiss Roll. It goes a lot more smoothly if you just use the foil to roll it up, rather than trying to manipulate the meat-sheet (it's way too soft for that).  When the roll looked about right, I then twisted up the ends of the foil around it (picture a Tootsie roll). I twisted it up tightly, helping to compress the roll a bit and making it much easier to manage for the next step.

After a few minutes in the fridge, I brought the wrapped up roll out and removed the foil. Then I took bacon and wrapped it around the roll, pinning the loose ends down with soaked toothpicks. (Thin bacon is best, as it crisps better and cooks more quickly). 

And onto the grill it went!

As you can see in the picture, all the hot coals are on the opposite side of the grill from the breakfast roll. I tossed some soaked applewood and cherrywood chips onto the coals to produce a soft, aromatic smoke. Then I closed up the grill and manipulated the vents until it held a steady temperature of 350 degrees. (You could just as easily do the same thing in an oven, just skip the wood chips).

After about an hour, I added some more wood chips and opened the vents further, kicking the temperature up to around 425 degrees. I wanted to make sure that the bacon crisped nicely, along with absorbing the sweet apple and cherry smoke. 

It took about another 45 minutes for the roll to reach its desired temperature of 160 degrees. I removed it, then loosely wrapped it in foil for about 15 minutes, letting the juices redistribute back through the roll. Then I sliced, served, and devoured. Score!

Not-Yo-Momma's Meatloaf

Finished meatlof

A lot of people just cringe when they hear "meatloaf." Dry, flavorless, and something to avoid at all costs. I remember not wanting to eat meatloaf as a kid -- tasted like a ketchup-laden slab of dry meat, which never struck me as a huge treat. Personally, I don't think there are too many dishes that, when done properly, can't be enjoyable. So I decided to revisit meatloaf and see if I could come up with a recipe that would make it more moist, flavorful, and generally defy the preconceived notions that a lot of folks have about this dish.

I poked around the internet to find a basic meatloaf recipe to modify. Seemed pretty straight-forward, really -- very similar to putting together your own hamburger patties, except you make more of it and form it all into a loaf.

From the research I did, not many people were adding seasoning to their meatloaf. I really wanted it to be more than a bland log of meat with some peppers and onions in it. I put the basic "mandatory" ingredients into a mixing bowl and added things I thought would work well and compliment each others' flavor, then continued to tweak the recipe until it felt like the right consistency. When all was said and done, this is what I had come up with:

All put together, ready to cook

• 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
• 1/2 lb. Italian-style ground pork sausage
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced (optional)
• 1 cup   2 C. fresh bread crumbs or saltine cracker crumbs
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 TBS hot sauce of choice
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 tsp course-ground black pepper
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 handful of dry steak/beef seasoning of choice (McCormicks, Mrs. Dash, Stubbs, whatever you like)
• 1/2 C. ketchup
• 1/2 C Barbecue sauce
• 1/4 C milk

Once that was all mixed together nicely, I formed it into a "loaf" shape using a bread pan, then slid it out into a disposable foil roasting pan. Instead of tossing this little concoction into the oven, as is the status-quo, I opted to put it into my smoker. 

Before I go on, a few optional changes:

You could just as easily put it on a grill, if you wanted -- I just thought it would add another dimension of flavor to get a light wood smoke into the meat, complimenting the BBQ sauce I used in the recipe (a honey smokehouse-type that I made myself). And if you want to avoid the barbecue/smoker angle all together, you could add a half-bottle of "Stubb's Liquid Smoke" to the meatloaf mixture, then put it in the oven.

 So, onto the smoker it went. I guesstimated that it would take around 4 hours at 240* to be done properly. I was shooting for 165* internal temperature and decided to check it once an hour. I also decided to baste the meatloaf with a light coating of BBQ sauce and the drippings in the pan twice during the cooking process to help it keep moist and absorb even more flavor.

Sure enough, as predicted, it took just shy of four hours to reach the desired 165 degree internal temp. I took the pan off the smoker and covered the top with foil for around 15 minutes. Then I transferred it to a serving platter and sliced it up.

My first go-round trying this recipe, the meatloaf was a little loose. It fell apart a bit when I went to slice it up. I changed the amount of bread crumbs from 1 cup to 2 cups -- that caused it to hold together much better. After that minor change, the recipe came out exactly the way I had hoped it would and held together just right. It was very juicy and full of flavor. This recipe totally destroyed the negative image of meatloaf I had for so many years. Tell you what, I'm definitely making this again!

Marinated Tri-Tip Sandwiches

Finished tri-tip sandwich

This delicious dish is something of a west-coast specialty. It's nearly impossible to find a tri-tip roast on the east coast or in the Midwest. Boy, are they missing out! Plus, tri-tip is surprisingly easy to make. The meat requires very little seasoning to taste amazing -- just let the natural flavor of beef shine through.

I've had good luck with marinated tri-tip roasts in the past, so I went back to Winco and purchased about a 3 pound "garlic herb" marinated tri-tip. Last time I made one, my friends devoured it despite the fact that I had charred it too heavily.

Seasoned tri-tip, ready to grill

Once I cut the meat out of the wrapping, I applied a small amount of dry rub to it (just a personal preference). If you really wanted to go with a minimalist approach, you could just pat in a little McCormicks steak seasoning (available at pretty much any chain grocery store). But I digress...

Fire! Fire!

Rather than toss this lovely piece of meat on the smoker (usually reserved for less-than-ideal cuts), I decided to fire up the old-school Weber charcoal grill. But, instead of the usual "hot coals everywhere" setup, I rigged it for indirect heat -- basically hot coals on only one side of the grill, leaving the other half as a cool-zone. When the coals had turned gray, I added the tri-tip to the cool zone and closed up the lid. My thermometer was registering about 325 degrees at grill level on the cooler side.

After 15 minutes I flipped the tri-tip over, keeping it on the cooler side. My Weber was still maintaining around 325 degrees, which seemed just right to me. All totaled, the meat got 30 minutes of grill-time at 325 degrees. Then, before I seared the meat, I checked the internal temperature and found it was about 130 degrees at the thickest point -- just about medium-rare.

Searing in the flavor and juices

I opened the grill up to let in some oxygen and really get the coals burning hot for my sear. It took just a few minutes, but the grill temperature kicked up to around 550 degrees. I moved the tri-tip over the hot-coal-side of the grill and let the meat sear for 3 minutes on each side to give it a nice char which is characteristic of any good tri-tip roast. After pulling the meat off of the grill, I checked the internal temperature and found it had climbed to 142 degrees -- just below medium, right where I wanted it.

Seared, sliced, and ready to rock!

So, inside I went to foil wrap the meat. I let it rest for about 10 minutes and began making thin slices across the grain. It was very juicy, tender, and very flavorful (any real BBQ aficionado can't help but taste test, and often). Then I grabbed the French sandwich buns I bought, added a few slices of provolone cheese, packed it full of tri-tip, and added a bit of my homemade BBQ sauce across the top. It was delicious and a total cinch to make! My folks said they wouldn't change a thing, and I have to agree. I would eat those sandwiches every day if I could afford it.

Bourbon-Bathed Baby Backs with Memphis Magic Dust

First thing when I started getting my prep work done for this recipe, I already had a feeling it was going to be an ordeal -- not because this is a hard recipe to follow, mind you, but because of how ridiculous Sacramento-area grocery stores are. Seriously, how hard should it be to find two racks of fresh baby-back ribs? Isn't that a fairly common thing for people to throw on a grill? The only place I could find with baby back ribs that weren't frozen into a freakin' ice cube was Winco, of all places. Anyway, first things first...

After I located some baby backs, I had to get moving on making the marinade or my ribs wouldn't have enough time to soak before I got them on my smoker. I've never used this marinade before, but how could I not try it when it has bourbon and a can of beer in the ingredients list?!  All in all, the "Bourbon Bath" consisted of:

• 1/2 cup of Jim Beam
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 can of beer (I used Bud Light, since it's what I had on hand)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

I stirred that up, brought it up to a boil, then let it cool for about an hour. Then I put my racks of ribs into large Ziploc bags and poured in the marinade, sealed 'em up, and put them in the fridge to do their thing until just before cook time. Not gonna lie, the marinade smelled awesome so I was feeling pretty hopeful!

(Make sure you remove the membrane or "fell" from the rib bones before you start marinading or seasoning the meat!)

While I was waiting for the meat to be grill-ready, I went about putting together my own spin on what's known as Memphis Magic Dust. And the beautiful thing about this rub -- it's easy and I had all the ingredients! All I did was take the items below, stir them together in a metal mixing bowl, and cover them up until the ribs were done marinating.

• 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup paprika
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1/4 cup garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 2 teaspoons rosemary powder

(I made a few minor changes to the original rub recipe to suit my personal taste.)

Dry rub texture pre-smoke

So, after a few hours, I removed the ribs from the wet marinade and applied the dry rub. I wrapped them back up in plastic and refrigerated them a bit longer. While the meat was taking to the dry rub, I went ahead and pre-heated the smoker. It usually takes about 45 mins to an hour for my smoker to get to its target temperature of 240 degrees. I also started soaking my wood chunks that would be going into the smoker.

Right on schedule, I put the ribs onto the smoker. I chose hickory wood to create my smoke, which is usually my choice when doing pork. I closed up the smoker, not to open it again for around 3 hours. Then I got myself situated with a bucket full of beers, popped a movie in the DVD player, and kicked back for a while.  (One of my favorite things about slow cooking on the smoker!)

Three hours later, the rib meat was beginning to retract nicely from the tip of the bones. I went ahead and wrapped them in foil with just a little bit of apple juice inside, then put them back on the smoker. (Apple juice is known to help tenderize meat while maintaining internal moisture. The addition of juice, however, is optional.)  And so back on they went for another hour.

Note the golden color and rib retraction:
good signs!

Just before going in foil wrap

An hour passed and I was chomping at the bit to remove the ribs and get them sauced! I pulled them off the smoker and found that they had done just what I had in mind:  stayed moist, retracted from the bone a tad bit more, and the dry rub had formed a nice "bark" or semi-hard crust. From there, I chose a store-bought barbecue sauce and added a light coating to the meaty surface of the ribs. Then, into a pre-heated 350 degree oven they went -- to caramelize and crisp the sauce a little.

After receiving a light coat of sauce

While the ribs were in the oven, I kept an eye on them to make sure I didn't burn the sauce (or meat, for that matter). Once fifteen minutes had gone by, I felt like the sauce was sufficiently darkened and it was "time." I pulled the ribs out of the oven and covered them in foil for 10 more minutes to rest before being sliced up.

See the red "smoke ring"?

Oh my goodness was I pleased when I began to cut into the ribs! I was able to pull the ribs apart easily with just a bit of a tug, no knife required -- now that's what they mean when they say "falling off the bone." I also noticed that there was a good smoke ring around the outer layer of the flesh (indicates depth of smoke penetration/flavor into the meat). In the pictures below, it's the outside part of the meat that looks a pink-ish red.  I was super-stoked at how well these ribs came out, especially in light of my recently failed rib experiment!

Finished product

I would have taken better pictures of the ribs plated up, but I was in a hurry to eat. Do you blame me? 

The Baked Apple Dessert... Revived

I originally intended to make this variation on the baked apple this weekend, but I just couldn't wait any more. I found a cool idea on a BBQ website and decided to play with it a bit. Basically instead of the standard raisin (or whatever) filling, I put in a Snickers bar. I know, I know, that probably sounds pretty weird. Bear with me here.

So on the way home from the shop, I stopped off at the grocery store and picked up a few Fuji apples and a couple of Snickers bars. You can use whatever you like, but this tends to come out better with a more firm apple. I had all the other ingredients at home already, so it worked out nicely.


I peeled the apples, then removed the core with a paring knife and a melon baller. Then I took my Snickers bar, cut it in half, and inserted it into the cavity I'd created with the melon baller. I took the other half of the Snickers and shaved off some little pieces to help plug up the gaps between the walls of the "apple cup" and the piece of candy bar already inside. Once I had jammed all the little Snickers shards in there, it looked something like this...

About halfway through the process

So far, this process had taken me all of about 10 minutes to prep three apples. Pretty easy so far, right? Anyway, next I shook some cinnamon onto the outer flesh of the apple and rubbed it around so it had a light, even coating. All that was left to do was top it off with some brown sugar, wrap, and pop it in the oven. (I used the common store-variety brown sugar, but I think that the darker type might even be better. Maybe I'll try that next time.) I used a tablespoon and made a brown sugar "cap" over the top of the hole and packed it down. 

I wrapped the apples tightly in foil, placed them in a baking pan, and put them into the oven at 250 degrees. I guessed the bake time would be right about 2 hours but, in the interest of not burning the apples, I decided to check them at the 90 minute mark. My thinking was that the foil would help retain moisture and that I could drizzle whatever juices might accumulate in the pan over the top of the apples before serving.

I suppose I could have cooked this dish in the barbecue, keeping with the theme of the dishes I've made up to this point. It just seemed like a lot of unnecessary trouble to fire up the smoker or a light bunch of charcoal in the Weber kettle grill just to cook three apples. Had I been grilling some other dish at the same time, I probably would have done that. But in this case, it was just easier to use the oven -- and easy, after all, is the whole point of this dessert. 

...Ninety minutes came and went, and not nearly fast enough! I wanted dessert! I pulled the apples out, opened up the foil and checked how they were coming along. Everything looked good, but I felt like a bit more time baking would be beneficial. Back into the oven for another 20 minutes or so...

And after what seemed like an eternity, particularly for a hungry guy with a sweet-tooth, the baked apples were ready! I let them rest another ten minutes in their foil wrapping to retain juices, then served with vanilla bean ice cream. It looked just like I had hoped and the texture seemed just right. Success!

Voila! Random, but good!

Rotisserie Whole Chicken

Had a friend request that I do a dish with chicken. I like that idea, since I've been spending waaaay too much money on meats lately and chicken is relatively easy to do. Plus I have this lovely new rotisserie attachment for the gas grill, so I figured today was a good day to give that a test run. (And by new, I mean I've had it for I don't know how many months and never bothered to get it out of the box. haha)

Took me about 30 minutes to get the rotisserie installed on the grill and run the cords to it in such away that the dogs won't be tempted to snack on the cords.

Then I went down to Winco and picked up a whole chicken. Prepping a chicken is definitely not one of my favorite things to do, even if it is easy. Something about reaching inside a cold, clammy animal carcass is less than appealing to me. Shudder.

Anyway, I got back from the store, hollowed the chicken out, put it on the rotisserie rod, and began adding the dry rub. It consisted of:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon French thyme
• 1 teaspoon sage
• 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon "Sweet mesquite" seasoning (from Costco)

I put all those things into a shaker jar, mixed them together and headed out to season the chicken. 

Now, last time I did a barbecue chicken, the skin was very soft and basically fell off when I was carving the bird. To avoid that, I went searching through various internet forums to find a trick to crisp the skin without burning the chicken. There were a few different pieces of advice from fellow barbecue enthusiasts ranging from rubbing the chicken with mayo to using a blowtorch to crisp it. I decided on a more moderate approach:  spraying the skin with Pam, then applying the seasoning, then giving it another light dusting of Pam. 

After shaking the seasoning on, I pinned down the wings and tied up the thighs so they wouldn't flap around (pardon the pun). Then I inserted a pan with water underneath, meant to catch drips and also keep the chicken nice and moist. 

Tied up and ready to roll

Seasoning applied

Once everything was ready, I turned on the burners and switched on the rotisserie motor. My gas grill has four burners and the chicken was positioned right in the middle of the grill. In the interest of not having any flare ups or too much direct heat, I turned on the outer two burners to a medium level. Once I closed the lid, the temperature was holding at about 300 degrees (right where I wanted it).

After about a half hour, I started thinking some smoke would be a nice addition. I set up a small foil "smoke box" with a couple pieces of charcoal and a soaked chunk of mesquite. It smoked away for a little while, but eventually caught fire and spoiled that plan. On a charcoal grill that would have been no problem, but on a gas grill it didn't work out too well. I scrapped that plan and moved on. No harm done.

While the bird was turning, I decided to make a basting sauce for the chicken. Shortly before taking the chicken off the rotisserie, I figured I would baste the chicken with the sauce, crisp it, then wrap in foil and serve. I took a recipe for sauce I've used before and made a few changes for this particular dish (namely the chicken broth, lemon juice, garlic, and honey). When all was said and done, it contained:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce
• 5 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic

(By the way, if you happen to be making this sauce at some point and it smells very strongly of vinegar and/or very acidic as you're boiling it, don't worry -- that cooks off and will leave you with a sweet and tangy sauce without the weird smell. Worse case, if it really bothers you then scale back the amount of cider vinegar and lemon juice by about half.)

I combined all those items in a pan, brought them to a boil, the reduced to a simmer for it to thicken. That took around a half hour. Then I proceeded to crank up the heat to around 400 degrees and baste the chicken while crisping the skin a bit more. 

Once the chicken got to around 180-185 degrees internal temperature (average of three different test sites after about 2 hours of cook time), I shut off the burners and wrapped it in foil to rest for about 15 minutes. The idea is to make sure the juices stay in and that the internal temperature can even out throughout the various areas of the meat without continuing to apply heat from the burners, or so I'm told.

After the chicken was done resting, I went to slice it up. Apparently rotisserie is the way to go for tender chicken! When I went to cut the drumsticks from the body, the bones slipped right out in my hand! I sliced up the rest and served it, giving it another light coat of the sauce I made. I think it came out great, particularly for a first effort using the rotisserie! The pictures speak for themselves. Not bad for an $8 meal!  Hope yours turns out even better! 

Smoked Leg of Lamb Dinner

...So, as this is my first post, I thought I would take a moment to explain what this little blog is all about.

Hi. My name is Peter. I drive a tow truck. I also love to cook and, most recently, have developed an obsession with barbecue. It is, after all, the tail end of summer which, in my mind, is the perfect time to be outdoors cooking.

My goal is to try a new dish, or variation thereof, each week and chronicle my triumphs and/or epic culinary failures (though I hope those will be few and far between). After each dish, I'll share some of the feedback I got, my own thoughts on the dish, and what might be better for next time. With any luck, things will go smoothly.

Now, since we've gotten all that business out of the way -- on to lamb!

I recently purchased an electric smoker unit (known in some circles as "ECB" for "El Cheapo Brinkman"), which makes it much easier to cook low-and-slow or to properly cook a very thick cut of meat without turning the outer layer into a nicely seasoned sheet of charcoal. I'll be using that on this particular dish.
The game plan is to season the lamb with some various complimentary herbs, then toss it on the smoker at around 240 degrees for around 3 hours (give or take) with some hickory wood imparting additional flavor along the way.

I used a seasoning blend of rosemary, thyme, herb de Provance (spelling? IDK, it's French), Kosher salt, lemon pepper, and summer savory. While I was doing that, I realized that no lamb is complete without garlic. I mean, garlic and rosemary are practically required when you make something like this. So, I shaved some slivers of garlic with a razor blade and tucked them into little 3/4 inch slits I made in the skin of the lamb along with adding about a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder (not garlic salt) into the herb mix.  After getting a solid whiff of the herb concoction in front of me, I decided that would be plenty and proceeded to sprinkle it onto the meat, patting it down as I went.

I let the boneless lamb leg stand for a few minutes while I got the smoker prepped. Once the temperature got up to the 225-240 degree range, I put the lamb on the top rack, added some soaked hickory near the heating element, and closed'er up.  I have to be careful not to keep opening that smoker to check the meat too often -- it's a nasty habit I've developed that seems to lead to longer-than-necessary cook times.  :/

After about an hour, I checked the lamb and found it's internal temperature was in the 109-112 degree range... still quite rare. I closed it back up and let it keep doing its thing -- 135-140 degrees is medium rare for lamb and I want to get as close to that as possible before searing it.

Meantime, I decided to make a mint sauce from a recipe I found online. Personally, I don't think a mint sauce sounds like a good choice with lamb, but every book I've read says it's practically mandatory. It was a simple sauce consisting of water, sugar, salt, pepper, mint, and cider vinegar. After reducing that down some (too much water), I let it steep for a bit and went back to check my lamb.

By this point, an hour and a half later, the lamb was upwards of 135 degrees and it seemed like the perfect time to remove it from the smoker and give it a quick sear. I transferred the lamb to my Weber charcoal grill, which I had ready and waiting. Temperature on the grill was around 700 degrees, which is perfect to get some nice grill marks and a slight char flavor. I let it sear for about a minute on each side. Then I removed it from the grill, wrapped it in foil, then wrapped that with a couple old towels and put it in a warm cooler which I had heated up a bit with hot water.

The lamb rested in the foil for around a half hour to make sure the juices were sealed in -- didn't want to slice into it too early and lose moisture/flavor.

When I finally sliced into the meat, it was extremely tender and the flesh coloring was dead on with the medium rare pieces I'd seen in various cookbooks. The inside was nicely marbled, although I felt like the fat-cap (or whatever it's called) on the top was too thick. In retrospect, I probably should have trimmed that better pre-grill. Oh well.

Inside the meat, after slicing

I added a bit of the mint sauce and took a bite, fully expecting to wince from the mint flavor being totally overpowering compared with the meat. To my surprise, it was not overpowering at all and, instead, gave the meat an extra dimension of flavor, bringing out some subtleties that I hadn't noticed before. All things considered, I was very pleased with the outcome.

I threw together a few other items including a Mediterranean salad in Balsamic dressing, garlic pesto bread, long wild rice with an herb butter to complete the plate. Then, dinner was served! The family thought it was great!

The finished plate

Were I to make this again, I think I might try a different seasoning blend or dry rub, but just for the sake of trying something new -- the one I used turned out just the way I had hoped.