Things you will need:

2 Chicken Breasts
Cayenne Pepper
Lemon Juice
Lemon Pepper
4 Slices Fresh Sourdough Bread
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Mayonnaise
Water

First thing I did was throw a skillet on the stove on medium to high heat with just enough vegtable oil in the bottom  to coat the pan.

I throw the chicken on a cutting board and covered it with wax paper and pounded it out with the flat side of a meat tenderizer.  Generously coated the chicken with Lemon Pepper and when the pan was hot enough I threw the chicken in the pan.

When I added the chicken to the pan I added lemon juice to the pan enough get about an 1/8 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch of fluid in the pan.  I then covered it and let the juices steam the chicken as it cooked.

I sprinkled a pink of cayenne pepper on the top side of the chicken, and another pinch again on the bottom side when I flipped it.

I checked the chicken a few times until the chicken started to turn white on the top.  When I noticed that my fluids were running dry I added a little more lemon juice the first time and each time after that I just added tap water to keep fluids in the pan to keep the chicken from burning.

When the chicken turned white on top I flipped it and let it cook till it was the close to the proper temperature.

To finish it off I sliced some sharp cheddar chese put it on top of the chicken and recovered it for a minute or so for the chicken to get nice and melted.

I served this between two toasted slices of sourdough with mayo.

I wasn’t expecting it to be that great but the flavor and juicyness made me want to write down the pseduo recipe in case I decide to try this again.

Sadly no other news or pron.

We had smoked tri-tip sandwiches with fried Zuccini.  That’s not the new part.  I bought the book smoke and spice a week ago and decided to finally put a recipe from the book to work.

I put together a batch of what the book calls:  Alabama Great White.  After putting the sauce together and having the wife taste it she found that it was a little peppery for her taste and she didn’t think that you could taste the cayenne pepper enough.  The sauce has a Ranch dressing kind of look to it.

So in turn we added some additional ingredients and wipped up what is the first batch of what is sure to be a new regular suace in our Kitchen:  Bynie’s Spicy White Que Sauce.   Bynie because that is part of my wife’s online persona.

The recipe is after the jump.

Bynie’s Spicy White Que Sauce

1 1/4 Cups of Mayonnaise (No Miracle Whip Please!)
2 Tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tbsp Coursely Ground Black Pepper  (Reduce to 1 1/2 Tsp if you use normal finely ground pepper)
3/4 Tsp of Salt
2-3 Tsp of Sugar or Splenda (We used Splenda)
1/2 Tsp of Onion Powder
1 1/2 Tsp of Cayenne Pepper

Wisk together the Mayo and 1 Tbsp of the Vinegar until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and add 1 Tbsp of Water.  Wisk until smooth and well mixed.  You can serve this immediatley but I recommend letting it chill in the Refridgerator for at least an hour to let the flavors meld, it definatly changes in flavor after its sat a little bit.

You can store this sauce in an airtight tuperware container in the fridge upto a couple of weeks.

We used this sauce on sourdough rolls for our tritip sandwiches and we also used it as a dipping sauce for the zuccini.

For Father’s day we had my parents and grandparents over for Que.  We bought a huge pack of tri-tip from Costco untrimmed.  It was around 50$ for the bag and the bag was 18 Lbs of meat.  This is kinda important because I did the math on the cost pre and post trimming and I found out that the cost was nearly identical for me to purchase trimmed meat from Costco in the future to what the weight was after trimming and what it actually cost per pound accounting for the fat I trimmed.

Trimmed Fat

To the right is a picture of stack of Fat we were left with after trimming the package of Tri-Tips.  We got 6 whole tri-tips out of the package.  The fat weighed in at around 5 Lbs, I don’t remember exactly unfortunatly I’ve lost the paper I wrote everything down on.  But the bottom line was if you factor in my time to trim the Tri-Tip it was actually more expensive for me to buy untrimmed meat.

Step 1 of Prep

Step Two

Final Step

As for the process.

I applied a very thin coat of mustard to the Tri-Tip a process you’ve read about me using on other meats, I like to use the mustard because it helps the rub stick to the meat better.  You never end up tasting it in the final result and the Vinegar in the Mustard helps tenderize the Meat.

I then applied a coat of Willy’s One-derful Rub to the tri-tip.  I then wrapped the tip up in Aluminum Foil and let them sit in the Fridge overnight.  I’ve done this several times and ive let it sit anywhere from an hour to overnight, the longer the better but if you forget or cant let it sit overnight, an hour is just fine.

Finished Product

Finished Product

Here are just a few of the pictures tri-tip after it had been smoked for about 2 hours.  I smoke them using Kingsford Hickory and Mesquit charcoal bricketts mixed together and Red Oak Chunks.  I put two large chunks on when i first put on the meat and never add more meat.  My wife has complained in the past about too much smoke from oak, so I try to only apply a nice good start and then let it dwindle as the meat cooks.

The finished product - Yummy!

I’ve been reading around the internet about Smoked Meat Loaf.  So this weekend I decided to try it.  I created my own recipe from multiple recipes and put my own spin on it.

Meat Loaf Recipe

1 Lbs of 80/20 Ground Beef
1 Lbs of Country Sausage
2 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 Cup Ketchup
1/6 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Saltine Crackers, Crushed
2/3 Tbs Kosher Salt
1 1/2 Tbs Wild Willy’s Wonederful Rub

Glaze Recipe
1/2 Cup Ketchup
3 Tbs Splenda Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Dry Mustard
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg
1 Tbs Wild Willy’s Wonederful Rub

For the meatloaf I mixed everything thoroughly in a bowl.  Took a loaf pan my wife would usually use to make a meatloaf in and put down a piece of plastic wrap then formed the loaf in the pan and set it in the fridge.

I made the glaze.  My suggestion on this is to sift the dry mustard into the ketchup before adding the other ingredients otherwise the mustard clumps.  I had to make two batches of the glaze because the first time I just dumped in the mustard and it wasnt until i started mixing it I realized I wasnt going to get out the clumps of mustard.

I fired up my smoker and got it nice and hot, as hot as I could get it.  Everything I read told me I had to get the smoker to a steady 300-315 degrees for about two hours.  This is a good place for me to show off one of my new mods well tools.  I found that if i can blow air into the fire chamber vent I can get the smoker upto 600-700 degrees easy.  I’ve also found that in my smoker its hard to get consistent heat in the chamber without some consistent air flow.

I built this.

My Stoker.

It’s a 12v Computer case fan that I use allegator clips to power on my 18v yard tool battery.  The fan is superglued to a piece of 3 inch ABS pipe and then its attached to the wood fram with screws.  It’s pretty low tech.

When I need to push the heat up on my smoker fast, I just clip on the clamps and push the temp to where I need it and when its there take them off.

Alot of times I keep it running and just use the vent to set where I want the temp.  I can generally stabalize my temp somewhere around 215 degrees dead on with the fan on full bore and the vent just barely cracked.

Ready to go outside to the smoker.

Anyways back to the meatloaf.

When the smoker was ready I put my wifes wire cookie cooling rack over a low profile aluminum pan.  This was to keep the meatloaf out of the fat drippings.

One of the sites I saw a recipe for used an upside down cupcake pan in an aluminum foil pan, but I decided I could get a more consistent smoke rink on the whole thing this way.

So I threw it on the smoker at around 350 degrees  and then  I plugged in my digital thermometer and set it to alarm at 165 degrees.  Which is what I found recommended since the FDA recommends 160 degrees on all ground meat.

Half way through

The picture to the right is when the meat hit 100 degrees.  I scored the top of the meat diagonally in a diamond pattern which you can sorta see there and then I smothered the top half of the meatloaf with the glaze sauce listed above.  I didn’t take another mid way picture with sauce on.

The whole process took roughly 2 hours to get the meatloaf to 165 degrees.  Once it was there I put it on a plate and tented aluminum foil over it for 10 minutes as suggested by one of the other blogs I read in my research.

We ended up having oven roasted corn, french bread, and mashed potatoes with it.

The finished product plated and ready to cut up was shown at the top of this post.

As far as my rating let me jut defer to my wife she said, “I am never cooking meatloaf in the oven ever again, this is incredibly delicious.”  As suggested I only put a little smoke into it because ground meat soaks up smoke incredibly well and I am glad that I listened because the Oak flavor was just right.  There was a beautiful 1/4 inch smoke ring the entire crust of the loaf.

Today we had meatloaf sandwiches on grilled sour dough with a little mayonaise.  let me say that I hate meatloaf – but I loved this recipe and the sandwich left me craving more.

I’ve invited my mother over for round 2 of this recipe next friday!

Tip Summary:

Cook at 300-315 degrees for till internal temp reaches 165 degrees.
Go light on the amount of smoke because ground meat really soakes up the flavor.
Let the loaf rest 10 minutes when its done tinted in foil.
From what I’ve read you can use any meatloaf recipe and smoke it and it will turn out great.

Inspiration Resources:

virtualweberbullet.com
smoking-meat.com
thesmokering.com
menuinprogress.com

This recipe is based on a buger my wife tasted and enjoyed at a local burger joint called “Texas Cattle Company” in Lompoc, CA.

Ingredients

2 Lbs of Ground Beef (around 17% fat).
3-4 Tbls Wily’s Wonderful Rub
1 stick of Butter
1.5 Tbls of Crushed or Minced Garlic
1 Small to Medium Basket of sliced white mushrooms

1 can of your favorite chili
4 Slices of Cheddar Cheese
4 Large Hamburger Buns

Directions

1. Pre-heat your smoker to 200-225 degrees.
2. Mix the Rub into the hamburger meat.  Form 4 equal sized balls from the meat.  Try to make the patties about half inch thick, you don’t want them to thick or you wont be able to fit everything on the burger and pick it up.
3. Put the patties on the smoker.  Smoke the burgers for 1.5 to 2 hours 45 minutes to an hour and check them for doneness.  At around an half hour mark from putting on the burgers check to see where they are if they look about half way flip them.4. When the patties are almost to your prefered doneness add the slices of cheddar cheese.  Cook another 5 to 10 minutes to fully melt cheese.
4. While the cheese is melting in your oven broiler toast your hamburger buns.
5. In a large frying pan melt the butter and add the garlic over medium to high heat.  Saute the mushrooms until they begin to turn a nice brown and then turn off the burner.
6. Re-heat your canned Chili Beans.
7. Transfer the hamburgers from the smoker directly onto the buns, add your chili and Mushrooms and Enjoy!

Recipe Revisions from Experience:

1. Reduced smoke time for juicyier burgers.

Anyways I tried smoking the hamburger patties.  225 degrees for what I thought would be about 2 hours.

I seasoned 2 Lbs of Hamburger with about 3 Tablespoons of Willy’s Rub and formed the patties.  The Hamburger fresh from the store came in one of those plastic wrapped tubes though and the meat looked rather dry when it was removed.

I got the smoker upto heat and added an aluminum foil wrapped oak chunk for smoke and threw on the burgers.  I wasnt getting enough smoke out of the foil packet so I poked a couple more holes in the wood which inevitably caused the chunk to flame so I had to remove the foil and ended up just tosing 5 or6 more chuncks of Oak on the charcoal as needed.

The meat itself turned out very favorful but I wish it was not as dry.  I endedup cooking it for about an hour and 20 minutes.  Next time I think I am going to try to cook it for only 45 minutes and check them and maybe go to an hour.  I like my burgers medium rare and they came out a little too done for my taste.

As for the chili I have made this in the past with Dennison’s Chili but when I looked in the cabinet the can I thought I had was misteriously missing.  So I put in a can of Ranch Style Beans and a can of Chili Beans and added a couple dashes of Cayenne Pepper to kick it up a little.  It turned out rather good actually.

As if the blunders weren’t rolling in already, my wife had used the last stick of butter the night before and didn’t bother picking up any more when she got groceries for dinner.  So I endedup sauting the mushrooms in about 5 tablespoons of country crock and 2 tablespoons of EVOO with my crushed garlic.  It turned out okay, not nearly as good as if it had been in butter.

When the burgers looked ready and firm to the touch I added wedges of cheddar cheese to the tops of them and let that melt on the grill while I broiled the buns in the oven to get em toasty.  Got the burgers on the buns, covered them in chili and then mushrooms.

Overall I would give this a 6 out 10 – more for all two major comprimises than how the BBQ turned out.  If I was rating just the BBQ I would say this round of smoked burgers turned out 8 of 10 even as dry as they were.  The flavor of the smoke really added to the burgers in my opinion!

This was my first experience with a rub, it makes quite a bit.  This recipe will fill about half of a large spice shaker and thats okay cause you use alot of it on applications like ribs.

This recipe is a little spicy for those who don’t like spice, but it depends entirely on your spice preference.

This recipe is spicy in that southern spicy kinda way not in the California Mexian Salsa kind of spicy.

The Recipe:

3/4 cup paprika 
1/4 cup ground black pepper 
1/4 cup salt 
1/4 cup sugar 
2 tablespoons chili powder 
2 tablespoons garlic powder 
2 tablespoons onion powder 
2 teaspoons cayenne

Alterations:

• My wife and I originally used this rub as the recipe directs however when we started dieting and trying to watch our sugar and carbs we started making this with splenda and only 1/8th cup of salt.  It tasted pretty much identical.
• Another thing I’ve tried and I am still up in the air on is I ran an entire batch through a coffee grinder until it was a fine powder.  This seemed to make the rub quite a bit more potent on things like chicken and easily seasoned foods.  It was really exceptional in my opinion on things that were harder to get seasoning penetration on like tri-tip.

*Pictures to Come*