So, you know how my sister-in-law Cora is going to start writing for the blog now? Apparently she and her husband (a.k.a. my brother) are on a quest to take over my blog because now HE has written up a recipe to share on the blog. Fine by me…less work for me, more good food for you! Also, the recipe he is sharing is in a competition and we need your votes. It’s easy and you don’t have to sign up for anything, so if you’re bored…GO VOTE! YAY! He’s in the East bracket at the very bottom. Without further ado, here’s Christian! 

This is Jane’s overly bearded brother, Christian. Husband of Cora, whom you might remember from such blog posts as Charcuterie for 500, please, Alex.

We bought a house about 2 years ago, moved in and discovered the kitchen oven didn’t work. Like, at all. (Actually, turns out the gas lines didn’t work either as evidenced by the 3 or 4 fire trucks that greeted us within the first week of living in the house, much to the joy of the then 4- and 6-year-olds in the family.)

In the interest of roasting two birds with one heat source, we went ahead and bought a smoker. With no working oven in the house. My wife obviously has a good sense of humor”¦ and an insatiable desire for smoked flank steak. She saw the irony, but also the perfectly smoked bark and juicy inside of our first brisket. It is an oven after all. It just doesn’t make your house hot in the summer.

Today I’m here to share a spectacular grilling recipe of mine with you, born from that smoker, in hopes of warming up the weather to bring on spring. And if it looks good enough to you to lick the screen, I’d love your vote in the “East” division of this lil’ March Madness-style BBQ competition I’m in, bottom right. It’s a tight race and should only take 1 minute. UPDATE: You can’t vote for Christian because he won the competition! SO AWESOME! Go, Christian!

This recipe has emerged from many a trial-and-error cooks. And it’s my favorite. If I made and sold my own barbecue sauce, this would be sketched in the background of the label. It uses the smoker first and then the grill to finish it off. If you don’t have a smoker, you can skip step 3 and go straight to the grill. It will still be delicious.

But let me tell you. It only takes one smoke to never stop.

If you have even the faintest of a smoke itch, check out a pellet smoker. It makes monitoring the heat source as easy as turning a dial and then you can focus on mastering the craft of BBQ, complete with wood-fueled flavor. And if you’re really feeling the urge to take on Spring with a vengeance, pick up Franklin’s BBQ book. In hardcover; it’s way more fun that way. If you can cook it in an oven, you can cook it in a smoker. Smoking opens up all sorts of culinary opportunity.

With that, enjoy the recipe! And support competitive smoking (I’m the bottom right matchup). It’ll only take a second and then the steak will be spread to more beloved hearts.

Smoke ’n Grill Flank Steak

 

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Get the smokey goodness of the smoker and the searing punch of the grill all in one glorious, marinaded slab of heaven. The smell of the marinade will make you want to pop open a beer at 11:00am, the aroma of the smoker will get the neighbors peaking over the fence, and the fire of the grill that afternoon will ensure your status as BBQ god amongst friends.

Author: Christian Wallin

Ingredients

• 2 lb flank steak
• ¼ cup red wine
• ¼ cup vegetable oil (I don’t use olive so it doesn’t solidify in the fridge)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ⅛ cup soy sauce
• A little less than ⅛ cup Worcestershire sauce
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 limes, fresh squeezed

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients for the marinade in a bowl. Give it a stir and take a good whiff - it should make you want to lick it. Need some more citrus? A lil' more garlic? Add it. I like a strong garlic presence, solid lime scent, a wave of soy and enough Worcestershire sauce to make it unique (a little less than ⅛ cup).
2. Put it in a plastic bag with the meat. Push out as much air as you can without shooting the marinade across the counter. Toss it in the fridge for 8 hours. I use vegetable oil instead of olive so the marinade doesn't solidify in the fridge.
3. Load up your smoker with your wood of choice. I often use mesquite or hickory, maybe some apple mixed in. Keep it at about 180-200 degrees for 3 hours. If your steak is smaller, shoot more for 2½ hours.
4. In the last 30 min of smoking, fire up your grill. I use charcoal because I can get it HOT. You want it as high as you can get it. Visiting my parents once I set their gas grill aflame getting it to where I wanted it. Not the safest grill moment I've had but had a hell of a good sear.
5. Once your coals and grill are hot (HOT), transfer the steak from the smoker. Grill it about 3 minutes per side. You want to sear the dickens out of it, getting some nice char and grill markage. It will go about a minute faster than usual because the temperature of the meat is higher from smoking.
6. Knowing when to pull a steak off is a bit of an art, but just takes practice. This steak is a little different because it will seem stiffer from smoking, but follow you gut. If you're unfamiliar with steak doneness, Google "using palm to test steak." It's remarkably accurate.
7. Pull the steak off the grill, wrap in foil and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.
8. Carve that sucker, against the grain. Pencil-width slices. Adorn with Chimichurri sauce and sides of your liking. Crack a beer or other favorite beverage and bask in the smoky grace of BBQ.

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Chimichurri

 

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Author: Christian Wallin

Ingredients

• 1 bunch cilantro, washed WELL and chopped
• 6 large cloves garlic, minced
• ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• 1 lime, fresh squeezed
• 1 tablespoon diced red onion
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Put all ingredient in a food processor or blender and ZOOT! ZOOT!
2. You're done. Easy. Be a hero and offer it to your guests for their steak.

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I don’t use my crock pot nearly enough. I don’t know why, I just sort of forget it’s there. But I should because it really is pretty awesome. The recipes usually only take a few minutes to prepare and normally involve simply dumping a few ingredients into the slow cooker. Then you walk away and forget about the food until dinner rolls around. Again, why don’t I do this more often?!

I recently had the chance to try one of Campbell’s new Dinner Sauces. I could choose between a skillet sauce or a slow cooker sauce. I decided to pull the crock post out of the cabinet above the fridge and let it do its job! We picked the Sweet Korean BBQ dinner sauce to try and had it for dinner last night.

We loved this sauce for a few reasons:

• Dinner prep was SO easy. The BBQ beef was simple to prepare, and when dinnertime rolled around, it only took me a few minutes to pull everything together.
• The kids loved the BBQ beef served over rice with a veggie on the side. They all had seconds, thirds, fourths – I’m not exaggerating!
• Nate and I went with the package’s serving suggestion of eating the BBQ beef as tacos. SO GOOD. I can’t tell you how happy I am there are leftovers for my lunch today!

I rarely buy pre-made sauces and dinners because, well, I usually don’t think they are that good. But this Sweet Korean BBQ was awesome and I’m really happy we tried it!

Slow Cooker Sweet Korean BBQ Beef Tacos

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish, Beef

Cuisine: Korean

Ingredients

• 1 package Campbell’s Sweet Korean BBQ Dinner Sauce
• 3ish pound chuck roast (The back of the package calls for a 2-3 pound roast, but my roast was over three pounds and there was plenty of sauce for that amount of meat. I would recommend going with the bigger size roast.)
• Coleslaw mix (no dressing, just the cabbage mixture)
• Flour tortillas
• Sour cream
• Hot sauce

Instructions

1. Place chuck roast in crock pot and pour Sweet Korean BBQ sauce over the meat. Turn crock pot on low and cook for 7-8 hours.
2. Remove meat from crock pot. Cut up or shred the meat. Return meat to slow cooker and mix with the sauce.
3. Heat flour tortillas then top with beef, coleslaw, sour cream dollops and a bit of hot sauce if you want some heat. Wrap like a burrito if your tortilla is bigger or fold like a taco for smaller tortillas.

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This is a sponsored post through DailyBuzz and is brought to you by Campbell’s Dinner Sauces, weekend-worthy dinners with only weekday-level effort needed! All opinions are my own. Learn more at http://www.campbellsauces.com/.

After much convincing, I’ve wrangled a sort-of recipe from my future brother-in-law Norman for his barbecue hot wings. He prides himself on his secret chicken wings recipe…but I suppose the desire to get on the blog overcame that pride. 😉  He even took these shots of the prep process for me since I didn’t have my camera handy. Amazing how a NYC fashion photographer can even make raw chicken look good.

Last week on the Cape Norm grilled up some barbecue wings and drumsticks for the family – spicy wings and not-so-spicy drumsticks. They were delicious, so I wanted to share the sauce recipe with you.  If you remember from this week’s menu post, he also grilled up some amazing corn….that recipe is still to come. You’ll love it.

Hot BBQ Chicken Wings (or Not-So-Hot Drumsticks, if you prefer)

 

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From Norman Nelson

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish, Poultry

Ingredients

• Stubbs spicy barbecue sauce for hot wings; Stubbs regular bbq sauce for drumsticks and breasts
• Soy sauce
• Vinegar
• French’s yellow mustard
• A1 steak sauce
• Honey or maple syrup
• Hot sauce (to taste, depending on how hot you want it)
• Allspice
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic salt

Instructions

1. In terms of proportions – a few cups of the barbecue sauce should do it. Norman says the secret trick is the yellow mustard – maybe 3 Tablespoons or so, don’t be shy. For the vinegar, soy sauce, steak sauce and honey – I would say a tablespoon or two. A teaspoon or so of the spices should suffice. (I’ll check with Norm to make sure I got all this right!)
2. Mix sauce ingredients. Rinse and pat dry the chicken pieces. Coat chicken with sauce. Sprinkle with fresh tarragon. Let marinate for 2-5 hours. Add a little olive oil before cooking so the chicken doesn’t stick to grill.

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Today I was going to post my pastry chef friend Faye’s recipe for her beautiful nut tart…but then I decided to give you something a little easier, it is Friday after all. How about some barbecue chicken that doesn’t require a grill and decent weather? Sounds good to me!

I really wanted Barbecue Chicken on Memorial Day, but we currently don’t have a grill (a situation we will remedy before we get too far into summer!). I ended up using the oven with success! The chicken came out great, nice and juicy. I know, I know, it’s not from the grill…but it’s certainly a good, easy alternative. The key to cooking it just right (i.e. not drying the dickens out of your chicken!) is using a thermometer…be sure to read about that at the end of the recipe.

Easy Barbecue Chicken...No Matter the Weather

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish, Poultry

Cuisine: American

Ingredients

• Chicken pieces (I used 3 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts this time around)
• Canola Oil
• Salt
• Barbecue Sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Salt the outside of the chicken. Sear chicken until browned. Transfer to a cookie sheet/roasting pan/baking pan/whatever you’ve got! Brush with barbecue sauce. Bake in oven until chicken reaches 165 degrees, brushing on a second layer of sauce about halfway through baking time. Total baking time was about 1 hour.
3. Here is the key to this recipe: use your thermometer! I have an electric Pyrex thermometer with a probe attached to a long wire. I can keep the probe in the meat throughout cooking and set the thermometer to beep at me when the meat reaches 165 degrees. I put the thermometer in the smallest chicken breast. It beeped, I removed that piece of chicken from the oven and then put the thermometer in the middle-sized chicken breast”¦five minutes later it beeped and I took that piece of chicken out. Then I put the thermometer in the third, largest chicken breast and it took another 5 minutes to finish. All three pieces came out nice and juicy”¦I was SO glad I used this technique.

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My favorite pizza place in San Diego is Leucadia Pizzeria. My favorite pizzas at Leucadia are Thai Chicken, Hawaiian and, today’s featured recipe, Barbecue Chicken. Since they won’t deliver to the Bay Area, I’ve had to try to recreate these yummy pizzas at home.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

 

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Simple with a lot of flavor!

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish, Pizza

Cuisine: American

Notes

The BBQ chicken pizza is quite simple. Barbecue sauce, chicken, gouda cheese & cilantro. That’s it, you’re done. I do a mix of gouda and mozzarella cheese so that it’s cheesier (one block of gouda isn’t QUITE enough cheese). Also, the Kansas City BBQ Sauce from Trader Joe’s is mighty fine. PS – The cilantro is KEY. Make sure you put a whole bunch on there (I chop it up before). It gives it the best flavor.

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First off, my apologies to all the vegetarians out there…this is a very MEATY post. 🙂 The first time I had ribs, my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Mark made them for the 4th of July and I was SOLD. And, as I mentioned recently, all I want to eat lately is ribs from Phil’s BBQ (here in San Diego).

Nate and I took a hand at grilling our first ribs this weekend (pictured). They were yummy yummy and cost about half as if we’d gone out. So, here’s how Barbara and Mark taught us how to do it – it’s easy, although cleaning the roasting pan – not so fun.

Featured Recipe: RIBS & Great BBQ Sauce

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish, Beef

Instructions

1. Cook ribs in big roasting pan at 250 degrees for about 5 hours. Place ribs on a rack in the pan and keep some water in the bottom of the pan while cooking. You can roast the day before and refrigerate until you’re ready to grill.
2. Cook ribs on grill, low heat setting, for about 30 minutes or until they’re hot. While they’re cooking, keep slathering with BBQ sauce and turning every few minutes.
3. “What BBQ sauce should I use?” you may be wondering. Barb’s favorite by far is Head Country BBQ sauce, and we have to agree. It is seriously yummy, and you can order it online easy as pie!

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