Smoked Nachos

It's the smoke that takes these nachos to the next level.

It's hard to find anyone who doesn't like nachos.  Whether you prefer simple cheese nachos or you like to put everything but the kitchen sink on a pile of chips; nachos just work.

In our house of five, it's hard to please everyone when it comes to food.  We cook a lot of truly good food and I am always astonished when one of my daughters tries to act like she doesn't like what we've cooked.  But I can pull these nachos from the grill, set them in the middle of the table out on the back porch, and step back and watch the pizza stone get picked clean, all the way down to them scraping up the burnt cheese with a fork.    

I start these nachos by generously seasoning four or five chicken breast cutlets with a fajita spice blend.  In a preheated, non-stick frying pan I melt a chunk of butter and then cook the chicken five or six minutes per side.  Since the chicken cutlets are sliced thin, be sure not to over cook the chicken or it may dry out.  Once done, set the cooked chicken aside to rest.  

In a bowl, combine one diced tomato and a can of strained and rinsed black beans.  Squeeze the juice from one lime into the tomatoes and black beans and mix together, being careful not to over mix and crush the black beans.  Chop some fresh cilantro and put into another bowl.  Fill a third bowl with the chicken, sliced into bite-sized pieces.  This is the fun part of making nachos because you can pretty much put whatever you want on them.  For us, the tomatoes, black beans, cilantro, and chicken all work well together, but I have a feeling we will be experimenting with all kinds of different toppings.  I melted cheese in the microwave over a bowl of chips and the sausage and scrambled eggs leftover from the buffins we made the other day.  I think I might be on to something.  I am definitely going to try some sausage, egg and cheese breakfast nachos on the grill sometime soon!  The point is, just have fun with it and be creative.   

Along with a bag of your favorite nacho chips and shredded cheese, head out to the grill with the toppings and begin getting the coals ready.  Light half a chimney starter of hardwood lump charcoal.  When it is white hot, dump it into your grill and add four good-sized chunks of hickory or pecan wood.  You want a lot of smoke.  Place your pizza stone on the grill grate and begin building the nachos.  Start with a layer of chips and then a handful of chicken, tomatoes and black beans, cilantro and then cheese.  Add another layer of chips followed by another layer of toppings and cheese.  Finish with one more handful of cilantro.  Close the lid and let them cook for three to five minutes.  Have a hot pad or two in place where you want to serve the nachos because the stone will be hot.  When the cheese is melted and has just begun to brown on the stone, take the nachos off the grill using oven mitts.  Serve the nachos directly from the pizza stone.

Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Buffins

Buffins (breakfast muffins) can be stuffed with just about anything.

These little guys are a stroke of genius my wife came up with a couple of years ago.  We've been doing them in the oven but decided to take them to the next level by baking them out on the grill.  With a little help from a couple of chunks of pecan wood, these things are stupid good!

Pop open a can of Grands Honey Butter biscuits.  Work each biscuit by hand, stretching it out into a piece of dough about six inches in diameter.  Press the pieces of dough down into a greased muffin tin, starting with the middle of the dough in the middle of the cup and working your way out. Allow the extra dough to lap over the edge of each cup.  You will need this dough to fold over the top after the buffins are stuffed.  Fill each cup with a little cheese, precooked sausage, precooked scrambled egg, and a little more cheese.  Fold the remaining dough over the top, sealing off each buffin.

Top with a little cheese or dust with brown sugar before cooking.

Light half a chimney starter of lump hardwood and let it get white hot.  Dump it into the grill and bring the temperature up to 350 degrees.  Add a couple of chunks of pecan or hickory and then put the buffins on.  Close the lid and let them cook for ten minutes before checking on them.  Take them out when they are golden brown.  Let them cool for five minutes before serving.

We usually stuff ours with sausage, egg, and cheese but they can really be stuffed with anything you'd put in a omelette.  Be creative and have fun!   

  
  

Sausage, Basil, and Red Sweet Pepper Pizza

A hot pizza stone gives the crust that brick oven crisp.

I bought my wife a pizza stone for Christmas about ten years ago.  Since then, we have used that thing in the oven to cook everything from biscuits to cinnamon rolls, pigs in a blanket to chocolate chip cookies.  To say that it's well seasoned is an understatement.  But not once, I mean never, did we ever used it the way it was intended.  Even when we would cook pizzas on it, we never preheated our pizza stone.  We were basically using it as a glorified cookie sheet.  I'm embarrassed to say we just didn't know any better.

All of that changed about a year ago.  My horizontal cooker, a Brinkmann grill with an offset smoker box affectionately dubbed "Mr. Draper's Grill" because my best friend and I rescued it from the rubble of Hurricane Katrina (a story for another day), had to be retired because, well, nobody likes rust in their food.  Therefore, I was in the market for another grill.  My wife and I headed to Lowe's in search of another horizontal cooker.  As we walked around looking at a couple of different possibilities, I couldn't help but eyeball the ceramic, kamado style cooker sitting there calling out to me.  The problem; I couldn't afford forking out a grand for a grill.  And then I saw it.  Sitting right there next to the ceramic cooker was a steel, double wall insulated version of a kamado cooker made by Char-Griller for three hundred bucks!  I hadn't read much about the kamado cookers yet, so I headed home and began reading up on this style of cooking.  Basically, a kamado cooker consists of an egg-shaped vessel with an opening in the bottom and top and the ability to change the size of both openings to have complete control of the temperature.  Most are made of ceramic, but a few less expensive versions are made of insulated steel.  One of the words I kept seeing when reading about this type of cooker was "versatile."  So we bought it and it has forever changed the way I cook with wood.  Although I would like to one day upgrade to the Primo Oval XL, the Char-Griller Akorn is a great place to start when it comes to cooking a lot of different kinds of food with wood.

When I decided to try pizza on my new cooker, I knew that a quality pizza stone was crucial.  So I bought a thick stone, sixteen inches in diameter, that was made for grills.  I knew I needed something that could handle the high heat of a grill and I also discovered that the trick was to preheat the stone to between 450 and 500 degrees.  In order to know that the temperature was where it needed to be at grate level, I also invested in a digital, remote thermometer with a sensor that clips directly to the grill grate.

Corn meal sprinkled on the pizza peel will help it slide onto the stone.

Armed with the right tools for the job, we began making pizzas.  Although we make a lot of different pizzas, this one is my favorite.  Before we start doing any rolling out of dough or pizza decorating, I head out to the grill and get a chimney starter full of lump charcoal lit.  As soon as it's ready, I dump it into the grill and add a couple of chucks of hickory or pecan, depending on what I have at the time.  I put the pizza stone down on the grill grate, get my thermometer sensor set, and close the lid.  I bring the temperature up to about 475 and then let it stay there for about an hour.  This lets the pizza stone come all the way up to 475 as well.

We get our pizza dough from Publix.  We prefer the multigrain but will use whatever they have available at the time.  One bag of dough will make two pizzas so my wife splits the dough in half after letting it come up to room temperature.  She rolls the dough out pretty thin and then moves it over to the pizza peel.  Now here's where things get a little weird, but just trust me.  We never use tomato sauce on our pizzas.  No matter what toppings go on the pizza, we begin by lightly coating the dough with Williamson Brothers Barbeque Sauce.  Follow it with a little cheese, diced red bell peppers, fresh basil, Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage that's already been cooked and sliced, and then finish it with more cheese.

Out to the grill I go.  I slide the pizza on to the pizza stone and close the lid.  It usually only takes about five minutes or so to cook, but I know it's ready if I lift the edge a little and the dough has just begun to brown underneath.  Don't leave it too long or the dough will burn.  Our first time at this was a disaster!  When it's done, scoop it up with the pizza peel, let it cool for a few minutes, and then cut and serve.                   

    

Pork Loin Country Style Ribs - Down and Dirty

Boneless pork loin ribs seasoned with salt, pepper, and cumin

Cooking down and dirty is ridiculous good.  I have cooked New York Strip steaks, T-bone steaks, and have mastered the Ribeye steak, both bone-in and boneless.  So I decided to get creative and see what other kinds of meat might work well being cooked directly on the coals.

I picked up some fairly thick pork chops from the grocery the other day, seasoned them with salt, pepper, and cumin, scruffed them and threw them on the coals, basting them with barbecue sauce after every flip. They were stupid good.  The kids loved them and I will definitely cook them again.  But for some reason I still wasn't completely satisfied.  And then I remembered the boneless pork loin country style ribs.

This really is a great cut of pork.  Done correctly, this cut of meat is tender, juicy, and has a great flavor.  The grocery had full length and half length cuts.  I went for the half length cut because I wasn't looking for a ton of meat; just enough for my wife, three kids, and me.  I think I walked away with a pack of nine pieces for about five bucks.

I seasoned the pork with salt, pepper, and cumin and let it sit while I worked on getting the coals ready.  I did not scruff these cuts of meat.  I might try it next time just to see if there's any difference, but decided not to this time.  Not sure why, I just didn't.

I got the coals going just like I always do, filling my chimney starter full of hardwood lump charcoal, letting it get white hot, but this time dumping it into my new down and dirty cooker.  I found an eighteen inch square portable grill on sale at Lowe's for $19.  When I put it together, I followed all of the assembly instructions except for the part that says to attach the lid to the body with the supplied hinges.  I did not attach the lid to the body of the grill because I wanted to be able to completely remove the lid.  It works like a champ!

Before I laid the meat down on the coals, I got my basting brush and a bowl of my favorite barbecue sauce ready.  I also laid my wire cookie cooling rack down over the coals to make basting and flipping easier.

Internal temperature for pork should read at least 145 degrees

I put the meat down on the coals and let them cook for about a minute and then flipped each piece.  After flipping, I basted each piece with the barbecue sauce.  After about a minute, I flipped again and basted.  I continued flipping and basting about four more times.

All of the flipping and basting turned out to be about six minutes of cook time.  I then took the meat off and let it rest for about ten minutes before cutting and serving.  

These guys go very well with macaroni and cheese, baked beans, or a salad.  I went with a cold pasta salad, boiling a box of whole wheat pasta, rinsing with cold water until cool.  I added a can of strained and rinsed black beans and sweet corn, some fresh chopped cilantro and a diced red bell pepper.  I then squeezed two limes into the bowl, seasoned with salt, pepper, and cumin and gave it all a good toss. 
      



  

Cooking Down and Dirty

A cookie cooling rack can be used on the coals if you're worried about a little ash.

I discovered cooking meat directly on the coals, "down and dirty," about a year ago.  I saw a YouTube video of a guy cooking steaks by laying them directly on a bed of hardwood lump charcoal and I was convinced I had to try it.  A couple of days later, my wife and I were at the grocery store, and as we passed through the meat department I decided then and there was the right time to explain to her that I wanted to lay a perfectly good piece of beef directly on a bed of coals and "see what happens."  Needless to say we left the grocery with some random, super cheap cut of beef that I had never heard of before.  I think it was a tiny cut of chuck steak or something, I can't even remember.  All I know is it had decent marble (delicious streaks of white fat running throughout the meat) and it was cheap.

I filled my chimney starter with hardwood lump charcoal (never use manufactured briquettes for down and dirty cooking), let it get good and white hot, and dumped it into a vegetable grilling pan that a friend had given me.  I evened out the pile of coals with a metal spatula so that it was somewhat flat, and blew off what little ash was on the coals.
 
Days before,  while I was reading about cooking down and dirty, I also discovered the art of "scruffing" meat before cooking it.  Scruffing is simply lightly scoring each side of a cut of meat with a sharp knife, so that more surface area is created for flavor to reside.  We will talk more about scruffing later!

So I seasoned my cheap cut of meat with salt and pepper, scruffed it on both sides, and walked outside to my grill, where the bed of coals was waiting.  I gave the coals one last burst of air, blowing away what little bit of ash was there, and then laid my two little pieces of chuck steak down, directly on the coals.

What happened for the next four to five minutes forever changed the way steaks are cooked at my house.  I let the meat cook on one side for about two minutes or so and then flipped it.  What I saw amazed me.  There was no black char or burnt meat, just total and complete deliciousness.  A couple of pieces of charcoal had stuck to the meat so I simply pulled them off with my tongs and put them back in the pile.  No harm, no foul.  After about another three minutes I moved the steaks over to a plate and let them rest for about ten minutes.  

As I sliced and ate my piece of medium rare, perfectly cooked steak, I decided I would never cook steak any other way.     

At my house, when it comes to steaks, down and dirty is the only way to go.