Second Ribs

We decided to try St. Louis Ribs again and to also try some Beef Back Ribs since we’d never had them before.

First we removed the silver skin on the bottom of the ribs by using a case knife to pry it up and then grabbing it with paper towels and ripping it off.

We then wiped down the inside of the Big Easy Electric Smoker Roaster (BEESR) with olive oil.

We put salt and pepper on both sides of the ribs.  We put the rib hangers through the ribs and hung them in the basket with the bone towards the outside of the basket.

Put some pecan wood chips in the smoker box then turned on the BEESR and ran it on 15 for 15 mins or soe til it started smoking.

Put basket in BEESR.

Run on 15 for 30 mins.

Pull out, wrap in Heavy Duty tin foil, 2 layers. Put upright in basket on shelf 2 levels up from bottom.

Run at 15 for another 45 mins.

Remove them from foil, re-hang them, put some Famous Daves BBQ sauce on them, then put the basket back in the BEESR for 10 mins.

Pulled them out and cut them apart with a knife.  The beef ones were pretty decent and had more meat on them than we expected but we still liked the St. Louis ones much better.  Plus the St. Louis ones were cheaper.  Definitely going to stick to the St. Louis ones instead of the beef ones.

BBQ Chicken Thighs

The USDA says that chicken should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.  Meat thermometer manufacturers tell you to test the temperature at the thickest part of the meat without touching the bone.  Problem is, the part that cooks last on a chicken thigh is the part right next to the bone.  In the past, when I’ve tried cooking chicken to 165 degrees at the thickest part, I still end up with blood around the bone.  This doesn’t make me very happy.  All that work and it’s not done!

Being tired of seeing blood in my BBQ chicken, I decided to over cook them this time, then adjust backwards from here til I get it right.  I’m going to cook them to 180 degrees and see how it turns out.

Picked up some chicken thighs at the grocery store and let them thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day, I removed one of the grill grates so we can cook at a lower temperature.

Salt and pepper both sides of chicken.

Preheat the grill, then reduce heat to as low as it will go, around 300 degrees.

Place the chicken thigs skin side down on grill grates.

After 10 minutes, sauce the side facing up, close grill for 2 mins.

Open grill, flip chicken onto an empty spot on the grill and wait for any fast flare ups to die down.  There is usually a bit of grease that has accumulated on the top while cooking which is why we want to flip them to an empty spot so the grease goes over there and not where we are going to continue cooking.

Move them back to wherever you’re cooking them.

Sauce the other side, then close the grill and wait 10 minutes.

Sauce again.

Increase heat slightly and wait til temp hits 180.  Test with a meat thermometer at the thickest part of the thigh.

Sauce again, close grill for 1 min, then remove from grill.

Fully cooked but not quite as moist as I’d like.  I think next time I’ll try 175 degrees instead.

Rosemary Potatoes

We wanted a side dish to go with the brisket so we decided to try out some Rosemary Potatoes.

Put 1 1/2 lbs of Red Potatoes quartered in a big bowl.  That means cut them in half, then cut the halves in half.

Hold on to the stick part of a sprig of rosemary.

Strip the leaves/needles off the stick part. Chop them up so they are only about 1/4 inch long at any part.

Take 3/4 tablespoon of that rosemary and sprinkle it onto the potatoes.

Then take these and sprinkle them all over the potatoes as well:

• 3/4 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/16 teaspoon pepper

Mix it all up with a wooden spoon (or whatever you have).

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Spray down a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

Spread the potatoes around on the cookie sheet.

Once the oven is at 400 degrees, put the cookie sheet into the oven on a shelf near the middle.

Cook for 25 minutes.

Use a fork and poke at the potatoes to see if the fork goes into them easily. If it does, they’re done. If not, give them another 5 minutes and repeat.  Turned out really well.

Second Brisket

We tried another brisket since the first one turned out as good as it did.  We cut this one in half so it would fit flat in the basket in the smoker.  My wife put together a marinade and put the brisket into two zip-lock bags, then put them in the fridge for several hours.

Turned the Big Easy Electric Smoker Roaster (BEESR) on at 15 with some pecan wood chips in the smoker box and let it run for about 15 minutes until it started smoking good.

We put them in the briskets in the basket on the shelves and put a temperature probe into the thickest part of the larger one.  The smaller one was on a shelf two rows up from bottom.  The larger one a few rows up from that.

Once it started smoking good, I put in the basket.  Internal temperature was at 51 when it went in.

After 15 minutes, droped the temperature setting to 8.  Internal temperature was at 76 degrees.

Ran it at 8 til the internal temperature was 160.

At 160, pulled it and wrapped in foil.  Then I put them back in the baskets in the same positions.

Continued at 8 until 195, then FTC.

Pulled them out after several hours and unwrapped them.

Then ran against the grain through the meat slicer.

Plated them up and ate.  Yum.

Burgers on the Griddle

I like burgers. I really do. I’ve tried cooking them on the grill with varying levels of success but they always seem kind of dry to me. Same thing with ones from the fast food places. Places like Burger King where they cook them “flame broiled” seem dried out to me. My wife prefers Burger King over places like McDonald’s and I’m sure plenty of others do as well. Nothing wrong with them but just not my preference.

We decided to try burgers on the griddle. We’ve got a little electric griddle that looks kind of like this:

Since we wanted to do bacon cheeseburgers, we needed bacon.  We bought a package from the store, opened it up, and removed the bacon from the package, and placed it on a baking sheet.  Spread the bacon out, don’t just but the whole clump right there on the sheet, only one piece deep.

Put the bacon in the oven and turn it on to 400 degrees.  Leave it there for 10-15 minutes.  Check it at around 10 minutes.  Different people like bacon at different crispy levels so take it out when it looks like you like it.

Using a kitchen scale, separate out 6 oz of hamburger meat.  If you don’t have a kitchen scale or you aren’t that picky, just wing it and get enough hamburger to make a decent looking patty.

Without over-working the meat, form it into a patty and put a small divot (indentation) in the top (this keeps you from having meatballs instead of burgers).

Salt and pepper both sides of the burger.

Lightly butter the parts of the bun that go towards the burger.

Salt and pepper both sides of the burger.

Pre-heat the griddle to 350 degrees.

Put the buns on the griddle for 2-3 mins.  Lift them off with a plastic spatula once they start getting a little brown.

Place burgers on griddle for 3 mins.

Flip them and cook them for another 3 mins.

Remove the burgers from the griddle and put on a slice of cheese if desired.

Add your desired condiments like ketchup, mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, oh you get the point.

Eat.