Recent Posts
Smoked Bone In Chicken Breasts
Tips For Smoking Bone In Chicken Breasts If using smaller chicken breasts under 1lb, brine them for 3 hours. If they are larger, over 1lb, they will need to brine for 4 hours. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and let rest at room …
Smoked Au Gratin Potatoes
Smoked Au Gratin Potatoes
Who doesn’t like au gratin potatoes? I’ll tell you who. My drummer Sean from Echoes of the Fallen. He told me that he was raised on the boxed au gratins with the dehydrated potatoes and the powdered cheese mix. He said that they were never cooked properly and the potatoes were always hard. He had never had real homemade ones before, so I had him over for dinner to change his mind.Making au gratins is pretty simple. The first thing is to make sure that your potatoes are sliced evenly. Having a mandolin helps with that. I sliced them just over 1/8” thick. They will only need to boil for 5 minutes since they are thin. Cool them in an ice water bath to stop them from cooking. The cheese sauce is simple. Melt butter. Whisk flour. Whisk in cream. Whisk in cheese. Done. In my cheese sauce, I added finely chopped Canadian bacon, smoked onions, and smoked garlic to add more flavor to the potatoes. If you don’t want these in the potatoes, leave them out. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want them. Pour the sauce over a pan of the potatoes and smoke for an hour. Alternatively, if you don’t have a smoker, you can bake these in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.So in the end, Sean and I ate a half a large pan of the au gratins with our smoked chicken. Needless to say, he is now a fan. Fuck you Betty Crocker.
Servings: 8
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- 9”x13” aluminum foil pan
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lbs potatoes thinly sliced on a mandolin
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp flour
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1/4 onion or smoked onion
- 1 head garlic or smoked garlic
- 8 oz Canadian bacon or ham; cubed
- 8 oz cheddar cheese
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the potatoes for 5 minutes.
- Drain and cool in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Set aside.
- Add the ham, onions, and garlic to a food processor.
- Chop finely. Set aside.
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 3 minutes.
- Whisk in the heavy cream, salt, and white pepper.
- Whisk in the ground ham mix. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.
- Whisk in the cheese.
- Cook for 2 more minutes until all of the cheese has melted.
- Layer the potatoes flat in a well greased aluminum foil pan.
- Pour the cheese sauce over the potatoes.
- Top with more cheese.
- Throw the pan in a 250 degree preheated electric smoker for 1 hour. My potatoes smoked with some brined chicken breasts. They were smoked with hickory and apple woods.
Canadian Bacon
Tips For Making Canadian Bacon Brine the pork loin for 3 days. You need to add the pink curing salts. If you skip adding them, you will have smoked pork loin and not the hamminess of Canadian bacon. Dry out the pork loin in the …
Bourbon Soaked Smoked Gouda Smoked Mac n Cheese
Bourbon Soaked Smoked Gouda Smoked Mac n Cheese
I’ve had a lot of versions of smoked mac n cheese, but none of them are even close to being this good (thanks drugs for all the great ideas that you give me). I made a basic cream sauce that had sautéed onions and smoked garlic in it. For the cheese, I found some bourbon soaked smoked gouda at the grocery store. I felt that this was the appropriate cheese to dominate the macaroni world. Once the cheese melts in the cream sauce, stir in the macaroni. Add the mac n cheese to a greased aluminum foil pan. Top it with more of the gouda. Throw it in the smoker for an hour until the top is bubbly and crusty. Wrap it in foil and continue to smoke it for another hour. Let it rest for 30 minutes before serving.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- 9”x13” aluminum foil pan
Ingredients
- 16 oz macaroni or your favorite pasta shape; cooked
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 head smoked garlic cloves chopped
- 1/4 cup white onion finely chopped
- 4 tbsp flour
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 16 oz bourbon soaked smoked gouda grated
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium high heat in a large sauce pan. Sauté the garlic and onions for 5 minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium low. Whisk in the flour. Cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Pour in the heavy cream. Season with salt and white pepper. Whisk continuously for about 5 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.
- Add in half of the grated cheese.
- Stir until the cheese has melted. Turn off the heat.
- Stir in the macaroni, making sure that it is evenly coated in the cheese sauce.
- Add the macaroni to a well greased 9”x13” aluminum foil pan.
- Top the macaroni with the rest of the cheese.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees according to the manufacturer’s directions. Or you can put it in the smoker the last 2 hours of smoking a pork butt. It will only take an hour for the macaroni to brown on top. Wrap the pan in aluminum foil and place back in the smoker for another hour.
Smoked Pork Shoulder (Dry Rubbed)
Tips For Smoking A Dry Rubbed Pork Shoulder Rub the pork shoulder in a thin layer of mustard. The mustard acts as a binder, allowing the dry rub to stick better to the pork shoulder. Marinate the shoulder overnight in the refrigerator. Use a bone …
Pepper Encrusted Smoked Eye of Round Roast
Pepper Encrusted Smoked Eye of Round Roast
After almost 15 years in the meat industry, I can tell you that every butcher I’ve worked with least favorite cut is eye of round. Customers would buy eye of round steaks and grill them. They must like leather. There’s not a lot that you really do with it other than sliced roast beef, and I would choose top round, sirloin tip, or top sirloin over eye any day. But now I found a purpose for eye of round in my life: smoking.There are two approaches you can do with the eye: brine or dry rub. If brining, mix a 1/2 gallon of water with a 1/2 cup of sea salt. Brine for 24 hours. I chose to dry rub the roast. First rub the eye with salt. Let sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. The salt will help extract moisture and dry out the roast. The rub the exterior with black and white pepper. Let it sit in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. Before you smoke the roast, let sit at room temperature for an hour.Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees according to the manufacturer’s directions. I am using mesquite and pecan wood for smoking. Place the eye of round roast in the smoker fat side down. It is best to use a probe thermometer right off the bat to monitor the temperature. Smoke to your preferred doneness: 125 degrees-rare; 135 degrees-medium rare; 145 degrees-medium; 150 degrees-medium well; 160 degrees-well done. Pull the beef from the smoker and let rest for 15 minutes. You will want to pull the roast from the smoker 10 degrees shy of the internal tempature that you are looking for. The temp will go up 10 degrees internally after you let it rest.Once the roast has rested, slice thinly. This is great for sliced roast beef for sandwiches, which I included a simple recipe below. You will never eat at Arby’s again after you taste what real smoked roast beef is.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
Ingredients
- 4 lb beef eye of round roast trimmed; fat cap left on
- 3 tbsp sea salt
- 3 tbsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp white pepper
Wood Chips
- mesquite wood chips
- pecan wood chips
Instructions
- If you bought a whole untrimmed eye of round; trim it, but leave the fat cap on.
- Place the eye in a baking dish. Rub salt over the entire roast. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. The salt will extract moisture and help dry out the exterior of the roast.
- Rub the roast with the black and white pepper. Return to the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees according to the manufacturer’s directions. Place the roast in the smoker. Using a probe thermometer, smoke to your preferred doneness: 125 degrees-rare; 135 degrees-medium rare; 145 degrees-medium; 150 degrees-medium well; 160 degrees-well done.
- Pull the beef from the smoker and let rest for 15 minutes. You will want to pull the roast from the smoker 10 degrees shy of the internal tempature that you are looking for. The temp will go up 10 degrees internally after you let it rest.
Tips For Smoking Eye Of Round Roast
- Rub salt into the roast and let sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This will help extract moisture and dry out the roast.
- Let the roast sit out at room temperature for an hour. Throwing a cold roast in a smoker will take longer to cook.
- Using a probe thermometer, smoke to your preferred doneness: 125 degrees-rare; 135 degrees-medium rare; 145 degrees-medium; 150 degrees-medium well; 160 degrees-well done.
- You will want to pull the roast from the smoker 10 degrees shy of the internal tempature that you are looking for. The temp will go up 10 degrees internally after you let it rest for 15 minutes.
