Tag: American
Smoked Turkey Pot Pot Pie
Smoked Turkey Pot Pot Pie
Happy 420 2021! I have something really special right here. Pot pot pie. Yes, you read that right. Pot pot pie. Made with smoked turkey and homemade smoked turkey stock; and maybe a stick of green butter. Not only is this pot pot pie unbelievably tasty, it will seriously fuck you the fuck up. Like enough to hallucinate fucked up. You can definitely use whatever protein and stock you’d like; chicken, pork, beef, lamb, fish, or even just veggies would all be delicious. If you have the time, you can make your own pie crusts with 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 egg yolk, and 8 tbsp of cold butter; mixed together in a standing mixer and rolled out. But honestly, there’s nothing wrong with premade crusts. Before you consume this pot pot pie, make sure you are aware of how strong your butter is. Mine uses 1/4 oz per stick, which is quite a lot. Especially when you eat half of the pot pot pie and realize that you just consumed an 1/8.
Ingredients
- 1 stick 420 green butter
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 2 medium carrots peeled and diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tsp thyme
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 cups turkey stock or chicken
- 1 lb smoked turkey breast or thigh; chopped
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 3 tbsp parsley chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 pie crusts pre-packaged
- 1 egg beaten with 2 tbsp of milk
Instructions
- Melt the green butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat.
- Sauté the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and thyme for 6-7 minutes.
- Whisk in the flour. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the stock and milk. Bring to a boil and continue whisking for 2 minutes.
- Mix in the turkey, peas, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a round baking dish. Line the baking dish with one of the premade pie crusts.
- Pour in the pot pot pie filling.
- Place the other crust on top of the pie. Crimp the edges of the crusts with a fork to seal. Cut a small vent in the center of the pie crust.
- Brush the entire top crust with the egg wash.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until the crust is browned and flakey. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.
420 Butter
Caution when consuming this. This butter is extremely strong. I put a melon ball sized scoop in my Potato Poblano soup I was eating and was fucked up for 18 hours.
Equipment
- Ardent Nova Decarboxylator
- Magic Butter machine
Ingredients
Decarboxylation
- 1 oz greens, stems and all
The Butter
- 1 oz decarboxylated greens
- 1 lbs unsalted butter
Instructions
Decarboxylation
- Using the Ardent Nova Decarboxylator, add your greens. Don’t break up the buds. Leave in any extra stems. You want to use everything. This machine only holds 14 grams, so you’ll have to do this process in 2 batches.
The Butter
- Using the Magic Butter machine, add all of the greens and 1lb of butter. I let the butter sit out for half a day to soften to room temp.
- Put the cover on the Magic Butter machine. Set the settings to Butter, 160 degrees. This will take about 2 hours to make. Let the magic happen.
- After the 2 hours are up, let sit for a couple of minutes. This butter is very hot.
- Strain the butter through the mesh butter trainer that came with your Magic Butter machine. Make sure to wear the food gloves that came with the machine. You are going to want to squeeze out as much of the butter as possible from the greens.
- Save in a container. Keep in the fridge. If you aren’t going to use all of the butter within a month, keep it in the freezer.
Smoked Turkey Breast
When I see a bone in turkey breast on sale for $.99/lb, I hop on that shit. You can pay up to $10/lb for good quality smoked turkey deli meat; so why not make it at home for a fraction of the price. Even if you don’t have a smoker, you can still brine the breast and roast it in the oven at 325 degrees for 15 minutes per lbs. The internal temp needs to read 165 degrees.Most bone in turkey breasts will weigh between 6-8lbs. For maximum flavor, I like to brine my turkey breasts for 12 hours; pretty much overnight. The turkey breast will need to be pat dry and let to rest at room temp for at least an hour before smoking. If you want to add anymore seasonings to the outside of the breast such as Cajun, lemon pepper, mix herbs, honey, etc, do so now. I left mine plain since there is plenty of flavor in the brine.The nice thing about poultry is that it will take on the flavor of whatever wood chips you choose gor smoking. I used a combination of oak and cherrywood. Smoke the turkey breast at 250 degrees for 3 hours. At the 3 hour mark of smoking, use a probe thermometer to monitor the internal temperature in the thickest part of the breast. You want the thermometer to read 165 degrees. Depending on the size of the breast, this can take an additional 15 minutes – 1 hour. Let the turkey breast rest for 30 minutes before serving.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- Probe Thermometer
Ingredients
- bone in turkey breast 6-8lbs
Brine
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup sea salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 head garlic minced
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp thyme
Wood Chips
- oak wood chips
- cherrywood chips
Instructions
- Mix all of the brining ingredients together. Place the turkey breast in a gallon sized storage bag. Pour in the brine. Brine for 12 hours.
- Pat the turkey breast dry with paper towels. Let sit at room temp an hour before smoking.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees according to the manufacturer’s directions. Place the turkey in the smoker. Smoke for 3 hours.
- At the 3 hour mark of smoking, use a probe thermometer to monitor the internal temperature in the thickest part of the breast. You want the thermometer to read 165 degrees. Depending on the size of the breast, this can take an additional 15 minutes – 1 hour.
- Let the turkey breast rest for up to 30 minutes before slicing.
Homemade Turkey Stock
Wait a minute. Hold it right there. Are you really going to throw away that turkey carcass? That carcass still has much more to give. What you really should be doing is turning that carcass into a batch of turkey stock. I couldn’t be easier to make and is a great substitute for chicken stock. I honestly think that it has a lot more flavor than chicken. If you don’t have a carcass, you can make stock out of wings, drumsticks, necks, and backs.There are a couple of different approaches to making your turkey stock. The most basic way to make stock is to throw the carcass, your mirepoix(carrots, celery, and onion), garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves into a pot of water and simmer it for hours; which is this particular recipe. If you want really extract the flavor from the carcass, place your carcass on a baking pan and roast it at 400 degrees for 1 hour. While that is roasting, sauté the mirepoix and garlic in the stock pot. Doing both of these steps will result in a richer, darker turkey stock. Personally, I don’t like to add any salt to my stock. I adjust the saltiness when I’m cooking with it; just in case another ingredient happens to be salty.When you’ve finished reducing the stock to your likeness, strain through a colander. I like to nibble on any leftover meat that was attached to the carcass. If not using within a few days, freeze the stock down into ice cube trays and store in freezer bags.
Ingredients
- turkey carcass
- 3 carrots cut into sticks
- 3 ribs celery cut into sticks
- 1/2 medium onion
- 1 head garlic
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 gallon water
Instructions
- Place the turkey carcass in a large stock.
- Add in the vegetables, peppercorns, and bay leaves.
- Pour in a gallon of water. Turn on high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 6 hours.
- You will want to reduce the stock by at least half. I reduced a gallon down to 6 cups.
- Strain the stock of the carcass and other ingredients.
Smoked Pork Chili
Smoked Pork Chili
There’s always been the debate on whether chili should have beans or no beans. I think that both are good and have their place. The real question is why are people putting flavorless ground beef in chili and not using cubed pork shoulder or chuck roast? It’s like night and day for the same price or cheaper, folks. Wake the fuck up. Like everything I do in life, I took my chili one step further. My pork was dry rubbed and smoked with mesquite wood. I also smoked the tomatoes, jalapeños, garlic, and onion. I also smoked. Then everything went into the crock pot and simmered for 5 hours. The last hour, I tossed in some beans. This chili can compete with any other chili out there; and will crush all in its path. It is worth every minute of the 36 hours it takes to prepare.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- crock pot
Ingredients
Smoked Pork Steaks
- 4 lbs pork steaks 1 1/2” thick
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tbsp onion powder
- 2 tsp white pepper
The Rest of the Chili
- 6 roma tomatoes
- 1 large white onion sliced in half horizontally
- 2 heads garlic
- 4 large jalapeños
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 ribs celery chopped
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 4 cups pork stock
- 2 tsp hot chili powder
- 3 cans beans pinto, black, and dark kidney
- salt to taste
Garnish
- green onions chopped
Wood Chips
- mesquite wood chips
Instructions
- Rib the pork steaks on all sides with the dry spices. Let rest on a rack in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Lest rest at room temperature for 2 hours before smoking.
- Place the tomatoes, onion, jalapeños, and garlic on a smoking rack.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Smoke the pork steaks for 6 hours. Smoke the vegetables for the last 2 hours.
- Place the cubed pork steak, chopped smoked vegetables, whole peeled garlic cloves, celery, tomato paste, and chili powder in a crock pot. Mix all of the ingredients, making sure that they’re coated in the tomato paste.
- Pour in the pork stock. Place on the cover. Cook on high for 5 hours.
- Stir in the beans. Simmer for 1 more hour.
- Season with salt to taste.
Smoked Chicken Legs
Smoked Chicken Legs
So I bought an electric smoker. I wanted some smoked chicken. The best deal I can find on chicken are 10lb. bags of whole chicken legs for $5.99. That’s $0.59lb for chicken. Can’t really beat that, plus dark meat is more moist and ideal for smoking. You can obviously use any part of the chicken, but smoking and brining times will vary. A basic brine consists of water, salt, and sugar. I added a head of garlic, black peppercorns, olive oil, and dark soy sauce. The olive oil allows the skin to stay crispy instead of leathery. That dark soy sauce will give the chicken a dark, golden color when being smoked. Dissolve all of the ingredients together and let get to room temp. Depending on the size of the legs, they will need to brine for 3-4 hours. The chicken legs I bought were ginormous. Over 1lb a piece. They needed a full 4 hours. Once they are finished, pat them dry with paper towel. This will allow the smoked to stick better to the chicken.Preheat your electric smoker according to the manufacturer’s instructions to 225 degrees. Chicken is versatile in the smoker when it comes to choosing the wood you use. I used equal amounts of apple and cherry woods during the smoking process. Smaller sized legs around 3/4lb will take about 3 hours of smoking. Larger ones, 1lb. plus, will take 4 hours. The internal temperature needs to read 180 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh. Having a digital probe thermometer comes in handy for smoking. Mine can withstand 700 degrees. Leave it in the chicken the entire time to monitor the temp. This also helps maintaining the temp by minimalizing how many times the door to the smoker getting opened.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- Probe Thermometer
Ingredients
- 8 whole chicken legs
Brine
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup salt
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 head garlic minced
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
Wood Chips
- applewood chips
- cherrywood chips
Instructions
- Mix all of the brine ingredients together.
- Put the whole chicken legs in gallon sized storage bags. Split the brine between the two bags. Brine the chicken for 4 hours.
- Place the whole legs on your smokers racks. Pat the legs dry with paper towel.
- Preheat your smoker 225 degrees according to the manufacturer’s directions. Smoke the chicken legs for up to 4 hours. The internal temp needs to read 180 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh.
Tips for smoking chicken
- Brine chicken legs for 3 hours for ones that are 3/4lb; 4 hours for ones 1lb. plus. Brining adds moisture and saltiness to the chicken.
- Pat the legs dry with paper towel before smoking. This allows the smoke to stick to the legs better.
- Smoke the chicken at 225 degrees.
- Use a probe thermometer to monitor the internal temperature. The legs have to read 180 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh. Smaller legs will take 3 hours to smoke; larger legs will take 4 hours.
