I thawed the turkey for 2 days in a 5 gallon pale of water. Do not stuff your turkey. Brush the skin with vegetable oil and insert an oven-safe meat thermometer deep into lower thigh. Set the smoker to 225° F. I used Pecan as the wood smoke. Place the turkeyon the bottom rack and cook for 8 to 12 hours or until the inner thigh temperature reaches 180° F. Did I enjoy the turkey? Of course I did. But I was told, it tasted too much smoke and not enough turkey. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
I really like using my smoker. Tonya isn't a big fan of all stuff smoked.
I started with a HUGE pork tenderloin. At least that is what the package said it was. This is the BIGGEST pork tenderloin I ever seen.
I always start smoking early in the morning before anyone is awake. You can see that snow fell the night before
Into the smoker it went. The rack above, bacon wrapped sausages.
Temp is crawling back up towards 225 F
This is after 6 hours in the smoker
Cut up and ready to eat
This recipe isn't very "thought" provoking. Just time consuming. Get your pork tenderloin thawed out. Spice it up. There are so many rubs and spice combinations out there. For this first one, I did Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder and Onion Powder. Into the smoker it went for 6 hours. I used Maple Wood smoke for this. I smoked for the first 2 hours and then 4 hours of heat. The bacon wrapped sausages were ready for breakfast, when Tonya got up. Like a breakfast appetizer. BUT that is another post. What we didn't eat, I turned the rest into a pork stir fry. But it could just have easily been turned into Pulled Pork with your favorite BBQ sauce. Serve it up with a crusty roll and BOOM, your eating some good eats there! Comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome.
I was so adamant that I was going to have smoked ribs, even the rain didn't stop me that day
In these pictures, it was raining. A lot of rain. If memory serves, there was about 2 inches of rain that fell while I was cooking my ribs. So there is a lot of people out there that just love ribs. We all have our recipes. We all have our little tips and tricks to make our ribs the best. One guy at work, he takes about a week to prepare his ribs. Myself, I am not quite so fussy about taking that long to do my ribs.
I will be posting several other ways to cook ribs. But for today, I will be discussing how I did the ribs back then.
Ingredients
1 or 2 racks or ribs
Your favorite rib spices
Stuff you will need
Off set smoker
Apple wood for smoke
Chunk Charcoal
Metal Rib Rack (see the photo above)
Directions
I am a BIG fan of the "1, 2, 3, Ribs" method. But that's another food post.
Spice up your ribs and put them in the rack. Get your smoker ready and put the ribs in the smoke box for about 3 hours. I know these ribs took longer cause the rain cooled off the smoker. Take them out of the smoker and serve while they are hot.
As always, comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome.
Doesn't this look the best? It's on a glass cutting board. Click on the picture to get a better view.
Start with a whole chicken. Thaw it out.
Cut the chicken's back and then splay it out.
Season the chicken the way you like best.
Did I mention, you need a smoker
Into the smoke box it goes
I am using chunk charcoal with apple chips in the wood box.
Wine, you need wine while cooking.
This is the end results
Cut it up into 1/4 pieces, just like Swiss Chalet.
Having BBQ'ed chicken is great. But unless it's cooked all the way through, it can be really dangerous for you and your guests. Opening up the chicken and cooking it the "spatchcock" way, will ensure that your chicken can be BBQ'ed, is cooked all the way through and because the skin is left on, the chicken is so moist. Yummy!
Ingredients
1 small whole chicken Salt Pepper Garlic and Onion for seasoning A
glass of ice cold chardonnay (I am not a purist, I like Red wine with my white meat)
Stuff you will need
Smoker or BBQ If you are using a smoker, Apple wood for your smoke Cutting board BIG sharp knife
Directions
The quick way to do it is to
place your chicken on a board and using a sharp knife, slice it down the
breast bone.
Pull
the chicken open and flatten it Season well on both sides and
place on the grill with the inside of the chicken facing down. This
way you don’t mobilize the fat in the skin too soon and cause your fire to
flare up.
When I was cooking the chicken in the smoker, it took over an hour and a half. I had to make sure that the temperate was over 180 F. Since the charcoal smoker only gets to about 225 in the smoke box, it takes a bit to cook.
For
my final thought on how to barbecue chicken the Portuguese way - sit back,
relax and drink the chardonnay! Quarter the barbecue chicken with a heavy sharp knife. As always, comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome.
If you don't have a smoker, I recommend you make friends with someone that does
I put in my Brisket about 4 hours ago. There is a pan of home made baked beans under the brisket to catch the drippings. That recipe will be another day.
You may not think that 200 F is hot. But I learnt really quick. IT IS HOT! I am using the spoon to pull the baked beans out.
I ladle up a helping
Of course I only get enough for 1 serving
Back into the smoker it goes
Smells great
Tastes great too
Sorry for eating in front of you
The beans are DONE
Just the brisket is left inside
Gonna have a lot of beans
The "money" shot
The "secret" ingredient
Not a lot, just enough to make the beans wetter
Stir it in
Stir some more
Cover to keep warm
It's been about 6 hours
Notice my "Shark Glove"
More apple juice on the brisket
Don't pour too much, you don't want to drown it
It's been about 12 hours now
Trying to take the tin foil off.
It LOOKS ruined. Mum and Tonya were not happy.
I didn't spice up the brisket a lot before it went into the smoker. Salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder.
The smoker was set to about 225, that's it's MAX setting. I started the smoker about 4 in the morning when everyone was sleeping. We had the brisket for supper. I know we had rolls as I got a picture of them. We also had Nutella Cheese Cake too. Again, another blog for those recipes.
Smoked Beef Brisket
Ingredients
1 x beef brisket, they range from 8 pound to 15 pounds
Salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder - to taste, no right or wrong amount, it's your preference
Directions
Heat up the smoker about 20 minute
Now, I had made home made baked beans and put that in the smoker to catch the drippings from the beef brisket. You want to bet, this adds a killer ingredient to those beans.
Depending on the size of the brisket, you may need to cut it in half to fit in the smoker. Unless you got a massive smoker. I got a Bradley smoker that Mum & Dad bought for my 50th birthday. Available at Canadian Tire. Check out the link if you wanted one ==> CLICK HERE <==
Don't got a smoker. Hey, you know someone that does. ME! I am off on the weekends if ever you wanted to smoke a brisket.
I used apple wood to smoke the brisket. The "pucks" are also at Canadian Tire. Lots of variety.
After about 4 hours, I took the beans out cause they were done. I took the brisket out of the smoker and laid down some tin foil. Not that cheap stuff that you can get at the Dollar Store, but the HEAVY DUTY stuff. Extra wide and thick too. I added about a cup of apple juice to the brisket, wrapped it up and back into the smoker.
After about 12 hours, I took it out and unwrapped it.
Have a look at the video:
We sure did eat well! It was confirmed... the meat wasn't ruined after all.
As always, comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome!
