Hickory Smoked Turkey Breast

 You don't have to wait for Thanksgiving dinner to enjoy turkey. This hickory smoked turkey breast is tender, juicy, and full of flavor. This bone-in smoked turkey breast makes a perfect Sunday dinner your family and friends will enjoy.

I started with a 6.5 lbs. bone-in turkey breast, you can use boneless but I prefer bone-in. This made a perfect meal for six people with just a little left over. 

I only used two ingredients to season my turkey breast. Tony Chachere's Injectable Butter, and Cuisinart Roasted Chipotle Garlic Seasoning.

When you buy this butter it comes with an injector so you don't have to worry about going out to buy one. I injected the butter in two places on both sides of the turkey breast.

Then, I rubbed the seasoning all over and under the skin of the turkey breast. It is best to do this the night before, but if you can't, do it at least two hours before you are going to smoke it.

I prepared my fire box on my Char-Griller Smokin Champ using charcoal and hickory wood splits and brought the temperature to 250 degrees.

I smoked my turkey breast between 225 and 250 degrees for four hours until the internal temperature was 165 degrees.

When I took it off of the smoker I covered it with tin foil and let rest for about 30 minutes before slicing it.

This was a perfect Sunday family dinner, everyone loved this smoked turkey breast. It was so tender, juicy, and full of flavor. I will definitely use the injectable butter again on turkey or chicken. You can certainly make this in your oven but you won't get that hickory smoked flavor.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy it.

ThermoPro TP20 500FT Wireless Meat Thermometer with Dual Meat Probe, Digital Cooking Food Meat Thermometer Wireless for Smoker BBQ Grill Thermometer

Spicy Smoked Chicken Wings

 

I have been wanting to try my hand at smoked chicken wings. I picked up a package of wings at our local grocery store. These spicy smoked chicken wings were a hit with the family.

They turned out to be juicy and full of flavor with just the right amount of heat. I smoked these wings the same day that I smoked 2 racks of Honey Bourbon Smoked Ribs.

I used the 3-2-1 method for the ribs and added the wings to my Char-Griller Smokin Champ in the last 90 minutes of the smoke. While the ribs were smoking I prepared the wings.

First I made a marinade for the wings. I placed the wings in 2 one-gallon zip lock bags and poured in the marinade, closed the bags, and mixed. I placed these in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Spicy Smoked Chicken Wing Marinade: 

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup Frank's Hot Sauce

3 cloves garlic minced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon Penzeys Galena Street Rib and Chicken Rub (can be omitted)

I smoked the wings between 250 to 290 degrees for 90 minutes. I used hickory wood splits as my heat source. The internal temperature of the wings was 165 to 170 degrees. These were whole wings, I could have split them but I didn't bother. After they were smoked they pulled apart easily.

Before serving I made a hot sauce to toss them in.  In a large bowl, I melted 1/2 cup butter (one stick), mixed it with 1 cup of Frank's Hot Sauce, and 1 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper. I placed the wings in the bowl covered them and tossed them until they were coated.

These wings turned out great, they were spicy, juicy inside with just the right amount of heat. If you don't like medium or hot wings just skip the last step.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed it.

Honey Bourbon Smoked Ribs

 

These honey bourbon smoked ribs were fall off the bone delicious. I also smoked some chicken legs and wings, but that will be another post.

I started with two racks of center-cut ribs that I picked up from our local grocery store. After removing the silver skin from the backside, I seasoned them with sugar-free Rib Rack BBQ Rub on both sides then, put them in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

I fired up my Char-Griller Smokin Champ off-set smoker and brought the temperature up to about 250 degrees. I used the 3-2-1 method to smoke these ribs. I find that this is the best method for juicy fall off the bone ribs.

The 3-2-1 Rib Smoking Method:

I set the ribs in the smoker and monitored the temperature with my ThremoPro TP-20. Keeping the temperature between 225 and 290 degrees using charcoal and hickory wood splits as my heat source. They remained in the smoker for 3 hours only opening the lid to spray apple juice every hour.

After 3 hours I removed the ribs from the smoker to wrap them in tin foil. Tearing off two sheets of tin foil long enough to make sure there is plenty of room to wrap. I made a line in the center of the foil, with generous amounts of brown sugar, honey, butter, and last but not least bourbon. I placed them meat side down and then repeated the same ingredients on the backside of the ribs.

Carefully wrapping them to create a packet so the juice does not leak, I placed them back in the smoker meat side down for 2 hours.

After 2 hours I removed them from the foil. Placed them back in the smoker meat side up for the last hour. I bushed on Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce twice in the last hour.

The results were amazing, the meat was juicy and fall off the bone and that is just the way I like them. 

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy it!

ThermoPro TP20 500FT Wireless Meat Thermometer with Dual Meat Probe, Digital Cooking Food Meat Thermometer Wireless for Smoker BBQ Grill Thermometer

Smokin' Champ™ Charcoal Grill

Charcoal Grilled Chicken Breasts

I treasure the times when our whole family can get together. It has been a difficult year for gatherings. This year for Father's Day we had everybody together.

So, it was time to celebrate with some charcoal-grilled chicken breasts. There is no doubt that the best grilling is done over charcoal. Well, that's my opinion anyway.

I picked up 8 large bone-in chicken breasts at our local grocery store. The first step was to marinate the chicken. We marinated the chicken breasts overnight in Chiavetta's Barbeque Marinade. This is a great marinade for both flavor and tenderizing the meat. 

Charcoal Grilled Chicken Breasts

We fired up the charcoal in the Weber Charcoal Chimney. To me, using the chimney is the best way to fire up your charcoal. There is no chance of getting that charcoal fluid after taste on your food.

 While the charcoal was heating up I seasoned the chicken breasts with Penzeys Galena Street Rib and Chicken Rub. This is a traditional southern-style barbeque rub.

I seasoned the breast meat by lifting up the skin on the chicken breasts and pouring in the seasoning with a small spoon. Then I worked the seasoning onto the meat with my finger. 

Then, I rubbed the seasoning all over the top and bottom of the chicken breasts. As you can see these beauties are now ready for the grill.

I grilled these for 7 to 8 minutes per side flipping them twice in the process for a total of 30 minutes. The cooking time may vary based on the size of the chicken breasts. These were large breasts with the ribs.

 I grilled them until the internal temperature was 165 degrees. It's best to have an instant-read thermometer on hand so you know when they are cooked.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy it!

You might also like these chicken recipes

Smoked Bone-in Chicken BreastsGrilled Southwestern Chicken Breasts

 

Grilling Snow Crab Legs

How to Grill Snow Crab Legs

There is no doubt about it, our family loves crab legs. If you like crab legs and give this method a try, you may never buy crab legs in a restaurant again.

Your local grocery store should have snow crab legs in the freezer section or seafood section of the store. Check to see if they are fully cooked, they should be, so all you really have to do is heat them up.

We started off with 5.5 lbs. of snow crab legs and let them thaw. Fran melted 1/2 stick of butter and I mixed in 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and lightly brushed the crab legs on both sides.

I fired up the charcoal chimney to get the coals nice and hot. You can also do this on a gas grill. I would use the medium setting for a gas grill.

 I set the hot coals about 5 or 6-inches from the cooking grates. Set the crab legs on the grill and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes per side.

Caution: It's best to have a spray bottle handy for any flare-ups, you don't want to burn the crab legs. 

Grilling Snow Crab Legs:

4 tablespoons of butter melted.

1 teaspoon of garlic powder.

4 to 5 lbs. of crab legs (enough for 4 people) or you can adjust accordingly.

More melted butter for serving.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy it 

Weber 7429 Rapidfire Chimney StarterKingsford Original Charcoal Briquettes, Two 16.7 lb Bags

 

Long Smoke Pulled Pork

I have been having a blast with my new Char-Griller Off-Set Smoker. Last weekend I did a long smoke pulled pork, and it was so good.

I started by picking up a 5.5-pound Boston butt. I mixed my own rub with the help of David Farrell's book The Old Fat Guy's Guide to Smoking meat for Beginners.

You'll find many amazing recipes on his blog oldfatguy.ca.

David calls this Rub a Do Anything Rub, which you can find in his book or on his blog. I didn't use all of his ingredients for this but, I did add a few of my own.

Rub I used for this Long Smoke Pulled Pork:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
2 tablespoons Sea Salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
3 tablespoons Carolina Seasoning (Rub Some Butt)

My Process for Long Smoke Pulled Pork:

After mixing the rub. I rubbed both sides of the pork butt, then covered it and set in the refrigerator overnight.

Early the next morning I fired up my smoker using charcoal, and then added oak and hickory wood splits. When the smoker temperature reached 250 degrees I placed the pork butt in the smoker.

I kept the smoker temperature between 250 and 300 degrees by adding wood splits every 30 to 45 minutes.  After 3 and a half hours I opened the smoker and inserted my probe to monitor the internal temperature of the pork butt. The internal temperature was 160 degrees at his time.

This was the only time I opened the smoker through the whole process. I needed to reach an internal temperature of 205 degrees.

After 8 hours and 15 minutes, we finally reached 205 degrees. We removed the pork butt from the smoker, covered it to let it rest for about 40 minutes before shredding it.

The outside had a beautiful tasty bark on it, while the inside was juicy and tender. The total cook time equaled 90 minutes per pound.

We made delicious sandwiches using my homemade barbeque sauce you find the recipe here. 
This pulled pork made the best game-day sandwiches. We had a house full of happy people.

Fran made this amazing Coleslaw from this Food Network Recipe.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy!

The Old Fat Guy's Guide to Smoking Meat for BeginnersThermoPro TP20 Wireless Remote Digital Cooking Food Meat Thermometer with Dual Probe for Smoker Grill BBQ Thermometer

Easy Homemade Barbecue Sauce Recipe

I smoked some ribs on my new offset smoker last weekend.  After I prepared everything and had them on the smoker, I realized that I didn't have barbecue sauce.

If you're looking for an easy homemade barbecue sauce recipe, this is it. I'm sure you'll have all of these ingredients in your pantry, as I did.

This is a sweet and spicy barbecue sauce and will work very well with beef, pork, and chicken. I added some hot sauce to give it a little kick. The hot sauce is optional if you don't want the heat.

Easy Homemade Barbecue Recipe Ingredients:

2 cups Ketchup
1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Penzeys Galena Street Rib & Chicken Rub (Or Your Favorite Rub)
2 tablespoons Honey
2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
1 teaspoon Hot Sauce (Optional)

I mixed all of the ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl. Then, I poured the sauce into a large wide-mouth Mason Jar and gave it a few good shakes.

This turned out to be a nice sweet and tangy barbecue sauce for my ribs. I have the remaining sauce in the refrigerator for the next time.

Here is a great method for Slow Smoked Ribs to try out this Barbecue Sauce

& 

Slow Smoke Pork Ribs

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

Smoked Bone in Chicken Breasts

When it comes to chicken you mostly see skinless, boneless chicken breasts in the grocery stores. Since I got a new Char-Griller offset Smoker for Father's day. I've been grilling and smoking a few different things. I wanted to try some Smoked bone-in chicken breasts.

Fran picked up two nice size bone-in chicken breasts so I could try my hand at smoking them. Wow!! I'm so glad we did. This was the juiciest chicken we have ever made.

The first thing we did was marinate the chicken in Italian salad dressing for a couple hours in the refrigerator.

I fired up the charcoal for the fuel in my Weber Charcoal Chimney. Then put it the smoker chamber of the grill. While I waited to get the temperature up to 230 degrees, I prepared the chicken with Penzeys Galena Street Rib and Chicken Rub.

I placed the chicken breasts in the smoker bone side down for 15 minutes. Then added some applewood chunks, this brought the temperature up to between 250 to 300 degrees. I smoked them for another 30 minutes and checked the internal temperature of the meat. I was looking for 165 degrees in the meat.

I wasn't quite there yet so I turned the chicken over, added some more applewood chunks and smoked for another 20 minutes. After 20 minutes the internal temperature reached 165 degrees. I removed them to rest for 5 minutes.

Smoked Bone-in Chicken Breasts:

2 large bone-in chicken breasts
1 cup Italian salad dressing (For Marinating only)
4 tablespoons of your favorite rub (I rubbed both sides of the chicken breasts)

You can archive the same juicy chicken in your oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until you reach 165 degrees internal temperature of the meat. You just won't have the smoked flavor by doing it in the oven.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

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Slow Smoke Pork Ribs

We had a house full of family and friends for the 4th of July week. This gave me the perfect opportunity to try out my new Char-Griller Offset Smoker. These Slow Smoke Pork Ribs were a perfect fit for the weekend.

My new grill is a combination of charcoal grill and smoker. On the 4th of July, we grilled two of our favorites. Grilled leg of lamb and Rosemary Ranch Chicken.

You'll find both of these delicious recipes below

& 

Grilled LambGrilled Rosemary Ranch Chicken

On Saturday we made these slow-smoked pork ribs for the crowd. We picked out two racks of nice side spare ribs. We then removed the silver skin from the backside of the ribs. Bobby and I seasoned the ribs with a combination of Penzeys Galena Street Rib & Chicken Rub and Carolina Seasoning Rub Some Butt.

 We then put them in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

We fired up the smoker using charcoal as the fuel and Hickory wood chunks for the smoke. We inserted the meat probes from our ThermoPro TP20 into the meaty part of the ribs and set it for 190 degrees internal temperature.  

We sprayed the ribs with apple juice every hour and brushed on barbecue sauce twice in the last hour of smoking.

After 5 hours of maintaining our smoker temperature of between 225 to 260 degrees, we reached our ribs internal temperature of 190 degrees. 

These Slow Smoke Pork Ribs were a real crowd-pleaser. They were seasoned just right and had a nice Hickory smoked flavor.

This is my first smoke in my new offset smoker. I would not succeded if not for David Farrell and his book The Old Fat Guy's Guide to Smoking Meat For Beginners. I have been following David's blog oldfatguy.ca for some time now. He has been a true inspiration to me to getting started on smoking foods. I followed David's method for these ribs outlined in his blog and his book and I succeded. 

If you're a beginner or have been smoking meats for a while this book is for you.

This book is packed with information from David's years of experience.

The Old Fat Guy's Guide to Smoking Meat for Beginners

 

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy

Slow-Cooked Barbecue Ribs

There is just something wonderful about slow-cooked barbecue ribs in the summertime. I've made my fair share of ribs over the years but this is the best method I've ever used.

If you like your ribs juicy, tender, and fall off the bone then this is the method you need to use. The best part about this is you can make these in the oven, your grill, or smoker.

My good friend David Farrell from Oldfatguy.ca posted this and as soon as I read it I just knew that I had to try it. Take some time to stop by his site to see this and so much more. My opinion is that David is the King and a master of the smoker.

He calls this method 3-2-1 Spareribs click the link to get the instructions you won't be sorry. I followed David's instructions to the letter. These turned out to be the best ribs I've ever had and Fran agreed. These ribs are Blue Ribbon Winners in any rib cook-off.

Fran picked up a small rack of back ribs for our local grocery store. It weighed almost 1.5 pounds which was perfect for both of us.

I prepared the ribs by removing the silver skin from the back. Then, I lightly rubbed olive oil on both sides. Next, I rubbed Penzeys Galena Street Rib & Chicken Rub generously on both sides.

The rub is a Traditional Southern-style barbecue rub and is great on ribs and chicken. We use many of the Penzeys Spices when we cook but, you can use whatever rub you prefer.

I choose to use my grill using indirect heat. Since my grill is not equipped with a thermometer I had to test what setting I needed to maintain David's temperature of 230 degrees. I used this simple oven thermometer and marked my settings on the dial.

I also wanted to get that smoked flavor so I used Western Style Apple Wood Chips. I used tin foil to make small packets with a handful of wood chips and poked holes in the top. I placed two packets at a time on the heated side of the grill and changed them out throughout to cooking process.

David's method also calls for Apple Juice. So for this, I used Mott,s 100% Apple Juice.  There is much more to this process so Click on Old Fat Guys 3-2-1 Spareribs for all of the instructions.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy it!!

Ultimate Western BBQ Smoking Wood Chips Variety Pack Bundle (3)- Apple, Pecan, and Cherry FlavorsWestern Wood Smoking Chip Variety Pack of 6, 180 cu in per BagGalena Street Rib and Chicken Rub By Penzeys Spices 4.8 oz 3/4 cup bag (Pack of 1)

 

Homemade Meat Marinade Recipe

Sometimes we just want a juicier and more flavorful cut of meat.

This is the time when you want to use a marinade. When I'm grilling lamb on the rod I like to use a simple Italian salad dressing as a marinade.

But, for steaks, roasts, chicken, and pork I whip up this easy homemade meat marinade.



This homemade meat marinade recipe has a balance of acids, oils, and spices. The acids help tenderize and make the meat juicy while the oils and spices add flavor. I don't always use a marinade but when I do I like this recipe.

Here is the homemade meat marinade recipe:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic minced
1 small onion minced
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Montreal Steak Seasoning or Italian Seasoning 

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl place your cut of meat in a one-gallon zip lock bag or a baking dish cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 2 to 3 hours.

This should be enough for a large roast or 3 to 4 steaks. You can always cut the recipe down for smaller cuts of meat.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

How to Grill Beef Shoulder Steak

Well, we all know that grilling season has finally arrived. Last week Fran came home from a trip to the grocery store with a beef shoulder tender.

This steak was packaged already and marinaded with tangy vinegar, garlic, onion, and black pepper marinade. All I had to do was grill this steak without ruining it.

The truth be known, I've never heard of this cut of beef before so I looked it up. Here is what I discovered.

Beef tender is a cut from the shoulder and is one of the most tender cuts of beef it is very similar to a Filet Mignon but less expensive.

Fran said this is the most tender steak that I ever cooked on the grill. Who am I to argue with that? Here is how I grilled this beef shoulder petite tender.

I set my Huntington Gas Grill on the high setting. The grill was ready in about 5 minutes.

1. I grilled the first side for exactly 4 minutes.
2. Turned the steak over and grilled the second side for 3 minutes.
3. I lowered the grill setting to medium after 3 minutes on the second side.
4. Turned the steak over again, closed the lid, and grilled for 10 minutes. Until the internal temperature reached 130 degrees. 
5. Then I let the steak rest for 5 minutes before cutting it.

This steak was a little less than one pound so your grill time may vary based on size. As long as you keep an eye on the internal temperature you'll be fine.

This method gave me a perfectly juicy, medium rare, and tender steak. I highly recommend this cut of beef, I know you won't be sorry.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

Whether you're cooking meat on the grill, in the oven, or on a stovetop it's always a good idea to have a good meat thermometer. And, a good sharp knife to cut the meat.

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