Simple Biryani Chicken
The first time I cooked Biryani Chicken I followed all the complex steps. It took hours, and it was great. Tonight, we give you Short-Cut-Biryani. And it is also great. Actually, it is better, because I’ll do this often. This meal is two parts, the chicken and the rice. The chicken: Simply season the bird (we used 3 leg quarters) with Biryani seasoning and Himalayan salt. You can get the Biryani seasoning at Food Lion or order a jar from Amazon. Honestly, this is just so good, order a jar. This goes into an air fryer for 30 minutes at 370°. I used a temp probe, once it’s over 180°, turn off the fryer and let it rest 10 minutes (at least). When you put your chicken in the air fryer, do your rice. This is simply my saffron rice with a teaspoon of...
Classic Cuban Roast Pork Dinner
One of my favorite meals is a Cuban classic. Brazed pork on Rice. My take on it is my smoked Boston Butt, diced, served on a bed of saffron rice, topped with sauteed yellow bell peppers, fresh diced sweet onion and green onion, all on top of a bed of seasoned black beans. This assumes you have some roasted pork. If you don’t. Roast some. Google it. I roast mine in an Orion Cooker, or in my smoker. In this case I smoked one for 5 hours. This dinner is the last meal of a week of great pork dinners from a last Sunday’s Smokefest. The black bean base is the key. In olive oil saute sweet onions, add a fair about of garlic, then black pepper, cumin and turmeric. Heat to fragrant, then add a can of black beans. While these come to a boil, in a sauce pan heat...
Smoked Chicken Tacos
Our pre-paddle meal tonight was Smoked Chicken Tacos on flour tortillas. It’s kind of important to have smoked some chicken for this meal. The key to this is the black bean base. Heat some olive oil in a small sauce pan. Add about 1/4 cup of diced sweet onions and saute for a minute. Add about 5 cloves of fresh diced onions and stir for about 30 seconds. Add half a teaspoon of cumin and half a teaspoon of turmeric. Grind in a healthy amount of black pepper. Stir this till fragrant, and then pour in a can of low sodium black beans. Once it comes to a light boil, stir and put on simmer for about 15 minutes or so. Saute some sweet onion slices with some red bell pepper slices in olive oil. Shred the smoked chicken. Cut us some slivers of the white, crunchy...
Warm Pork Salad
My salads I’ve written up are usually side dishes, like a black bean salad, or a cucumber salad. But with access to 8 LBs of freshly smoked Boston Butt, I couldn’t resist… Warm Pork Salad with romaine lettuce, shaved carrots, quarters of English cucumbers, minced sun dried tomatoes, sliced queen onions stuffed with garlic, diced green onions, shaved Vidalia onion, sliced roasted red bell peppers, fresh cracked black pepper topped with feta cheese and drizzled with Bolthouse Ranch dressing. Yum! Wish I had a boiled egg to slice on...
Sliced Lamb Gyros
When life gives you perfectly smoked leg of lamb leftovers…you make sliced lamb gryo’s! First, make your tzatziki sauce and put it in the fridge to meld. 1 cup Greek yogurt1 clove garlic1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice1 Tablespoon olive oil1 teaspoon red wine vinegar1 teaspoon dried dill weedsalt and pepper, to taste, we just used pepperWe also sliced in about half of a cup of diced English cucumber. We had about a pound of leftover smoked lamb robert from Easter yesterday, so tonight we made the best of it. We THIN sliced the lamb and tossed it into a high-heat cast iron skillet with a little olive oil to quickly sear it. Meanwhile we warmed up some pita bread with a little olive oil. Onto a plate with a square of aluminum foil went the pita, and then...
Easter Lamb Robert
Lamb Robert for our Easter Dinner! We actually fired up the smoker for a couple other things too, a chicken and a Boston Butt. But the star of today was the leg of lamb. In a blender/food processor put about a cup of olive oil, add a fair amount of oregano, Italian seasoning and dried basil. Also about 8 cloves of garlic and a couple tablespoons of black peppercorns and a smidge of kosher salt. Blend this well, and put the leg of lamb into a ziplock bag with this mixture and let it spend the morning together. The chicken got my usual rub, and the pork got my usual rub with a bit of cumin. At noon, the 4 lb off rubbed Boston butt went into the smoker, with apple wood chips. At 1 pm, the chicken went into the smoker. At 2 pm, the marinaded leg of lamb went in....