Turkey & Rice Soup

 As i sat drinking my morning coffee a question came to mind...
Day after Thanksgiving... "what should i do with some of the leftover turkey"?

SOUP of course!

I looked in the fridge i had all the ingredients celery, carrots, onion. My cupboard and pantry is fully stocked with quite a selection of spices, broths, rice, noodles etc...

Here we go lets get started. The ingredients you will need are as follows...

2 tablespoon real butter

1 medium onion, (1 cup), chopped

2 to 3 ribs (1 cup) celery, chopped

2 to 3 medium (1 cup) carrots, chopped

1 teaspoon finely diced fresh garlic

65 ounces chicken broth

2 nice sized bay leaves

2 cups cooked rice* (no instant rice please)

2 cups chopped Turkey (white & dark mix)

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

Pinch of celery salt

Salt & Pepper to taste

Before you prep the veggies, start the rice cooking as per instruction on the bag. 
Get to peeling and chopping the veggies, try to chop/dice all ingredients into the same size pieces so they will finish cooking at the same.
Melt butter in 4- to 6-quart saucepan over medium heat until sizzling. Add onion, celery, carrots and garlic; season with salt & pepper; continue cooking 5-7 minutes or until vegetables are softened.

 

When working with raw rice a good rule of thumb is 1 cup raw = 2 cups cooked. Rice doubles when cooked. Be carefull not to burn or over cook the rice. Follow the instructions on the bag & you`ll do just fine. For this recipe good rice cooked well is much better than instant rice.

 


When your rice and veggies are finished add chicken broth, bay leaves & celery salt. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, 10-12 minutes or until mixture comes to a boil and carrots, celery & onion are tender. Stir in cooked rice, turkey and parsley. Cook 5-7 minutes or until heated through. Taste, & re-season with salt and pepper, if needed.

 Now don't that look good & it tastes great too! 

There is some thing comforting about home made soup. And this is a great way to use leftover turkey or chicken. Being the "BBQ Nut" that i am i used Smoked Turkey. The added "kiss of smoke" flavor from the turkey is amazing! You can taste the butter in the veggies, a hint of the bay leaves come to taste as you eat the soup. A down home comfort food for sure! 

Well Bloggers that's it for this one.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my "latest adventure" in cooking!

Whiskey Mapel Glazed Braided Pork Tenderloins

Well Blogger`s...
Today was another nice day here in Nebraska, which i`m afraid is coming to a close. Winter is on it`s way  and i figured i`d better fire up the Big Green Egg smoker before it get`s too cold. I found some tenderloins on sale at my local grocer. After a quick Internet search i decided i`d try my hand at braiding some tenderloins. Looked like a very nice way to present one of my favorite cut`s of meat.

I purchased two nice tenderloins so let`s get to work!

Start by trimming any extra bit`s of fat and silver skin from each loin. I decided to split one loin the long way into two pieces and leave the other whole. On your cutting surface place the loin so as you can slice each piece in three long sections as shown in this picture. Leave an inch uncut to hold the braid together as shown.

Start braiding by placing the left piece over the middle, the right piece in between those two and keep repeating till your at the end of the loin. Secure the ends with a tooth pick so they don't come apart while cooking. Fella`s if you are having trouble figuring this out just ask your wife or girl friend to show you, i`m sure they have braided there own hair. Not that we would need the help but such girl-ish matters are a bit confusing. Hang in there fellas it`s not as hard as it seems besides... it looks real purdy when your done and the ladies will just love the fancy presentation.  

OK... now that we suffered through that difficult task the other whole tenderloin will be easy peasy. Split that loin into three section the same as before and criss cross the three sections into another one of those fancy nancy braids that the ladies love. What you will end up with is some thing like the next picture.
Be sure to grab your bottle of Whyldfire Bar-B-Que All Purpose Original Dry Rub or the next best thing which would be... huh ? cant think of any thing.
Anyway season em up good and place in the fridge covered for a few hours to meld the flavors and let em get... (you guessed it) happy. Remember fella`s... Pork gets real happy when using Whyldfire Bar-B-Que Rub so be careful when removing them from the fridge... they is liable to jump right out at ya when opening the fridge door.

While the loins are marinating... fire up your favorite smoker or grill. When the cooker temp stabilizes at 250 degrees place the tenderloins on the grate for a quick cook of approximately 2 - 2 1/2 hours at that temp. For this cook session i added two nice chunks of Apricot wood for smoke flavor. Check on them at the one hour mark and note your cooker temp, make any adjustments to the dampers if needed to maintain the target cooking temp.
Your finished temp for these loins will be 138-140 degrees. When close to being done "glaze" the loins once or twice with your barbecue sauce. Any more than that and in my opinion its a waste. Barbecue sauce is for serving on the side and dipping your meat in. When one glazes its added for color or presentation. Although it does add flavor... what you want is to add too it not over power the flavor of the meat, dry rub & smoke.

The last barbecue cooking competition my wife & I won she came home with a bottle of Whiskey Maple barbecue sauce so i figured this would be the perfect sauce for such a fancy presentations. Brush on a layer or two of the sauce the last 15-20 minutes of cook time.

When you hit the target temp remove the loins from the smoker and let them rest for 20 minutes or so, tented with foil. The internal temp will rise as it rests to approximately 140-145 internal temp, which is just perfect!
Ain't that just a nice way of presenting one of the most tender and flavorful cuts of pork? For the side dishes i would suggest Mac & Cheese with Seasoned Green Beans and a tall glass of iced tea.

That`s it... Thanks for checking out my latest... "BBQ Adventure".

Barbecued Cheese

Hello Blogger`s!
Came up with a new "must try super easy recipe" for ya all to try. Great for a game time snack, after school or work snack or if your like me a "mid night" snack. The ingredients are only a couple of items that most folks have right in there own fridge and cupboard.

I love Swiss cheese about as much as Mozzarella and be`ins i had Swiss in the fridge and a cupboard full of spices i decided why not make.... Barbecued Cheese. All you need is a block of your favorite cheese, some barbecue dry rub spice mix and a quart zip lock bag. That`s it .... super easy and quite tasty if you have a good dry rub such as Whyldfire Bar-B-Que All Purpose Original Dry Rub (shameless plug), which can be purchased at Lou`s Thrifty Way in Norfolk Ne. (nuther shameless plug). I might add that this seasoning is a sweet mix of BBQ spices specially formulated for all kinds of applications. (yup again)

First off gather up your ingredients.
I used a one pound block of Swiss cheese.
Cut the block into cube sized snack bites.
Place cubes in a quart size zip lock bag.
Shake on the Dry Rub.
Seal the Bag and toss to coat the cheese cubes.

Refrigerate for an hour or so to meld the flavors and let em all get happy!
 

Ain`t that super easy and your family will love it! Make this snack with your kids if you have little one`s. Or next time the grand-kids come over make it with them! Great for the football game or as a holiday treat. One important side note is to use a dry rub that has a sweet BBQ flavor. A savory or spicy rub might be too over powering for this recipe. Unless of course one likes that sort of flavor.

Hey folks that`s it for today.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest.... "BBQ Adventure".

Brisket & Burnt Ends

Hello Bloggers!
It has been a busy summer for Whyldfire Bar-B-Que Catering & Concessions. Fairs, Festivals & Catering has kept us busy...  hardly had any computer time lately. Things are slowing a bit so i thought i`d cook up a brisket and share how i "do it".
First off i decided to fire up my Ugly Drum Smoker because i was cooking brisket, which for this cut of meat i feel that cooking over the coals the way the Drum is set up... just plain makes the best brisket.
I loaded the coal basket with lump charcoal and a few chunks of apricot wood. Fired it up with my trusty weed burner to get it going.
While the drum was coming up to temp. I went inside & took the brisket from the fridge, which was a choice cut of brisket. Trimmed some of the large hunks of the fat cap. I applied a layer of Worcestershire sauce to all sides of the meat. This will act as a "glue" if you will for the seasoning which i will rub into the meat.

Now don't tell no one but here is the secret to great tasting brisket..... season it with Salt, Pepper & Garlic Salt !
That`s it nothing else required! That old saying "some times simple is best" applies to brisket. Although i have had some fine tasting brisket which i`m sure was rubbed with a cupboard full of seasonings. But after years of research, trial & error... simple is best! I use fresh ground Mediterranean sea salt, fresh cracked multicolored peppercorns & a light dusting of garlic salt.

Once this ole hunk of meat was seasoned i went out & checked the temp on the Drum & it was right at 250. Perfect for me. I like to cook in a temperature range of 250-275, not exactly real low temp cooking but fine for this brisket. Cooking tuff cuts of meat at a little bit of a higher temp is just fine. Still cooking at a low temp but just jacked up a bit to cut the long cooking time.

Once the brisket reached 165-170 internal temp i removed the meat from the Drum and separated the point from the flat. Why you ask... Well i want to make some "burnt ends" and wrap the flat in foil. Whats Burnt Ends ? That`s the point section of the brisket removed and cut into one inch square pieces, re-seasoned with a sweet rub and a light glaze of sticky sweet BBQ sauce, placed in a foil pan and back on the smoker to caramelize and get tender. Best thing since sliced bread i tell ya what! Also wrapping the flat in foil makes it super tender and juicy.

Back on the Drum we go for another 2 hours or so. I checked the wrapped flat after an hour & it was at the perfect temp for slicing... 190 degrees. I removed the flat & placed it on a cookie sheet and covered it with a towel to rest and stay warm while the point was finishing up. After another hour i removed the finished Burnt Ends. Sliced the brisket flat & plated it all up with some of them heavenly burnt ends, some smashed tators & sweet corn. Here is the finished product all ready to dig in!

Well that`s about it for this adventure. I could go into a lot more "why`s" and "how comes" but we will save that for a later date. The summer isn't over yet folks... grab the family and cook ya up some BBQ! Spending time with family and friends is what it`s all about! Thanks for stopping by and seeing "whats cooking at home".

Hello Bloggers!
Spring is just around the corner here in Nebraska(finally). Time to fire up those smokers and grills. Yesterday my wife and i competed in the 6th annual Big Green Egg Fest. This year was a banner year for team Whyldfire Bar-B-Que. We won 3rd place in the most unusual thing cooked on a Big Green Egg, Also 2nd place in the Iron Chef category.
Here is turn in for the Most Unusual category...

Our version of Redneck Taco`s

Now most of the cooks at these events just seem to think that they have make items totally from scratch but let me tell ya, it don't have to be that complicated to be good food. The base of your taco is a corn cake topped with pulled pork, beans and coleslaw. Our corn cake was simplified by using a pancake mix and adding cornmeal in a 2-1 ratio. 2 cups of pancake mix and 1 cup of plain ole yellow corn meal adding water to make a nice batter consistency. We cooked the pulled pork the night before the event.
Day of the event we fire up the Egg and fried the corn cakes in a nice hot pan and set aside. Reheated the pork wrapped in foil. For the beans we heated up a can of Bushes Best Grill`n Beans adding a teaspoon or so of our All Purpose Original barbecue dry rub to kick up the flavor of the beans a little.
The Cole Slaw was a home made dressing the we really like it was the only "from scratch" thing in this recipe other than cooking the pork. The dressing recipe is one we found on the internet. Here is the recipe...

 Memphis Style Cole Slaw Dressing
 2 cups mayonnaise
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup Dijon-style mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsp celery seeds
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper

Add about half of this dressing recipe to a 1 pound bag of  premixed Cole slaw and mix well. Let the dressing and slaw meld for an hour or so to get the flavors to mingle with each and get friendly. We assembled the taco`s in an open faced fashion for presentation to the four judges turned in our box and waited for the results.

Next...
The Egg Fest organizers handed out the secret ingredient for the Iron Chef category. To our surprise it was five corn tortillas. Awesome... we hand leftover ingredients from the first event still warming on the Egg. We waited till the last five minutes before turn in time and assembled four more Redneck Tacos using the warmed tortilla shells.To our amazement we took 2nd place in the Iron Chef category with little or no effort on our part. Must of been the Cole Slaw Dressing!
Try this award winning recipe at home the next time you want to try some thing a little different. For the pulled pork.... if you don't have a smoker or the time to cook a eight pound pork butt most grocery stores stock cooked pulled pork in their refrigerator isle so you can make this recipe even simpler.

Thanks for stopping by see ya next time......