Smoked Chicken & Sausage Gumbo

Well hello there... it`s been a busy summer. I thought with the cool fall weather fast upon us a warm bowl of Gumbo is in order for tonight's meal. I started yesterday with smoking some whole chickens in my electric smoker using pecan wood chips. I seasoned the chickens with Cavender`s Greek Seasoning, not your typical Cajun seasoning but a nice twist that add`s another layer of flavor. I also smoked some of my homemade Jalapeno Bell Pepper Brats to slice up and use in the gumbo. Basically the brats are Boston Butt roasts ground with a 1/4 inch plate, seasoned & cured with a traditional German Bratwurst seasoning. I then add some finely chopped Jalapeno`s & green Bell Peppers to the ground pork butts & stuff in natural hog casing.
For this batch of Gumbo i loosely followed a recipe from one of the more popular Food TV Chef`s(Bam). My version as follows.

SMOKED CHICKEN AND SAUSAGE GUMBO

Ingredients:
1-cup vegetable oil
1-cup flour
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 pounds smoked Bratwurst, sliced 1/2 inch think
1-teaspoon salt
1-teaspoon black pepper
3 bay leaves
6 cups water
1 whole boneless smoked chicken, de-boned cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/2-teaspoons Tony Chachere's Spices & Herbs
1-tablespoon File` powder (if using okra cut back of file` powder)
1-cup cooked rice to serve with Gumbo
1-cup cooked & peeled small shrimp.
1-cup Okra (Optional)

Combine the oil and flour in a large stew pot over medium heat. Stirring slowly and constantly for 20 to 25 minutes, make a light brown to dark brown roux. Add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and continue to stir for 4 to 5 minutes, or until wilted. Add the water, meat, S & P, Tony Chachere's seasoning, okra, rice, and bay leaves. Continue to stir for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir until the roux mixture and water are well combined. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to medium-low. Cook mixture uncovered stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Remove the bay leaves and serve in deep bowls with a 1/4 cup or so of cooked rice on top.


With a hearty bowl of this Gumbo i`m sure it will warm the cockles of any cold heart. The smokiness of the sausage and chicken shines through just enough to add another layer of flavor. Most Gumbo`s are more hotter than what i would make. The original recipe called for an additional 1/4 teaspoon of Cayenne powder. Heat is neat, but i want to taste more than just heat so i tame it down a bit by added the spiciness to the Brats and the heat from the Tony Chachere's seasoning, which is enough for me and my family. By all means if you want it hotter go ahead and "spice it up".
Well, thanks for checking up on whats cooking at home!

Ugly Drum Smoker

Well... its been a while since i created a new blog so here we go. The picture above although a bit over exposed is a Ugly Drum Smoker or UDS for short. Its all the rage in the smoking world today. Basically its design is that of the Texas open pit style of cooking directly over the coals. Here is a picture that helps explain more about it.



It`s made from a 55 gallon steel drum sandblasted clean inside and out. Drill three 7/8 inch holes for air intakes. One hole needs to have a 3/4th inch ball valve to adjust the amount of air entering the smoker to feed the fire. Make a charcoal basket for the coal and wood chunks, add a cooking great & your set. The drum you can find used from various places such as a restaurant. Its preferred that the drum used to contain food products such as cooking oil or syrup mixes etc... non toxic materials. In the next pictures you can see the ball valve and also the charcoal basket.





The basket is made from a Weber 16 1/2 inch charcoal grate with expanded metal wrapped around either welded, bolted or even wired to the grate. You will also need to add a cheap 16 inch pizza pan to the bottom of the basket 2-3 inches from the charcoal grate to catch the ashes which makes it easier to clean the drum when your done cooking. Weld or bolt some metal rods for handles to lift the basket out of the drum to fill or clean. The size of my basket is large enough to fill for very long cook sessions to smoke briskets or Boston butts for pulled pork. The cooking grate located 6 inches below the lid or top of drum is a Weber product also, measuring 18 1/2 inches in diameter large enough to cook for parties of 50-75 people. The next picture shows the grate & basket inside the drum.



The smoke exits from the top of the drum lid through the 2 inch bung hole. You will also need to add a thermometer to keep track of the temperature inside the drum while cooking.





Here is some of the food you can cook on a UDS. A brisket and two pork butts for pulled pork. Just look at the color on that meat!


As the meat cooks and the fat starts to render out these juices will drip down onto the burning coals and product a natural smoke along with the wood chunks you added in the beginning... man let me tell ya the aroma is out of this world.



Here is the finished products from my first day of using the UDS. Southern style Pulled Pork and Texas style brisket





Moist tender pork and brisket smoked with apple and hickory wood chunks waiting for a party. Well that's about it for the ole BBQ Adventures this time. Thanks for checking up on me.

Car Show Vending

On June 12th we cooked for the Chicken, Rods & Ribs Car Show in Norfolk Ne. The day started out a bit cool and damp with light rain early in the morning, but turned out beautiful. We served Riblets, Chicken Legs and Polish Sausage on a stick.

The Riblets were smoked for 2 - 2 1/2 hours then finished on the grill. Sauced served on the side. We sold 70 pounds of Riblets by 4 pm in the afternoon. Always a good seller and quite tasty if i do say so myself.



We loaded up the new grill for a test run with about 30 Chicken Legs to start out. Seasoned with our poultry rub consisting of; lemon pepper, dill, oregano, parsley, salt & pepper with other spices makes for a tasty grilled Chicken Leg. We sold about 150 of these tasty little gambs! People really seem to like grilled Chicken Legs, it always amazes me how well they sell.



Grill getting hotter, cranking out more of those Legs. A few Rods in the background.



More cars filling up main street. People starting to show up & look at all the cars.



Over to the south of us in a parking lot they also had a BBQ Cook Off with live music & smokers roll`n out that sweet smell of bar-b-que`d ribs & chicken, but if ya wanted some ya had to come over & visit us venders. The other venders were selling snow cones, ribs, chicken, turkey legs, pulled pork, brats, burgers, hot dogs, funnels cakes and all kinds of other good munchies. The smell of the food alone was enough for us to sell out.



Folks were havin` a good time walking and talking listening to the music and eating some good Bar-B-Que. The car show ran from 12 noon till 5 in the afternoon and let me tell ya we was busy cooking up "Real Bar-B-Que" from the smoker & grilling chicken & polish sausage over a live fire.




My view from behind the smoker for most of the day.... My kind of fun!
Any day that i can spend outside cooking bar-b-que is a great day for me.



We are starting to get a loyal following & our customers are important to us if you happened to stop by our tent...
We Thank You for your patronage!
Thanks for stopping by and checking out our latest "Bar-B-Que Adventure"!

New Grill

Saturday (5/22) afternoon i put together my new grill. I purchased a 4x6 foot trailer to mount it on. Made some short legs so i can remover the grill and still be able to haul other catering supplies if needed. I decided WFBBQ needs a bigger grill for vending situations. It sure is kinda hard to grill a case of chicken legs on a 2x3 foot grill, after all bigger is better.
Here is a paragraph from my business website that explains more about it...
"The Crown Verity BM-60 Charcoal Grill is a commercial grade portable charcoal grill flatbed with 1440 sq in of cooking space. A professional grill that gives your food the slow-grilled flavor your family, friends will love. It has an expansive grilling area so we can cook for dozens or even a hundred of your closest friends & family!
We can serve your guests top-quality grilled food using the Crown Verity BM-60 Bar-b-que Grill. Made from 14 Gauge Cold Rolled Steel, with heavy-duty nickel-plated cooking grates and a high heat enamel finish. Also a height-adjustable grate so as not to burn your food. We mounted this fine grill on a mobile trailer so we can bring the bar-b-que to you! Burgers, Hot Dogs, Brats, Chicken or Steaks you name it we can grill it"!
This new addition to our equipment list should do the trick! Yes folks there you have it another shamless plug for my catering/vending business.
Anyway thanks for checking in on us!

Bacon Cheddar Turtle Burger

Today was a beautiful day here in Nebraska. Sunny & 71 degrees, after cleaning up the leftover leaves in the yard & trimming the roses i decided to do a little practice run on the Egg for an upcoming event here in town. I found these burger`s while surfing the Smokering Forum & thought what a novel idea. This burger just might win the contest. So....
What they are is a bacon wrapped burger with hot dog pieces sectioned for the legs, tail and head. First off make a bacon weave with 5-6 strips of thin cut bacon as such. 6 strips of bacon makes a jumbo sized burger so you might have to use less bacon. Your cardiologist would agree.

Next place a slice of sharp cheddar cheese(lower melting point) on the bacon. Make a hamburger patty to your liking seasoned as you wish. Then fold up the bacon ends over what will be the bottom of the patty. Carefully flip the bacon wrapped patty over onto a piece of tinfoil.

Cut up some Hebrew National hot dogs or any hot dog that you like as long as its a skinless hot dog. Cut the legs to two inches and the head to about three inches long. Cut one for the tail trimming to a point. Insert limbs between the bacon weaves on the sides of the burger to simulate a turtle. Cut 1/4 inch slits in the leg ends to simulate the webbed toes of a turtle, these will fan out while cooking.

While this is not a difficult task, it does require a bit of patience. Fasten the limbs with tooth picks to hold it together while cooking. When finished cooking remove the toothpicks the limbs will stay in place for plating.
Here are three finished turtles ready for the grill.

I set up the BGE with lump charcoal & fired it up. When ashed over I assembled the EGG & loaded the burgers. I ran the Egg at 350 degrees for 45 minutes finishing the burgers at 165 degrees internal temp. Here we are fresh off the Egg.

Add lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, mayo or whatever you like and dig in.
Neat looking treat and tasty too. For an extra juicy burger make your patties with half hamburger and half pork sausage. As you can see some of my Turtle Burgers toes fanned out a little too much so make smaller toes next time. All in all not a real difficult burger. I made the 50/50 pork & hamburger patties which was juicy and tasty. Different from a regular ole burger. Kids love the novel idea too.

Thanks for reading about my latest adventure in outdoor cooking.

Big Green Egg

Hello all you busy bloggers...
Last weekend i decided to purchase a medium sized Big Green Egg (BGE). This is a smoker/grill i have wanted for some time now due to its reputation as being a very efficient cooker. Saturday morning i went to Smok`n Buddies Grills & Gear here in Norfolk Ne. & looked over a few of them i decided on the medium one. I feel this would work out perfect for the wife & i. The kids are all grown up & gone so most meals its just me & the misses. If i need the extra room i can always fire up one of my other smokers or grill`s.

Here is the little dude, all 95 pounds of it.
Come to find out there was a sale on the BGE`s this month promoting there product for a upcoming Egg Fest next month. Package deal consisting of the Egg, the nest it sit`s in, side shelf`s, plate setter for indirect cooking, grate gripper tool, ash scrapper tool, a box of fire starters and a big ole bag of Big Green Egg lump charcoal all for a little over $800 dollars. Now i know what your all thinking... "that's not much of a sale" Let me tell ya once you fire this thing up and get to cooking you`ll wish ya spent more money & bought a bigger one. Yes... they cook that well. Easy to start up, holds the heat very well, recovers from opening the lid very fast & a very efficient smoker/grill. The food cooked on a BGE is moist and tender also.
After un-loading the cooker and some assembly, i load it up with some lump charcoal and a few chunks of apple & hickory wood. I fired up 3/4th a charcoal chimney of lump charcoal. Once that was ashed over and hot i dumped it in and closed the lid. While the cooker was coming up to temp i went inside to prep the meat.
First to go on was wings... got to have some wings! 14 wing sections all cleaned up & rinsed off.

I decided to try some of John Henry`s Apple Chipotle Rub. I was told its great on wings. Nice flavor with a bit of Chipotle kick.

Here we are all rubbed & happy ready for the smoker.

I also thought a Beef Chuck Roast would be good too. So i rubbed it down with some Dizzy Pig Cow Lick Steak Rub. A spicy beef rub, good on all cuts of beef.

Rubbed and ready.

Here we are all loaded up. A tight fit but a comfortable one. Plenty of room for a meal.

I adjusted the bottom vent to just slightly open, & the same for the top vent and watched it climb up from 200 degrees to where it settled at 275 degrees, perfect for getting the wing skin crispy.


After two hours it was time to take the Wings off and sample one or three. Wow was these wings good, a little bit of a kick from the Chipotle and a nice flavor from the smoke wood. Defiantly worth the wait, crispy skin and very moist. My kind of snack food.

Now its time for a "BBQ nap" while we wait for the Chuck Roast to finish. This took another five hours to cook for a total of seven hours to tender beefy goodness.
After my little nap, which took an hour or so... i went out and checked on the cooker and it was still setting right where i left it holding steady at 275 degrees. Very impressive, any little adjustment to the vents and the cooker would either rise or lower in temps.
Chuck Roast`s on the smoker need to cook to an internal temp of 200 to be fall apart tender. After a close eye on it and a hungry feeling i just couldn't wait any longer so i pulled it off the cooker at 185 internal and let it rest wrapped in foil and a towel to keep it warm.

While the meat rested for a spell i whipped up some Corn Bread muffins, Mexi-corn & Texas Style Ranch Beans. I opened up the roast & sliced up it. Warmed up the rest of the Wings for an appetizer to get my taste buds fired up. What a great meal all the food was perfect. The Roast was tender & juicy, the Wings had a nice kick with bite through skin. The Beans, Corn & Corn Bread made this meal a nice Texas Style treat.
Here is the finished plated meal.

For a first cook on this smoker/grill i am very impressed. This thing worked like a champ. Cooks great, easy to use, great bar-b-que flavor from the Big Green Egg lump charcoal & wood for smoke. Not the cheapest cooker but well worth the money. This thing is made out of thick ceramic so it will hold the heat & look great on the deck for years to come. You can also bake pizza & bread with it. The Dealer(Doug Ashmore) from Smok`n Buddies told me the BGE can dial up to 750 degrees for self cleaning & 400-450 degrees for grilling steaks. That should put a super sear on a Ribeye let me tell ya! So if your looking for a new cooker that can smoke/grill or baking, then check out a Big Green Egg. Once you have cooked on one you`ll wonder why you haven`t bought a BGE sooner.

Mini - Smoker Build

Here is a project that i`m sure almost anyone with the slightest bit of "handy man" in them can handle. As you have read in previous posts about the cookers i have and use, the 18 1/2 inch Weber Smokey Mountain smoker is my cooker of choice. I also read & post messages on a few of the bar-b-que forums on the internet. While surfing these forums i came across a topic about making a mini smoker out of a Weber Smokey Joe charcoal grill. I just had to have a mini so i went out & bought a WSJ grill and commenced to build me one of these cute little smokers.
First off... if you don`t have a WSJ get ya one & assemble it according to the manufacturers directions.



The next thing i did was to make a charcoal basket out of the original charcoal grate. This however is not completely necessary if you do not have a welder or any welding skills, just skip to the next step. I had a piece of leftover expanded metal from another project so i cut a strip 3 inches tall by 34 inches long & bent it into a ring and tack welded it to the grate. What this basket does is gather up the charcoal a bit to allow a slower more controlled burn.



Next step was to go to the hardware store (Lowe`s, Menard's etc.) and purchase the bolts to hang the grates and a heat sink/defuser which is 11x4 inch deep dog dish. The bolts & nuts for the top grate are 6-32 x 1/2 inch. These bolts do not have to be very long to support the 14 inch grate that came with the grill. The bolts for the second grate are 10-24 x 2 inch which are longer to support the bowl and grate. The second grate was also purchased at the hardware store. It is a 13 1/2 inch replacement charcoal grate for a 18 1/2 inch Weber grill.
For the center section or body of the smoke i purchased a IMUSA 32 Qt. Tamale & Seafood Steamer pot from good ole walmart. This pot can also be ordered on-line.





First you will need to cut out the bottom of the pot. Measure 3/4 inch in from the side of the pot and mark a circle around the bottom on the outside of the pot. I cut the hole with a common jig saw with a metal cutting blade installed. The steamer pot is made from heavy gauge aluminum, but cut`s very easy being careful to not damage the pot while cutting.

Next step. Drill the holes and install the bolts. The longer ones first. Measure down from the top of the pot and mark it at 9 inches down. Three spots evenly spaced around the body. Drill the holes so as the bolts just fit. Add washers on both sides of the pot for added strength. Next measure down 3 1/2 inch from the top of the pot mark & drill those holes. Install the bolts, washers and nuts, tighten all six.

After cutting the bottom out & installing the bolts about all that is left is to install the grates. The next set of pictures show`s how to assemble the bowl & grates.





UPDATE
If using the Dog Dish raise & mark the bottom grate 2 inches higher or do what i did & get a 12 inch Terracotta pot saucer or base & use that in place of the dog dish, then you do not have to make any other modification to this build. Current dimension did not allow for enough space for the dog dish to clear the coals. Also if cooking larger cut`s of meat keep an eye out for the amount of grease in the saucer so it does not spill over and catch fire. For cooking chicken, ribs or appetizers such as the ABT`s i do not see any other problems with this cooker build.

Place the water bowl on the longer bolts, add the 13 1/2 inch replacement grate directly on the bowl that rests on the long bolts. Place the larger 14 inch grate on the shorter top bolts. Set the body on the bottom section of the grill, top it off with the lid and you have yourself an Mini Weber Smokey Mountain smoker that operates as easy & burns as clean as its bigger brother.



One other thing i did was to install a 4 inch long bolt attached to the bottom grill vent to make adjusting the air flow a little easier. Those of you who have or have used a small grill like this one will know that the bottom vent does get a little hot while cooking so the long bolt will save you from a nasty burn to the finger tips.



Well there ya have it, a nice little smoker you built yourself from a bunch of common products one can find at the hardware store. They tell me that its possible to get a long burn time of at least 7 hours without refueling. That means it can smoke/cook a rack or two of ribs cut to fit, a pork loin, whole chickens & pieces... the list goes on. Although you can not cook for a large crowd but you can feed up to or maybe more than 7 - 10 hungry bar-b-que nuts like myself.
Well lets add up the cost of this build if you bought all the parts;
Grill- $29.95
Steamer pot- $24.97
Terracotta saucer- $3.00
Replacement grate- $8.99
Misc bolts and nuts- $2.67
For a grand total of $69.58 you can build a nice little smoker that takes up very little space in the yard & travels very well also. Take it apart & pack it in the trunk or back of your pick-up truck or RV. It measures approximately 28 inches tall by 18 inches wide at the steamer pot handles. If you are smoking a larger cut of meat like a Boston butt pork roast for southern style pulled pork you will have to refuel it at least once but this is super easy to do, just pick up the center section by the handles with glove covered hands & add some more charcoal & continue cooking. This has to be the neatest thing i have found yet! Super stoked! Look for my next post... if the weather permits i will fire-up this little bad boy and cook some bar-b-que!
Have fun with it & make your neighbors jealous! Ya know there watching!