Archive for the ‘BBQ’ Category

 

Last summer our BBQ Team was really excited to win 2 Tyson Best Wings on the planet Contests.  This is the recipe we won the Sam’s Club Southgate Michigan Contest with. Absolutely delicious and perfect for a good nosh and of course the Superbowl. There is also a contest running now with the 8 finalists in this contest. You can enter by visiting www.facebook.com/ClubTyson or

Email to contest@clubtyson.com
Subject: Best Wing Vote Submission & by giving them our team name Diva Q. We would appreciate your vote.

 

 

Product: Tyson All Natural Chicken Wings, Ice Glazed, First & Second Sections
Serves: 4 persons
Serving Size: 6 wings
(sub recipe – BBQ rub)
Ingredients:
• 2 Tbsp – paprika, smoked
• 1 Tbsp – chili powder
• ½ Tbsp – salt, Kosher
• ½ Tbsp – garlic powder
• ½ Tbsp – sugar, granulated
• ½ Tbsp – curry powder, mild
• ½ Tbsp – dry hot mustard, ground
• ¼ Tbsp – black pepper, finely ground
• ¼ Tbsp – cumin, ground
• ½ Tbsp – chipotle chile, powder
Method: Place all ingredients in a gallon Ziploc bag and shake/toss to combine
evenly. Reserve until needed.
(sub recipe – glaze)
Ingredients:
• 1 C – Franks Red Hot Sweet Chili Sauce
• ¼ C – Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce
Method: Place both ingredients in a gallon Ziploc bag and shake/toss to combine evenly. Reserve until needed.
Ingredients:
• 24 each – Tyson All Natural Chicken Wings, thawed
• (1 bottle) 5 Fl oz. bottle – Tabasco sauce, chipotle
• from sub recipe – BBQ rub
• from sub recipe – glaze
Continued to page 11…11
“Diva Q Sweet Chili Chipotle Wings” Continued…
Method:
1. Place chicken wings in a gallon Ziploc bag and pour Tabasco Chipotle
sauce over the wings and toss to coat evenly. Marinate 12 hours in refrigerator.
2. Remove chicken from chipotle sauce marinade and place on baking sheet
pan. Evenly sprinkle BBQ rub on both sides of the chicken wings.
3. Smoke wings on your grill, using Kingsford hickory wood, for 1–1 ½ hours
at 225° F or to an internal temperature of 165° F.
4. Remove wings from grill and place in a mixing bowl. Add reserved glaze
(saving some for dipping sauce) & toss to combine evenly.
5. Place glazed wings on hot grill to quickly grill mark & finish cooking. Remove from grill and serve with remaining glaze on the side for dipping.
6. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Hints:
• If desired, chicken wings can be cooked to a final internal temperature of
180° F.
• Using large Ziploc bags to shake/toss/combine ingredients makes for fast
& easy prep and virtually no mess clean up.
• The glaze can be made 1 day in advance and warmed (sauce pan or microwave) just prior to serving the wings.
• Experiment with different types of wood for smoking: applewood, cherry,
mesquite, etc.
• Personalize the recipe using your favorite smoking technique (cold or hot
smoking) and using either a smoker, gas grill, charcoal or wood fired grill
for smoking and cooking.
• Think of this recipe (and any recipe) as a guidepost; where you follow it and then add your personal flair & ingredients/techniques, to create your own signature Tyson Competition Wings.

 

 

Bacon + Whiskey + Maple = Awesome Combination.

The possibilities are endless after you make this. Eat it straight up, in ice cream, cakes, cookies, bacon brownies, garnish for a cocktail & so much more….

I tried a few versions to get to this point of whiskey/bacon happiness. This was the easiest most impactful version where the whiskey was not diminished after smoking or baking.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound thinly sliced bacon

1 cup Crown Royal Maple Whiskey

1 cup light brown sugar

1 -3 tsp cayenne pepper (adjust for your heat preference)

1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper

In a plastic container or glass bowl pour the whiskey over the bacon. Make sure the bacon is fully submerged and place in the fridge overnight.

The following day in a small bowl mix the brown sugar, cayenne and black pepper.

Preheat your oven to 350F or your grill to 250F/300F (Indirect)

If using an oven : Line a baking sheet with foil and place a baking rack over the tray. Spray baking rack with non stick spray. Place the bacon strips on the baking tray and sprinkle on the brown sugar/pepper mixture.

If using a BBQ or grill indirect- try frogmats. Or you can still use the baking sheet & foil combo as above.

Times will vary – in the oven approx 20-30 minutes or on the grill indirect approx 45 minutes to an hour until the brown sugar has been thoroughly absorbed and the bacon crisps

 

When you remove from the oven or grill let the bacon rest for 1 hour to dry out. Fantastic in so many things or on its own.

 

 

Flank

The flank is that portion of the hind quarter which is separated from the loin by a straight cut passing approximately parallel to the lumbar back bones (lumbar vertebrae) beginning in close proximity to or through the flank lymph node (prefemoral) and from the plate by a cut passing between the 12th and 13th rib and cartilage.

Resource: Canadian Beef 

* One of my favorite sites for referencing all things Beef. Super friendly user site*

Flank is a great tasty marinating cut of beef and perfect for the grill. It is also a more economical cut of beef. Being budget friendly makes this an ideal meal for our family. Which is a darn good thing since my furnace broke last night while it is -30 and I am writing this recipe from a Starbucks. (*Dude is coming to fix today but damn those furnace thingys are expensive)

Ingredients

• 2 lbs Flank Steak
• 1 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/2 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
• 1/4 cup Fresh Rosemary finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons Minced Garlic
• 2 tablespoons Sorghum Molasses
• 1 tablespoon Granulated Onion Powder
• 1 tablespoon Freshly Ground Butcher Grind Black Pepper

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together. Place flank steak into a 1 gallon Ziploc bag. Pour marinade over flank steak. Seal bag removing as much air as possible.

Marinate overnight in fridge turning bag over a couple of times to ensure even distribution of the marinade.

 

 

  

 

 

Preheat grill to medium high heat.

Remove Flank steak from marinade. Discard remaining marinade. Grill flank steak to rare/ medium rare (120F-130F). Remove from grill and rest for 10 minutes.  Flank steak must be cut across the grain when serving.  I like to sprinkle the slices with a really good kosher or sea salt just prior to serving.

We served ours with a really nice crisp broccoli slaw. The next day I made sandwiches out of the remaining flank with herbed focaccia. It was delicious.

  

 

This was on my bucket list. My personal BBQ bucket list. I always wanted one of these trophies from KCBS. We have never been in the top 25 before. There are over 4000 competing teams all over the world. Really proud of my team. Thanks so much Vlado, Mike, Patrick & Jessie.

Huge Congratulations to all the teams for their 2012 Team of the Year Results & a special WOOT! to 3 Eyz BBQ on their Outstanding year!!

I have had a pinterest board for a while now. I have to thank one of my team members Patrick for that. Fun way to share and add items of interest. I have a few boards.

I have a lot of pictures up from BBQ Crawl.  (This is also the new official logo !! Can’t wait for Spring)

Plus I have been working on a board for BBQ Team Logos.  I love the creativity behind some of these logos. Fun to see what people come up with. IF you have a BBQ Competition Team logo and would like it pinned to this board please send me a JPEG of your team logo to divaq@rogers.com

 

 

2012 was an exciting year for our team and for me personally.

As I look back its hard to believe where we went and how many people we got to meet in the US.  From filming 2 episodes of BBQ Pitmasters to competing all over the place, teaching and then filming 10 episodes of my new show BBQ Crawl it was one heck of an epic adventure. 23 states countless cities and over 25,000. miles.

 

 

I have to thank a whole lot of people & sponsors:

My family & friends. They are truly the reason why we can go out and compete and make tv shows and everything in between. I am so lucky to have such a supportive home team. Big thanks to those teams and friends who helped me out when I was flying in to locations- you guys are the bomb.

TO my team: Vlado, Patrick, Jessie & Mike – you are the best!!

To all the people who took the time to come and introduce themselves – it was great to meet you all!

Plus all these terrific companies:

Traeger Canada

Basques All Natural Lump Charcoal

Char-Broil

Smoky Mountain Smokers

BBQ Guru

Butcher BBQ

Ontario Gas BBQ

Thermapen

Novelis

RTR Media

 

I am blessed beyond blessed and no matter what the scores I will always consider myself the luckiest woman in BBQ ever.

thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

Smoked Bacon Wrapped Meatball Tree

 

I thought it would be a nice idea to try a new presentation for my bacon wrapped meatballs.

I have made many traditional Crockenbouche for past Christmas events and I thought the design would be super festive for meatballs. This worked really well and it was fun and easy to make.

This was fun to do and everyone at our annual Christmas party.

I started with an 8” foam core tree shape and wrapped it in foil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used extra-long “Clubhouse sandwich” toothpicks. The meat balls were 2 boxes (almost 3 lbs) of Angus Beef Meatballs from Sobeys that are pre-cooked. I wrapped them each with 1/3 slice of bacon each then sprinkled with Smoky Mountain Smokers Chipotle rub.  They were smoked on my Traeger for just over an hour at 225F. I used Hickory & Oak pellets. When I removed them I glazed them with Garland Jack’s Secret Six Hickory Spice BBQ Sauce.

Pretty simple after that point  just poke them in tightly until the tree is full. I also made a bacon star that took me a few tries to get right btw a super cute when done. The star bacon shape was baked on a silpat sheet to keep it flat. I did the star at 225F and it took 3 strips of bacon to make.

All of the bacon I used was 18/22 slice size.

The tree was simply garnished with the last sprigs of rosemary from my garden. It was a great appetizer for my Christmas party guests who have a serious love for all things bacon & BBQ.

 

Simple easy to make chicken that is drool worthy.  Love a good roast chicken. The kind that is full of flavor, juicy and the skin is crispy.

 

Here is what I used to make this beautiful chicken

• 2 – 4-5lb Chickens Cleaned & Rinsed
• 40 or 50 peeled garlic cloves (4-5 heads)
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup your favorite red wine ( I used Corte Majoli Amarone della valpolicella)
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 sweet white onion
• 1/4 lb salted butter
• 2 large bunched thyme
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper

Hickory chips or pellets

Preheat your pellet grill to 325F or create an indirect fire zone on your gas or charcoal grill.

Fill each cavity of the chickens up with 20 garlic cloves. Insert a few sprigs of thyme and place 1/4 whole piece of onion at the cavity opening to seal in the garlic and thyme.

Place the birds on a BBQ safe pan and sprinkle the remaining thyme and garlic cloves around the birds.

Use your hand to separate the skin from the breast meat. Spread the butter out on the breast and pat it down with the skin.  Its messy work but well worth it.

Slather the birds with the olive oil and generously season with salt & pepper.

Fill the pan with the water and the wine. Place on the BBQ and grill until the internal temperature of the breast registers 155F and the thigh meat is 175F approximately an hour.

When the chicken is done remove and rest covered in foil.

 

 

Strain pan juices into a pan. Squish the garlic through the strainer to add to the sauce. Bring to a simmer skimming off fat and serve with the chicken. Absolutely delicious.

Make sure to make 2. You will want leftovers.

 

 

This is sure to become a family favorite at your house.

Its a blah Tuesday here in Ontario. Ill be making some ribs later this afternoon but right now I am trying to delay steam cleaning my carpets by making new corporate logos. Well not really making new ones but I believe all things are better with BBQ.  Here are a few of the most recognizable corporate logos in the world…. now with BBQ.

 

Disclaimer: Please note the playful use of the corporate logos is just for fun and not intended for financial gain.

I love smoking chuck roasts. I think they are so versatile. You can smoke them to a nice rare (125F) or take them to the pot roast stage where you have broken down all of the protein strands.

Shiitake & Herb Crusted Umami chuck roast

2-4lb boneless chuck roasts
4 cups low sodium organic beef broth
2 sweet onions peeled & slivered

Marinade ingredients:
1 cup cold pressed olive oil
1/2 cup dried shiitake mushroom powder (place dried shiitakes in coffee grinder – works great!)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh thyme
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh oregano
1/4 cup kozliks horseradish mustard
(Or a combination of 1/8 cup horseradish & 1/8 cup Dijon mustard)
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp granulated onion
2 tbsp cracked black pepper
2 tsp kosher or sea salt

In large sized casserole dish combine all of the marinade ingredients. Completely coat both the roasts in the marinade, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for a minimum of 4 hours. Turn the roasts over at least once during the marinade time.

Preheat grill to 225F creating an indirect heat zone or alternately directly on the grill if using a pellet grill (Traeger)

Remove each roast from the marinade.
Place roasts on grill – use  hickory & oak chips or pellets or mesquite for chuck roasts * If using chips add a small handful of each every hour until you foil

Baste with the remaining marinade

Grill chuck roasts until the internal temperature is 175F  approx 2-3 hours

Place each chuck roast in a 1/2 size disposable aluminum pan

Add 2 cups organic beef broth & slivered onions to each chuck roast.  Cover tightly with heavy duty foil.
Grill (approx 1-2 hours) until internal temperature is 205F or when the chuck roast easily comes apart with a fork.

Remove from au jus and rest covered with foil.

Strain the fat from the au jus and serve with the chuck roast.

  

  

  

  

Served with some creamy mashed potatoes, veggies and biscuits it makes a great meal.

But….

You can do a lot of things with a chuck roast like:

CHILI!!! Perfect for these fall days! 

Substitute slices or shreds of chuck roast in your favorite Chili recipe. I like caramelizing a big batch of onions first then adding in some tomatoes, garlic, spices and peppers. Last add the chuck roast and bring to a simmer. Where I am from beans are always added too.

Then how about some chuck roast stew? I really prefer to serve my stews over mashed potatoes. Simply take some of the shredded chuck roast add some low sodium beef stock and add your favorite veggies like onions, mushrooms, carrots & green beans. Throw in a handful of whole garlic cloves and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for at least an hour. Then to thicken make a corn starch slurry and add that to the pot. Bring to a boil and serve over mashed potatoes. Super easy.

 

psst.  If by any chance you have any left shredded chuck roast is also awesome in quesadillas, burritos, nachos and tacos too!