Grilled Chicken on the Char Broil Bistro - Fast Food at Home

Tonight we had fast food, and it was on the Char Broil Patio Bistro. Food Lion had some thin cut boneless chicken, and I know that can be quicker than waiting in line at the drive through plus healthier and tastes better too.

The Bistro grill is electric, so I just heated it up and then went in and got the chicken ready. It heats up hot and fast.



Regular old chicken does not have a whole lot of taste. Sorry chicken folks. Love chicken, but I doctor it up. That really is the nice thing about boneless chicken is that you can do that and get all different flavors.

Tonight I used Cowboy Cajun Rub. It's kind of like a seasoning salt but not salt. It's spicy but not burn you up hot. My mild son can handle it, but it still has a beautiful kick. My step dad brought it back when he went out to Wyoming to his home state earlier this year.



Some of us are saucy here (and others not as much). I sauced some of the grilled chicken with Bob Evans Wildfire. Again, that may sound super hot. It's not. It's a good flavor kick but fine for all but the most timid.

These boneless chicken pieces were very thin cut, so it only took about a couple of minutes on each side to knock them out. Then we had them on buns like burgers but better for our diets especially since the doctor does not like my tri levels.

Get more info on grilling boneless chicken recipes and stuff at my Yes You Can Grill site. I have more ideas there - my basic go to boneless chicken recipe. It's similar, but I did a dry rub here and then sauced. No marinade. This is the super fast food version of chicken on a grill, and YES it was delicious.

There are so many things you can do on grills that are super easy. I do some gourmet dishes as well, but I'll always have quick and easy grilled dishes too, because some days you just don't feel like standing there a long time and having to check and double check.

How to Grill Bacon and YES It is Delicious

Yes. You can grill bacon. It is not rocket science, and grilled or smoked bacon is fabulous.

Tara asked me if I'd like to try out Burgers' Smokehouse steak bacon. That's basically a thick cut which is what you really need if you want to grill or smoke bacon on the grates. I'm always game to try out new products as long as companies are fine with with honest and sometimes not so glowing opinions.



I can tell you that doing thick cut bacon like Burger's Smokehouse bacon is easier on a gas grill or a smoker like my Traeger. I did some on the Traeger, and that was low maintenance. I, however, was wanting to get some Kingsford Charcoal flavor, so this week I did part of my pack of Burgers' Smokehouse Bacon on the Portable Kitchen PK charcoal grill.



If you look close, you can see that I offset the charcoal. That just means that I had charcoal on one end of the PK and not on the other.

Bacon has a lot of fat which will make flares and high heat on charcoal. I sure did not want to burn up some high quality bacon, so I had high heat on one side and low heat on the other. The cast aluminum holds heat well, so even on the indirect side, I'm getting some good heat but no flares.



I had some chicken going with Bold and Mild barbecue sauce made by Melanie Yunk. Chicken is not going to flare up much, and these barbecue chicken strips are yummy and so easy to grill. So, I was just moving the food around as I grilled and making sure I did not burn anything up.



Whew boy. This is some primo bacon from Burgers' Smokehouse. I've always been a "thin cut" girl on bacon, because I like it crisp. This bacon grilled up fabulous, so I am now turned on to thick or steak cut as they call it bacon. It did crisp up but in a different kind of way with a really nice texture. The taste was great both ways I've grilled it so far, but even though charcaol took more work, that was my favorite. The Kingsford gave the gourmet bacon even more kick.

You can visit Burgers' Smokehouse in person if you go to California, Missouri. No. I'm not kidding. The city is California, but the state is Missouri. You can also visit them online and order, and you can chat with the company at @baconsteakcuts on Twitter.

Grilled Grapples - Apples that Taste Like Grapes on the Weber Kettle

I saw the Grapples down at Harris Teeter, and they were calling my name. The package said that they looked like apples but tasted like grapes. Hum. Now that sounds interesting, and I love to try out new foods.

First I came home and sliced and ate a Grapple and then told the boys I had some Crapples. Scratching heads all round. Oops. That would be Grapples. They decided to try some after I convinced them that I did not actaully buy Crapples.

Sure enough. The apples were just like eating apples but with a grape taste. Wondering how this could be, I got my reading glasses out and discovered that the grape flavor was both natural and artificial, so I can't say how grappie these would be without help from modern science and also have no idea how they got flavor inside the apple without damaging the peelings. We will just leave that as magic.



Today the grill was cranked up for some cheeseburgers for my birthday. The guys did the meal and even cleaned up after. I think I will have birthdays more often.

In any case, I decided to grill some Grapple slices. You could, or course, do just the same with apples. Just use firm ones - baking apples - like Granny Smith apples etc.

I melted 3 tablespoons of butter with 1 tablespoon of honey and around 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice (enough for 2 or 3 apples or Grapples). Then I put the Grapples in a zip lock baggie with the sauce cooled a bit and shook the Grapple slices up to coat them. Then, on the grill they went. Just a few minutes per side or until carmelized and with some grill marks if you like.



Here's our grilled Grapples, and they were tasty. The grape flavor with charcoal was quite different, but I liked it. The coating was sweet enough to contrast with the slight grape flavor twang.

Grapples ran $5.99 for four and with them being flavored up artifically, I'd say they'll be more of a fad thing. They do taste good though. So, I may buy and grill more Grapples or not. It was a fun afternoon grilling project though. Plus quick.

Lexington NC Barbecue Festival 2010 - Pigging Out with Pork Lovers

I headed off to the Lexington, North Carolina Barbecue Festival yesterday. It was sunny and in the 70s, so the crowds were thick even at 9 a.m. which is usually a little slower. And, the crowds got thicker from there. I'd have to guess that this is the biggest barbecue festival year since they began the 27 years ago.



The barbecue tents are always super busy. I've read they buy 40 to 50 thousand buns for the chopped pork that is served with slaw as sandwiches - classic North Carolina barbecue. But, the fried food booth was hopping this year as they offered all kinds of strange fried stuff like Oreos, Snickers candy bars, bacon and even butter on a stick and batter deep fried.



Here's deep fried butter. It's a third of a stick of butter. And, I'm just not up to that. Some of my friends got it and said it was great. I'll just take their words for that. I had the bacon on a stick with maple syrup. That was real good - kind of like pancakes with bacon.



Every year they have a great sand art sculpture at the Lexington Barbecue Festival, but I've never seen the artists working on it. This year the sculpture was in progress in front of the Arts Council of Lexington, and the process was really amazing.



Besides Jimmy and my son Eli, I also hung out with Brownkw and SirPorkaLot. If those names sound strange, that's because those are Twitter handles. Yes. I had my first Tweet Up. That's when you meet up with buddies you've made on Twitter. I hang out over at Twitter and talk to a bunch of Twitter peeps. I'm cyndiallison there - no spaces.



We all had barbecue sandwiches of course. What would our barbecue friends think if we went to a barbecue festival and did not have barbecue? And, some of the guys got the curly tail fries which are good too.



I must confess that I got a fried apple pie before I ate lunch. The line for the apple pie booth gets wicked long as the day goes along, so I decided the apples would make it okay for breakfast. I counted it as fruit and did not think about the homemade deep fried wrap.

My Grandma always made the best fried apple pies, so I always look forward to the fried pie booth at the barbecue festival. The fried pies are fabulous. I can't say they are as good as Grandma's, because you just can't say that. They are real close though.



This year they had some fake pork rinds. They are made of whole wheat pasta that they heat to just the right temperature to puff. They really do taste like pork rinds. Could have fooled me, and I've eaten those for years. In any case, we found something healthy at the barbecue festival at "What a Chip."



I also made a new friend at the Barbecue Festival. Here I am with Mr. Pink Pig.

All in all, this was one of the best years ever for the Lexington, NC Barbecue Festival. They had more local booths this time and also some barbecue sauces. The last couple of years had been rainy, and things were slower with fewer things to see and do. This year it was really hopping or maybe I should say oinking in Lexington.

Barbecue Pork Loin with Bacon Weave and Nephews Pumpkin BBQ Sauce

Nephews Pumpkin BBQ Sauce - Yes It is Zippy

Tonight I smoked a pork loin on the Traeger with Nephews pumpkin barbecue sauce. Yes. I did say pumpkin bbq sauce.

Dylan is a home state boy (Raleigh - go NC State). We are buddies on Twitter, and he sent me out some of his barbeuce sauces to try. With it Halloween this weekend, the pumpkin barbecue sauce, of course, caught my eye and imagination.



I had to think on the flavors a bit. The pumpkin barbeuce has pumpkin - well duh of course - and also ghost peppers so some heat. Actually quite a bit of heat. Yes. I did have to taste a spoon of the sauce, and it was fab-u-licious.

Down at the Food Lion, they had pork loins on sale (like half price - yay), and I got to thinking that might be a good match there.

I figured I needed to balance sweet and heat on this one, so here's what I did:

1. I got around 3/4 cup brown sugar with a half loin and sprinkled in a little cinnamon (like 1/2 tsp) and a tad of nutmeg (like 1/4 tsp) and garlic (like 1/4 tsp). Then I rubbed that on the loin. It's not thick. Just a little sugar rub all over and some spots not really looking all covered. Light on rub.

2. I added a bacan weave. I put slices across the narrow way and then did like in and out long ways. It takes a while but is not hard once you get going. Tuck in on the bottom side and serve with the pretty side up - for a hint there.

3. Before I used a turner to put this on the smoker (bottom weave side down), I did sprinkle on some lemon pepper which I love. I went easy on that too. Just a quick dash.

4. I smoked low at around 300 to 350 degress F for about an hour and a half (and turned pretty weave side up around one hour). Temp was 140 F then at 1 1/2 hr, so I sauced with the Nephews Pumpkin BBQ sauce. You could use other sauces, but you won't get this same unique treat.



USDA suggest pork cooked to 160 F. So, I did sauce at 140. Then I waited about 15 minutes or so and checked. I pulled the loin between 150 and 155 F, because I know it continues to cook some once off the smoker, and I do not want bone dry pork. That's just ick.

I let my Nephhews Pumpkin BBQ sauce loin sit there for 20 minutes or so with some aluminum foil also called tin foil in the South loose over the loin. That let the flavors meld and also gave all my peeps time to get back home. We run on a crazy time schedule around here.



This Nephews BBQ Pumpkin sauce pork loin was a home run. The combo of sweet and heat and with a mild loin and flavorful bacon just was spot on. The barbecue smoked loin was thumbs up all round. It was a little kicky (heat) for my mild son, but he just pulled off some of the bacon and sauce to cool his plate down. The medium and hot lovers were in hog heaven. Yeah. It was THAT good. That pumpkin barbecue sauce was amazing, and this recipe showcased it just right.

My Favorite Mustard BBQ Sauce Sam Dog Now on the Market

Sam Dog BBQ Sauce on Chicken

A while back I was telling readers about Sam Dog BBQ sauce. Greg had sent me a home canned jar of his families mustard based barbecue sauce to see what I thought.

North Carolina is vinegar based barbecue sauce country, and I like lots of different sauces. Mustard is down in South Carolina, and I had always liked it okay. But, I'd never had one that knocked my socks off.

Sam Dog Mustard BBQ sauce made a believer out of me though. That is some heap good stuff. It's got that musturd twang, but it's more balanced and complex than other mustard sauces I've tried. Sam Dog has a little sweet flavor plus a nice quiet back bite. It's my top pick yellow mustard barbecue sauce.

I noticed on Twitter yesterday that Greg was rolling out his barbecue sauce. It takes a while to get all that paperwork done and approved. And, today Jeff shot me an email to tell me Same Dog is up and ready. He's on the market, so you can buy Sam Dog BBQ sauce now and see for yourself at Jeff's store.

You heard it first here probably, since Greg sent out a family jar (thanks!) (-: Sam Dog Yellow Dog barbecue sauce is a thumbs up, and now everyone else can check it out too.

Congratulations to Greg and to his family. It takes a huge amount of time and work to develop a great barbecue sauce and then even more time to jump through all the hoops to get it bottled. I'm glad folks do it though, because some of my all time favorite sauces are the small label ones. You can simply taste the heart in the ones that come right from the kitchen.

Mayberry Days 2010 NC State BBQ Championship Smoke Off - Photos

This was one of those wild weekends. I hit the road right from work rather than backtrack and went to the North Carolina barbecue championship sponsored by the NC Pork Council. It was in Mount Airy, NC which is about an hour and half from work and little further from home. This was Mayberry Days weekend, and the state barbecue cook off was sheduled for the little mountain town for 2010.

With papers to grade and articles to write plus covering a big barbecue event, I stayed until around midnight but headed on home. I thought about getting a hotel room but figured they were full on Mayberry Days weekend and also wasn't so keen on getting up at 5 a.m. or so to "purty up" to get back to the barbecue lot.

As luck would have it, I met Fred Parker on Friday night. He's from the area, and he sent me photos of the morning after the early morning judging took place. Gotta love locals who help a girl out. Thanks Fred!



Now this is one pretty smoked pig if I must say so myself, and since I didn't smoke it, then I can. I can't speak to the taste, but I can sure picture eating this one. Yum!



North Carolina barbecue is chopped, so that's another big job on top of the all night smoking. If you get slow smoked NC barbecue, you are getting a labor of love. No one would do all that work if they did not really care about old fashioned slow barbecue smoking.



The pitmasters work with crews. It would be close to impossible to smoke whole hog without some help. Each pig in this contest ran a little over 120 pounds. I do pork shoulders and butts myself (Lexington style barbecue), because I frankly can't lift a whole pig and don't need that much meat smoked up at once usually.



Barbecue is not just a guys' game, although the bulk of the pitmasters are male. Good guys they are! But, many of the teams have female partners, and the winner this year for the 2010 North Carolina barbecue championship title was the lone female pitmaster - Carla Sweet. That's not her in the photo above, but I have an earlier post about Carla taking the NC BBQ champ title.



Here is some North Carolina chopped barbecue. Actually this is an early chop. They keep working the meat with knives until it's cut fine. This is not pulled pork country. It's chopped barbecue and usually served on a white bread bun with slaw and vinegar based barbecue sauce. It's unique to North Carolina, and if you ever visit the state, you ought to check it out. It's quite different from barbecue in other parts of the country, and it's really yummy.

North Carolina State BBQ Championship in Mount Airy, NC

I hung out at the 2010 North Carolina state barbecue championship contest in Mount Airy until about midnight. Pig smoking is an all night affair. I told the barbecue guys to have good smokes and headed back home to do some barbecue writing and to edit photos.

That mobile blogging thing was harder than flipping pigs with the slow load speed up there in the NC mountains. I think I could have walked the 80 or so miles home before photos would have uploaded on site.

Fortunately, I met a Mount Airy local, Fred Parker, and he sent me some barbecue contest photos. So, now you can see a whole hog barbecue contest the morning after.



Wow. Now that's a pretty smoked pig. They definately look tastier in the morning after they are smoked than at night when they are raw pig.



Whole hogs call for big smokers - of course. There were a range of different smokers at the 2010 NC state barbecue championship. Some of them were store bought and others were handmade smokers.



The pitmasters watch those temperatures and check out the meat. There's done and there's ready. It's a talent to get smoked whole hog smoked pork just perfect.




Once the pigs are done, there's a lot of chopping. In North Carolina, barbecue pork is typically chopped (not pulled) and then sauced. When you have top notch pig smokers like at this state championship, the secret and the win can be in the sauce which in vinegar based with various amounts of red (tomato product) depending on whether you are east or west of the North Carolina barbecue divide line.

Mayberry Days 2010 NC Pork Council BBQ Championship - Photos - Night of Smoke

On Friday night I reported live from the North Carolina State BBQ championship sponsored by the North Carolina Pork Council. The official state barbecue contest was held in Mount Airy, NC this year in conjunction with Mayberry Days. The contest rotates year to year.

Here are some more photos from the night of the barbecue smoke off in Mt. Airy.



Before the pigs arrive for smoking, the judges check out the various barbecue booths and judge them for showmanship. As you can see, Elvis was in the house (or parking lot) and apparently the king of rock and roll helped decide the king of pig this year.



Joe Peterson and crew had a booth that I called Pigs on a Blanket. They also had flying pigs overhead as we all found out when the judges stopped by. Peterson took second place in showmanship. Plus, the guys had a bed to nap on during the competition. Now, that's some good thinking there.



There are times to work and times to kick back. These guys were taking it easy here, but they were on their game once the pigs arrived. You take what rest you can get on an all night pig smoke, and yes it does take all night to smoke a whole hog.



Things did not get too out of hand at the overnight barbecue smoke, because duputy Barney Fife was on hand to keep order. He wrote some tickets, but those were for minor infractions like looking guilty of something.



This little girl was loving the barbecue contest and also loving getting her picture made. She was saying cheese, but she was not giving up that pacifier so that I could actually see her cheese smile. Bless her for effort and a first place for making me laugh.

North Carolina 2010 State BBQ Champion - Carla Sweet

Husband and Wife - Larry and Carla Sweet Get Their Pigs Ready to Smoke

One of the men at the North Carolina BBQ Championship Cook Off told me that I didn't look like a pig cooker. He probably did not think Carla Sweet looked like one either. So, the joke is on him. Bless his heart (our Southern snark comment).

The big barbecue boys were down in Mount Airy, NC last night for the NC Mayberry Days BBQ Championship contest. The state contest is sponsored by the NC Pork Council and moves around the state year to year. This time, Mt. Airy got the draw and during their annual event to celebrate the Andy Griffith TV show. Gotta love Andy and the gang and North Carolina barbecue too.



The Sweets were set up front of house or right on the main road there in Mount Airy. They didn't go all fancy with all the pig decorations and stuff. And, in fact, they were real down to earth and quiet. I had to ask one of the other contestants where the husband/wife contestants were set up.

Yep. There they were right in front of me all the time.

You may be thinking they were working together, but they weren't. They were side by side with each entered in the contest.

Husband, Larry, took second place last year at this same North Carolina barbecue competition (which came to a draw and was decided on the blind taste test), so he was definately one to watch. He uses charcoal rather than gas, so he is old school and had a labor intensive night. Props on that.



Anyone who overlooked Carla wasn't keeping up with barbecue news. She'd recently won a big contest with her husband (a master of the sport of barbecue smoking) in the dust.

Well, hey, it could have been a fluke. Carla confesses that's she only smoked seven pigs so far as far as she recalls. In the barbecue circuits, that's really green. So, she probably would not have been the money pick if it had been Las Vegas versus Mount Airy NC (where they don't much go for gambling).



The proof is in the pig, and Carla Sweet went home with the gold as the North Carolina state championship pig smoker.

Those North Carolina barbecue boys are great. They treated me great and fed me fine. But, I must say I'm kind of tickled that the girl trumped 2010 and proved that barbecue isn't all brawn and bluster.

Read all about the NC Barbecue Championship at Yes You Can Grill - my grilling and barbecue web site.

NC Pork Council BBQ State Championship 2010

North Carolina State Championship Pork Smoke Off

I'm reporting now direct from the 2010 North Carolina State Championship BBQ cook off in Mayberry, NC on September 20th. The event is sponsored by the North Carolina Pork Council - NCPC. The BBQ off moves around the state from year to year, and this year the contest is being held in conjuntion with Mayberry Days. Yes. Of course, Mayberry Days is a celebration of Andy Griffith (and this is the 50th year anniversary for that classic TV show that started before I was born).

The BBQ teams are all set up. There are 24 total, and they had to win some competitions to get a spot in the state event. So, we have here 24 of the best pitmasters across the state now waitng for the whole hogs to come in.

One guy to watch this year is Joe Peterson. He has taken the title the barbecue champ title the past two years, and that's a real big deal in barbecue circles. I hunted him up, and he and his wife and friends were just really super nice. They gave me chicken, corn, and beans and some bread pudding like Grandma used to make.


Joe Peterson

Before the smoking got started, the judges went around and checked out the set up displays. You may wonder why judges would go look at the tents and smokers. See one - seen them all. Nope. These guys (and a few girls go all out or maybe I should say hog wild on decking out the work areas).



Everyone was waiting for the meat trucks to show up except for maybe the lady who asked if they shoot the pigs there. Really now, it's in city limits. Of course, there's no pig shooting. The pigs come in on a big truck. They are not frozen either as woman asked. You know how long it takes to thaw a turkey. If the teams had to smoke frozen pigs, we'd be sitting there all week.



I don't do whole hog, because they are heavy. I heard weight numbers in the 120 pound plus range. That's a lot of meat and heavy. All hands were on deck as the teams began getting ready for an all night barbecue pig smoke.



I'll have to get some sleep, but I have more photos and stories. I'll share those after I get some shut eye.

Facebook Photo Collection from NC Barbecue Cook Off

If you'd like to read more about the annual NC Barbecue Cook Off, visit Yes You Can Grill where I talk about my first barbecue contest trip.

Great Grill Gifts Personalized from Red Envelope

Cutting Board with Moat From Red Envelope

Here is my beautiful cutting board from Red Envelope. They have a variety of great gifts for all occasions, but I go to the the grill section and drool. The best part is that these gifts which look great in the photos look even nicer when they arrive.

I'd never heard of Red Envelope, but Jake got in touch and offered to send me something from the line for an honest review. Well, we all know I'm darn honest to a fault, so that is a gamble. I warn folks on that. If the product is not as advertised or a piece of junk, I'm going to tell it. That's only fair to readers who deserve to get what they pay for.

In this case, I thought the cutting board would be terrific for my larger grilled cuts especially with that trench or moat to catch any juices which can be right messy as most folks will know. It's just about to turn barbecue season for those larger cuts. I do some in the summer, but it's flat been too hard for long smokes here in North Carolina. So, I'm going to oil up the wooden cutting board and crank up the smoker real soon. In the meantime, I'm just admiring this well made board that smells real nice too.



If you've not used a wooden cutting board, then know that you do need to season them with oil before using. This one is not seasoned for the photos, because I wanted to get some before I do that. That is repeated every few months depending on the amount of use.

I'll work on a how to article at Yes You Can Grill about seasoning and taking care of wood cooking items.

Also, you want to make sure you do not cross contaminate. Some people use two boards to help on that - one for meats and one for other foods. You can use Clorox for cleaning, but many people worry about that. So, household vinegar full strength is a good option and my favorite.



I'm excited about this really great looking cutting board and know that it will turn heads at parties. Not only is the cutting board really great looking and sturdy, it also has my intitials.

What sets the products at Red Envelope further ahead of many products I check out is that they have personalization. They engrave or burn in your name or initials.

Above you will see that my initials are on this cutting board. Yes. They are CYA. I do not think CYA meant what it means now when my Mom named me, or she had not heard of it. In any case, gotta laugh when your initials spell something funny - even an acronym.

If you are looking for really nice gifts and especially for your favorite griller, be sure to check out Red Envelope. And, no, I don't work for them or get any kick back. I just think have a rocking grill section and grill/barbecue gifts.