Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Aaron's Bacon Burgers & Fries

Back-to-back days of feel good meals!

These are Big Burgers and this meal feeds 5 comfortably!

3 Large Baking Potatoes
2 lbs of Ground Chuck (Ground Sirloin for a slightly finer taste at a much higher price)
1/8 Cup of Pickle Juice
3/8 Cup of A1 Steak Sauce
1/4 Cup of Ketchup
1/4 Cup of Mustard
1/2 Tspn of Black Pepper
8 Slices of Bacon
1/3 Cup of Sugar
Salt Shaker
Vegetable Oil
Lettuce
Tomatoe
Pickles
Cheese
Fresh Hamburger Buns

1) Add some oil to a Frying Pan and fry the Bacon. Let Bacon cool. Transfer the remaining Oil and Bacon Grease to a Fryer. After Bacon cools, break into small pieces.
2) Take Ground Chuck and make 10 patties (you want them to be pretty flat less than 1/2 inch and pretty big in diameter).
3) Sprinkle Bacon bits on 5 patties and then stack a patty on top, You will want to pick each combined patty up and seal the edges together and then flatten together a little bit. Also, Push a thumbprint in the top side of the patty so that the burger doesn't ball up on the grill.
4) Mix the Pickle Juice, A1, Ketchup, Mustard and Black Pepper
5) Place Sauce from above and Patties in Fridge
6) Slice the Potatoe into thin (1/4 inch slices).
7) Mix Sugar and Hot water in a bowl, stir to dissolve sugar (You need enough water to cover potatoes). Add potatoes and let sit for 30 minutes.
8) Slice lettuce, tomatoe, and cheese to top burger later and put in fridge.
9) Heat up Oil and Bacon Grease in Fryer. Once at 300 F, add potatoes. Leave in Fryer until the potatoe bubbles and is crispy, then remove and add salt. (Probably have to cook in batches).
10) Place Burgers on hot grill (make sure to lubricate the grill first). When nearly cooked through (Burger should feel like the pad of skin under your thumb while touching your thumb and ring finger together), brush on the sauce made in step #4. Coat both sides before removing burgers from grill.
11) Add toppings to burger as desired with Potatoe Chips from step #9 on the burger or on the side.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Chicken Wings

OK, continuing my blogs themes of Food & Recipes (Travel and Things are good to), I bring you my go to wing recipe:

I like my wings with a little bit of deep fried flour crust, but real light so that some of the regular skin is exposed and drenched in a tangy BBQ sauce.

Start with 12 Chicken Wings, cut-off the Wing Tip piece and trash and then cut the remaining Wing Section and Drumette section into two pieces (usually you can go through the joint pretty easily). You want to marinade 6 - 10 hours in a mixture of 1/2 cup of butter and a 1/2 cup of your favorite hot sauce.

Put some Vegetable Oil and Bacon Grease in your Deep Frier or Frying Pan to start heating up (you want it hot 300 F minimum when you put the first batch in).

Drain the wings from the butter and hot sauce. I sprinkle the following mixture into the bowl with the wings. I do half of it and then toss the wings and then dump in the other half:

1/3 cup of flour
1 Tblspn Black Pepper
1 Tblspn Paprika
1 Tspn Cayane Pepper
1 Tspn Garlic Salt
1 Tspn Chili Powder

As soon as the Oil is ready, start Frying (I have a Fry Daddy, so I can only do 7 -8 wings at a time, so I am looking at 3 batches). I have added a baking step later so that they are all hot when I am ready to eat.

I leave them in between 4 & 7 minutes, each batch gets a little shorter as the oil is hotter. You are looking for a brown to dark brown exterior for anywhere there was flour. Cooking through is not a concern, because we will baking them.

Once they are all fried, I dunk them in the sauce below (I often leave a few naked for cara to dunk in ranch post-baking, and you could certainly add a littler butter to hot sauce if you wanted hot wings).

1/2 Cup of Ketchup
1 Tblspn Cider Vinegar
2 Tblspn Worchestire Sauce
1 Tspn A1 Steak Sauce
1 Tspn Lime Jiuce
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tspn Pepper
A pinch of Garlic Salt

(mix well, dunk wings, and then place on an oiled baking sheet)

Bake at 275 F for 10 - 12 minutes.

In the meantime, gather any Ranch, Blue Cheese, Hot Sauce and Sliced Celery that you want to add to the feast. This recipe can certainly be done for groups, just look to keep the ratios about the same.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Awesome Baked Bean Recipe

I was messing around trying to create a game-time snack Sunday night and came across this number with some of my own twists:

  • 1 - 15 oz Can of Black Beans (Rinsed and Drained)
  • 1 - 15 oz Can of Pinto Beans (Rinsed and Drained)
  • 1 - 15 oz Can of Navy 'Great Northern' Beans (Rinsed and Drained)
  • 1 - 15 oz Can of Spicy Chili Beans
  • 1 - Small to Medium Vidalia Onion
  • 1 - Jalapeno
  • 4 or 5 - Green Onions
  • 1 1/4 Cup - Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce
  • 2/3 Cup - Strong Brewed Coffe
  • 2 Tablespoons - Worchestire Sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon - A1 SteakSauce
  • 1/2 Cup - Hormel Real Bacon Bits
  • 10 Strips - Bacon
  • 2/3 Cup - Brown Sugar

Finely Chop Vidalia Onion and Green Onions or Run through a Food Processor (Should be about 2/3 Cup chopped). Fry the 6 strips of Bacon until crispy.

Mix all ingredients, except for the 6 slices of Bacon, together in a bowl. Place the 6 strips of Bacon neatly on top of the beans. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 275 degrees uncovered.