Another Beautiful Day In Paradise!! (W / Pics)

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tx smoker

Legendary Pitmaster
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Apr 14, 2013
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Lago Vista, Texas
Yesterday dawned clear and cool after the rain that came through on Friday afternoon. It was the promise of another beautiful day in Central Texas so we figured we should make the best of it. Over breakfast my wife and I decided to pull out all the stops and do a large, diverse menu for the afternoon. I have never done ABT's or a beer can chicken but have wanted to for years so these were added to the menu right off the bat. We also agreed on a pork roast and yet another turkey breast. The turkey has become a staple around here because it has always been absolutely incredbile and the pork is so diverse with what you can do with it after cooking. It's always nice to have in the fridge for a quick meal during the week so we try to keep some on hand. With the menu agreed upon we called a few friends and made the mandatory stop at the grocery store ont he way home. It's always amazing how easy it is to round up some a group of friends with good beer and slow cooked BBQ :-)  Here is the required evidence:

Turkey breast lightly seasoned and ready to go on the smoker 


My first beer can chicken just hitting the smoker. Seasoned with black pepper, cayenne pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. I actually used a 1 pint mason jar as the "can" and filled it with a home brewed golden ale from the keg-o-rator in the garage.


My first shot at ABT's. The only variation from Jeff's recipe is a chunk of Andouille sausage on top before wrapping with bacon.


Pork roast as it hits the smoker....this is gonna be a good piece of meat!!


The ABT's and turkey go on last. Chicken and pork roast are coming along nicely


I managed to time this so everything came off the smoker at the same time. All of the meat was wrapped and put in a cooler to get happy and we tore into the ABT's. WOW!! Those little puppies were outstanding


Perfect pork roast. The smoke ring, the moistness, and the flavor were simply over the top. This was a huge hit. Most folks are used to pork being somewhat dry I guess and they all marveled at how juicy and tender this was.


The Executive Chef was exhausted but content after another full day of cooking and entertaining. She just loves to party with good friends...and she loves everybody


Now for the quick summary. The chicken came out extremely well. It was the most juicy and tasky chicken I have ever had. The only drawback was that there was no way to slice the stuff. It was so tender it literally fell off the bones so we kind of ended up with "pulled chicken"...which was fine. My only take-away on the ABT's is that 3 hours on the smoker seemed to lessen the zing of the Jalapenos considerably. We like spicy food and I was expecting a lot more pepper spice. I think next time I will try one at 2 1/2 hours and see if that makes a difference. We had two friends join us that love BBQ but had not yet enjoyed dinner prepared by our Executive Chef. Sadly for them, they are now ruined and will never eat at a commercial BBQ joint again. There is just no comparison between what we cook at home and food that is bulk prepared and cooked for the masses. the ABT's were simply astonishing!! They take some prep time to put together but it's well worth the effort. Those will become a regular menu item. I just need to figure out a way to get them spicier. Perhaps some cayenne pepper in the cream cheese mix would make a nice touch.

That's all for now. Have a great week folks!! I gave the Executive Chef the day off today so we will be eating left-overs...which are probably better than the food most folks will be eating today

Robert
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That's a whole lotta good lookin Q!  

drool.gif
 
Looks great. I love the ABTS. I use the large whole San Marcos brand jalapenoes that come canned and have carrots cut and pickled along with the peppers. I like to finely dice the carrots and I mix them in with the cream cheese for an extra kick. And once the bacon starts to crisp I baste with the left over liquid from can.
 
Great looking meal! If you like spicy ttry using habaneros instead of the jalapenos next time. What kind of smoker are you using and what type of wood did you use?
 
Looks great. I love the ABTS. I use the large whole San Marcos brand jalapenoes that come canned and have carrots cut and pickled along with the peppers. I like to finely dice the carrots and I mix them in with the cream cheese for an extra kick. And once the bacon starts to crisp I baste with the left over liquid from can.
Excellent suggestion!! Thank you. Now all I need to do is find the San Marcos jalapenos. If it is in fact San Marcos, Texas They shouldn't be hard to find since I live 30 minutes north of there. With the peppers being canned (and already softened to a point) do they require less cooking time? This really sounds like a tasty addition and I'd love to give it a try next weekend.

Ya gotta love the input!!

Robert
 
Great looking meal! If you like spicy ttry using habaneros instead of the jalapenos next time. What kind of smoker are you using and what type of wood did you use?
It's somewhat ironic that you mention Habanero peppers. I have a small garden that I grow every year with nothing but hot peppers. This year I have 4 Habanero plants (along with 25 other pepper plants), which should yield several hundred Habaneros. We did in fact discuss using them for the ABT's yesterday while having dinner. With my own coming in though I'd have a hard time going to the store and buying any :-)

Most of the time I use Pecan for my smoker wood. With fish and some lighter meats i will use a combination of Apple and Orange though....but Pecan is my mainstay for most food and what I used yesterday.

I am cooking on an Old Country Pecos offset smoker. After a fiasco on my second cook trying to maintain temperature I did a conversion to use propane for my heat source by modifying a turkey fryer that I had and installing it into the fire box. Thus far, after a dozen or so sessions, it has performed flawlessly. I can't begin to tell you how much more enjoyable (and cost effective) it is to do an all-day cook with this system. Here is a pic of the base smoker:


This is a pic of the turkey fryer installed and lit up.. I had to make some adjustments to the air intake to get a clean burning, blue flame from it but that only took a few minutes.


I put my smoker wood in a charcoal pan and it only takes a minute or two for the smoke to start rolling nicely.


Now I'm looking ahead to some variations of the ABT's which should really take things to a whole new level. This is gonna be fun
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Pondering the possibilities,

Robert
 
Now I'm looking ahead to some variations of the ABT's which should really take things to a whole new level. This is gonna be fun
439.gif


Pondering the possibilities,

Robert
Nice looking rig! An offset is going to be my next smoker purchase.

We like doing all kinds of ABT's. Pulled pork is a great stufffing, as is tuna, salsa's, brisket, the list goes on! We make homemade pepper jelly, it makes a good glaze to hit the top of the ABT's with during the last few minutes of the cook. Hmmm may need to make a batch!
 
Excellent suggestion!! Thank you. Now all I need to do is find the San Marcos jalapenos. If it is in fact San Marcos, Texas They shouldn't be hard to find since I live 30 minutes north of there. With the peppers being canned (and already softened to a point) do they require less cooking time? This really sounds like a tasty addition and I'd love to give it a try next weekend.

Ya gotta love the input!!
Robert

Robert im in dfw and walmart usually carries them. But I have plenty of Hispanic groceries in my neighborhood. .always a find there. They are tender and cook up quicker. Ill smoke them til the cheese has some good color. Ive put em under the broiler to crisp up the bacon, done both before and after. I love the pickled and they seem hotter that way.. imho
 
I did this on a regular grill but indirect heat at 170*-200* for about 3 hours.. the cheese never got to hot that it melted and the bacon was firm enough it had a bite. . This is with the canned whole japs. They were good.. but I just tried something dofferent for the sake of this thread.. and I was out of room on the new UDS build.
 
I never tried using canned jalapenos because it seems like they'll be too flimsy. I do parboil my fresh jalapenos for about 3-5 min to help with the cooking and give them the super bright green look.
 
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