These smoked country style ribs were another one of those “where have I been?” things for me. Country style ribs come from near the pork shoulder on a pig, and although they don’t contain ribs, they do contain part of the shoulder bone and are cut like ribs. Now, normally I’d probably approach these as I would pork shoulder or ribs, but this time I used an idea that I had come across on a Facebook smoker fan group.
Everyone Into The Pool
The ribs are smoked long enough to get great flavor deep inside. Then they are transferred to a pan full of a wonderful mixture of soda, BBQ sauce, butter and brown sugar. The end result is completely fall-apart tender and packed with flavor. Nice and different from the things I usually smoke.
A Great Smoked Meat
Next time I smoke country style ribs I’m going to throw a few extra on the smoker. That’s so that I have leftovers. Chopped, it’s great stuff in a stew or on nachos. And the added bonus is that I can often find country style ribs on sale much cheaper than I can buy baby back or spare ribs or pork shoulder.
The ribs are smoked long enough to get great flavor then transferred to a pan full of a wonderful mixture of soda, BBQ sauce, butter and brown sugar. The end result is completely fall-apart tender and packed with flavor.Â
Fire up your smoker for smoking at 225 F. Use any wood you prefer.
Rub the ribs with the yellow mustard. Sprinkle with the rub.
Place directly onto the smoker and smoke for 1 1/2 hours or until the internal temperature of the ribs reaches 150 F.
Meanwhile, combine Mountain Dew, butter, butter, brown sugar, and BBQ sauce in a medium saucepan and warm thoroughly until the butter is melted and the brown sugar is dissolved.
Transfer ribs to a large aluminum pan with high sides.
Add the warmed sauce.
Cover with foil and return to the smoker for another hour or until the internal temperature of the ribs hits 195-200 F.
You can serve the ribs directly from the pan, or remove them from the pan and return them to the smoker grates and brush with more BBQ sauce. Let smoke another 10 minutes to set the sauce then serve.
Notes
I made the sauce on-the-fly, to taste. I started with about 1 liter of Mountain Dew, a stick of butter, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce. After those were combined I added more BBQ sauce and a little more brown sugar. Start with a little of each ingredient (other than the Mountain Dew go ahead and start with a liter), taste, and add more as you desire.
I think that the Cuisinart Griddler is one of the best kitchen appliances that I own. I use (often) it for everything from pancakes to burgers to these Italian panini with giardiniera relish. Paninis come out spectacularly on the Griddler. The bread gets perfectly crunchy and golden brown. The cheese gets nicely ooey and gooey. All this in minutes with really easy cleanup. It’s impossible to go wrong with it.
Relish for the Win
The giardiniera relish adds a wonderful flavor to these Italian panini made using the Cuisinart Griddler. I used a mild relish but you can go with a hotter version if that’s what you like. The relish comes in a flavorful oil that adds even more flavor to the sandwiches.
Aldi for the Win
For the bread, meats and cheese my go-to place has become my local Aldi store. They have great breads and their deli meats are available at a great price. And they have a great variety of them too, so I never get bored with my paninis.
Pre-heat your Griddler with the dials set for high-heat panini griddles.
Set out the bread slices on a cutting board or counter top.
Top with the meats and cheese.
Top the sandwiches with the relish. Be heavy handed or go light with it, it's up to you. Be sure to get some of the oil from the relish too.
Add the top slices of bread to form the sandwiches.
Brush the outsides of the bread slices with the oil.
Transfer to the Griddler and close the lid. Cook until the bread is golden brown and crunchy.
Remove and let cool slightly before slicing (if desired) and serving.
Notes
Do not put a lot of pressure on the griddle lid while cooking as it will cause the meats and cheese to escape. Try to keep the lid level so that the tops of the sandwiches cook evenly.
I had to make these as soon as I saw them. The idea of mushroom mixed with ground beef to form burgers appealed to me. I knew that the mushrooms would add a lot of moisture and plenty of earthy flavor. These blended smash burgers have a slightly different taste and texture than my usual 100% beef patties. They are definitely moist and a little more apt to fall apart, so you have to be a bit careful when flipping them on the grill. They’re good burgers, just without quite as much meat.
Classic Tastes
Once you’ve made a smash burger or two you’ll find them to be as easy to make as the non-smash ones. And like any other burgers, they’re open to all sorts of toppings. Sometimes I go crazy. Sometimes I go classic. These blended smash burgers are a lot like my classic all-beef versions. Just not quite as beefy but kinda beefy in another way, you know?
The equipment
Here’s the equipment I use. You can get by using two cast iron skillets. Use a larger skillet for cooking the burgers, and a smaller one to smash the burgers and keep them flat. Since I’m a cooking gadget collector, I prefer to use a few more tools.
The griddle
First, a griddle. You can buy griddles that sit on top of your grill grates or ones that replace them. Just about every grill I have has a griddle on it. I use them for a lot of things, not just smash burgers. You want one that can be placed over the hottest part of your grill so it gets screaming hot.
Next, you need a burger press. You can use a heavy cast iron skillet, like I mentioned. Or get a burger press. For easy cleanup I wrap mine in foil first. When I’m done, just peel off the foil and toss. Super easy. Get a press that’s at least big enough to cover two burgers. You only smash one at a time, but if you want to keep them flat, you want to rest the press on top so bigger (and heavier) is better. Plus I’ve found that a bigger, heavier press tends to stay on the burgers whereas a smaller, lighter one is hard to keep centered on the burgers, specially if you have a bunch of them cooking at once.
Next up, a dome. While not 100% required, it does speed the time it takes to melt the cheese and it does it in a nice even fashion. In my opinion you don’t really need one if you’re using a super melty cheese, such as American, but for thicker slices like say a deli pepper jack, you want the cheese to melt before you over-cook the burger and that’s where a dome comes in handy.
Lastly, you need something to clean your griddle. I like to clean mine when I’m done cooking, but you can do it at the start instead. I use one of these pad holders with a griddle cleaning pad. Then I add a bit of water to my griddle then use the pad (connected to the holder) to scrub off any big chunks and get up some of the grease. I don’t go crazy with it, I always heat the heck out of my griddle before cooking, but I get the worst. The long arm on the pad holder makes it perfect for scrubbing a hot griddle, too.
Place chopped mushrooms and ground beef into a large bowl.
Sprinkle with salt and form into 4 large balls (or 5-6 smaller ones, which means of course you'll need more buns and toppings!).
Fire up your grill for medium-high heat. Place a griddle or a large cast iron pan over the highest heat.
Add the oil and spread out a bit.
Place the balls of beef on the griddle and let cook for one minute. Just let them cook, don’t mess with them.
Take your press and flatten out the patties. I like to use the point of the press and work my way around the ball first, doing a little section at a time and then, finally, I press down on the entire patty to flatten it out. You can also just flatten out the ball all at once. At this point I also like to season the patties some more.
Let the patties cook until you start to notice a little char along the edges. Flip, season again if desired, and continue cooking another minute or so until the other side is charred. The burgers are thin so they will cook very quickly so watch out.
Top patties with cheese and let cook another 30 seconds to melt the cheese.
Toast the buns. Remove, add the patties.
Add remaining ingredients to assemble the burgers.
Devour immediately.
Notes
After you make a few smash burgers the process becomes very easy and always delivers great results.For added flavor, saute the mushrooms first. Let them cool completely before adding to the beef.
I don’t think of my Char-Broil Big Easy as just a grill. Or just an oil-less fryer. It’s also great at baking. Pretty much anything I can make in my oven, I can make in it. Like my manicotti on the Char-Broil Big Easy. Crazy delicious, with plenty of hot, melted cheese, this dish is easy to put together. And the Big Easy cooks it up perfectly, with hardly any cleanup required.
Dutch Oven Liners To The Rescue
I get these disposable aluminum Dutch oven liners online for baking large dishes like this manicotti on the Char-Broil Big Easy. They are perfect. They’re about 8″ wide and a few inches deep. They hold a lot. They’re heavy duty. Even though you need to still support them on the bottom when lifting them, you can fill them up and be confident that’ll not collapse on you.
Bunk Bed Baskets To The Rescue
My second big key to making on the Big Easy is to have a few bunk bed baskets on hand. Yes, I could get by with just one. And one fits easily into the Big Easy basket. But two are just easier. It’s hard to reach down in the original basket and get something off the bottom. With a bunk bed basket (or two), I just lift the basket and the food right out and onto my countertop (well, cutting board if it’s hot).
It’s a bit of a science to get two bunk bed baskets into the Big Easy but it’s quite doable. Play with it a few times first, without any food in them, and you’ll get the hang of it.
The Big Swap
Food near the bottom of the Big Easy basket tends to cook or bake faster than food higher up. Most of the time that’s not an issue. With this manicotti, I decided to swap the two pans of food around towards the end so they both browned evenly. With two bunk bed baskets this was very easy to do.
Oh Yeah, The Food!
Did I mention that this manicotti is delicious! The Italian sausage and spinach stuffed pasta tubes get cooked perfectly, and are just packed with flavor. I used a good quality, tasty marinara sauce. And plenty of cheese. Maybe a little extra. It’s possible. Boy, did this come out great!
Cook the pasta per the manufacturer's instructions. Drain well and spread out onto a baking sheet to cool and dry.
Meanwhile, crumble the sausage (remove from casings first if using links) into a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat until almost done.
Add the onion and continue cooking until it has softened and the sausage is cooked through.
Add the spinach. Stir and cook another 2-3 minutes or until wilted.
Remove skillet from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
Stir in 1 cup of the mozzarella and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan along with the egg, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Spray the two pans with non-stick spray.
Fire up your Big Easy so it heats up while you stuff the pasta tubes.
Spread 1/4 cup of the spaghetti sauce in the bottom of each pan.
Stuff each manicotti with the sausage mixture. I prefer to block one end of the tub with one hand while using the other hand to stuff the tubes (gently).
Place stuffed tubes into the pans. Do not stack. You might have to kind of wiggle and shove them in to get them to fit.
If you have leftover meat mixture just sprinkle it around and in between the manicotti.
Divide remaining sauce over the tops of the manicotti.
Cover the fans with foil.
Place one pan in the bottom of your Big Easy. If you have 2 Bunk Bed baskets, put the pan in a basket instead and lower it to the bottom of the Big Easy basket and attach at the sides.
Place the other pan in a Bunk Bed basket and lower it into the Big Easy basket. It will rest on top of the first basket if you are using two. Otherwise, just attach it to the sides of the Big Easy basket just above the first pan.
Cook for 35 minutes. There is no need to swap the pans.
Remove the foil. Top the pans with the remaining cheeses.
Return the pans to the Big Easy and cook another 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is melted and turns golden brown. The top pan will cook slower than the bottom. If desired, rotate the pans after 15 minutes.
Remove pans from the Big Easy and let rest 15 minutes.
Garnish with parsley and serve.
Notes
The instructions above are for cooking both pans at the same time on a Big Easy. This requires a Bunk Bed basket (or two to make it even easier). If you do not have a Bunk Bed basket you’ll have to cook one pan at a time.
These deluxe nacho cheese smash burgers more than hit the spot. The sauce is amazing. It’s packed with great things. Believe me, it’s not just some boring old melted cheese. It’s what a smash burger needs. Grab a pile of napkins, because you’re going to need them. And don’t worry about any cheese sauce that drips onto your plate. That’s what the last bite of the bun is for: sopping up that great last bit of greatness.
Easy And Delicious And Messy
Making deluxe nacho cheese smash burgers isn’t difficult. You don’t need a bunch of fancy equipment or a lot of time. Just a hot griddle and a burger press. Any griddle will do, whether it’s on a grill, cooktop, stove or even a standalone outdoor flattop. Just get those patties nice and thin and use quality fresh toppings. And a great sauce.
Oh That Sauce!
I highly recommend making extra nacho cheese sauce. It’s great as a chip dip, over fries, you name it! No more boring cheese sauce, this stuff is fantastic!
Sheesh. I had no idea. I’ve made homemade salsa a number of times. It wasn’t terribly difficult, but it wasn’t crazy easy either. I started looking around for a better way and kept hearing about a spicy tomato sauce that people were using as a base for making salsa. El Pato tomato sauce is apparently the key to easy salsa success. So I grabbed a few cans at our local international market and got to making this quick fix spicy salsa. This isn’t fancy, but boy does it ever hit the spot. Perfectly tomato-y, perfectly spicy and with the just right amount of cilantro and onion. And wow is it ever easy to make.
The Only Salsa That’s Easier Comes From A Jar
It seriously takes you longer to read this sentence than it does to make a batch of this quick fix spicy salsa. Ok, well, you’d have to be a crazy good onion and cilantro chopper, but it’s probably possible. Don’t let the simplicity fool you either, this salsa has great flavor. I found it very difficult to stop eating it. Just grab a bag of your favorite tortilla chips and make a batch today!
It wasn’t the day for the usual onion rings. Nothing wrong with the usual ones, don’t get me wrong. But it was time for a bolder version. Something with some kick behind it. It’s my opinion that more restaurants should serve spicy onion rings. Sure, you can still get the tame stuff. But go bold, I say. Get some heat!
Crunchy Spicy Goodness
It’s important to be gentle when making these spicy onion rings. You go roughing them up while you’re making them and you’ll end up with big gaps in the batter. You don’t want that. You’re aiming for consistency. You want them golden brown. And crunchy. And of course, spicy.
Flour is the key to this operation. The first roll in the flour gets the rings dried out. Don’t rush it. Get them well-coated. Inside and out. The second time in the flour you’re after that crunchy batter. Again, get them well-coated. Don’t worry about getting batter fingers. Concentrate on the job at hand. You’ll be rewarded in the end.
The Presto Fry Daddy is perfect for making smaller batches of food. It only uses a few cups of oil and comes to temperature quickly. Clean-up is easy too!
You'll need two medium bowls. In the first, whisk together the flour, cayenne, salt, pepper and baking powder. In the second whisk together the milk and egg.
Heat 2"-3" of oil to 375F in a deep fryer or Dutch oven.
Meanwhile, place the separated onion rings into the flour mixture. Using your hands, gently coat the rings in the flour.
Transfer the rings to the milk and dunk and turn to coat well.
Drain well and transfer the rings back to the flour mixture. Using your hands again, gently coat the rings in the flour.
Working in batches as needed, deep-fry the rings until golden brown. This will take 2-3 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack or paper towel to drain. Season immediately with more salt.
Serve hot.
Notes
Season the rings with more salt right out of the fryer.
I love BBQ sauce on a burger. And I love onion rings. And I love my burgers smash burger-style. So why not combine all three of my loves into one great, delicious dinner-sized burger! These rodeo smash burgers deliver on taste. And bonus! You don’t even need a side dish! All you need is in one bite!
So Many BBQ Sauces
You can use any BBQ sauce you like. Go sweet one night. Maybe try a little spicy the next. If you’re using a gas grill to make your burgers, you might want a smoky BBQ sauce to give your burgers that ‘hot off the charcoal grill’ flavor. Whatever you use, you can’t go wrong with these rodeo smash burgers.
The equipment
Here’s the equipment I use. You can get by using two cast iron skillets. Use a larger skillet for cooking the burgers, and a smaller one to smash the burgers and keep them flat. Since I’m a cooking gadget collector, I prefer to use a few more tools.
The griddle
First, a griddle. You can buy griddles that sit on top of your grill grates or ones that replace them. Just about every grill I have has a griddle on it. I use them for a lot of things, not just smash burgers. You want one that can be placed over the hottest part of your grill so it gets screaming hot.
Next, you need a burger press. You can use a heavy cast iron skillet, like I mentioned. Or get a burger press. For easy cleanup I wrap mine in foil first. When I’m done, just peel off the foil and toss. Super easy. Get a press that’s at least big enough to cover two burgers. You only smash one at a time, but if you want to keep them flat, you want to rest the press on top so bigger (and heavier) is better. Plus I’ve found that a bigger, heavier press tends to stay on the burgers whereas a smaller, lighter one is hard to keep centered on the burgers, specially if you have a bunch of them cooking at once.
Next up, a dome. While not 100% required, it does speed the time it takes to melt the cheese and it does it in a nice even fashion. In my opinion you don’t really need one if you’re using a super melty cheese, such as American, but for thicker slices like say a deli pepper jack, you want the cheese to melt before you over-cook the burger and that’s where a dome comes in handy.
Lastly, you need something to clean your griddle. I like to clean mine when I’m done cooking, but you can do it at the start instead. I use one of these pad holders with a griddle cleaning pad. Then I add a bit of water to my griddle then use the pad (connected to the holder) to scrub off any big chunks and get up some of the grease. I don’t go crazy with it, I always heat the heck out of my griddle before cooking, but I get the worst. The long arm on the pad holder makes it perfect for scrubbing a hot griddle, too.
Fire up your grill for medium-high heat. Place a griddle or a large cast iron pan over the highest heat.
Season the ground beef with the salt and pepper, mix and form into two 4 ounce balls (not patties!).
Place the balls of beef on the griddle and let cook for one minute. Just let them cook, don’t mess with them.
Take your press and flatten out the patties. I like to use the point of the press and work my way around the ball first, doing a little section at a time and then finally I press down on the entire patty to flatten it out. You can also just flatten out the ball all at once. At this point I also like to season the patties some more.
Let the patties cook until you start to notice a little char along the edges. Flip, season again if desired, and continue cooking another minute or so until the other side is charred. The burgers are thin so they will cook very quickly so watch out.
Top patties with cheese and let cook another 30 seconds to melt the cheese.
Remove patties from grill and toast buns if desired.
Slather insides of buns with mayonnaise.
Add patties to bun bottoms. Top with onion rings and BBQ sauce.
Notes
After you make a few smash burgers the process becomes very easy and always delivers great results.
I love a simple fried chicken sandwich. Delicious, moist, tender chicken. Crunchy breading. Served on a bun with lettuce, tomato, onion… and a sauce. A good sauce. A little something to cut through the heaviness from that deep-fried loveliness. This copycat Bojangle’s Bo’s Special sauce did the trick. This nice creamy sauce has a little edge to it. A little kick. Thanks to horseradish.
Heck I’m Not Even A Fan Of Horseradish
The funny thing about this copycat Bojangle’s Bo’s Special Sauce? I’m not even a big fan of horseradish and I still loved it. Sometimes dishes go too far with the horseradish for me. It’s not that I don’t like that taste, that flavor. It just makes my mouth feel weird! But not in this sauce! This sauce has the perfect balance of flavors, even the horseradish!
Make a batch and keep it on hand for more than just fried chicken sandwiches. Try it on burgers. Lunchmeat sandwiches. Any place you might want to use mayonnaise, this is better.
I store my homemade sauces in squeeze bottles. If refrigerated, I set them out thirty minutes to an hour before using so they come to room temperature. You don’t want to put cold sauce on hot food!
The Char-Broil Big Easy is a great cooker. I can treat it like a grill. Or an (oil-less) deep-fryer. And I can bake in it. This broccoli rice casserole on the Char-Broil Big Easy starts as your standard make-in-the-oven recipe. No magic occurring here. No strange tools required. Just a pan, a Big Easy and some simple ingredients. And great results.
I did use a bunk bed basket when I made this dish. I just think it makes everything easier to get in and out of the cooker. So, I use it whenever I can. It’s perfect for lifting this casserole out. I don’t have to worry about the pan collapsing on me.
Cheesy Greatness
This broccoli rice casserole on the Char-Broil Big Easy is packed with creamy cheesy yumminess. It takes no time at all to put together. And not much time to cook, either.
I was able to fit the entire recipe amount into a single 8″ Dutch oven disposable pan. It was close, though. You might be a little over. If so you can just divide the mixture between two pans and cook them separately.
Melt the butter in a large skillet or medium pot over medium-high heat.
Add the onion and celery and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the soups and half and half.
Add the cheese cubes and stir until melted.
Stir in the rice.
Fire up your Big Easy.
While the Big Easy is heating, place the pan into a Big Easy bunk bed basket.
Spoon the mixture into the pan. The pan will be very full. If you cannot fit all of the mixture into the pan divide it between two pans and bake separately.
Lower the bunk bed basket into the Big Easy basket and attach at the sides.
Transfer the basket to the Big Easy and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until hot and bubbly.
Carefully remove the basket from the Big Easy. Then remove the bunk bed basket.
Make sure you support the bottom of the aluminum pan when handling it.
Serve immediately.
Notes
Although the Big Easy bunk bed basket is not required, it makes handling the pan much easier and safer.
