Broccoli-Chicken Casserole Served Three Ways

I was indulging in one of my favorite pastimes the other day, channel surfing food programs, when Chopped came on.  Just so you know, I wasn't always a Chopped fan.  It's not that it took a while for me to appreciate the difficulty in cooking under pressure with weird ingredients, it's just that Diner's Drive-in's and Dive's always took precedent.  Let's face it, greasy diners serving brisket and juicy burgers versus watching the contestant's expression of horror when they open up their baskets and find Mashed Potato Candy?  For what it's worth, burgers ALWAYS takes precedent, no matter what.  But I did come to appreciate the absurdity and hilarity (dare I say skill) in preparing a dessert with peanut brittle, marsala wine, wonton wrappers, and durian.  Durian?  Ever get a whiff of that?  Or what about an appetizer with canned haggis, smoked gouda, celery, and prunes.  Canned haggis?  How rude!!  No one cooks with canned haggis when the real stuff is available.

Recently, on one particular episode, the entree basket contained chicken breast, blue corn tortillas, Tuscan kale, and sea urchin.  Not too crazy and I was curious about the blue corn tortillas.  You all know about my fascination with Mexican food.  And so I watched as two of the chefs prepared blue corn tortilla crusted chicken breast.  I thought if two of the three chefs were using the ingredients for the same thing, there must be something to it.

First they baked the tortillas to harden them.  Then they crushed them into Panko sized crumbs. The chicken breasts were then coated with a seasoned flour mix followed by an egg wash and then coated with the blue corn tortilla crumbs.  Looked terrific.  So I thought I'd try it.

And it was a disaster.  Even my wife, who eats EVERYTHING I cook told me, "No thanks" when I suggested we heat up the blue chicken leftovers the next day.  I realized right then and there that I wasn't going to blog THAT dish.  Regardless of what some think, I am a bit discerning when it comes to blogging for you!!

Anyway, now what to do with the four leftover blue chicken breasts.  To be honest, I didn't even want to eat them. So they just sat in the refrigerator.

Until tonight...

By now you all should know about my wife's insistence on me using organic, free range, and humanely treated animals when I cook.  What I haven't mentioned is my kids' insistence on eating healthy.  When we are all together, ice cream is rarely on the dessert menu. It's usually non-fat frozen yogurt which to be fair, can be very tasty.  And to their credit, they don't just talk the talk - they walk the walk as well by doing bikram yoga, daily gym work outs, marathon running, rock climbing, etc.   I can sometimes get my son to eat hot dogs with me at baseball games.  And they'll all spare me no expense when ordering the most expensive steak at a fancy restaurant.  But for the most part, everyone in my family (except me) enjoys a healthy active lifestyle.  Check out step-daughter #2's blog for more info:  http://livingforit.blogspot.com.

So what to cook tonight...

I scour the refrigerator and see the aforementioned chicken. But aha! I also see broccoli, onions, mushrooms, yogurt, cheese...I got it!!  I'll cook a broccoli-chicken casserole and make it "almost healthy".   The "almost" comes into play with the, yes, you guessed it, cheese.  I love cheese.   My sister-in-law once told my wife that you can smother ANYTHING (including dog poop) with cheese and it will taste good.  I have two large golden retrievers and considering the size of their poops, I doubt any amount of cheese would help that stench.  But there is a lot of truth in cheese making food taste great.

So, broccoli-chicken casserole it is!!  I'll use yogurt as a filling.  That'll be the "healthy" part. I will also use cheese which will downgrade the casserole to "almost-healthy" but it should kick up the taste a notch or two. On the way, I'll also discuss an intermediate version, "mostly-healthy". There will be something for everyone today.

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 lb sliced mushrooms
• 3 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 2 cups cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into cubes
• 16-oz broccoli florets (pre-packaed is ok, frozen is not)
• 1 6-oz container Greek non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp pepper
• Up to 1 cup shredded cheese (optional)
• 1/4 cup Panko crumbs (optional)

This is a really simple dish to make. You can, if you choose, make it even easier to prepare by using pre-packaged sliced mushrooms and broccoli florets. That would be the "lazy" person's version. Or you can buy all fresh veggies and prep them yourself. I mentioned there are three versions of this casserole; healthy, mostly-healthy, and almost healthy. You can make the casserole   "healthy" by simply omitting the cheese. It can be made "mostly-healthy" by using 1/4 cup of cheese inside the casserole. Lastly, you can make it "almost-healthy" by using the cheese inside AND on top as a delicious layer of bubbly goodness.  Sorry kids, but you know which direction I'm taking. When dining at chez Mark, you will always get the "almost healthy" version of everything including broccoli-chicken casserole. 

And away we go....

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease a 2-qt. casserole dish - you can use cooking spray ("healthy") or butter ("almost healthy").
• Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add chopped onions and sliced mushrooms to the skillet and cook until tender - about 10 minutes.  I used red onions but feel free to substitute white or sweet.

• Add 3 tbs of flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes to incorporate the flour into the veggies.

• Stir in milk, salt, and pepper, bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and is bubbly.

• Add the chicken to the mixture and stir for 2 minutes.

• Add the broccoli to the mixture and fold in.

• Lower the heat to medium.
• Add yogurt and mayonnaise to the mixture and stir gently in order to maintain consistency and wholeness of broccoli florets and chicken chunks.

• Adjust seasoning at this point by tasting and adding more salt and/or pepper.  Obviously you can add other seasonings as well such as onion powder or garlic powder.
• If you are preparing "healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, then transfer the mixture to a greased 2-qt casserole.  If you are preparing "mostly-healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, then sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese into the mixture and stir until the cheese is incorporated before transferring to the casserole dish.  If you are preparing "almost-healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, sprinkle 1/2 cup of cheese into the mixture and stir to incorporate before transferring to the casserole dish.   Once in the casserole dish, sprinkle an additional 1/2 cup of cheese on top ("almost-healthy") followed by the Panko crumbs.  Here's my "almost-healthy" casserole.

• Now place in oven and cook until bubbly - 25 - 40 minutes depending on whether you are "healthy" or "mostly-healthy" or "almost-healthy".

I like to garnish my servings with salsa and/or Sriracha sauce.  Just seems to add that right amount of tanginess and heat that I like.  Your mileage may vary!

ENJOY!

Brussels Sprouts, Chicken Sausage, Panko Crumbs, Oh My!!

Fads!  Don't you just just hate 'em?  Car fads, sports fads, clothing fads, political fads, and even Occupy fads.  It's hard to wake up in the morning without some type of fad in your face.  And don't  get me started on the internet and twitter and what's-trending-now fad.  When I logged onto Facebook the other day, here's what was trending:  Julien MacDonald, the designer whose gown adorned Taylor Swift just days after its debut at London Fashion Week (like Taylor Swift really needs something to make her more attractive),  Net Neutrality and the FCC approving 'open internet' rules stating:  No entity should control free open access to the internet (DUH!!!).  And what about Tumblr's #TheDress!!

But enough of my trending rants.  Let's get back to fads and of course food.  Food fads are often used to describe catchy diets.  I am amazed at how creative our current marketing professionals are:  Morning Banana Diet, Cabbage Soup Diet,  and Fruitarianism.   Really?  Fruitarianism?  And trending on the food side we have Cronuts?  Seriously?  Croissants and donuts together?  Hey, how about this idea - put a hot dog and a hamburger in a vice and squeeze.  The result, HamburDog!!  And what is up with kale?   Whether we approve, take part, or completely reject, fads are here to stay.  But that's ok because fads and trends, like diets, can be IGNORED!

And that's what I choose to do when it comes to pasta and the trend to NOT eat it.  Pasta being high in carbohydrates doesn't always get the thumbs up...especially from the low-carb and paleo folks.   But I love pasta and choose to ignore the trend.  When I was single, pasta used to be a staple in my diet.  What could be easier than bringing water to a boil in a large pot, dumping pasta in, waiting 5-8 minutes,  draining the water,  pouring the pasta in a large bowl, and finally adding olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese before serving on a plate.  Takes 15 minutes at most.  Add a glass of wine and you're almost ready for date night.  Add store bought tomato sauce and you are ready for date night.  Take an hour before prepping the pasta to make your own tomato sauce and you're sure to score on date night.  Add meatballs to your homemade tomato sauce and you're a date night, wait for it... legend.

Unless of course you live at my house where not everyone eats meatballs.

Now do not for a minute think that I am not a date night legend at my house.  Date night legend DOES exist and continues to happen, only without meatballs.  After all, there is plenty of stuff to heave on top of a plate of noodles - I mean to serve delicately with elegance and grace on a bed of fresh pasta.

The other day,  I cruised the internet looking for #trends in pasta....just kidding.  But I did explore recipes containing pasta, veggies, and chicken.  I thought as long as there are veggies and chicken, my wife will eat pasta.  I found some very interesting ideas and settled on replacing meatballs with brussels sprouts and chicken sausage.  Yes, I was aiming for date night legend.  I decided to use andouille chicken sausage (not off-limits in my house as long as it is organic, cage free, and humanely treated).  And of course brussels sprouts happen to be a family favorite and without controversy unless the tricky spelling and capitalization rules count as a controversy.  Yeah, look it up.

I also decided to make pesto because, well, I've been craving it.  I noticed we had pine nuts left over from my wife's excursion into homemade lemon bars (YUM!!!).  We also had fresh garlic along with olive oil  And so I picked up a few bunches of fresh basil and some parmesan-reggiano cheese.  I meant to get pecorino-romana but was just too excited to read the label.  I'm sure those of you that are Certified Cheese Professionals (yes, there is an exam for that) are shaking your heads in disgust at my faux pax but I don't care.  I'm making homemade pesto and will use whatever I please.  BOOM!!!

We will build this dish in three basic steps; pesto, topping and pasta.  Here are the ingredients:

• Pesto
• Two bunches fresh basil leaves (2 cups packed)
• 4 cloves of fresh garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/2 cup grated cheese (pecorino or reggiano or parmesan - you choose)
• 1/2 - 2/3 cup of olive oil
• Salt, Pepper
• Topping
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 lb or up to 3 cups sliced and trimmed brussels sprouts
• 1 pound sausage (I used andouille chicken but pork would be just as good)
• 1 cup Panko crumbs
• Salt and Pepper
• Pasta
• 1 lb fresh pasta - I used papparelle but anything would do)

First we make the pesto.

• Measure 2 packed cups of fresh basil.  The fresher the better.  I removed the stems and just used the leaves.  

• Measure out pine nuts, cheese, and garlic.  I used the food processor to grate the cheese.  I prepped the garlic by removing their skins of 4 cloves and coarsely chopping them.

• Place the nuts, cheese, garlic and basil in the food processor.

• While pulsing, drizzle olive oil onto the mixture very slowly being careful not to puree the mixture.  You want a coarse texture.  I use a 5-second technique which not only allows me to ensure a coarse mixture but also gives me the opportunity to add salt if needed.  Pulse for 5 seconds then stop.  Pulse for 5 seconds then stop.  At each stop, you can check texture and/or salt.  Here's what my pesto looked like after about a minute and a half of pulsing.

• With the pesto done, it is time to make the chicken-veggie topping. Add 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 TBS of butter to a large nonstick skillet and bring temperature to medium heat. 
• Add the brussels sprouts and stir occasionally for 7 minutes.

• With the brussels sprouts partially cooked and browned, add the sausage to the skillet and cook until browned.

• Once browned, add 1/4 cup of chicken stock. Bring the heat up to high and cover the skillet.  Cook until the stock has reduced completely.  This will soften up the brussels sprouts.  Make sure there is no more liquid before moving to the next step.
• Stir in the Panko crumbs and cook until crisp, 3 minutes. 

• When the Panko crumbs are fully infused within the brussels sprouts-sausage mixture, cover the skillet and turn the heat to low in order to keep warm but not to cook.
• Time to start the pasta.  
• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
• Cook pasta according to directions until al dente.  Use fresh pasta for date night legend status.
• Drain the pasta and place on plates.
• Drizzle pesto on top of pasta.

• Toss your pasta with the pesto sauce to coat.
• Cover pasta with the brussels sprouts, sausage, and Panko crumb mixture.
• Sprinkle cheese on top to taste.

A glass of wine and you are a date night legend.  Enjoy!!

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Osso Bucco

I love lamb.  I love everything about those fluffy four-legged critters.  They're so cute and cuddly.   Did you know that a lamb stays a lamb until its first birthday?  It then transform into sheep.  Now, don't get me started on SHEEP!  As a celtic musician, I know enough Scot's out there to know too much about sheep...and I worry about them.  The sheep, not the Scot's.

But going back to the cuteness factor of lamb, how many of you out there remember Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop?  I LOVED Lamb Chop as a small child. I had a stuffed Lamb Chop toy and carried it around everywhere.  Lamb Chop was my hero, as was Shari Lewis...until now because as I write this I have a sudden epiphany... Lamb Chop is the source of LAMB CHOPS!! Shari Lewis, how could you!!  Had I the wherewithal to understand Lamb Chop was a lamb chop at the time, I'm sure I would have boycotted her show and her puppets.

A few years went by..

Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop finally worked their way out of my consciousness and I had eaten and enjoyed many lamb chops (thanks mom!!).  I was a teen growing up in urban Canoga Park, California.  Ironically, farms were right down the street from our house.  My friend Tom lived on one of those farms.  His family owned chickens, goats, horses, and lambs.  Or maybe they were sheep as I never asked their age.  I loved everything about Tom's family farm.  We built houses in walnut trees, chased chickens, rode horses, and one day, we peered into one of the work rooms and saw Tom's father getting ready to butcher one of the lambs.  Talk about being a confused adolescent.  I loved lamb chops but I couldn't bear seeing one slaughtered.  No, that was it for me...no more lamb chops.

Until a few years later again..

I was in my 20's and ordered Osso Bucco at a restaurant not realizing it contained lamb shanks  And it was FABULOUS!!  Fall-off-the-bone tender and in a perfect trifecta of sauce from veggies, spices, and wine. I just couldn't get enough.  Lamb chops were once again fair game for dining.

Which brings me to today.  As I mentioned before, there are some in my household that do not approve of my indulgence with certain animals so I rarely cook them.  This includes lamb.  Here's a recent conversation at home regarding lamb:

Me: But sweetie, I love Osso Bucco with lamb shanks and sometimes dream about them.
Wife: Fine, you can dream about them but you can't cook or eat them in my presence.
Me:  But they're so good.
Wife: Either them or me.
Me:  I would never eat you.
Wife: Grrrrrrrrrr

So, I've taken to Turkey Drumsticks as my Osso Bucco surrogate.  I know, it's not quite the same but it keeps the peace in my house and comes very close to satisfying my desire for that perfect fall-off-the-bone-with-trifecta-sauce.

I'd like to now share with you a recent Turkey Osso Bucco recipe:

Here's what you are going to need:

• 1 1/2 TBS Sea Salt
• 2 TSP Ground Cumin
• 2 TSP Chipotle Chile Pepper
• 1 TSP Ground Coriander
• 1 TSP Garlic Powder
• 1 TSP Onion Powder
• 2 or 3 Turkey Legs
• 2 TBS Olive Oil
• 2 Medium Carrots, Chopped
• 1 Medium Onion, Chopped
• 2 Dried Chili Peppers
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• 3 Garlic Cloves, Coarsely Chopped
• 2 Cups Chicken Broth (Low Sodium if possible)
• 1 Bottle Beer (I used IPA but you can use anything you like)
• 2 TBS Butter
• 2 Limes, Halved

Cooking this dish requires the turkey legs to be seasoned over night.  Once seasoned, the real party can begin.

• Combine Sea Salt, Cumin, Chile Pepper, Coriander, Garlic and Onion Powder into a rub mixture.

• Spread rub mixture over the turkey legs and place in the refrigerator overnight.

• On day 2, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Remove turkey from refrigerator and allow to stand for 30 minutes to come to room temperature.
• Heat 1 TBS olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat.
• Brown turkey legs in dutch oven on all sides.

• Remove turkey legs to a plate and let stand while you prepare the trifecta.

• Chop the carrots and onion and saute them in the turkey leg drippings in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  This will take about 10 minutes.

• When the carrots and onions are in their happy place, stir in the garlic and saute for an additional 2 minutes.

• Parties getting started now.  With the carrots, onions, and garlic all happy, it's now time to add the dried chile peppers and cinnamon stick.  Saute for an additional 5 minutes making sure all the brown bits are stirred up.  You should smell the cinnamon after a few minutes.

• Stir in the broth and beer.  I highly recommend taking a big swig of the beer before dumping into the mixture.  Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes.

• The turkey legs can now join the party.  Place them in the mixture.

• Cover the turkey legs with parchment paper.  Place the lid on the Dutch oven making sure it is a tight fit.  Then place in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for up to 2 hours.

• Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and let stand, covered, for 30 minutes.  During this time, preheat the broiler with an oven rack about 7 inches from the heat source.  
• After standing for 30 minutes, discard the parchment paper from the Dutch oven.

• Carefully remove the turkey legs and place them on a lightly greased rack.  Place them in the broiler for 3-4 minutes per side until the skin crisps.  When done, remove them to a serving platter.

• The remaining liquid in the Dutch oven has had time to settle
• Skim off the fat that may have accumulated at the top of the mixture.  
• Pour the liquid through a strainer into a medium sauce pan discarding all the solids from the trifecta sauce you are about to create.
• Bring the liquid to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the sauce reduces slightly.
• Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter until it is melted and the sauce is smooth.
• Squeeze the lime over the turkey breast followed by a healthy helping of sauce.

Congratulations!!!

Crispy Skinned Chicken Breast

To complete a task successfully is to "nail it!"   We've all nailed it and not nailed it before.  To nail it or not nail it is sometimes intuitive and other times just plain obvious.  For example, back in the day, I used to compete in gymnastics.  My events were rings, parallel bars, and high bar.  In all three events, if I landed up-right, arms to my side, and in perfect balance on a dismount, I KNEW immediately that I nailed it.  Once I attempted a single fly-away dismount off the high bar.  I got the speed on the giant but let go of the bar too late resulting in a one and a half flip.  This landed me in a sitting position on the gym floor matt,  supported by both hands in back of me.  CRACK!!  I knew immediately I didn't nail it (unless you consider two shattered wrists and an entire summer in casts as nailing it).

So last night I tried a new recipe from America's Test Kitchen - Crispy Skinned Chicken Breast.  As I sat down with my wife to eat, I knew IMMEDIATELY that I nailed it.  How did I know?  First of all, three minutes into dinner, my wife was half-way through her portion.  Secondly, the skins were crispy.  I mean, Crispy with a capital "C."  You could almost hear the skins snap with each bite.  Even after adding pan sauce on top of the skin,  they were still crispy.  Third, the meat was tender and juicy.  I didn't sacrifice the inside for the outside.  Fourth, the sauce, which I rarely make, was fragrant, velvety, and had just the right amount of tanginess.  That, my readers, is what I call landing up-right, arms by my side, and in perfect balance.  I NAILED IT!!

You too can nail it with the following ingredients:

• 2 boneless, chicken breasts with skin
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tbs vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• 1 minced shallot
• 1 tsp flour
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup chopped pickled cherry peppers (I used the sweet variety)
• 1/4 cup brine from the pickled cherry peppers
• 1 tbs butter (I used unsalted)
• 1 tsp minced fresh thyme
• 1 12 inch sauce pan
• 1 6 quart dutch oven lid (or other heavy object that will sit inside of sauce pan)

There are 2 tricks to this recipe.  The first is in the preparation of the chicken and the second is the use of a heavy object when cooking the chicken.  As you are about to see, neither requires brain surgery.

Preparing the chicken

Use a sharp knife and poke the skin of each breast.  The original America's Test Kitchen recipe calls for 30-40 pokes.  That's a lot of pokin'.  I stabbed 'em maybe 15 times on the skin side, flipped 'em over and pierced 'em again another 10 times.  Here's what mine looked like after all that defiling.

Once both sides were tortured with a sharp object,  I covered them with parchment paper and proceeded to pound them each 1/2 inch flat with a blunt force object.  I redeemed myself by lovingly sprinkling each breast with 1/2 tsp of salt, covering them with plastic wrap, and placing them in the refrigerator.  Keep 'em this way for between 1 to 8 hours.  The longer you keep them chilled, the more likely they will forget your indiscretions.

Cooking the chicken

• Take the chicken out of the refrigerator and pat dry.
• Sprinkle both sides of each breast with 1/4 tsp of pepper.
• Ready for the first trick?  Place the vegetable oil in a 12 inch sauce pan or skillet and swirl until the entire surface is covered with an even amount of oil.  Note that the skillet, at this point, should not be hot.
• Place the breasts skin side down in the oil.

• Now, place the skillet over medium heat.
• Place a heavy object on top of the chicken breasts.  I used the top of my 6 qt dutch oven.  I've heard others use a brick wrapped in foil.  The object just needs to be heavy enough to exert pressure on the breasts.

• The oil will slowly heat up under the breasts and you may hear "popping" as the skin starts to crackle.
• Cook the breasts for 7-9 minutes this way.  The skin will start to brown and the edges of the breasts will turn opaque.
• Remove the weight and continue to cook skin side down for another 6-8 minutes.

• Flip the breast, turn the heat down to medium-low, and cook meat side down for another 2-3 minutes.
• You should now see your masterpiece taking shape as the skin will have turned brown and crispy.  You will be tempted to touch to confirm its crispness but take my word for it, from experience,  the chicken is hot and will burn your little cuticles if you touch.  In other words, NO TOUCHY!!

• Remove both breasts from the pan to a separate plate, skin side up so you can still see your masterpiece.  The internal temperature should be between 160 and 165.  You can check if you don't believe me.  Limited touching is ok now :)

Pan sauce anyone?

If you've been following my blogs, good on you mates, thanks a lot.  But more to the point, you should know how easy it is to make a simple pan sauce.  We're going to do that again now.

• Pour out all but about 2 tsp of oil from the sauce pan.
• Turn the heat back up to medium.
• Time to alchemize the party by adding in the the minced shallot and stirring for about 2 minutes until softened.

• Thickening the mixture will provide further transformation and so we add flour and stir for up to a minute until the fully incorporated.

• Continue the party by heating up to medium-high and adding the broth and brine.
• With the liquid and the heat up, the party is cooking and your sauce should be simmering.  You can stir to scrape up those delicious brown bits on the bottom of the pan left by the chicken.
• After 3 minutes or so, the party should be in full swing with the liquid thickened up a bit.  The stage is now all set to knock it out of the park.

• Remove the pan from the heat, whisk in the butter, thyme, and chopped cherry peppers.

• Taste with a spoon and add salt and pepper accordingly.

This sauce can be added on top of the chicken or you may want to plate the sauce first as a bed of gravy and add the chicken on top.   I ladled the nectar over half of each breasts and let it run down the sides.

NAILED IT!!

Baby Back Time

Welcome back.   Last time we smoked beef back ribs and they came out amazing.  So I decided that as long as I got the smoker out, and I'm on a roll, why not do baby back pork ribs now.  I hope you're not thinking this is going to be a BBQ blog because it's not.  It is all about what I'm cooking at the moment and it just so happens that 1) I'm craving ribs (again), 2) weather is perfect for BBQ and, 3) cat's still out of the house.

First, a little background on me and pork ribs.  I am Jewish and so you may be asking why is a nice jewish boy smoking pork ribs?  Because they are - wait for it, AWESOMELY DELICIOUS!!  My parents, like a lot of jewish parents of their generation didn't eat "pork" even though they did occasionally cook and serve bacon.  My siblings and I never understood the logic behind "bacon is ok to eat but pulled port, spare ribs, pork chops are persona-non-grata in the Boronkay house."  But whatever, I like pork so I'm eating it.  And I'm still Jewish!!!

Which reminds me of a father/pork story...after my niece's bat-mitzvah, we all went to a vegetarian Chinese restaurant.  This was truly vegetarian.  No exceptions.  There was no meat served even though the dishes had names like "beef and broccoli" and "cashew chicken".   So half-way through the dinner, my brother turns to my dad and says, "Dad, have some of my sweet and sour pork, it taste just like pork!"  My dad, putting down his forkful of beef and broccoli says, "Are you kidding?  You know I don't eat pork.  I ain't eating no pork!"  Love you dad.

Anyway, now about pork ribs.  There are two types - baby backs and spare ribs.  The baby backs aren't as fatty as spare ribs, are smaller than spare ribs, and have their meat on top of the bone as opposed to spare ribs which hold a lot of meat in between the bones.  Personally, I'll eat either of them because they are - wait for it, AWESOMELY DELICIOUS - but when it comes to cooking/smoking, I prefer baby backs.  They're easier to prepare, take less time to cook, and they ALWAYS turn out great.   Plus the BBQ shows on TV are always using spare ribs so I figure, who knows...maybe someone at a network will read my blog, see how - wait for it, AWESOMELY DELICIOUS my baby backs are and will contact me to BBQ for my own TV show.

Probably not.

But maybe.

So let's get started!!

First, I like to use a dry rub on pork ribs as opposed to beef ribs where I only use salt and pepper.  I make my own dry rub and will show you just how easy it is to do.  Please don't think you need to make your own dry rub because there are some amazing dry rubs at your local grocery stores and specialty BBQ shops.  There are also incredible dry rubs on the internet.  Simply navigate to any BBQ site and you'll no doubt see them.  (There, my shameless plug to the BBQ sites for endorsements ;-)  But I make my own because I like my dry rub on the sweeter side rather than the saltier side.  A lot of the prepackaged dry rubs just have too much salt for me.  Here is my mantra for a basic dry rub:

"3 parts of brown sugar to 1 part of everything else except salt and pepper"

So on we go:

• 3 TBS Brown Sugar
• 1 TBS Sweet Paprika
• 1 TBS Garlic Salt
• 1 TBS Onion Salt
• 1 TBS Chili Pepper
• 1 TBS Cumin
• Salt and Pepper to taste (if my reference is TBS as above, I may use 1 to 2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper and 1 tsp of freshly ground pink himalayan salt)

I dump all the above in container, shake, put a label on it, and viola!! The label is important so that when reaching for dry rub, you reach for the right container.  I learned that the hard way. I ruined a great batch of burgers once when I grilled them with what I thought was my dry rub but turned out to be a large container of chili powder.

Now that you have a spice container filled with your delicious rub, you are ready to prep the ribs.  The figure below on the left shows the bone side of the ribs.  You can see the shimmer of the membrane.  What you want to do first is to remove the membrane on the bone side of the ribs.  This allows the smoke to permeate the entire rib.  And it is easy to do!  Use a small hand towel as shown on the right below and grab the end of the membrane.  I start on the side with the smaller ribs.  

Then slowly pull down the entire length of the rib removing the majority of the membrane as shown on the left below. The image on the right below shows the entire rib rack after the membrane has been pulled off - I laid the membrane next to the rib rack so you can see what it looks like. You may need to go back and pull off the little pieces that broke off during the main pull.

With the membrane off, you are now ready to add the rub.  I apply a thin coat of plain yellow mustard to the rack first so that the rub will stick and not fall off as can be seen below on the left.  The mustard does not flavor the ribs at all.  It is mainly a glue to hold the rub in place. Once the mustard is applied, you can sprinkle the rub on.  I add a thin coat of rub making sure that all the mustard is covered.  With the bone side done, you can now flip the rack over and repeat on the meat side. Below on the right is what the rack should now look like.

Your rack is now prepped and ready for fire and smoke.  I used the Minion Method again and prepped my fire with ample pieces of cherry wood.  Then I placed the ribs on the top rack and covered the smoker

So with prep done and ribs in a covered smoker, it is now time for the hard part - THE WAIT!!  Pork baby back ribs take about 4 hours at 220-225 degrees.  Remember, this is the critical point where you are NOT SUPPOSED TO PEEK!  The only thing you should be doing is monitoring the temperature of the smoker.  I have an external temperature gauge that allows me to monitor the heat in the smoker.  When I see the temperature above 225, I close the vents at the bottom of the smoker..  When I see the temperature below 200, I open the vents part way.  And so it goes for four hours.  Experience will provide you with appropriate insight as to when and how much to open the vents.  This is both science and art.  The science part is dictated when you incorporate factors such as external wind, external temperature, amount of charcoals being used, etc..  The art part is dictated when you decided how much fruit wood to use, how much dry rub to apply, etc..

For this particular BBQ, I kept the temperature under 225 the entire four hours.  When I pulled the rack out of the smoker, here is what they looked like:


Not sure if you can see it or not, but upon slicing a rib off the rack, you can see the reddish smoke ring on the outside of the meat.  This BBQ was a total success and wait for it - AWESOMELY DELICIOUS!

I would have had a picture of me eating one of the ribs but I was alone for this BBQ and could not get my dogs to snap the picture.  Talk about ungrateful mutt's.  They were perfectly willing to snack on the ribs but refused to take my picture.  The Nerve!!

There you have it - perfectly BBQ'd pork baby back ribs.  Happy Eating!!