Catering success

Our first catering job has come and gone, and aside from exhaustion, sore backs, a huge kitchen cleanup and LOTS of leftovers, it was a huge success.

We were offered the job for a party of 60 people at the request of a friend of ours, and after considering the wisdom of committing to a job two days after Christmas we decided to take it. Since this was our first job, we had to purchase a significant of "overhead" (steam table pans/racks, bulk ingredients, extra cookers) to execute the job. We also had to buy all our food in bulk; it was so much that we filled up the Mini twice!

The menu consisted of:

• Beef brisket: I smoked six briskets overnight on my Caldera Tallboy using oak wood chunks and a variety of rubs.
• Pulled pork: I smoked four boneless pork shoulders overnight on my Weber Smokey Mountain and apple wood chunks using Chris Lilly's Championship Pork Shoulder recipe. This preparation required a rub and injection marinade prior to putting the pork on the smoker and a mop during the cook. Quite labor intensive, but the results were worth it. We served the pork with Paul Kirk's Memphis style BBQ sauce that we made from scratch using gluten free ingredients at the request of our guests.
• Chicken: We grilled chicken thighs on a kettle grill in the community center parking lot using Mike Mills Magic Dust rub and the Paul Kirk Memphis sauce.
• Cowpoke Pintos: We cooked six lbs. of pinto beans using a recipe from Smoke and Spice. Again, we used gluten free ingredients, and I added about a pound of brisket burnt ends to add flavor. I contemplated adding fresh cilantro but ultimately decided not to. I personally love cilantro in beans, but it does add a strong flavor component that some people (and kids in particular) don't like.
• Corn on the cob: We grilled corn on the kettle grill and basted it with a butter/vinegar/lemon juice recipe from Smoke and Spice.
• Roasted butternut squash: Sharon really came through on this one. She roasted 10 lbs. of pre-cut butternut squash with brown sugar, butter, salt and pepper. The pre-cut squash wasn't the most cost-effective way to do this, but from a time/labor perspective, it was essential. Several guests said this was their favorite dish, and I suspect we'll be having this at home in the future.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we'd like to give special thanks to our friend Darrin for his help. We couldn't have done this without you, and we mean that. We appreciate your support and we're thinking good thoughts for you right now.

Hopefully we'll get some more jobs from this event. Just not this week, please, as we need to catch up sleep and rest our backs!!

Support your local small business!!

This blog is not about politics, but this really got me and I had to post it.

Yesterday, I was visiting Village Hardware in Alexandria VA. I don't live in Alexandria any more, but I gladly drive 15 miles there for Larry and his son's vast knowledge as well as availability of Weber and other great products I can't find elsewhere (Sharon buys all our yard flags there, and I always head to the basement for the Weber showroom). Larry's son told me that Larry was contacted by Fox Business to get his reaction about the President choosing the Alexandria Home Depot as the venue to make an announcement on small business tax incentives and the so-called Cash for Clunkers program when Village Hardware, the epitome of a successful small business, is literally down the road (and closer to the White House. If you don't believe me, check Google Maps and enter "White House Washington DC" in the "from" window and then "Village Hardware Alexandria VA" and "Home Depot Alexandria VA" in the "to" window).

Larry makes some good points in his interview, so take a look. Better yet, if you live in the metro DC area, do yourself a favor and visit Village Hardware at 7934 Fort Hunt Road (tel 703 765 1555). You'll love the Weber showroom, and they will assemble, deliver and set up any Weber grill they sell. And they've got plenty of snow shovels, sleds, de-icing compound and ice scrapers in stock. Good luck finding that stuff at Home Depot or Lowes right now........

Larry Gray of Village Hardware in Alexandria VA talks about the President's announcement of small business tax incentives and Cash for Caulkers at that well known small business Home Depot just down the road

New Degüello BBQ site

First of all, thanks for reading my blog. The response has been very encouraging, and I especially appreciate the comments and return visits. It seems I may be doing SOMETHING right here. That said, I've decided to start a new non-blog, or main, site. The new site will be where I post Degüello BBQ Team information such as the team calendar, competition results, photo gallery, and info on my fledgling catering business. I'll still post on the blog, but I envision the main site as a repository for information that doesn't necessarily fit the blog format. Here's the link:

http://www.deguellobbq.com

As noted on the new site, I am still building it and much, much more content is on the way. However, I wanted to go live as soon as possible so I could get feedback and refine the site as it takes shape. I invested some time (and funds) into the construct of the new site, so I'm really depending on reader comments and input. You can comment here, or send me your thoughts via the "contact me" tab on the main site. Again, thanks for reading. And now you'll have to excuse me as I have a major snowstrom to dig out of......

CFC Silent Auction BBQ Basket

Today our office participated in a silent auction for the Combined Federal Campaign here in DC. I put together a barbecue themed basket for the auction that included two bottles of Palmina wine from Lompoc CA, the books Peace, Love and Barbecue and Smoke and Spice, a Weber spatula and tongs, meat thermometer, a jar of sauce and rub that I made (thanks Chris Lilly and Mike Mills respectively for your Memphis style sauce and Magic Dust recipes)and bags of cherry and oak chips and cast iron smoker box (I built the basket for someone who doesn't have a "real" smoker).

We raised the second highest amount of all the baskets, and best of all my officemate won the auction. But the REALLY best thing for the winner of the basket is that I offered to volunteer my expertise to help him utilize the contents. And don't worry Jonathan, I've got bottles of Palmina at home already, so yours are safe. In an abundance of caution though, you might want to put the Barbera and Lagrein in a difficult to find location when I come over for drinks, er, cooking school.....


Palmina Wines

Maine Grilling Woods

Peace, Love and Barbecue

Cooking With The Jamisons

Caldera Del Fuego Cooker

I've added a new smoker to the inventory and it is a beauty. If you've been reading my blog, you're probably wondering why I would need a new smoker when my trusty Weber Smokey Mountain equipped with the CyberQ II temperature controller has served me so well. Basically, it's a capacity issue. I was offered a catering gig for 60-70 people, and after I'd accepted I began calculating how many WSMs I'd need to cook brisket, pork shoulder and chicken for that many people. Four? Five? And then I'd need another CyberQ II and 3-4 more fans......

I eventually found an online deal for discounted WSMs, but there was still the issue of adding more temp control hardware. So I called The BBQ Guru, told them what I was doing and asked if they had a suggestion. BBQ Guru's Bob Trudnak suggested I look at their Caldera del Fuego Tallboy smoker. Bob, I want to thank you for that suggestion, because for the amount of money I would've spent on four WSMs and additional temp control hardware I got a single versatile cooker that serves as a hot/cold smoker, grill, and deep fryer (hopefully I didn't miss any other uses). It holds up to 16 racks and is sized so standard steam table pans slide right in. And of course it's ducted for my CyberQ II.

I've used it twice so far, and I'm really pleased with the results it produces. There's a bit of a learning curve with maintaining a stable temperature, but nothing major. After using Kingsford Competition briquettes on the first cook and having the fire go out overnight, I switched to Wicked Good hardwood lump charcoal the second time and got a much more steady, long lasting burn. So much so that the smoker actually overshot the selected temperature while I was sleeping. Partially my fault, though, as I had the Tallboy "buttoned up" in its cold weather jacket and outside temps didn't drop as much as forecast.

The second cook was a bigger one. 20 lbs. worth of Boston butt, four racks of St. Louis style ribs, one full packer brisket and a brisket flat. I cooked the pork butts and brisket overnight on Wicked Good lump and oak and hickory chunks, and after pulling them around 7:00 AM I topped off the charcoal, added some apple wood chunks and the ribs. The office holiday party celebrants raved about the pulled pork, ribs and brisket, and I even got a few inquiries about whether I'd consider catering. Since I've already got my first job this month, I'm hoping I can get some more.

One more thing I want to mention about The BBQ Guru. As good their products are, their customer service is just as good or better. In addition to BBQ Bob taking time to give me advice on using the Tallboy and preparing for my big catering event, Sarah in sales has been a big help. She's made sure that orders got to me within 24-48 hours if I needed them in a hurry. And she's very nice, too. Thanks Sarah and Bob!

Although I'll still use my WSM for smaller cooks at home, the Caldera del Fuego Tallboy will see plenty of use in 2010 as Sharon and I make our first foray into the world of competitive BBQ.

One of my pork butts. It came pretty much as you see it, and I used my new Misono Ux-10 Gyutou knife to do a little more trimming. The Misono has instantly become my "go to" knife. I read about it in Cooks Illustrated, and it's worth every penny.

Rubbed and injected pork. I used Chris Lilly's Peach Butt injection marinade and rub recipe


























Rubbed brisket using my favorite coffee based rub. I have no idea how the (empty) Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale bottle sitting on the sink got there.....


























Pork and brisket in the Caldera. Notice the amount of free space in the smoker. I could've easily done 3-4 times as much meat if necessary


























Caldera firebox



























And now the recipes and product references:

Misono UX-10 Gyutou Knife (note there are left and right hand models as the blade is asymmetrically beveled)


Caldera Del Fuego Tallboy

Big Bob Gibson/Chris Lilly Peach Pork Butt Recipe

Big Bob Gibson/Chris Lilly Memphis Style Sauce (add peaches per the Peach Pork Butt Recipe )

Elvis is in the building

Tonight we christened our new, $400 Krups deep fryer (thanks to my coworkers who contributed an incredibly generous $370 towards a Williams-Sonoma gift certificate that facilitated the purchase). And what better way to christen that bad boy than to cook my favorite dish from Chuy's Tex-Mex Cafe, Elvis Fried Chicken. It's a pretty simple dish, but done properly, it's a sublime piece of fried goodness.

Use a mallet to flatten four half boneless/skinless chicken breasts into thin pieces

Prepare three shallow dishes with a half cup of flour, two beaten eggs and a cup and a half of crushed Lay's Potato Chips mixed with a teaspoon of black pepper respectively.

Dredge the breast pieces in the flour, eggs and crushed chips.

Place in a frying pan with a 1/2" of 400F hot oil; peanut oil works best. Or just use your super duper deep fryer like me.

Cook for 2-3 minutes per side (or 4-6 minutes if completely submerged in the deep fryer).

Spoon a half cup of green chile macho over the chicken (see recipe below).

Pay your respects to The King and scarf it down.

Green chile macho recipe

4 cup Chicken Stock
2 cups Anaheim Green chiles roasted -- chopped
5 Tomatillas cooked -- pureed
2 teaspoons Onion -- minced
1 teaspoons Mexican oregano -- dried
1 clove Garlic -- minced
1/2 teaspoons Salt
1/4 teaspoons Pepper
2 teaspoons Cornstarch
2 tablespoons Water -- to dissolve the cornstarch

Makes about 6 cups
Combine all the ingredients except the cornstarch and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer for ten minutes. Add the cornstarch and stir well. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes more, until well thickened. Serve over Fritos or as an enchilada sauce.

Note: you can roast the chiles over a gas flame or use a kitchen torch. Char the skin and wrap peppers in damp paper towels for 10-15 minutes. The charred skin will mostly fall off, and you can easily scrape the remainder away with a butter knife. I'm going to experiment with smoking the Anaheim chiles on my Weber Smokey Mountain in the future. Also, I'm going to add shredded cheddar cheese over the chile macho next time I cook this dish, just like they do at Chuys.

Quick update from the honeymoon

Thanks everyone for continuing to check in and read my blog. Sharon and I have had an incredible time in Central California tasting wine as well as Santa Maria style BBQ. In fact, in addition to the 14 bottles of wine and 10 bottles of beer shipped (so far; we're visiting the Stone brewery in Escondido today) and the five wine clubs joined, I am taking home a special souvenir. Here's my Santa Maria style tailgater grill. Picked it up at the santa Maria Home Depot for about 35% off retail:

The hand crank raises and lowers the cooking grate so you can get the exact amount of heat desired. I'm replacing the original cooking grate with a stainless from the manufacturer, and after my red oak chunks and the grate arrive in the mail, we're going to try it out with tri-tip, pinquito beans and Susie Q rub (from Albertsons in Buellton). I've got a feeling this tailgater is going to quickly become a favorite of mine.

Susie Q Santa Maria BBQ Page

A few more pictures from our adventures:

Sharon with Chris Burroughs from the Alma Rosa (formerly Sanford) Winery. Chris was in "Sideways" and he's working on some neat "dog centric" music (I'll post a link as soon as I find it or Chris sends it to me):

I should have this sign in front of our house:

If you've been to California, you know all about In N Out Burger. But you may not know about their "secret" menu. This is a "3x3, Animal Style with extra crispy fries."

In N Out Secret Menu

Getting Hitched

Gonna be taking a few weeks off from the blog, but for a very good reason. On Saturday, Sharon and I are getting married in Pearisburg, VA. After the wedding, we're going on a 10 day honeymoon to California, so we'll be relaxing in wine country and not thinking about BBQ for a bit. Hope to see you all back in a few weeks!

Beef Ribs

Short post on Saturday's beef ribs. I found these at Whole Foods for $2.49/lb and they were just too good to pass up! Once again I used Pork Barrel BBQ Rub and smoked them on a charcoal briquette and hickory wood chunk fire at 225F for about 5.5 hours. I also basted them with Paul Kirk's Red Eye Barbecue Beef Mop and foiled for the last hour.

The rubbed ribs ready to go on the smoker

Looking good at four hours

Nice smoke ring

I don't think I would've changed much with these ribs other than maybe basting a little more frequently and earlier in the cooking time. But the lower temp helped keep the ribs moist, and texture and flavor was right on.

Red Eye Barbecue Beef Mop (see. p. 74)

Bite Through Chicken

Saturday I decided to try a new (to me) chicken prep method. The chicken somewhat made up for the lack of trick or treaters; however, we've got an almost full five pound bag of candy to polish off ourselves now....

For the chicken, I decided to use the competition method developed by the Pickled Pig BBQ Team. Pickled Pig has a great website and forum with lots of good information, advice and even a "pigpen" for jokes. Check it out if you haven't been there before:

The Pickled Pig


I made a few modifications to the Pickled Pig prep with regard to rub and sauce, primarily because I didn't have the products they use. For the rub, I used Tom Douglas Rub With Love for Chicken. This morning, I researched the ingredients and found that along with the typical BBQ rubs ingredients like paprika, ancho chile and brown sugar, it also contains turmeric and star anise. It did provide an interesting flavor that was unlike most chicken I cook.



Tom Douglas Rub With Love


I used Pork Barrel BBQ sauce (they're in my links list) mixed with pineapple juice.

One of the objectives of the Pickled Pig Method is to get "bite through" chicken skin. Cooking chicken low and slow can yield nice, juicy meat. However, it typically yields rubbery, unappetizing skin. In the competitive BBQ community, the generally accepted "gold standard" is properly seasoned, juicy chicken with non-rubbery skin that you can easily bite through.

I know that many people prefer skinless chicken, but for this prep bite through skin is what we're shooting for. I'm not going to try and replicate every step of the Pickled Pig's outstanding post on their method here because:

• They did a much better job than I could ever do in this blog
• Frankly, it's not too terribly appetizing

I will summarize the major points here. I have also linked the full Pickled Pig Method at the bottom of this post if you'd like to check it out:

• Use chicken thighs that you de-bone and trim yourself
• Remove the skin and scrape the fat off the underside of the skin
• Replace the skin on the de-boned, trimmed thighs
• Braise the thighs in a margarine filled aluminum pan for 30 minutes
  
• Remove the thighs from the pan and cook the thighs on indirect heat
• Finish on direct high heat

Here's a few photos from my chicken prep:


De-boned thigh

De-boned, trimmed, and rubbed thighs ready for braising

Braised, cooked and sauced thighs (I finished w/direct heat on my Weber gas grill)

The "bite through test"

Some final observations:

• Using the Pickled Pig Method, I was actually able to achieve bite through skin on about half the thighs I tried. For my first try with this method, I was pretty happy with that outcome.
• Again, the lack of adequate light on my patio was a hindrance. If I could've seen better I would've turned the thighs earlier. In my opinion, the skin color was a little dark.
• I didn't make an attempt to make all the thighs an identical size via aggressive trimming. I'll do that next time, but for this first attempt I just wanted to get the thighs done.
• I used toothpicks to hold the skin on a few thighs. Turned out that was not necessary as the the fat in the skin rendered and held it nicely on the meat.
• I'm going to try a different rub next time. Although the Tom Douglas rub was good, it didn't quite have the flavor profile I was looking for in this application. I will probably use the Tom Douglas rub as more of a stand-alone condiment for cooking chicken without BBQ sauce.
• The Pork Barrel BBQ sauce worked well. I may experiment with straight, uncut sauce next time so I get a bolder flavor and thicker sauce.

Bottom line, this method works. It's definitely labor intensive, but I was very happy with the results.

Here's a link to the Pickled Pig Chicken Method from their site:

The Pickled Pig Competition Chicken

Apple City Ribs and Pulled Pork

Saturday I revisited a favorite ribs recipe from Mike Mills. According to his book Peace, Love and Barbecue, the Apple City Ribs recipe was developed for Mills' competition team. The centerpiece of the prep is the sauce, which includes grated apple, onion and bell pepper along with apple cider vinegar and a healthy shot of cayenne pepper. It's a great combination of sweet, mouth puckering vinegar and spice. After trying this recipe, I can understand why it took first place in the 1990 and 1992 Memphis in May competitions.

I used baby back loin ribs instead of the St. Louis spareribs Mike recommends because I was able to locate some especially meaty ribs at a great price. Plus, I was interested in seeing how the baby backs would come out. After applying a liberal coating of Magic Dust rub, I smoked the ribs on a super low fire (210F) of charcoal briquettes and apple wood chunks for six hours. After basting the ribs with the sauce and giving them a good coat of apple juice at the 5:30 point, I foiled them for the last 30 minutes.

Here's the ribs just after I put them on the smoker. I rubbed them with Mike Mills' Magic Dust rub:

The finished product:

A few observations:

• I think I went just a wee bit heavy on the rub. The heat was just a little too prominent for my taste. Even so, they were still delicious.



• I had to step away from the smoker for several hours, so I was unable to spritz the ribs with apple juice during the whole cooking process. They seemed a little dry on the outside; however, the sauce/juice/foil step seemed to moisten them up noticeably. Plus the simultaneous sauce/juice application made the sauce a little thin and it didn't give me the nice coating I usually get with this recipe.



• Next time, I will stay by the smoker and spritz with juice at regular intervals so I don't feel the need to foil. And I'll go a little lighter on the rub.

Saturday night I smoked a 6 lb. Boston Butt. I used an injection marinade from a Chris Lilly recipe and coated the butt with a liberal dusting of Pork Barrel BBQ rub. I smoked the butt for 13 hours over charcoal and apple wood chunks at 210F. I foiled for the last hour and increased the smoker temp to 250F to push up the internal temp of the butt before I had to go to work. I would've preferred to let it stay on the smoker a little longer, but due to time constraints I pulled it at 188F.

I have to say the Chris Lilly marinade/Pork Barrel BBQ rub combo was awesome. I got great color, excellent texture/moistness and the taste was more well rounded and less salty than other rub/baste combos I've tried recently. I also sent a Tweet to the Pork Barrel BBQ guys to compliment them on the rub, so hopefully they got the message and I'd be really happy for them to check my blog out. Would love it if you leave comments Brett and Heath.

The butt on the smoker at 7:30 AM:

Pulled pork:

Andy about to attempt to put the whole pan in his mouth:

A few things I noticed on the Boston Butt. This is the second time I've used this Chris Lilly marinade recipe, and both times I noticed the meat had a purplish tinge below the bark that I don't get when using other bastes or marinades. It tastes fine, but it looks a little unusual (almost like it's the meat was "bruised"). If anyone has any ideas on what's causing this, please send comments.

Here's the recipe and products links:

Apple City Ribs

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/06/cook-the-book-apple-city-barbe.html

Chris Lilly injection marinade

3/4 cup apple juice

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup salt

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Pork Barrel BBQ Rub

http://porkbarrelbbq.com/all-american-spice-rub.html

Shout out for Captain Chuck-a-Muck

Hey I just wanted to put in a plug for Captain Chuck-a-Muck's Diner in Rescue, VA. Chuck and his wife have a really great place down south of Richmond and have been featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. Chuck has to be one of the few people on Earth that can trade quips with Guy Fieri on equal footing. And the food.......well, it's pretty dang good. If you like great seasonal treats like rockfish, oysters, and other local seafood then you gotta stop by Captain Chuck-a-Mucks. Here's the link to the website:

Captain Chuck-a-Mucks

And here's a link to a video of Guy Fieri's visit to Captain Chuck-a-Mucks:

Chuck and Guy Fieri

And the address:

21088 MARINA RD.
RESCUE, VA
23424
(757) 356-1005

Brisket and pork weekend

This weekend I smoked a brisket on Saturday and on Sunday I tried a recipe from the Big Bob Gibson book by Chris Lilly.

The brisket was a bit of a challenge as it was raining steadily throughout the weekend. But I just put up my canopy and covered my BBQ Guru components in plastic wrap and everything worked out.

For the brisket, I used a coffee based rub and made a Coca Cola marinade from a Paul Kirk recipe that I used as a mop. The sweetness of the Coca-Cola combined nicely with the bitterness of the coffee.

Here's the brisket after I took it off the smoker. It was on for 14 hours at 220F on charcoal and pecan wood chunks. I decided to foil the brisket when it reached 170F and add some extra mop sauce before closing the foil. When I pulled it, the brisket was definitely moist; however, I was a little disappointed with the softness of the bark.

Sliced brisket from the point:

I decided to try making burnt ends. I cubed the point, placed it in an aluminum pan, added additional marinade and rub and cooked for an hour at 300F.

In the evening I made a recipe from the Big Bob Gibson book. Here's some photos:

Pork tenderloin rolled with bacon:

The finished product. Rolled the tenderloin in chopped pecans, salt, pepper and Carolina mustard sauce and cooked on my Weber Smokey Joe (sorry no photos as it was already dark):

Here's the recipes:

Coffee Brisket Rub

2 Tbs. paprika

2 Tbs. garlic powder
2 Tbs. onion powder
2 Tbs. black pepper
2 Tbs. brown sugar
2 Tbs. ground coffee (not used coffee grounds)
2 Tbs. kosher salt
1 Tbs. mustard powder

1 Tbs. white pepper

1 Tbs. chili powder

1 Tsp. cayenne pepper powder





Mix this rub well and store in a closed container. It makes enough brisket dry rub for one large beef brisket. Enjoy this one with a pot of fresh-brewed mountain grown Columbian!

Pecan Crusted Pork Tenderloins

Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce

Coca Cola Marinade (go to page 65)

Deguello BBQ Logo

Here it is, the Degüello BBQ logo. Appreciate your comments!

Big thanks to Patrick Carlson of Hot Spot Graphics, who created the logo from my design. If you like Patrick's work, check out his site at BBQ Logos

Jumpin' Jim's Chicken Thighs

First off, props to "Jumpin' Jim", whose recipe I used. I've not been able to track down the actual Jim, but from what I understand he was a competitive BBQ cook in the Midwest back in the earlier part of the decade. Second, thanks to my friends Tom and Christy, the Virginia BBQ Pirates, who told me about this recipe. Tom and Christy are sharing competition advice with me, and based on their success (and the taste of their entries in Front Royal last weekend), I'd probably do well to listen up real close.

One of the challenges in cooking chicken is keeping it moist while still cooking it completely. The Jumpin' Jim recipe calls for marinating the chicken in Italian dressing, which I suspect has an effect similar to brining due to the sodium content of the dressing. Although Jim recommends Paul Newman's Own Italian dressing, I substituted Whole Foods 365 Brand Organic Italian dressing. I marinated in plastic zip-loc bags for about 16 hours. I then took the thighs out and dusted with Magic Dust BBQ rub and placed in the smoker at 220F. After two hours the chicken was at 163F internal temp, so I placed them in an aluminum pan and covered all the thighs in BBQ sauce. Then I covered the pan in aluminum foil and placed the pan back in the smoker for another hour.

After an hour the chicken was at 175F, so I pulled it off and served. If time had permitted, I would've crisped the thighs on the smoker at a higher heat, but by then it was dinner time. I served the chicken with Cowpoke Pintos, cornbread and a Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale for Sharon and a Founders Brewing Breakfast Stout for me. We were pretty full by the end of the meal. A few observations:

• Next time I'll go lighter on the rub. The chicken was pretty spicy.
• I wasn't cooking these thighs for competition, so I wasn't too concerned with the appearance. Even so, they looked OK when I pulled them from the pan.
• The Cowpoke Pintos recipe called for 4-5 diced serrano chiles. I only added two, and trust me that was enough. In my opinion, 4-5 chiles would've made these beans too hot for most people.

Jumpin' Jim's Chicken Thighs Recipe

Virginia BBQ Pirates

Cowpoke Pinto Beans


The marinated and rubbed chicken at 2:30 cooking time and 163F. I pulled one thigh off the WSM and tried it right on the spot. Great moist texture and a nice subtle flavor from the Italian dressing.

The thighs in the aluminum pan after "wollering" in Crazy Rednecks BBQ sauce for one hour. I tented the pan with aluminum foil and placed the pan in the WSM for one hour at 220F. The probed thigh's internal temperature was at 175F when I pulled them.





















Cowpoke Pintos