Chili Cheese Dog Fatty

Chili Cheese Dog Fatty!

Why would anyone want to make such a monster? Because you can AND it was really incredible! Also - July is National Hot Dog Month - do you really need any more reasons?!?



You can add just about anything you want to a fatty or bacon explosion. The list of potential ingredients are limited only by your imagination. I had a hankerin' for a chili cheese dog but we were on our way to a friend's house and they wanted me to bring an appetizer. I don't think this is what they had in mind but it blew them away and there was none left.

The ingredient list is really basic:

• Bacon - 2lbs of thick cut


• Sausage - 5 links of Italian Hot but you could also use 2 lbs of Jimmy Dean Spicy in the chub pack.


• Cheese - about 3 cups of shredded mild cheddar.


• Hot Dogs - 5 all beef dogs


• Chili - 1 can of no bean Hormel or similar chili


• Dry Rub - I used Sweet Mesquite but you can use whatever you prefer to add some flavor
  

Course shred the cheese and chop the hot dogs into small pieces. I didn't want to over chop the hot dogs but they could have been chopped a bit smaller. Mix with the can of chili.

Spinkle a heavy layer of dry rub on the bacon weave. Empty the sausage casings and layer onto the bacon weave about a 1/4" thick.

Now the tricky part - how do you get all that stuffing into the middle of the fatty so it doesn't blow out. Simple - the Fatty Piston - make your own with these instructions.
Get all of your ingredients in your Fatty Piston and extrude the stuffing onto the fatty.

You can see from the pictures that a layer of Saran wrap was placed under the basket weave. This makes it SOOOO easy to roll up the Fatty. Simply lift up the Saran wrap and slowly roll the weave ensuring the stuffing stays inside. You can then use the Saran wrap and twist the ends to store the Fatty until ready for cooking. This will help keep the shape of the Fatty.

I smoked the fatty on my Traeger Smoker at 225 F until the internal temp was 165F. You could also bake the Fatty in the oven. Another option is to cook the Fatty on a gas grill as long as you cook on the indirect side - DO NOT cook bacon over an open flame and always be aware of the fat rendering out of the bacon and ensure you do not start a grease fire.

Slice the Fatty in 1/2" to 1" slices. Serve Hot! Good luck keeping the slices of incredible goodness around for long.

A serving suggestion is a few different types of mustards to dip in!

Good luck keeping this bad boy around for very long! I brought this as an appetizer but could also be served on a roll as a sandwich or a late night snack!

Hot Wing Fatty

Hot Wing Fatty.








There are all kinds of ways to make a fatty. A fatty - or Bacon Explosion - is basically:

• A basket weave of bacon.
• A layer of sausage meat.
• Stuffing - whatever you want.
• Roll it up as tight as possible and then smoke / cook until the internal temp is 165 F.

This time I made a Hot Wing Fatty.


Ingredients:

• 2lbs of thick cut bacon. Don't go cheap - get good quality thick cut bacon. It makes the weave better and helps ensure the fatty doesn't blow out or spring a leak during the cook.
• Pre-cooked boneless chicken wings - about half of a 25oz bag.
• Sausage Chub x 2 - I used Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage - seemed to go good.
• Shredded Cheese - about 1 cup.
• Franks Hot Sauce - the ONLY hot wing sauce to use!
• Dry Rub - your favorite - I use Sweet Mesquite from Costco.

Make your basket weave of bacon - here's some more specific instructions. Sprinkle a heavy amount of dry rub / seasonings for some flavor and to make sure the sausage doesn't stick to the bacon when you roll your fatty.





Empty two chubs of the sausage into a 1 gallon zip lock bag. This trick is one of the most useful tricks I have seen. You can also use 5 - 6 uncooked sausage instead of sausage chubs if they are not available. Roll the sausage flat inside the bag.

Cut the bag open on three sides and you can easily flop the flat sausage on top of the basket weave bacon.

Dice up about 1/2 of the bag of boneless hot wings.

Add in about 1 cup of shredded cheese. Pour in about 6oz of Franks Hot Sauce to act as a binding agent.

Use your fatty piston to pack the ingredients into a solid core of goodness. How do you make a fatty piston? See this post.

Extrude the stuffing log onto the layer of sausage and then pour a healthy dose of Franks Hot Sauce over the stuffing.

Add any extra spices or sauce you want to boost that flavor up!

Roll the fatty up as tight as possible.

A simple trick to make the fatty tighter or to store the fatty for cooking later is to wrap it in saran wrap. Wrapping the fatty in Saran wrap will cause the fatty to form up better and it will hold up better on the grate when you are cooking it.

Smoke on the grate at 225F or in the oven at 225F. Cook until internal temp is 165F. This typically takes about 2 hours.

Slice and serve - you can get about 7 - 10 slices out of fatty this size. One slice per person is a great appetizer or side dish serving - or just a snack. You can also slice and the half the slices too.

Serve with a little blue cheese to dip in - Sooooo good! Let's eat!

Harrah's Blues & BBQ Competition

Harrah's 1st Annual Blues & BBQ Competition and California State Championship BBQ Competition in Valley Center, CA.


We brought the new trailer / smoker to this event to cook our People's Choice meats and breakfast as well as our competition meats. The new trailer is a monster and once again - we only used 2 of the four shelves because it is so HUGE!

We had a great turn out for the team including Aaron, Doug, Mike (now an official team member), Wendy, Michelle, with some side help from Ryan and Dr. Chris White.


Michelle is giving the camera the evil eye because I should be helping stuff the 15 lbs of peppers!


Doug and Aaron prepping chicken. Where is Noe, Colin or Josh for this exercise? Prepping chicken SUCKS! Michelle is officially volunteered for the next comp.


Michelle laughs as she has to assist Aaron in rubbing the meats. Why is she laughing?


Meats are on for about 5 hours now - nice color. Look at ALL that room! Let's cook some more meats!


We added the ribs, wrapped PC and comp meats, and BREAKFAST! Carne Asada Chowder - YES!!!!


One super sized Bacon Explosion - aka Fatty ready for chow!


The Carne Asada Buffet Line. Hash browns, Bacon, Chowder, and Carne Asada waiting to be piled into a bowl. The other BBQ teams came from miles around to eat breakfast with Meat, Inc. Dave from All Sauced Up paid their "toll" - 1 bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey - the perfect pairing for Carne Asada Chowder!

Aaron eye-balls a chicken skin - is it for the comp meats or is it a mask for a new super hero?!?!

Look at the team effort getting the comp meats just right!

The fire department showed up to test out the flaming hot Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABT's). Luckily the men were ready for the heat!

Mike and Wendy helping out one of the many VIP's of the event.

This was a first year event for the promoters so there were some minor issues - like the 8" boxes (normally we get 9" boxes) but we adapted and overcame! On the plus side, they delivered as much ice and water as we needed - which is a great help to the BBQ teams. We go through a ton of ice keeping the cold food cold - and the cocktails colder!

Chicken - we still stuffed 9 pieces into that little box. One person said it looked like "eggs in a carton". We did OK on the chicken with a 12/29 but coming off of our 1st Place in Vista, we were really hoping for better. Next time!

Ribs - it was hard to get 6 bones in that little box - we finished 18/29. A bit of a disappointment but what can you do!??!

Pork - our lowest placing - 25/29. Not DAL but getting too close for comfort. We have a plan for next time and world domination!

Brisket - 22/29. It was a bit overdone for comp meats so we have some good direction and feedback so onward and upward. (It still kicked ass and some folks from Texas thought it was the best they'd ever had!).

As soon as Aaron finishes washing dishes - we can get this party started! Buddy Guy and BBQ King played later and we had to finish selling out of People's Choice Meats and get our drink on!

This very nice lady proclaimed that "this is the best pepper I have EVER had!". I'm not arguing with her - are you?

Our former Team Mate - Dean H. from Sportsman BBQ taking 4th in Chicken - way to go Deano and Josh!!!

The sun sets on Meat, Inc. with zero walks in this comp. There was still some fun to be had with Dr. White and the rest of the crew along with a Buddy Guy and BB King concert coming up and perhaps some late night snacks from the smoker.........

Vista Smokin' Q Classic 2010

Vista Smokin' Q Classic 2010 California State BBQ Championship

This event was in our back yard which made it convenient for the whole team + some extra help show up. It was a great event and a ton of fun.

Team for this event included Colin, Ryan, Doug, Noe, Mike, Wendy, Michelle, Justin, and Aaron.

This was a vending event so we were able to sell samples of our BBQ to the crowd. THE crowd favorite is always Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABT's). We made 15 lbs of peppers this event and they were all sold out within a few hours.

Ken, Ron and some of the local friends came out to support us - and eat some chow!

Doug and Colin working hard prepping chicken. I think they actually like to prep chicken!

Ryan getting ready to wash some dishes. Such a hard worker!

Aaron and Wendy help Mike try on a Meat, Inc. tank top. I think it'll fit!

The new smoker has 4 shelves - we only needed two and still had plenty of room for comp meat and people's choice meat. Look at all that room! The new trailer is a monster with 50 square feet of cooking surface!

Morning - getting ready to make breakfast. Those butts are looking fantastic.

Steve M from All Hogs go to Heaven gently waking Aaron up. I think Steve wanted some breakfast!

Breakfast is on with some chowder and some baby fatties. Aaron also cured some buckboard bacon pork tenderloins for 9 days - smoked Canadian Bacon for breakfast - YES!!!

The Fatty - aka - Bacon Explosion - is fast becoming a standard for BBQ Comp breakfasts.


Breakfast is served. Besides Carne Asada Chowder, we had smoked Canadian Bacon and a Fatty. We are the best team to be around during breakfast time. Maybe not the best team to be around during "quiet time" but we make up for our excessive noise and carousing with breakfast for anyone who wants to join us.

ABT's on the grill. We smoke these for about 2 hours to get all the flavors to melt together.

Pulling pork butt for the People's Choice tasting. The new "Wolverine Claws" make short work of that butt!

Wendy and Mike are ready for the crowd. The Big Tex smoker looks tiny next to the new trailer. Aaron wants to know "who wants some chow?!?".

One of Meat, Inc.'s new fans sporting his new Official Meat, Inc. BBQ Team Tank Top. This shirt is normally preferred by the ladies but I think this young man is enjoying his purchase.

Chicken - 1st Place!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!! 1/45 teams. Fantastic Job.

Ribs - DAL 45/45. Not sure how that happened but what can you do? We'll try again next time.

Pork Butt - a respectable 14 / 45. Not too bad.

Brisket - 39 / 45. Not great but I think we are getting close to working out some kinks.

Doug, Noe, and Aaron with THE 1st Place Chicken Trophy. Great job boys!

Aaron lost his voice screaming at the chicken on top of the 1st Place Trophy. What a win!

The team accepting THE 1st Place Chicken Trophy.