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!

Fatty Piston - BBQ "Tool"

The "Fatty" or Bacon Explosion is now a common term known in the BBQ world and beyond. This "tool" should make it easier for you to successfully make a fatty.

I found this tool on another blog here but there were no specific instructions or bill of materials on how to build it. I'm making it easier.....

Why else would someone make this tool? Well.... I have issues - whenever I make a burrito / taco I seem to add about twice as much as the tortilla will hold - now what do I do? How am I supposed to eat this monster? Well, I have the same problem when I make a fatty. I know how much stuff I want on the inside. It just seems to be a little overstuffed making the fatty hard to roll up and maintain the integrity of bacon weave. When I saw the fatty piston on the other site a light bulb went on. I can compact the stuffing, getting the required amount of product in the middle!

All of the items were purchased at Lowe's but should be available at any home improvement store.



2" Schedule 40 PVC Pipe - the Cylinder
3/4" Schedule 40 PVC Pipe - the Piston Drive Shaft
1" Slip Fit Cap - the Piston Head
1" Slip Fit x 3/4" Slip Fit Adapter - connects the drive shaft with the piston head
1 1/2" Slip Fit Cap - the handle
1 1/2" Slip Fit x 3/4" Slip Fit Adapter - connects the drive shaft with handle.

I made the handle a bit larger than the piston head so you can tell which side is the piston and the larger surface just felt better in my hand.



You can see that the 1" Cap barely fits inside the 2" pipe. It's not a super tight tolerance with about 1/16" clearance on each side. I was worried at first that this gap would allow product to get around the side and cause problems but it worked great!




Here are the parts laid out so you can visualize how they go together.




I used some goo gone to get rid of the bar code sticker and price tag.




Here is the piston assembled. I glued the handle and slip fit adapter with PVC cement. I did not glue the piston head and adapter because PVC Glue is probably not food grade and I didn't feel like testing the theory even though it probably wouldn't come in contact - since the piston stayed together when I used it - I guess it didn't need to be cemented anyway. I may have to glue it after a few hundred uses but until I need to.....

I cut the 2" Pipe / product cylinder about 12" long. Most of the fatties I make seem to come out about 8 - 9" wide so this left a little room just in case but wasn't so long it became difficult to use / clean / store. I cut the 3/4" pipe 15" Long. Combined with the piston head and handle, it was long enough but still not too long.




I jammed almost 2 1/2 cups of stuffing into the piston for the appropriate length of my fatty. This stuffing was diced baked potatoes, cheese, breakfast sausage and some mango salsa. I wouldn't recommend adding any liquids in the future. It made the log kind of loose and would hold together better without it.





The log fit just right into the fatty. It was compacted so much that if I needed to I probably could have trimmed some off the end without messing up the log.

Add some sauce on the sausage layer....

Roll your fatty up - remember - roll up the sausage layer first and THEN roll up the bacon weave around the sausage roll.

BBQ Tools

BBQ Tools!

Below is a list of BBQ Tools. Most of them are nice to have but some are must haves:


Cedar Planks


Fatty Piston

Oven Thermometer


Charcoal Chimney Starter