Smoked Chicken Alfredo - from scratch!

This is a really simple recipe. No one wants to use Alfredo sauce from a bottle when you can make it from scratch - AND - this recipe is so simple - anyone can do it. I learned this from my Aunt Sandra. She has some serious Italian roots - so deep I'd have to kill you to tell you the whole truth so forgettaboutit!

So here's the recipe - make it yourself and impress the ladies! Never buy Alfredo Sauce from a bottle again!

Here we go:

Smoked Chicken:

• 2 - 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Your favorite rub (I used tarragon, mint, garlic powder, and marjoram). Some rosemary could also be nice.
• Smoke the chicken until done, wrap in foil and rest until the remaining sauce and noodles are done.

Alfredo Sauce:





Grate a wedge of Parmesan cheese.

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic (I use minced garlic from a jar - it's so much easier)
• Couple of splashes of cheap white wine

Sautee this on a medium heat until the garlic is browned.




Get the noodles started - you can use spaghetti or angel hair - whatever you prefer. I add a splash of olive oil and salt to the water - the olive oil helps the noodles NOT stick together and the salt raises the specific gravity of the water for a higher boiling point so the noodles cook hotter.

You can see the garlic turning a bit brown as they cook.


Add in about 1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream - that's right - Heavy Whipping Cream. This is a low fat recipe.

Once the Whole Whipping Cream comes to a boil - start adding in the grated Parmesan cheese - SLOWLY. Wait until the cheese you've already added in is already melted into the sauce before you add more!

The noodles should take between 8 - 10 minutes to cook and the sauce should finish up around the same time if you started to make the sauce as soon as you've added to noodles to the boiling water.

Go ahead and dice the chicken into small cubes while the sauce and noodles are cooking. Make sure someone is continuously stirring the sauce!

Nice sized pieces - not too big - not too small. Nice dry rub on the meat - this will add some flavor to the meat in the meal.

Noodles, meat, sauce - Oh Boy! Now that's some good eatin'!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed Bell Peppers.

I'll be the first one to admit that Stuffed Bell Peppers sounds like something my mom used to make. Chop the top off and stuff with some type of rice and hamburger mixture. This recipe updates the idea a bit and although not super manly - every once in a while - you have to cook something for the ladies that isn't just meat stuffed with more meat.

I'll spare you a pictures of prepping the mix because it's pretty boring but here's a list of ingredients.

• 3 large Bell Peppers
• 2 (previously smoked) chicken breasts
• 1 bunch (about 10) quartered radishes
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 can of garbanzo beans (it's what I had in the cupboard)
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 1 cup of shredded cheese

Spices included some black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder and a dash of garlic salt.

You can modify the ingredients if you are trying for a specific flavor profile - for example you could use feta cheese , yogurt (instead of sour cream) and add some fresh mint and rosemary for a Greek type flavor.

I cut a triangle shaped opening out of the top of each of the peppers and diced the removed piece and added it to the mixture.

I smoked these at 250 F for about 45 minutes. Since all the ingredients are already cooked there is no internal temp goal. You just want all the cheese to melt and the flavors to mix up. Even after 45 minutes, the pepper itself was pretty crunchy and the garbanzo beans also added some crunch.

You can cook this on a gas grill by turning on the hot side flame as LOW as possible (you know where the hot spot is) and put some foil on the side as far away from the hot side as possible. Put a little olive oil on the foil so the pepper doesn't stick to the foil. If you have a temp guage on the hood of you grill, see if you can get it around 250F. For the last 10 minutes, put the peppers directly on the grate in the middle of the grill but still not direclty over the hot spot / flame on portion - so you can get some grill marks and soften up the pepper shell a bit. Put the bread direclty on the grate that you just removed the foil from (the coolest portion - furthest away from the direct flame).

I threw in a baguette with some garlic and butter for the last 10 minutes to go with the peppers.

You can see the colors came out pretty nice and the fresh cilantro diced and radishes chopped into the mix really added some nice flavors.

You can serve this split open with some bread. Look pretty nice!

Fatty - aka Bacon Explosion

Many people have attempted to smoke the perfect Fatty - now you will know how too!

Ingredients (per Fatty):

• 1lb of Bacon
• 1 pack of uncooked sausage (5 - 7 links)
• Vegetables (if you are a girl)
• 1/2 cup of Cheese (if you are a man)

Get 1lb of bacon.




5 - 7 links of uncooked sausage - now this can be Italian or breakfast or whatever - depends on if you are making a breakfast or spicy fatty!

Slit open the casings and remove the sausage meat and place in a bowl.





Start the lattice of bacon - I lay out 5 - 7 strips of bacon as close together as possible, then start at one end and peel back the strips the cross trip is going under. Keep this as tight as possible!

Keep it tight!

Now - I usually end up with 2 more strips across than I have tall but end result should be a sqaure - or as close to it as possible.

Then sprinkle some dry rub over the lattice:

Now place the sausage meat onto the lattice about 1/4" thick and leave about 1" from each edge without sausage:



This picture might have the sausage too close to the edge - but it still worked out OK.

Now put a thin layer of your favorite BBQ sauce over the sausage meat layer.

For Girls Only: This is where you would add some type of vegetable.

For Men Only: This is where you add 1/2 cup of cheese - some type of soft cheese the melts easily is best - I use Colby - Jack.

Here is the MOST important tip of the whole recipe:

Roll the sausage meat and whatever stuffing you use FIRST. Leave the bacon lattice on the cutting board. If you attempt to roll the bacon and the sausage meat all at once - the lattice will burst or your fatty will look like Jabba the Hutt.





After you roll up the sausage meat / stuffing, place it in the middle of the lattice and roll the bacon around the stuffing:



Note: Beer can is for visual size reference only.

Now - there may be some extra sausage meat and bacon strips left - what to do?!?

I call this "Rolling a Blunt":

Lay out the remaining strips - slightly overlapping.

Place the left over sausage meat on the end.

Sprinkle with rub and drizzle some sauce and roll tha that thing up! Now you have a Fatty and a Blunt!



Dust the outside with more dry rub and you can add some more BBQ sauce if you want:

Place on the smoker:



I cook mine at 250 - 275F for about 2 1/2 hours or until internal temp reaches 165 F.

Now that's smokin' a Fatty (and a blunt).



Pull and slice. I would have shown you pictures of these sliced but by the time I got back with the camera, they were both gone!

Good eating!

Bacon Turtle

Lots of people do the bacon explosion - I was inspired to do a twist on the favorite and try out the Bacon Explosion Turtle - aka - Bacon Turtle.

The other difference was the stuffing - instead of sausage meat, I added some vegetables and cheese. The girls seem to prefer this so I went with it (or did I?). The initial motive appears to be an attempt to satiate the ladies but I wanted to use some other ingredients so that when you cut the turtle open, it appeard to have "guts". Use whatever excuse you want. Either way - Mission Accomplished!

Ingredients:

• Bacon (2lbs)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Guts (Lunch Meat, ham, cheese, bell peppers, whatever you want). I used ham in one and lunch meat in the other.
• Dry Rub (your recipe) - I use a simple even amount - Black Pepper, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder.
• BBQ Sauce (your choice) - I used KC Masterpiece
• Polish Sausage (or hot dogs)

Guts ingredients:

I grated 2 potatoes and cooked them in some olive oil - or you can use some frozen hashbrowns.

Make the shell:

Weave the bacon into a latice - people usually do 5 strips x 5 strips. Mine usually worked out to 5 x 6 to make an even square.

Weave the bacon as tight as possible. I think this is key. Sprinkle the dry rub onto the weave when finished.

Add the guts:

I used left over spiral ham in this example hoping it would reinforce the shape of the turtle "shell". Turns out it doesn't matter as you will see in the lunch meat version but the thought is there:




Here's where I stuffed the second turtle with lunch meat rolls - lunch meat rolled with diced bell peppers and shredded cheese - remember:

Girls - it's vegetables.

Boys - guts.

Both ways - after you have stuffed the shell - sprinkle some more dry rub and then rub on some BBQ sauce.

For the head, tail and legs, I used frozen polish sausages so during the long smoking process (about 2 hours) the sausages wouldn't blow up. If you use regular hot dogs, they may deform too much. It also seemed easier to shave or form the tail when the dog was frozen.

Pick out some areas where it will be easy to poke in the sausage for the legs, head, and tail. Open up the weave and poke the sausage in - I tried to go above a strong weave point so it would support the weight of the appendage.

I smoked these turtles for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours at 250F. Since all the guts were cooked and I really only had to worry about the bacon "shell" - I didn't have to worry about achieving any specific internal temp. I did make a Bacon Explosion" at the same time so I knew as soon as the Bacon Explosion was done - the turtles had to be done - even though I put them on the smoker a 1/2 hour after I put the Bacon Explosion on.

The end result - pure turtle joy! Those turtles were good eatin'!