Chicken Pops

Chicken Pops are just fancy drum sticks - wrapped in bacon! Don't forget - everything is better wrapped in bacon. This recipe is simple - generously sprinkle the dry rub onto the chicken drum sticks. I use Trade Winds Grilled Chicken Seasoning - available at Smart & Final or another option is to use Draper's AP (all Purpose) Rub. It has the perfect blend of sweet and heat guaranteed to satisfy everyone! Slice the meat - at the point where the meat starts to get thicker - slice carefully all the way to the bone.

Scrape the meat from the cut point down around the knob of the bone. Slice thick cut bacon strips in half and wrap a 1/2 piece of bacon around the meat of the drum stick. Stretch the bacon as you wrap it around the chicken so when you release the bacon, it sticks to itself when it contracts - this way you won't have to use any tooth picks to keep the bacon in place. If the bacon doesn't stick to itself, feel free to use a toothpick to keep it in place.

I smoked the chicken at a grate temp of 275 for about 90 minutes. The bacon fat rendering will seep into the chicken adding flavor. Since the leg is dark meat and using thick cut bacon will give you some leeway on the time - you could cook up to 2 hours. Ensure the internal temp on the meat is at least 165F for safety reasons - and make sure the meat juice runs clear when you probe it.

I cooked some ABT's along with the chicken legs - the cook time is about the same and they seemed to go together very well.

There is nothing special about this recipe except it looks a little different - maybe even cool! AND it's meat wrapped in bacon! The kids seemed to like them even more too!

Enjoy!

Meat, Inc. BBQ Team has a new sponsor! - T & H Meats & Sausage!

Meat, Inc. BBQ Team has a new sponsor - T & H Prime Meats and Sausage! T & H Prime Meats and Sausage retail meat market is open Thursday - Saturday from 9 am - 5 pm. Custom receiving and pick-up hours are Tuesday - Saturday from 9 am - 5 pm. The market is closed on Sunday and Monday.Visit us at 735 E. Mission Road in San Marcos, Calif. 760-471-9192View Larger Map http://www.tandhsausage.com/ Please visit our sponsor - they have the BEST sausage that I have EVER had! They also have multiple smokers going at all times - drop in and have some quality smoked meats, a meal, or a snack - but most of all - get some meats to take home and taste the quality!

Pala 2011 BBQ Competition

Pala 2011 BBQ Competition.


This BBQ event was held at Pala Casino in North County San Diego. The venue was nice (right outside the casino) and the event benefited the Boy Scouts of America. The weather was supposed to be good until Saturday afternoon. The weather held out until we almost sold out so a good day for People's Choice too.



The team this time was big. Aaron (Big Daddy), Doug, Mike V, Chris (Scuba Steve), Michelle, Richard, Wendy, and Jason. Mike H (J-Lo) arrived on Saturday morning just in time to wash dishes - until he cut his finger (on purpose?) and had to ride the pine.



Aaron and Scuba Steve prepping competition chicken.


Wendy doing the Meat, Inc. dance to show our appreciation for our dry rub sponsor - Oakridge BBQ.

Henry usually puts on a great competition with some surprises. This was no exception! This time Henry came up with a unique Iron Chef Challenge. Each team had to go to the convenience store on the casino property and purchase 3 items to combine with ingredients that you brought to make a savory dish for the three judges. Like most convenience stores in the rural areas, it was not packed with lots of great ideas so we had to get really creative.

Scuba Steve and Michelle came up with a great idea, prepped and plated the dishes while Aaron and Doug stayed properly hydrated and cooked the food.

The three ingredients? A can of chicken noodle soup, a bag of Fiery Hot Cheetos, and a extra large pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Whawhawha - what?!?!

Here's what we did - chicken satay skewers using the peanut butter cups reduced as the sauce the topped with crushed Fiery Hot Cheetos for a flavor and color accent while adding some texture. We also made hot and sour soup with the can of soup. We chopped in some fresh vegetables, the smoked the soup and then transferred to the ramekins and smoked again for another 20 minutes.

It was plated up on bok choy leaves and garnished with fresh vegetables - we weren't going to eat them so it wasn't a loss.

The judges were as impressed as our fellow competitors and we scored a 88 out of 90. Seemed like a winner!

Now that the fun was over, it was time to get back to work. ABT's stuffing time and competition meat prep. For this event we only had to stuff 80lbs of peppers so it was only a few hours with the amount of people we had.

Now time for breakfast prep. It isn't a Meat, Inc. Breakfast without a few fattys! We went with the fancy breakfast fatty - maple bacon weaved with a layer of breakfast sausage, then stuffed with cream cheese, apple pie filling, and pancake pieces - smoked for 4 hours. We cooked our fattys on Frogmats. These things are some of the best BBQ Tools EVER! If you don't have some - get some!

Along with carne asada chowder - Breakfast of Champions! - Not for Meat, Inc...... but lots of other teams that eat breakfast with us!

The pits of Meat, Inc. We ran two Traeger 075's for the competition meats and the COM 200 for People's Choice. We utilize two Stokers patched into our laptops to help monitor the competition meats cook. The weather held until mid afternoon so the crowd came early AND hungry! We had the ABT's and Chicken - along with all of our competition meats for the crowd to sample.

Firemen LOVE ABT's! At the end of the day we sold over 800 samples of BBQ! The next closest team sold just over 300. Unofficially - Meat, Inc. was the PC Champs - again!

Turn in chicken - 999 889 977 878 988 888 good for 9th place.

Turn in Ribs - 888 988 888 899 888 998 - good for a 5th place.

Turn in Pork - 678 877 777 866 877 889 - good for 27th.

Brisket - 866 876 766 876 777 655 - 35th place.

Overall for the entire competition we came in 21st out of 38 teams. We did win 1st place in the Iron Chef Challenge too!

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!

East v. West 2011 California State Championship

East v. West II California State Championship BBQ Competition - held in Wildomar, CA. This comp was a really well run event by Henry S. The weather seemed to hang out for a while on Saturday morning over the highly superior BBQ Team field that descended on this competition. All the big guns from the South West United States were present and accounted for.

Meat, Inc. had the fine opportunity to host the men from San Jose's Smoke Slayers present to assist. Thanks to Johnny Cakes (C-a-k-e-s) and Chad Quarrey. For some reason these kids thought Meat, Inc. would be a great source of information for their future BBQ comps. They washed a LOT of dishes!


No one said we didn't know how to make breakfast!


ALL Firemen LOVE atomic buffalo turds!


Chad and Johnny scrape chicken skins - my favorite!


Making ABT's - me and Nate having a disagreement on how to core peppers!

R - L - Chad (Smoke Slayers), Neil (Big Mista), Aaron (Meat, Inc.), John (Brazen BBQ), Johnny (Smoke Slayers and Lot Lizard) = getting our dance moves on.

Breakfast of champions - carne asada chowder with breakfast fatty. Horrible breakfast - low fat and tasteless! Or was it?!?!?

Clown patrol - Brad, John, Dave, and Steve!

Louie and J-Lo checking on the ABT's! Looking great!

Looking like another beautiful southern California Day - Meat, Inc. sponsored by Oakridge BBQ!

Chad giving Johnny some BBQ tips!

Chicken turn in:

999 999 878 988 978 879 - 5/54

Ribs -

888 898 877 788 899 676 9/54

Pork Butt -

777 987 877 788 899 676 16/55

Brisket - this was THE poor entry we had - it was a rough turn in - according to the Stoker it was over temp... according to the probe test it was over temp... When I sliced it the meat seemed under cooked. It was really weird!

976 866 766 767 766 866 - 53/55

Beef Ribs side comp:

887 889 766 767 787 878 11/24

Chad, Aaron, and Johnny showing off. Thanks for the assist Smoke Slayers!