Seafood and barbecue both share some room on the plate for hush puppies (grab our free Sauces and Sides book for a solid hush puppy recipe). Not sure how hush puppies ever got into the barbecue category but I think it has to do with Jamaican festival).

Also barbecue and seafood are almost always served with a few sauces.  Lately I’ve been feeling cheated at a few seafood houses for being stingy with the Tartar sauce so below (and in the video) are a few quick recipes so you can make cocktail sauce and Tartar Sauce in the comfort of your own home. The video also features a visit to one of my two favorite seafood shacks of all time: Bowen’s Island.  The other is Tybee Island’s Crab Shack.  Neither has ever short changed me on Tartar sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.

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A Fatty is basically a smoked BBQ meatloaf. And there are a lot of different kinds of them.  See below for two different versions from GrateTV including a breakfast and Italian fatty. A few years ago the Bacon Explosion was a fatty that received a lot of hype for it’s over indulgent qualities.

The Big Mac is the world’s most iconic burger and there’s one trick to emulating that taste that has been embedded in our flavor library since childhood trips to Micky D’s.  The “special” sauce. Starting with a “special” recipe from the BBQ Blueprint for the sauce (it’s also in the free Sauces and Sides book here) we took a few hours and created the fatty version of the McDonald’s Big Mac.  It’s loaded with american cheese, pickles onions, special sauce, beef, and sesame seeds.  Why did we wrap it in bacon too?  Why not?

Breakfast Fatty How To

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Interested in just how you make pork rinds or chicaronnes?

Here’s a few ways in this new video.  I take a look at two products:

The nice thing about both these products is that the end product is a crispier and crunchier pork ring than you’ll find in packaged snack foods.  The Carolina Gold is unseasoned (and comes in a pouch as plain pellets).  The Lowreys (no relation to the seasoned salt that I know) comes packaged like microwave popcorn bags and is very convenient.  My recommendation is to try the “Hot and Spicy” version of the Lowreys or come up with your own spice blend to season the Carolina Gold brand puffs.

For low carb dieters these are great and sturdy chips to serve with a top notch guacamole or pimento cheese.

If you want to see a different take we talk to Rodney Scott of Scott’s BBQ in Hemingway, SC about how he does it with the whole hog skin. On the grill you fire the skin with intense heat to cause the blistering or popping.  The end result is a bit different but equally delicious.

My full interview with Rodney is in the new BBQ Blueprint Book – http://amzn.to/1VrfMBR

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Fried Turkey without the oil! It’s safer. Less Fat… but can you get the same taste with an air fryer?

This cook is an attempt to achieve an air fried version of the smo-fried turkey. the deep frying in the driveway always seems a little dangerous for a once a year job…plus it’s a ton of oil that a lot of people use for the single cook. Here’s how no oil version with apple wood comes together.

Prep for the bird is pretty straight forward. We always rinse the bird before seasoning. Dont forget to remove everything from the inside and outside of the turkey. Including the thermometer in this case. We’re using the Big Boss Oil less fryer here and it gets really hot due to using a combination of Halogen, convection and infrared heat – not sure the plastic thermometer would melt or not.

I seasoned with a BBQ rub and salt – getting under the skin. Poultry third base… I did NOT inject but you could – the tip to that is injecting from the inside of the cavity… We did trim up thicker sections of fat and skin to help the rendering.

Here’s where I tried to add smoke I applied via this smoking gun and applewood. I also needed to use the extender ring for the big boss and some plastic wrap to seal in a good dose of smoke. I then let the bowl bird, lid and all chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

Then – it’s simply place the bird and set the timer and temperature

Whole Turkey 6 lb. LOW 350°F 1.5 hours (15 min/lb. from thaw) — The manual says you can even cook from frozen — but obviously i didn’t do that…

My main issue was the size of the bird – in this case it was still a bit too large for the size of the bowl even with the extender ring – the skin turned out great but very close to burning on top… which leads me to a great tip i learned from Carolina Pitmaster’s Jack Waibore who suggests for ANYONE… instead of always “going large” on the turkey every year with a 20 ponder… Consider two smaller turkeys instead… double the coveted drumsticks and wings plus in the oven it’s actually quicker to heat.

Because it cooks the skin so quick I was extra careful to make sure the INTERNAL temperature was up to 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the thickets part of the thigh and breast too – check a few points… but that’s it. The final product is very rotisserie like – which I love. Let it rest before carving.

As for the smoke flavor – I couldn’t really discern any distinct applewood taste so you may not want to worry about that step.

Nonetheless the end result was a fantastic air fried oil – less “fried turkey” that got rave reviews at the table. The skin was perfect.

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OK, don’t hate us for bucking tradition – even though this is pretty much kicking tradition in the chin!

Here’s the world’s easiest Texas style beef brisket.  It just works.  And if you don’t have access to the thousand dollar smoker rig to do it like a true pit master this might be the way to go.   Dorm room.   Tour bus travelers.  Lazy peeps.  This is for you!

The trick to keeping the brisket slice-able is layering the slab o’ beef on top of a layer of onion halves.

Plus the seasoning is simple.  Here’s the recipe overview:

The main weakness of the trick is that it is very difficult to get the smoky and desirable bark of a low and slow cook.   We suggest ADDING a smoky sauce table side.

Ingredients

• Marinate in packaging with one bottle of soy sauce (adding liquid smoke optional). Refrigerate 10-24 hours.

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