Thu Oct 31, 2019
Figuring out what to do with leftover pulled pork has become a standard fall activity for me. Each summer I smoke extra pork butts for the express purpose of freezing and continuing to get my barbecue fix throughout the fall and winter when I'm less likely to be cooking up larger cuts due to Meatwave dormancy. This past summer I did something a bit different though—instead of making my standard pulled pork recipe, I gave my smoked butts a carnitas-influenced seasoning to delicious results. Now, having a few bags of this sitting in my freezer, my brain has been wandering into Mexican and Tex-Mex inspired uses, which got me to these fantastic smoked carnitas taquitos.
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Thu Jun 27, 2019
When I need to feed a lot of people, I almost always turn to pork shoulder. This cut is economical, high yield, and cooks reliably, that makes it a no brainer for me to use at any larger scale cookout. The only problem with this is, over the years, I've fallen into a predictable pattern of serving it again and again. Now that's not necessarily a bad thing, but for someone who thrives on developing new recipes, it can feel limiting. So at my annual barbecue blowout, Carne-val, I decided to try to do something slightly different this year—I still picked up a couple giant pork butts, but instead of giving them the tried and true barbecue seasoning, I made up something with influences taken from Mexican carnitas. The results were, at the same time, familiarly comfortable and excitingly different.
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Thu Feb 14, 2019
I had a hard time deciding what to call this recipe because this style of hot dog goes by a number of names—Danger dogs, Mexican hot dogs, Tijuana dogs, etc. The major defining trait of this hot dog is that it's bacon-wrapped, and more often than not, deep fried. It's then topped with any number of Mexican-influenced toppings, so can take many unique forms from there. My lockdown on the name and topping combination ended up being decided by an illustration by Hawk Krall that labeled a Tijuana dog with an array of add-ons that sounded perfect in my mind—pico, jalapeños, pineapple, avocado, and crema. In the end, this led me down a very delicious path.
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Thu May 17, 2018
If you're anything like me, your Memorial Day prep is already underway. I actually used to not host cookouts on the big grilling holidays because, chances were, someone else was planning one. That changed in recent years though, and I've found that when you invite people over for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Labor Day, everyone shows up. That translates to cooking up large smoked meats, where just a few things can feed the immense crowd. Pork shoulder is my go-to, and the recipe from Big Bob Gibson is my standard, but I do get tired of always doing pulled pork the exact same way, so I came up with something different to offer as an alternative to the usual—a chili-rubbed smoked pork shoulder served as burritos.
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Thu Jan 11, 2018
Wing month soldiers on, this time with a story of redemption. See, I had the idea for these al pastor wings years ago and made them to results that were less than my standard of quality. I still posted the recipe though on Serious Eats, and it's always irked me that it remains out in the wild while I knew I could do much better. So I finally took another stab at making these Mexican-influenced wings and this time around I got a recipe I can proudly stand behind.
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