Ok, now we got that out of our system, today’s topic is … guess what? Bacon!
We’re going to cover a few items all devoted to that food that EVERYONE loves.
Bacon!
Seriously, if you don’t love bacon, we don’t know you! In this post, we’re going to show you how to cure and smoke your own bacon, and then share with you several of our bacon-starring recipes. And all of this is fired up and designed to be cooked on a pellet grill fueled with Griller’s Gold Hardwood BBQ Pellets. Let’s get to the BACON!
Home Cured and Smoked Bacon
The first time you make this you will wonder what took you so long to try it, as it is ridiculously simple and the results are beyond spectacular. The hardest part about this is buying the pork belly to make it from. Seriously.
So, about that pork belly! Bacon comes from the “belly” of the pig, and it’s exactly that – it’s the ab muscles of the pig, although most pigs we know don’t have six packs! That said, in the diagram below, where it says “bacon” is where the fun lies. Now that diagram is a misnomer, as it is actually the pork belly but … anyway, we’re making bacon.
Buying the Pork Belly:
As usual, we have the best luck buying our pork belly at Costco or Sam’s Club, but you can also buy it at butcher shops, Whole Foods, and nicer grocery stores. Your local grocery store butcher can also order it in for you. At Costco, it usually is a piece about 7-10 lbs and between 10 and 12” wide by about 18” to 22” long. Be sure to buy a nice slab of it in one piece, versus cut into strips. The strips are great for making pork belly burnt ends (see our post about that!) but for making homemade bacon, buy the slabs. From what we know about butchery, that’s actually one half of a full pork belly. The belly from Costco and Sam’s club comes without skin. If your butcher has it skin-on, ask them to remove the skin.
Image by Stewart Campbell
Sizing for Your Bacon:
So the big piece from the big box store is actually a bit unwieldy for making bacon – it’s hard to handle for curing, smoking, etc., so we like to cut it down in either halves or thirds (depending on how big the original piece is). We try to make it so the piece is about 8” wide in one dimension to make it easy to put in bags for curing. The nice thing is other than cutting it into a manageable size, that’s about it for knife work unless the butcher sold you a piece with the skin on. If that’s the case, using a thin filet knife slice underneath the skin and remove it. People like to save that for making cracklin’s! Save and freeze the other half to make more bacon, or pork belly burnt ends or … so many possibilities!
Image by Stewart Campbell
Curing the Pork Belly:
The process to make the pork belly into bacon takes 5 to 7 days, but is really REALLY easy. First step is cure, second step is smoke.
First Step – Curing:
The cure is no more complicated than making a marinade for a steak or a brine for a bird, just takes a special product called Prague Powder #1 which is regular salt mixed with sodium nitrate. It is dyed bright pink to help make sure you don’t mistake it for regular salt. The sodium nitrate cures the meat by chemically altering it in a process somewhat similar to pickling. That helps stabilize the meat and fight bacterial growth. Prague Powder #1 is available widely at butcher shops, well equipped grocery stores and of course from Amazon. A little goes a very long way – the recommended “dose” of it is 1 tsp per 5 lbs of meat.
Image by Stewart Campbell
For our pork belly, which weighed in at 4.25 lbs after cutting to the size we wanted, needs just over ¾ tsp of Prague Powder #1 in the brine.
Brine Recipe:
¾ tsp Prague Powder #1
1 cup warm water
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
¼ cup dark amber maple syrup (the real stuff, not “pancake syrup”!!)
Mix that up well. We like to marinate in vacuum sealed bags as they won’t leak in the fridge like a zip lock can. Other things that work well are a plastic-wrap covered glass dish, or a plastic storage container. Avoid metal because of all the salt in the brine cure.
For ours, we made a sealed vac bag about 8” longer than our piece of belly, sealed it up, and slid the belly in. Then we poured in the cure brine and using our “wet” setting on our sealer, we sealed it up. Again, you do you – you want the meat not folded and laying flat for maximum surface exposure of the meat to the cure.
Image by Stewart Campbell
This goes into the fridge and needs to cure for a few days – the size of the belly determines the time, but an easy rule of thumb is divide your meat in pounds by 1.25 – that equals 3.5 days for our 4.25 lb piece. An extra day won’t hurt, but don’t short it.
Key tip: turn the bag over every day that it is curing. That helps make sure the meat is fully steeped in the liquid cure.
The Pork Belly Pellicle:
For best smoking results after you’ve hit the right amount of curing time, remove the belly from the curing bag or container and give it a rinse in the sink and then set it on a rack over a rimmed baking sheet and put it back in the fridge overnight. This will help dry the surface into a sticky coating called a “pellicle” and that helps suck up the smoke flavor!
Second Step – Smoking the pork belly:
Start by firing your pellet grill up to its lowest setting – ours is 165F – you can also use the “smoke” or “super smoke” setting if your grill has that. Use your favorite Griller’s Gold pellet – the classic flavor is either Hickory blend or Fruitwood blend, but use your fave!
The smoking technique is interesting – you’re cold smoking – definitely not the usual “low and slow” method. Pull your belly from the fridge, rinse off any juices that landed on your baking sheet and fill that baking sheet with ice cubes. Set the rack with the belly on it, fat side up, over that and then put the whole works on your grill. The ice cubes will last about a half hour and will help keep the meat cool while it absorbs smoke. Here’s where having a reliable probe thermometer really helps – you’re smoking to just 155 degrees internal. Between the cure and the smoking heat, that will preserve your bacon without rendering out the fat. Remove at 155 and put it in the fridge right away – you want it to cool quickly.
And that’s it – now you have this amazing slab of bacon. We like to slice it into ⅛” thick slices for cooking for breakfast, sandwiches, etc. You can also dice it for smoked pork lardons, thick slices for pancetta, big chunks for flavoring beans, soups, stews, etc.
Image by Stewart Campbell
It will keep in the fridge for about 3 weeks, and will be good for at least 3 months in the freezer. We like to slice it all into ⅛” strips, then freeze in vacuum bags in 1 pound packages, which is what we tend to use in about a week.
Bacon Dishes/apps
And here’s some fun, quick ways to use your bounty of THE BEST BACON YOU’LL EVER EAT!
Bacon on the Grill:
Your pellet grill is a great way to make slices of bacon. Preheat your grill to 375, put the slices directly on the grill, turning once in about 4 or 5 minutes, done in about 9 or 10. Note if you do this – line the heat deflector plate with foil, and then throw that away after the cook and scrape any accumulated fat out of the fat drip area on your grill to avoid future grease fires.
Image by Stewart Campbell
Bacon Wrapped Scallops:
Buy big, nice sea scallops and then wrap each with a slice of your marvelous homemade bacon, securing with a toothpick. Grill at 425 degrees, turning frequently until the scallop is done and the bacon is cooked, about 10 minutes.
Bacon-Wrapped Filet Mignons:
Buy nicely-sized and shaped filet mignons and wrap them with a slice or two of your homemade bacon. We like to do these Reverse-sear style to medium rare. See our article on mastering reverse searing!
Bacon-wrapped asparagus spears:
Oh yeah, these are good! Buy thicker (about ½” thick at bottom) asparagus and wrap in a spiral with your bacon. Grill until the bacon is cooked, turning frequently.
Image by Stewart Campbell
Bacon Mac & Cheese:
Take your favorite mac and cheese recipe and kick it up a bunch of notches by cooking up a bunch of your homemade bacon and adding it to your recipe. Best when added to the sauce as you’re cooking it, then mix the bacon spiked sauce up with the noodles and scatter more over the top when baking it. OR, if you’re doing “the blue box” just fry up a few strips and crumble it in once you’ve mixed yours up!
Got a griller in your life and finding it hard to shop for him or her?
Well our grilling blog crew at Griller’s Gold happens to be a bunch of “gear heads” and always love shopping for the latest and greatest bits to use when we indulge our favorite hobby. That is of course, turning out favorite yums for our families and friends on our pellet grills fueled with Griller’s Gold Premium Hardwood Pellets.
We hope that our idea list below sparks some good ideas for your griller:
Thermometers
No good chef or serious BBQ griller doesn’t have their favorite thermometers. Having the ability to accurately measure temperatures means that you can accurately deliver food off your grill that is to the right doneness level, at a safe eating temperature and is of the highest quality.
Here’s a few of our favorites in a couple of different categories:
Instant Reading Thermometer: The ThermaPen
Ask any serious chef which instant-reading thermometer they use, and they’ll all say the same thing: ThermaPen.
A ThermaPen is a product from ThermoWorks, a company that makes professional quality temperature measuring devices for a variety of applications. The “standard” ThermaPen has a folding probe, and the best part is its speed and accuracy – it measures the temperature at the absolute pinpoint of the probe, and it delivers the reading within a few seconds. It is truly a pro tool!
A ThermaPen isn’t cheap by any means (regular price around $100) but they are built like tanks and last forever. We have one that is 20+ years old and still works perfectly! On sale now at $69.95 at https://www.thermoworks.com/thermapen-one/
Remote-Monitoring Thermometers and Probes
Some pellet grills come with plug-in temperature probes and that’s great – but we’ve heard they can be pretty variable on accuracy, and accuracy is what it’s all about. Here are some great products proven and used by the Griller’s Gold Team for remote-monitoring of your food (meaning that you can get the information without standing at your grill).
Meater Thermometers: We have to admit to falling in love with this thing when it was just an idea on Kickstarter and after waiting a year for it to arrive, well, we weren’t disappointed.
That’s several years ago now and they have continued to evolve and innovate the product. The concept is simple – a metal probe pen that you insert in your meat and pair with your phone and you’re good to go!
It measures both temp of your food and the ambient temp of your grill. They come in single packs, multiple-pen setups and more! Lots of sale prices right now at https://store-us.meater.com/products/meater-plus
Inkbird Remote Thermometer: Inkbird is a pretty cool company and they make a variety of temperature control and temperature measurement products. A remote thermometer like this has several probes that you can push into your food, hang in your grill to monitor temperature, etc.
Great for if you’re cooking things that don’t get done at the same pace like a chicken plus a beef roast. Rather than picking just one for you, we suggest you shop their website – they have everything from fairly inexpensive bluetooth probe setups ($51.99) up to multiple-probe wifi-enabled counter-top consoles. See what fits your budget and your griller’s needs at https://inkbird.shop/collections/bluetooth-bbq-thermometers
ThermoWorks Smoke remote thermometer: Another item we’ve had for years – ours is past 10 years old now and is still on its original set of batteries!
This thing is bullet proof and works great and is on an insane deal. This is only a two-channel thermometer, but it’s dedicated remote receiver seems to have a much longer range than standard Bluetooth.
And the reason we’re suggesting this one is it is at an insane deal right now – $64.35. We paid close to double that when we first bought ours. That said, Themoworks has a huge selection BBQ products so you may want to shop a bit on their site. Here’s the link to the SMOKE: https://www.thermoworks.com/smoke/
Tools and Accessories for the grill
These items are fun/useful tool items to add to your pellet grill to be able to make different food items, enhance your grill’s performance, and the best part, have more fun:
GrillGrates
GrillGrates are accessory grates that lay right on top of your pellet grill’s cooking grates. They work by absorbing the heat of the grill and somehow concentrating it, delivering up to 200F more heat at the grate rails, which delivers great searing and grill marks – moreso than what you can get from your grill’s standard grates.
We don’t need to know why they work, but trust us, they work great. We have them and love them! They make kits sized to fit your grill, or you can buy their standard sizes.
Flat top grills are metal plates you can lay on your grill’s cooking grate to cook typical flat-top grill foods like burgers, breakfast items like pancakes, hash browns and eggs, and even Japanese “Hibachi” style food.
There are a lot of selections out on the marketplace and for this category, we don’t have a particular one we recommend.
We do know that the GrillGrate folks (above) also make one. Things to keep in mind on these are to make sure that if you buy one that’s the same size of your grill that it is made for it – we’ve heard that these can obstruct airflow if they aren’t designed for your grill.
Now this all said, one “flattop” solution we love the best is our simple cast iron griddle from Lodge Cast Iron – this isn’t anywhere near the size of our pellet grill but it’s big enough to make a couple of omelets, or a few fried eggs all at once. A flat top on top of your pellet grill can save you the cost of one of those big dedicated flat top grills. Here’s a link to that product on Lodge’s site:
Of all the grill-friendly cooking accessories to have, cast iron cookware is the most versatile.
We own several sizes of skillets, as well as the griddle mentioned above, and because a) they are all-metal; and b) are cast-iron with no special finish to discolor or get ruined by grill use, they are perfect for grill cooking.
What to cook in them? Side dishes such as potatoes or vegetables, fish, especially delicate fish that might fall apart on grill grids, and even desserts (ever tried wood-grilled peach cobbler?) are amazing when kissed with that delicious Griller’s Gold flavor from your pellet grill!
Our favorite brand is good ‘ol, USA made Lodge, made in South Pittsburg, TN near the border with Alabama and near Chattanooga. Great place to visit! Visit their website for lots of ideas for gifts for your favorite griller. https://www.lodgecastiron.com/
Grilling gift hand Tools:
Here’s a list of things in our grilling bits cabinet that we can’t live without:
What’s more fun in the fall than to pack up the car with your tailgate setup, put on your team colors, and head to the big stadium for game day? Not much!
Nothing goes with tailgating better than grilling, so here are some ideas to up your tailgating fare using your pellet-fueled grill at home to prepare stuff for the game!
So, here’s an assumption. We know that there are some pellet-fueled portable grills out there, and good for you if that’s your setup. You can shift all of these ideas to make at the game versus make at home. But we’re assuming you have a nice big pellet-fueled grill for home and a portable gas or charcoal grill to pack for the game. Each of these recipe ideas are designed to be made at home on your Griller’s Gold Hardwood pellet-fueled grill and then reheated on your small grill at the game.
The gang at Griller’s Gold are PRO tailgaters. We’ve been going to college and NFL games for years and we have our game down. Our first rule is “No hot dogs!” Nothing wrong with a little dog, burger, or brat tailgate, but we always go for the “oh, I want what they’re making” factor when we bring our tailgate game.
Here we go…
Make a Tailgate Plan
Our tailgate crew makes a plan for each game. It lays out the main items we’re making, perhaps some special drink items, and then we fill in around the edges. We typically will have 2 or 3 appetizer items, then a big main or two. But we plan this all well in advance and make most everything at home. That way, at the game, it’s just a fast reheat on a hot portable grill and we’re eating.
For reheating all of these, it’s best to set your grill up (if you can) for indirect heating. If you are using charcoal, push the charcoal to one side to make a hot zone and a cooler zone. On a portable gas grill, if you have two burners, shut one side off. If you’re on a small charcoal grill or a single burner gas, keep the heat moderate by building a smaller fire, or turning the burner down a bit. Then make sure to keep turning/stirring the food to avoid burning it.
Appetizer/Starter Ideas
Bacon Explosion:
You want to come out of the gate strong, with something bold, tasty, and well … filled with bacon and cheese! Fortunately, there’s this amazing thing called a “Bacon Explosion!”
It goes by a few other names out there, but the gist of it is simple – it’s bacon, cheese, and if you want spice, chopped pickled jalapenos, stuffed into a log of sausage that’s rolled in a bacon lattice. For a recipe on how to construct one of these, this is a good link: http://www.bbqaddicts.com/recipes/pork/bacon-explosion/.
Our recipe diverges from theirs in that we add a generous amount of shredded cheddar and don’t put the barbecue sauce in. But, the construction techniques are solid here. To cook a bacon explosion, fire your pellet grill up (we like to use Griller’s Gold Smoke Shack Blend for this one!) to a temperature of 350F degrees. Cook it until it is 165F with a thermometer in the middle. On game day, all you’re going to do is reheat it on your grill until it’s hot all the way through. Keep it moving and turning though as you don’t want to burn off all the bacon.
Tailgate Wings
Another great game day recipe that is easy to make ahead is good ‘ol wings. Make these ahead by seasoning them with your favorite barbecue rub, then grilling them on your pellet grill at 425F until crisp and done.
What we do for game day is hold off saucing them until we’ve reheated them on our tailgate grill, then sauce them with our favorite commercial sauces. We have great homemade sauces too, but the commercial stuff is handy for game day.
Smoked Queso
Want to raise the ‘ol “chip and dip” game? How about SMOKED QUESO? This recipe has been all the rage around the grilling and pellet grill barbecue social media forums for the last several years and for good reason – it’s amazing!
Creamy cheese base with peppers, onions, chorizo sausage, and more mixed in. So good – and way easy. Use our recipe from the Smoky Snacks blog post from a few months ago. Again, make this ahead at home and on game day, put it on the grill to reheat, stirring every couple of minutes to make sure you’re not burning it on the bottom, then serve with a generous supply of tortilla chips.
Tailgating Poppers
Finally, how about some homemade, pellet grill-smoked, bacon-wrapped Jalapeno poppers? Jalapeno, stuffed with cheese, wrapped with bacon … OMG so amazing and so easy. Just like the other apps here, make ahead on your pellet grill at home to get that wood-grilled flavor, then reheat on game day – keep them moving so you’re not burning the bacon if you don’t have an indirect heat setup.
As we said, with our tailgating crew we go for the “I want what they’re having” effect! Nothing wrong with a burger or a bratwurst at a tailgate, but … we always feel that anything worth doing is worth overdoing!
Therefore, here are three great ideas that are both “hand food” and also fantastically tasty, and deliver those all-important envious glances from nearby tailgaters. Do what we do – make a ton and share with all the tailgaters who couldn’t get outside the hot dog box.
Rack of Pork
Yeah, we go there! A rack of pork is a big bone-in pork loin roast with the ribs on it. It’s used most frequently in a crown roast of pork, but we like cooking it straight (not curled up) and then slicing apart the individual rib chops so you wind up with a pork chop on a stick!
Have your butcher take the chine off it (that’s where the ribs connect to the spine), which makes a nicer presentation, and makes it easier to cut the individual chops. We like to season ours with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika, then we slow-grill it on our pellet grill (we like Griller’s Gold Fruitwood Blend, or Cherry for this recipe) at 250 degrees until 135 degrees internal. Yup, that’s a touch under done for pork, as you’ll then finish it on the grill at the game. The slow grill gives it lots of wonderful wood-grilled flavor, and if you want you can finish it with some barbecue sauce at the game. Then slice into individual chops and serve, using the bone as the stick!
Rack of Lamb
Since we’re on the subject of meat on bones, there’s nothing better than lamb racks, cooked medium, and sliced up like little three-bite lamb lollipops!
We buy ours at Costco or Sam’s Club, and season them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of oregano. Then we slow grill them at 250F on our pellet grill (Griller’s Gold Competition Blend is our favorite here) at home until just 125 degrees internal.
Then at the game, back on the grill, and we drizzle them with lemon juice. Keep an eye on them as lamb fat likes to ignite! Grill them until just nicely browned and about 130 degrees internal. Slice up and enjoy!
Beef Tenderloin Kebabs
Beef tenderloin, while pricy, is just so wonderful, and is easy to grill. We buy a whole beef tenderloin at either Costco or Sam’s Club.
We slice it into 1 ½” thick slices and quarter those slices to make 1-2 ounce chunks. Then thread about 3 of those on each skewer with a thick slice of sweet onion in between. Season them with just salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and slow grill them on the pellet grill (Competition Blend again here!) at 225F until just barely rare – about 115 degrees internal. That leaves room for you to then sear and heat them at the game.
At the game, these actually love a bit of direct heat to put a nice crust on them. Just be mindful that they are already nearly perfectly medium rare so you don’t want to overcook them. Nothing better than handing a hungry tailgater a stick of perfectly-cooked beef tenderloin!
The Drinks and Other Fill In items
With such great fare, you’ll want to consider having a few additional tasty items plus some great drinks. On the drinks front, obviously, consider what your audience likes, but we like to do a theme drink, such as a bourbon old fashioned, or martinis that fit the occasion, as well as having good craft beers and of course lots of water and soft drinks available.
For additional fill-in food, consider some salads like a good cole slaw, a tasty potato salad, or even a green salad. We also like to have lots of small crunchy snacks like the ones featured in the Smokey Snacks blog post from a few months back!
Let’s face it – things are expensive right now. Everything from the cost of toothpaste to gas has gone up. Unfortunately, groceries and especially less-sold grocery items like the BBQ meat cuts we know and love, have gone right up with them.
If tight budgets have you down, then you’re in the right place! We’re going to show you some simple ideas to make amazing grilled treats on a budget. All fueled of course, by Griller’s Gold Premium Hardwood BBQ pellets!
Enjoying the grill on a budget just involves making the same things you love with some twists. In this edition, we’ll do three things that “mimic” three faves, only on a budget.
We are replacing a big thick Ribeye, Wings, and Baby Back Ribs with substitutes that are just as tasty and more importantly, much less expensive than the originals.
Let’s hit it!
Ribeye on a Budget: Reverse-Seared Chuck Roast
Of all the foods to have gone sky-high, beef is probably the worst one. It’s a combo of poor demand during the pandemic that caused producers to scale back operations and then when demand returned, not being able to scale back up fast enough. Fortunately, there are signs that this is improving, but beef prices are still at a record high.
So, you’ve got a hankering for a big thick ribeye, but that cost is a way off? For about 40% of the price of a bone-in rib roast, you can get … a chuck roast! The ribeye’s tastier cousin.
I know, you’re saying “hey wait a minute … chucks can be tough as nails, they are for braising not grilling.” But we say “nay nay! Don’t knock it until you try it.” The trick to tenderness comes in three ways:
Salt – we use the “dry brine” technique to get some deeper salt penetration and deliver tenderness
Gentle cooking – we use the tried and true fave method of “reverse searing”
Careful carving – We will carefully slice and carve the meat for the optimum tenderness
Now, this all said, a chuck’s “chew” will be more like a New York strip than a filet, so just be ready for that.
Buy and Trim on a budget:
Buy the thickest chuck roast you can find – ideal thickness is 1 ½” to more than 2” thick. Look for chucks that have even marbling and ideally a minimum of hard ridges of gristle. When you get it home, trim off any hard exterior gristle lines, any silverskin, and hard bits of fat on the outside. Leave what is between the muscle sections alone until after cooking.
Dry Brining:
As you’ve probably learned, great juiciness and tenderness can come from brining. (This is typically done to turkeys and chickens.) As the salt is absorbed into the meat, it “denatures” or untangles the tangled-up protein strands in the meat.
The dry brine technique is simple.
Take the meat out of the package, put it on a plate or a pan, ideally with a rack under the meat to give it some air space, and sprinkle it generously with kosher salt. Then you leave it unwrapped in the fridge overnight. That’s it.
You’ll find that about an hour after the salt goes on, it will have all dissolved. As you check on it, you’ll see that some moisture has come to the surface of the meat, then disappears again. That’s the brining process at work.
So the day before cooking, get the salt on it and put it in the fridge. About 2 hours before cooking, take it out, give a rinse in the sink to wash off any residual brine and you’re ready for the next step!
Now, what if you didn’t plan ahead? No worries – even a 4-hour dry brine at room temp has a good effect.
Key thing at this step – examine the meat and get to know where the muscle divisions are before you cook it. This will help you with the carving later. In this photo, you can see natural divisions between muscles marked with red lines. We’ll split it along those lines after cooking and then slice off any gristle or sinew, leaving just delicious tender meat.
Reverse Searing:
For the cooking technique, we’re going to use reverse searing. That’s the technique where you cook low and slow until just before your meat is the desired doneness, then, you rest it, and then sear it just before serving.
Here’s the steps:
(PSST…if you want a more detailed description of the Reverse Searing process then check out our other blog: Expert Technique – Reverse Searing)
Fire Up: Fire up your pellet grill to 225 degrees. If you like it extra smokey, start at 180F or use the “Smoke” or “Super Smoke” settings, depending on how your grill is equipped. For beef, we like Griller’s Gold Competition Blend or Smokeshack Blend the best. If using a charcoal or gas grill, you want low heat – make a small fire and put it to the side, or only light off one burner on your gas grill. Get it preheated well – at least 15 minutes at grilling temp.
Season, Meat on and Turning: Seasoning: We like to add just a touch more surface salt at this point, plus garlic powder and fresh ground pepper. But you do you on that one. Just remember that the meat already has a salty thing going. Thermometer: if you have a probe thermometer or other style of “insert and leave it” meat thermometer, this is a good time to use it. Depending on the thickness of your chuck, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes to reach your doneness temp. We like to turn the meat every 20 minutes or so just to evenly cook it.
Targeted Doneness: While we like our meat on the rare side of medium-rare, because Chuck isn’t inherently tender like a filet or ribeye, you’ll want to go a bit more done. We like to do the reverse sear to about 130 degrees (this is where we set our probe thermo’s alarm) which is on the low side of Medium Rare (135) but the meat will carryover a bit.
Rest: When the meat hits the target temp, take it off to a platter, cover it with foil (1 layer of heavy duty, 2 layers of regular), then cover that platter with a couple of folded bath towels (we keep several old clean towels for this purpose). This creates a little rest nest for the meat. Rest at least 30 minutes, ideally an hour. This rest helps even out the heat in the meat and helps tenderize it.
Sear: 20 minutes before serving time, fire the grill back up to at least 450, or, one of our favorite methods, heat a heavy skillet, ideally cast iron over medium-high heat on the stove. Sear the meat to a beautiful brown crust – we like to turn it every 2 minutes until each side has had two “rides” on the heat. Time to carve!
Carving: So you’ve already rested the meat before, so you can carve it right when it comes off. First divide the meat along the muscle lines that you so carefully noted when you were dry brining it, then trim off any hard gristle lines or undesired fat. Each piece will likely have a gristle line along the side that connected it to the other piece. Note the red lines in the picture below, those are the gristle areas that you need to trim off. Then just carve those pieces in relatively thin slices, stacking them on a serving platter. Pour any accumulated juice over it, and if you want a “rock star” touch – melt a couple of tablespoons of salted butter and pour over the meat. Bonus points if it’s a compound butter!
This “budget” style of steak will be so good it will make you think you’re royalty! Hint: Don’t share your secret with your guests!
Chicken Thigh “Wings”
Due to the popularity of chicken wings in restaurants, and the labor-intensive process to cut them, wings are inherently much more expensive than good ‘ol chicken thighs.
Chicken thighs are thicker, meatier, and well, most would say, even tastier than the ‘ol chicken wing. Here’s a quick and easy technique to make tasty, crisp-skinned chicken thighs ready to toss with your favorite wing sauce:
Buy budget Friendly:
Simple: bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Ideally don’t get the ones with the back bone and meat attached (and if you do, look up on YouTube on how to remove that, then save them to make chicken soup).
Prep:
We like to rinse off the chicken after it’s out of the package then spread it on a baking rack to air dry a bit. This next step will be the kicker step: take all the thighs and dump them into a big mixing bowl, add a couple of tablespoons of baking powder (yes we said that!) sprinkled evenly over them.
Season them generously with salt and pepper, or if you like, a barbecue rub. Then toss them to distribute the baking powder and seasonings. The baking powder aids in crisping up the skin.
Fire Up:
No low and slow here, friends, heat is what you want. We like to preheat to 425 degrees for at least 20 minutes, ideally 30 minutes. For Griller’s Gold BBQ pellets, really anything works great for this – we like either Charcoal Blend or Competition Blend for chicken parts on the grill. If you’re grilling over charcoal or gas, well, get the grill good and hot, but ready to cook indirect, which means charcoal on one side, and for gas, one burner shut down.
Cook:
Put the thighs on the grill, skin side up to start, then turn them every 10 minutes until done – which should take about 30-40 minutes at 425.
Done is 185F with an instant-read thermometer pushed down to the bone in the center of the thickest piece you have on the grill.
Sauce:
We love to sauce them three different ways:
Barbecue: For this, you’ll be brushing them with sauce on the grill. When the chicken is done, brush them with your favorite BBQ sauce, flip sauce side down and brush again. Close up the grill for 2 mins, then repeat. Remove and serve.
Buffalo: For medium-hot buffalo sauce, melt ¼ cup butter then add ¼ cup Frank’s Red Hot sauce, 1 tsp brown sugar, and 1 tsp fresh minced garlic. Whisking well. Simmer for 2-3 minutes to blend flavors, whisk up well again and toss with your thighs.
Spicy/Sticky Asian: We love this one! Whisk together ⅓ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup honey, 2T canola or other vegetable oil, 1 tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp dry mustard and 1 tablespoon either Sriracha sauce or Thai Red Curry paste. Can reduce the hot stuff if desired. Toss with the thighs.
Pork Shoulder “Boneless Ribs”
Pork Shoulders and cuts like Pork Shoulder Steaks are a great way to have that satisfying pork rib flavor on a budget. “Boston Butt” roasts or Pork Shoulders (they are the same … yeah don’t ask why a shoulder is also a “butt”) come from the shoulder of the pig and because they are a worked muscle they are super flavorful. Treat them like you’re cooking ribs and you may never go back to baby backs!
budget Buy:
We like to buy whole pork shoulder roasts, either bone-in or boneless for this. If you buy bone-in, remove the bone which is a blade-like thing that is usually exposed on one edge.
Just follow it down with a boning knife to cut it free. You can also buy pork shoulder steaks which are steaks crosscut from the shoulder cut. The problem is they are usually cut too thinly. If you’re working with a butcher or have a good grocery store meat counter they can cut them for you. The ideal thickness is at least 1” thick.
Cut and Trim:
Your goal is strips of meat, not unlike “chicken fingers”. They should be about 1” thick and 2” wide and as long as you can cut them from the roast. We like to cut 1” thick slabs and then cut those into 2” wide strips. Cut off any surface fat on any of them.
Season:
A good “rib rub” is what you want here – use your favorite!
For extra flavor and moisture, first toss the “ribs” with about ½ cup of yellow prepared mustard until evenly coated. Then throw on a generous amount of rub and toss to coat evenly.
Fire Up!
Preheat your pellet grill with Griller’s Gold BBQ pellets to 250 degrees for at least 20 minutes. For this recipe, we prefer Griller’s Gold Hickory, Applewood, or Competition Blend pellets.
Cook:
Lay the strips crosswise across the grill grate. Turn them every 30 minutes. They are done when they are cooked through and very tender. The internal temp should be about 185F degrees or more – up to 205F. Cooking can take up to 3 hours.
Sauce and Sear:
Remove the “ribs” from the grill then fire the grill up to 400F. Lay the “ribs” back across the grill grate and sauce them on one side, then turn and sauce again. Let run 2 minutes, then turn and sauce again, 2 more minutes, turn and sauce again. Remove and serve!
So … they aren’t the satisfying “meat on a bone” like baby backs. But gotta say these are super tasty and if you have anyone in your family who is “bone squeamish”. This is also an excellent way to get the great taste of ribs without bones. They are also great party “finger food” as well, with no bone mess to deal with.
Brazilians are known for their love of meat grilled over wood and fire – which makes Brazilian-style Barbecue. It’s a great way to enjoy outdoor cooking fueled by Griller’s Gold natural hardwood pellets. So, what is Brazilian-style barbecue?
What is Brazilian Style barbeCue?
When defining Brazilian-style Barbecue there are actually two things to it – the food and the event.
The food is typically a range of meats and sausages grilled over charcoal or wood, accompanied by a number of fresh, cold sides such as green salads, mixed salads, etc. But it’s the event that makes it!
For Brazilians, it’s not typical to cook all of the food prior to dinner time, and then eat at one sitting—that’s more North American style. Instead, a Brazilian Barbecue is a leisurely, grazing affair.
The meats are typically cooked one at a time, sliced hot off the grill, and passed, and everyone takes a few bites for their plates. Then the next one comes out. And the next one. And the next one. AND the NEXT one … and so forth – until you’ve eaten enough protein for two weeks! And each thing is better than the next.
We were recently invited to join some Brazilians for a Barbecue afternoon/evening and it was a 4-hour affair where the food kept coming off the grill, each item more delicious than the next, the grill was right there next to the table on the patio so that the host didn’t leave the party to cook, the copious wines, beers, caipirinhas, and cachaça was flowing, the music was pumping, the dogs and kids were playing and it was an incredible night!
Planning your Own Brazilian Barbecue:
A Brazilian Barbecue is about simple food, simply prepared, enjoyed in an atmosphere of celebration of friends and family. It is definitely an event best enjoyed in the summertime where you can sit outside, the grill is part of the action, and everyone can relax.
In terms of the food – typical grilled Brazilian Barbecue foods are sausages, beef, lamb, chicken, and pork. They are also not shy of game meats, so if you’re a hunter, this is a fun way to prepare your bounty.
When planning one, think about the variety of what you want to serve, and know you don’t need a lot of each thing, but having a nice variety makes the party more fun.
If you drink alcohol, the traditional drink of Brazil is the Caipirinha (cap-ra-hin-ha) – it is a concoction of fresh lime juice, cane sugar and a Brazilian spirit called Cachaça (ca-cha-sa) that is made from sugar cane like rum is but tastes somewhat like a cross between tequila and white rum. And Brazilians also love their South American wines and of course, beer. Keep it flowing! Here’s a great Caipirinha recipe: https://www.laylita.com/recipes/classic-caipirinha-recipe/
The Brazilian barbecue Meats:
There are a few special cuts of meat that Brazilians favor, but you can also just cook the typical meats you can find at your grocery store. That said, the most common “specialty” cut of meat that Brazilians use in a Barbecue is called the beef picanha. (pi-can-ya).
Beef
It is a beef top sirloin cap steak with the fat cap left on. The fat cap melts as the steak cooks and delivers an out-of-this-world flavor. Raw, it looks like the photo below, and the traditional Brazilian way to cook it is to spear it on a sword-like skewer in thick slices shaped like a letter “C” – see the pictures below.
Any good butcher should be able to cut you a picanha and there are online purveyors that sell them as well, such as Wild Fork Foods. Our host cut the picanha into 1” thick steaks and grilled them like a typical strip steak.
As you would get from the butcher – it is typically about 2 lbs like this:
You can substitute New York Strip or Top Sirloin steak for Picanha if you cannot get it in your area. Look for steaks with a good fatty edge on them, and leave the fat on for grilling.
Additional beef cuts that are favorites in Brazil are Maminha and of course, filet mignon. Maminha is a bottom-round roast, lean like beef filet, but more “worked” so a more beefy flavor. Delicious cooked to medium-rare over open heat churrasco style, and they do cook beef filet as well. A good stand-in for maminha is a beef tri-tip roast.
Sausages
Brazilians love their sausages and two typical sausages you’ll find in Brazilian Barbecue are Linguica and Calabresa. Both are simple beef/pork blend sausages with a thin natural casing. The sausages are simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and plenty of garlic, and are often smoked prior to cooking on the grill. Easy substitutions for this would be polish-style Kielbasa or a beef and pork blend, mild Italian sausage.
Pork, Lamb & seafood
Pork and lamb chops also star in Brazilian Barbecue. Again, a nice blend of meat and fat is always desirable. For lamb, get a rack of lamb and it is typically lightly marinated. Here’s a great recipe for it from the famous Brazilian Steakhouse Fogo de Chao. For pork, they use a variety of cuts, but typically either pork loin (again, look for a generous fat cap) or pork loin bone-in chops seasoned with just salt.
The most common seafood you’ll find in a Brazilian Barbecue is shrimp – and size matters here – go for nice big ones – 6-10 per pound size. For chicken, you’re most likely to see boneless chicken thighs, skin on, at a Brazilian Barbecue.
The Sides:
You only need to go to a Rodizo/Brazilian Steakhouse once to understand how Brazilians love their fresh cold sides with their meat dishes. You don’t usually find mounds of hot potatoes with Brazilian Barbecue.
Instead, nice fresh slaw, potato salads, pasta salads, and of course green salads are the stars here. You want things that are light and bright tasting to contrast with the salt, fat, and umami flavors of the grilled meats.
Again, Brazilians love their grills. Most common at Brazilian Barbecues are open grills fired with lump or briquette charcoal, but pellet grills work great for this, as do gas grills.
If you’re using a pellet grill, fire it up with Griller’s Gold pellets – while most any flavor will work, the Griller’s Gold Charcoal pellets will give you the most authentic taste, as well as the Smokehouse Blend.
Charcoal Grill
If cooking over charcoal, as each cut goes on the grill, scatter a handful of Griller’s Gold pellets of any flavor over your hot coals. They will give a burst of smoke that will really kiss the meats on the grill with a pop of wood smoke flavor.
Gas Grill
If using a gas grill, consider the “cigar” method – take two pieces of foil stacked, and roll a “cigar” full of Griller’s Gold pellets. Twist the ends and crimp the seam to seal, then poke it in several spots with a knife to let the smoke out.
Pellet Grill
Cooking Brazilian Barbecue will typically use medium-high heat, so for a pellet grill, preheat it to the highest temperature your grill will go (450~500F is typical) for at least 20 minutes to make sure your grids are good and hot.
Seasoning
Well, this couldn’t be more simple! Salt! And plenty of it.
Brazilians typically only use coarse salt like large grain kosher salt on their barbecue meats – they salt the meats about 10 minutes before putting them on the grill. Some Brazilians will also say a good grind of freshly-ground pepper too, but our friend insisted that authentic Brazilian Barbecue is only seasoned with salt.
The kicker ingredient at Brazilian Barbecues (and in a lot of Brazilian food) is farofa. Farofa is a granular powdered condiment, the consistency of coarse corn meal, and it is made from toasted yucca (also known as cassava) root with additional seasonings like salt, pepper, cayenne, and other flavors in it. It is served as a table condiment and the Brazilians like to dip their meats in it or sprinkle it over their meats on the plate.
The Event:
Again, as noted, a Brazilian Barbecue is an event – it is a gathering of friends and family around a table, where you sit, eat, drink, tell stories and laugh for hours.
The meats are cooked one at a time in a quantity where each person gets a few bites. The “parade” of barbecue meats often starts with sausages – a few are cooked on the grill until cooked through and nicely browned, then sliced into coins and passed among the guests. The guests often eat this first course with some cheeses and other appetizers, and of course, the sausage pieces are dipped in the Farofa.
From there, it is, however you’d like to pace your meal. Our host started with picanha, in a small quantity so we each got only a couple of small slices, then after a bit of time (and more beer, wine, and Caprahina), out came a fat pork chop that was sliced up.
After that was a Maminha roast that had been slow-cooked over the coals (with Griller’s Gold hickory pellets tossed on the fire) and sliced thin, then more sausage, more picanha, more pork, and … more and more.
Again, each cut came out after an enjoyable pause and wasn’t served in huge quantities. You do eat a lot though! But over a long time.
Our hosts served a delicious Brazilian Flan for dessert, along with a plate of fresh fruit, a delicious cognac, and espresso.
Wrapping it up:
While a Brazilian Barbecue is a long evening of eating and drinking featuring copious quantities of meats, it is really about taking the time to truly share an enjoyable time with family and friends. The concept can be of course extended beyond Brazilian-style food – it is truly a “grazing” meal. Give it a try! Until next time … Grill On!
Doesn’t that phrase just float off the tongue? Make your mouth water? It’s so good a restaurant even made a jingle out of it … “mmm hmmm’s Baby Back Ribs, mmm hmmm’s Baby Back Ribs (barbecue sauce).”
Yet rarely does anything strike fear into the hearts of barbecue enthusiasts like making ribs! (Ok, except maybe brisket …). AND, everyone likes something a bit different – spare ribs, St. Louis cuts, “fall off the bone”, no, with “a good tug”, dry ribs, sauced ribs, auuugh! What’s a barbecuer to do?
What’s to do? Make this recipe of pork baby back ribs. We are positive that a) you’ll love them and b) they will be “better than any restaurant” good. And it’s easy to do.
Easy Pork Baby Back Ribs
First, a caveat – this recipe is for pellet grills. Not exclusively, but … we’ve written it for doing on a pellet grill. If you’re rolling smoke on a charcoal kettle, a bullet or offset smoker, or something else .. well 90% of what we’re going to say applies here, and just know you’ll need to use your knowledge of your gear to do what we’re recommending here. There’s some special notes for you gas and charcoal grillers at the end of the article.
And another thing about this method – you will be shocked by the simplicity of this. You may have heard of “3-2-1” ribs, Texas Crutch ribs, people boiling ribs in advance of smoking (WHAT????) etc., all in the search of perfect ribs. We have found that the best ribs come from a minimalist approach. Set the right temp, season, and rub, onto the smoker, leave them alone until done. That’s it! Aren’t there a few in-between things? Not really!
And a final note: This method delivers ribs that pull cleanly from the bone but do have a bit of “al dente” toothsomeness to them. They are NOT fall-apart, fall-off-the-bone ribs. IF you want that result, follow this method below to doneness, then simply coat them with sauce, put them in a roasting pan with a cup or so of beer or apple juice in the bottom, then tightly seal up with foil and bake in a 300-degree oven for 45 minutes. That final oven run will make them fall apart and will still be the best ribs you’ve ever eaten.
So let’s roll smoke:
Buying Baby Back Ribs
As noted above, there are St. Louis Cut ribs, there are baby back ribs, spare ribs, rib tips, beef ribs, etc. We have found that the easiest, meatiest ribs are pork Baby Back Ribs. As implied, they come from the back of the pig, where the ribs join the spine and they include loin meat along with them – the pork loin is actually cut away from these ribs at the butcher.
Ideally, buy baby back ribs that are minimally processed – you can get these from your butcher, but also Costco sells them that way. Minimally processed means just cut and packaged, not soaked/brined or injected with anything. You can tell if they’ve been more processed if there is some fine print on the package about them containing “up to x% solution” – “solution” is a fancy name for saltwater. Now don’t get us wrong, those are fine – you just need to account for that in your seasoning.
Ribs (baby backs and other cuts) when butchered have a tough membrane adhered to the inside of the ribs. If buying from a butcher, ask them to remove it. Generally, Costco ribs have already had the membrane stripped off but grocery store ribs usually do not. Not to worry, we will show you how to remove it if it’s there.
Also, a great time to stock your freezer with ribs is the week after either Memorial Day, July 4th, or Labor Day – those are all traditional rib-cooking weekends and the stores usually have overstock specials after the holiday. In fact, the ribs pictured in this article were purchased the week after July 4th at only $2.99/lb.
Set up the Smoker!
Again, this recipe is optimized for a pellet grill or smoker, and of course, for best results, use Griller’s Gold Premium BBQ Pellets. In terms of which variety of Griller’s Gold pellets to use – we suggest using your favorite. That said OUR favorite for baby back ribs is good ‘ol Hickory. Griller’s Gold Hickory will deliver that hearty and smoky flavor that we all associate with great barbecue.
Fire up your pellet grill or pellet smoker with an initial temperature of 180 degrees – or, if so equipped, set it on the “SMOKE” setting or “Super Smoke” setting (these are particular features of certain brands/models of pellet grills – don’t sweat if you don’t have that – just set it for 180 or whatever you have close to that).
This initial temperature setting will deliver the most smoke for a great initial flavor shot on your ribs. The meat absorbs the most smoke flavor right at the beginning of a cook.
That pesky membrane …
This is where you learn how to remove that membrane – and it is way easier than you think. It does require a special bit of gear – a standard table butter knife!
Working in the middle of a rack on the inside and holding the knife flat, slip the rounded end of the butter knife under the edge of the membrane by about an inch or so, then lever it up gently (so as to not tear the membrane) to pry up the membrane.
Push it under another inch or two and repeat the levering action, then put your fingers under the membrane, pull out the knife and pull upwards working from one end and then the other – that membrane will pull cleanly away in one piece. The first time we learned that technique, our barbecue minds were blown!
Rub those baby back Ribs!
Now we get into some fun – here, use what you like. If there’s a commercial BBQ rub that you’ve used on pork or ribs and enjoy, well, use what you know. If you’re not sure what you’d like, we suggest using “Memphis Dust” from Meathead Goldwyn.
This peppery rub is fantastic on ribs and other pork. Note, it does NOT have salt in it – so if using it, be sure to season your ribs well with kosher or large grain sea salt as well.
Why kosher salt? It is more minerally-tasting, it doesn’t have the metallic taste of iodized table salt, and the larger nuggets or flakes are easier to control when applying. To apply the rub, first, give your ribs a quick rinse in the sink with cool water and then leave wet – this helps the rub stick and dissolves the sugar in the rub, helping make the bark.
Then, generously sprinkle or shake your rub evenly over the ribs. Note, the game is NOT to hose the ribs down with rub – just use enough to flavor them. Refer to the pictures below to get a sense of how much. If you’re a measuring type, about 2 tablespoons of rub per rack is good.
ONTO THE SMOKER!
Ok, your ribs are rubbed, and your smoker is 180 degrees. Put them on the grate meat side up, close it up, and walk away!
If are doing more than will fit on your grill laying flat, a commercial rib rack works great to hold them edgewise, OR, another good trick is to coil them meat side out – just make sure there is airspace between the racks or coils using either method.
Again, close it and walk away for an hour. After 1 hour, without opening the smoker, increase the temperature of your pellet smoker to 225 degrees – this will increase the rate of cooking without a big penalty in smoke flavor.
Why shouldn’t you open the smoker? Simple rule our grandma always told us: “If you’re lookin, it’s not cookin’.”
The beauty of a pellet grill or smoker is that they run beautifully unattended for hours as long as the pellet hopper is full of Griller’s Gold Premium BBQ pellets. So go away again for 3 hours at this point.
Walk the dog, watch a movie, go grocery shopping, whatever you want – but don’t open that smoker! (Ok, if you do peek the world doesn’t end, but what happens when you do that is your grill’s thermostat will sense a drop in temp and will seek to compensate.
What we’ve found is that the longer stretches of unfluctuating temperature (other than the normal 10-20 degree swings that any pellet grill will do) gives better results.
When are they done? Learn the “Bend Test”!
Baby Back Ribs typically will take between 3 ½ and 5 hours to get to perfection (more about that in a minute). Baby back ribs and other pork ribs are done when they split when doing the “bend test”.
What’s that? Simple – you’re going to pick up a rack of ribs with tongs, with the end of the tongs at the 4th or 5th bone down, and you’ll bounce them – if they are done, the meat will split right at the tongs.
Pro Secret – The Rest
As much as we love the idea of our guests coming to the smoker with empty plates and slicing off part of a slab for them, hot from the smoker, the reality is the best meats, and ribs are right in this club, benefit from a post-cooking rest.
Therefore, if you’re cooking ribs for a 6:30 PM dinner, you’ll want to get them on the smoker around lunchtime. Because ribs aren’t particularly thick, the rest doesn’t have to be long. But when your ribs are done based on the bend test above, remove them to a platter, take them into the kitchen and wrap them with a layer of heavy-duty foil, then place them in a picnic cooler that is lined with a folded towel and place another towel on top of the package of ribs and close up the cooler.
If you need to cut them to make them fit, go ahead and do it but don’t cut them into individual ribs or other serving sizes just yet. This is called the “Faux-Cambro” trick – a “Cambro” is an insulated food service container that restaurants use to hold hot food at serving temp.
A standard picnic cooler or even a cheap styrofoam one will work just fine for this. Let the ribs rest for a minimum of 30 minutes, and ideally an hour or so. We’ve found they will stay hot (and hot enough to be in the “safe” zone for bacteria growth, so hotter than 165 degrees) for up to 4 hours this way.
To Sauce or Not to Sauce? That is the question.
There are some folks that think sauce is an insult to perfectly cooked barbecue and then there’s us: we have barbecue sauce running in our veins!
IF you’re in the first group, well, your ribs are done. Go enjoy. For the rest of us? Let’s get saucing!
There are a million sauces out there, and a million sauce recipes out there – we say “use your favorite”. Seriously – if you like the sweet smokey taste of Chicago, the vinegary peppery taste of North Carolina and Memphis, the peppery tomato flavors of Kansas City – great, use what you want. But here’s a method that’s great for that final touch.
While your ribs are resting, crank your pellet grill to 450 degrees and let it preheat at that temp for at least 15 minutes past when it hits that temp – you want all that metal in there to be radiating heat.
Take your ribs out of the “Faux-Cambro”, unwrap them, and one thing we like to do here is cut them into serving-size pieces – we like 2 bones per piece. Spread them out on a sheet pan or platter and brush both sides with sauce, then put them on the hot pellet grill, meat side down.
Let them go for about 4 minutes then flip them meat side up and brush the meat side again with sauce and let them go for about 6 minutes. At this point, if you want to serve your guests ribs hot off the grill, this is a great time to do it, otherwise platter them up and serve!
What this step does is caramelize the sugars in the sauce, gives the ribs some grill marks (see the picture below), and cooks off some of the moisture in the sauce so the ribs are glazed with sauce.
And that’s it – you’ve made the best ribs of your life, AND you know how to do it.
Finally … sides and pairings
Sides: We love baked beans with ribs, au gratin potatoes, french fries, coleslaw, you name it.
Pairings: Our favorite wine with ribs is a big fruity red Zinfandel. Ribs also pair beautifully with your favorite beer, our favorite pairing being a session IPA – there’s something about the easy hops and maltiness of a session IPA with the barbecue sauce that sends us to heaven.
And finally, after dinner – a fantastic choice is a smokey, peaty single malt scotch whiskey. The smoky flavors that you’ve had in your mouth and nose through dinner will pop with this final touch.
Quick notes for those not using pellet grills:
If using charcoal, set up for low and slow, and use either a smoke tube or a “cigar” (foil package poked with holes) filled with Griller’s Gold Premium BBQ pellets to get that good smoke flavor. Because temp changes are hard in a charcoal grill, don’t sweat the “180 degrees” step above. When you’re saucing, use indirect heat otherwise the sauce will burn.
If using a gas grill, preheat the grill on high, then shut off all but one burner and run that one on medium to low to get to the desired 225-250 degrees. Don’t worry about starting at 180F – that’s a pellet grill thing. Use a smoke tube or cigar package loaded with Griller’s Gold pellets to get your smoke on.
