2/5/2016 – Made two smoked appetizers to take to Kelley’s for the game and smoked the third on gameday morning.
Beef & Pork Meatballs; aka moinks (moo+oink).
Ingredients
1 lb. 80/20 ground beef
1 lb. Hormel HOT breakfast sausage
1/4 cup 2% milk
1 large egg
3/8″ square cheese cubes for 1 per meatball
Thin sliced bacon cut in half
Meathead’s beef rub
Toothpicks
Mixed all ingredients together in a large bowl until well blended. Formed a golf-ball sized meatball then pressed in a cube of cheese in the center and reformed the meat around the cheese into a ball. Wrapped with half slice of bacon and secured with a toothpick pushed all the way through.
Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites
Cut chicken breast into about 1? x 1? cubes and wrapped in 1/2 bacon strip secured with toothpick. Sprinkled on Best Stop cajun seasoning onto bacon strips then rolled and secured with toothpick. Once all assembled dusted with same season.
The First Cook
- Kettle was prepared with SnS coals burning in one end and fresh coals poured over and beside them with three chunks of pecan. Foil over exposed part of charcoal grate and boiling water in the SnS slot. Ambient temp for entire cook was about 52 with gentle breezes.
- 4:40 pm – Placed chicken and balls on the grate. Came up to 225 slowly (by 5pm) after opening vents fully.
- 5:35 – Grate temp was 215. Chicken internal temp was in the 250-260 range so removed and painted balls with Stub’s Sweet Bourban sauce
- 5:45 – Grate was at 230. Sauce had glazed so removed.
We ate two of the balls and two of the chicken chucks. The chicken seemed a bit dry but tasty. The balls were great. On both the bacon was well done but not dried out. Put them into seperate plastic containers to take to the game tomorrow.
Third Appetizer was Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers
Sliced about a dozen large Jalapeno peppers in half removing all ribs and seeds. Mixed 8 oz. package of cream cheese softened with 1 cup of medium shredded cheddar cheese and 1/4 cup of chives finely chopped. Added an olive with pimento cheese in the stem end of some of them (did not remove the stem) then wrapped with half a strip of thin sliced bacon secured with a toothpick.
Added them around the butts and about an hour later the cheese was bubbling, some of the bacon had a nice color and doneness-some did not and the fat was white and uncooked. Left them on as long as could rsik the cheese to let the peppers get cooked. But they never really were much more than warmed. Hence, all were hot to very hot.
Results:
- Beef & Pork Meatballs; aka moinks (moo+oink) – The ones we ate just off the grill were moist and tender. GREAT. The warmed up ones the next day were almost dry and tough. Maybe better if we had painted them with seasoned butter when they came off the grill like steaks. They also could have benefited from minced onion and garlic plus a cheese square that was larger ; i.e. 1/2″x1/2″.
- Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites – Directly off the grill they were a bit more tender than re-warmed gently the next day when they were tough. Left them on too long. Should have watched and pull off when the chicken was still bouncy although the bacon would not have been done. Should have precooked the bacon before wrapping then seared them just before the chick was done.
- Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers – By the time the fresh pepper began to soften the cheese was soup although on most the bacon was done nicely. This split style would work well coated and deep fried but for smoking low and slow could try pre-roasting the peppers. That would also even out the heat as me and another guy had ok ones and then each had one that was HOT. Could also try cutting out a 1/3 slice leaving a deep boat, remove seeds and ribs then fill it and wrap. with that deep boat could cut off stem end and plug with the olive. The olive was a nice flavor addition.
- Overall – Should have had less smoke so the balls and chicken would not look dirty.
