Don’t adjust your computer monitor, the sauce on the pizza, in the picture is yellow. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to be that way! In general, I am not a big fan of BBQ pizzas. To me, and I know this is strictly a personal preference, something just doesn’t taste quite right about a pizza crust slathered with BBQ sauce. It’s strange that I feel that way as I am a huge fan of both pizza and BBQ, but together I’m not so keen on it. That is unless it is BBQ Chicken Pizza done my way.

I hate to say it is “my way” as I was introduced to this style of BBQ pizza back when I was working in Atlanta, somewhere around 1994. We served this pizza at City Grill when it was under the direction of Chef Roger Kaplan. The biggest difference between this style of BBQ pizza and the stuff you find at pizza joints across the US nowadays was the sauce. While most places slather the crust with BBQ sauce and then toss plain, cooked chicken on top, we were making a “corn cream” to spread on the crust (thus the yellow sauce) and tossing the chicken with BBQ sauce just to glaze it. The corn cream added a sweet,fresh flavor to the mix, keeping the pizza from becoming too heavy with BBQ sauce.

Corn cream is really easy to make, but requires a juicer to extract the optimum amount of juice from the corn. It also relies on really fresh corn to get the best flavor. Besides being used as a sauce for pizza the corn cream can be thinned out to make an elegant summertime sauce for chicken or pork, or even be used as a base for a wonderful corn chowder or chilled corn soup.

This pizza is a bit on the sweet side but trust me, it is tasty. I know it may look a little strange, but the flavors work really well together turning this into the perfect summertime pizza.

Corn Cream

6 ears corn, as fresh as possible.

Shuck the corn and remove all the silk from the ears. Using a knife cut all the kernels from the cob. Once this is done, turn the knife around and using the back of the blade scrape down the corn cobs, removing any leftover pulp and adding it to the cut corn. Using a juicer extract all the juice from the kernels. I found that I needed to run the pulp through 3 times to get all the juice. Depending on the corn you should get about 16-18oz. give or take. Discard the remaining solids and place the juice in a nonreactive saucepan over medium high heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the juice comes to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes, again stirring constantly, scraping the bottom of the pot so that the sauce doesn’t burn. The juice will thicken considerably, almost to the point of thin mayonnaise. Remove from heat and chill until needed.

Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza
makes 2 14″ pizzas or 4-6 smaller individual pizzas

1 1/2 cups water, lukewarm (100-110°F)
1 package (2tsp.) dry active yeast
1/2 cup flour, all purpose
3 cups flour, all purpose
2 Tbl. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar

4-6 chicken thighs, boneless, skinless
1 cup BBQ sauce, either homemade or your favorite brand
1 tsp. chipotle powder (optional)
1/2 onion, sliced paper thin
1 tomato, diced small
2 cups cheddar cheese

In the morning, mix up the pizza dough. Combine the water, yeast and 1/2 cup of flour. Allow to sit for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to activate. You should see it starting to bubble slightly. Add the remaining flour, oil, salt and sugar. Mix until a smooth dough forms. Turn out onto a work surface and knead for 10 minutes, adding more flour if dough is too sticky. Dough should remain soft and still just slightly sticky though. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to proof throughout the day.

Dice the chicken into small, bite sized pieces. Place in hot saute pan and saute until browned. Season with a bit of salt and pepper, and chipotle, if using. Add 1 cup of water along with the BBQ sauce and cook until the chicken is glazed. Chill until ready to use.

30 minutes before you are ready to cook divide the pizza dough into equal portions (either 2 large or 4-6 small). Roll into rounds, cover with plastic and allow to rest for 20 minutes. Prepare your grill to ensure a medium hot fire. Stretch or roll out the dough to the appropriate size and thickness. While I am usually not a big fan of really thin crust, I prefer thinner crust when grilling pizzas.

One at a time, place the crust on the grill, close the cover and cook for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes, or until the bottom of the crust starts to brown and the top starts to blister.

Repeat with each crust until all crusts have been cooked on 1 side (the top side will still be raw but should have firmed up significantly. Flip the crust over so that the top is now on the bottom. Spread the corn cream over the grilled side of the pizza, making sure to cover completely but not using so much that it pools on the crust. Top with the cooked chicken and then a sprinkling of cheese. Finally top with the onions and diced tomato, dividing up the ingredients evenly among the pizza crusts.

Place the pizzas, 1 or 2 at a time back on the grill, cover and cook until the cheese has melted and the crust is done (another 4-7 minutes depending on how hot the grill is and how thick your crust is). Remove from grill, allow to sit for 3 or 4 minutes then cut and serve.

Memorial Day has come and gone, we are well into June, and it finally feels like summertime up here, in Wisconsin. That means that Grilling Season is officially upon us, at least for those that don’t care to brave the weather for year round grilling. Personally, to me, any season is grilling season, and just about any weather is grilling weather, but I know that I tend to be more of the exception than the rule. I have to admit, though, that I do enjoy summertime grilling the best. Maybe its the beer and booze, or the fact that I am often cooking for not just the immediate family, but friends and extended family also, that makes grilling, in the summer, so much fun.

While I prefer mostly burgers and pork products gracing my grill, my wife loves chicken (not that she doesn’t love the other stuff also) and since I am supposed to be trying to eat healthier, on a more regular basis, I have been trying to cook chicken more often. I tend to find chicken to be on the bland side and, honestly, rather boring, so I am always looking for ways to add some flavor and excitement to it. My most recent experiment has been with Asian flavors, especially those of Thailand.

This recipe calls for a few less mainstream items, but most of the items can be found in the Asian section of most grocery stores. The only item you might have trouble finding is the tamarind concentrate. If you can’t find it just substitute a mixture of fresh lemon and lime juice using about half of the amount called for of the tamarind concentrate. It isn’t a perfect substitute but it does provide the fresh acidity that this marinade needs.

Thai Spiced Grilled Chicken
serves 3-4

1/2 cup coconut milk
3 Tbs. green curry paste (you can use red curry paste if you want a hotter, spicier chicken)
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. fish sauce
3 Tbs. tamarind concentrate
1 piece fresh ginger (about 1″), peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
5-6 pounds chicken pieces (any mix of legs, wings, thighs and/or breasts), bone in

Roughly chop the garlic and the ginger. Place in a blender with the coconut milk, curry paste, soy sauce, fish sauce, and tamarind concentrate. Blend until smooth. Place chicken pieces into 1 or 2 ziplock bags. Add the marinade, seal the bags and massage the chicken briefly to make sure the marinade is evenly distributed. Allow to marinate at least 6 hours, or better yet, overnight, turning the chicken a couple of times for even marination.

When ready to cook prepare a medium hot fire, in your grill. Remove chicken from marinade and place skin down on the grill. Grill, covered for 25-30 minutes, or until all the chicken is done. Turn often so as to not burn the chicken, but do allow the skin to get nice and crisp.

My favorite method of cooking various chicken pieces so that they are all done at approximately the same time is to build a medium hot fire in my charcoal grill. Spread the coals out but leave a 2″ ring around the outside of the grill free of charcoal. As pieces get close to being done move them to this outside ring, leaving the less cooked pieces directly over the fire. If you keep the grill covered, and using this method, all the chicken should end up being done at approximately the same time and you avoid the dried out breasts or undercooked thighs.

It has been awhile since I last posted about ribs. I think it was back in September. Well, it’s high time I posted again about them as you can never have too many rib, rub, or barbecue sauce recipes as far as I’m concerned. Besides, it gives me a chance to play with my smoker yet again. Man, I love that thing! While have have gotten quite adept at barbecuing on my Weber kettle grill, life has become so much easier with my smoker. Now, instead of having to babysit my barbecue all day, I can load it up and let it go, checking it once an hour or so. The downside to that is I can’t use barbecuing as an excuse not to do things around the house. It won’t be long before my wife catches on, and the days of “tending the grill” all day, while sucking down copious amounts of beer will be at an end. If she hasn’t already caught on, I’m SOL now, as she reads this blog. Don’t worry though, I’ll find another excuse to waste away the day drinking beer and cocktails (if anyone has any good suggestions for such an excuse let me know).

Of course, if you have read this blog for any amount of time you are well aware of my love affair with all things pork – aka, god’s gift to all mankind. Grilled, roasted, braised, stuffed into sausage casings, cured, and/or smoked, there is nothing that can compare with a piece of well cooked pork. I feel for my friends who, because of religious or other reasons, are forbidden to consume the flesh of the pig. If they only knew what they are missing! While I think this nation as gone a little “bacon crazy” in the last few years, I am fully of the opinion that “everything is better with bacon,” a phrase I have uttered here numerous times, because if pork if delightful by itself, once you pair it with long, slow cooking in a smoke filled chamber it becomes absolutely divine!

In my personal heirarchy of pork, bacon reigns supreme, followed closely by pulled pork – slowly cooked over wood for hours on end. In close third comes ribs, the subject of today’s post. Today I’m just going to focus on a great rub and simple barbecue sauce to go with the ribs. I am going to assume you already know how to barbecue them. If you are not familiar with barbecuing then check out my earlier posts on pulled pork or barbecued ribs and it will walk you through how to barbecue on a kettle style grill. The most important thing when cooking in this style is to use an indirect method of cooking and making sure that your grill doesn’t get too hot. I like to barbecue between 225°F and 250°F. Depending on their size, baby back ribs will take you 2 1/2-3 hours to cook properly. Any shorter length of time and you will end up with dry or tough ribs. Talking about tough ribs, there is a misconception, here in the north, that ribs should be falling off the bone tender. I’ve got news for you, if they are then chances are they are dry, and that’s why so many places in the north end up drenching their ribs in sauce. Properly done ribs should still cling to the bone, yet yield easily when pulled, with just the slightly resistance before coming free.

Let your ribs rest for 2 hours to overnight after applying your rub

Depending on the thickness of your ribs, your should apply your rub anywhere from 2 hours to overnight before you commence cooking. This will help to ensure the development of the “bark,” or crust. As far a sauce goes, many regions of the US consider sauce to sacrilegious, but if you like sauce, like I do, wait until the last 20 30 minutes of cooking before brushing it on. If you brush it on too soon, chances are the sugars in the sauce will end up burning, creating an unpleasant bitter, burnt flavor to your ribs.

Rib Rub
enough for 4 racks of baby back ribs

1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Combine all ingredients until well mixed. Place in an air tight container and store for up to 3 weeks. To use, sprinkle liberally on both sides of the ribs and gently rub it in. Allow to rest for at least 2 hours or overnight before cooking.

Bourbon Molasses BBQ Sauce
enough for 4 racks of baby back ribs

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup bourbon or whiskey
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 oz. yellow mustard
3/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and simmer over medium heat until onions are tender, about 15 minutes. Blend then cook until thickened and reduced by about 1/3. Brush onto ribs about 20 minutes before ribs are done. Brush again with about 10 minutes. Serve any left on the side for people to add more. Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Ten days ago I wrote the arrival of my new toy, a Bradley smoker. Due to crappy weather, work, and other obligations I finally just got around to using it, and as you can see by the picture above I didn’t waste any time in trying a number of things out. The highlight of the initial run was the hot smoked salmon. Sorry, you’ll have to wait for an upcoming post to hear all about it as I think it deserves a page all to yourself. All I’ll say is that despite slightly overcooking the salmon, it came out tasting fantastic and still moist. Even my wife, a hardcore salmon hater, didn’t spite it out immediately!!! That’s big praise coming from her.

Since I waited so long to use my new toy, I couldn’t stop at just the salmon. I wanted to try a number of things, so I also bought a large package of chicken thighs. I seasoned half with a traditional BBQ while the other half was seasoned with Penzey’s “Tandoori” seasoning. If you have never heard of Penzey’s before, I urge you to check out their website. Their spices are not cheap, but are of excellent quality! Unfortunately, the tandoori spices got kind of lost in the heavy hickory smoke I used on the chicken.

Finally, because I love them so, I had to do a rack of ribs. Cooking them slow and low, this 2 1/2 pound rack took almost 5 hours to cook, 3 of those hours cooking in glourious hickory smoke. In the end they were tender, moist and bursting with smoky goodness. I finished the ribs with a Maple BBQ, which I will need to re-make sometime as it was one of those “just toss into a pan” kind of sauces.

Now that I got my first fix of barbecue from my new toy I can’t wait to play some more. Some friends and I were talking and I think a Pulled Pork party is in the cards for the near future and once summer hits with full force I’ll be doing a smoked gazpacho, using tomatoes that so a brief spin in the smoker for just the lightest touch of smokiness. I can’t wait!!!

Barbecue…barbeque…BBQ; no matter how you spell it, that word makes me giddy. I’m not talking when it is used, in the generic sense, meaning any type of cooking on a grill, or over an open fire, but real, god honest barbecue; the kind done slow and low that can turn some of the toughest cuts of meat into melt-in-your-mouth morsels, bursting with smoke flavor. Not that I’m against cooking out, in any of its forms. In fact, a rather large portion of the food I cook is done one a grill, but there is something special about making true barbecue, whether it is ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork or any number of other items that benefit from a long slow cook while being bathed in smoke.

Let’s set the record straight though, before we begin. Grilling and barbecuing are not the same thing. Yes, they can both be done on a grill, but grilling is done over a relatively high heat, directly over the heat source. It’s this high heat that sears and chars the meat providing plenty of flavor, and it works best for tender pieces of meat such as steaks, chops, chicken, etc. Barbecuing is done at much cooler temperatures, away from the heat source, and requires hours of cooking. It is used on tough cuts of meat such as brisket, ribs and shoulder cuts to transform them into a tender finished product. While most people use the the words interchangeably, they really are 2 different styles of cooking, and believe me, the easiest way to tick off a serious barbecue aficionado is to talk on and on about how you like to fire up the grill and barbecue some steaks and burgers.

I am no barbecue expert. That’s evidenced by the fact that I do not, yet, own any type of barbecue pit or rig. I do all my barbecuing on my Weber kettle grill. There are those in the barbecue community that will scoff and say that I can’t truly barbecue with a set up like that, but I think I do all right. Sure, there are some issues to overcome, and I certainly won’t win any major competitions with my set up but it works for me and I like to believe that I make some pretty good ‘cue. And I have a number of fans that would agree.

While I am not a snob about barbecue, like some that I know, I will say that unless you own a smoker, barbecue pit, or at the very least a kettle grill, you can stop reading here. Sorry but a gas grill is not going to cut it for the recipe I have, nor will a regular grill, even if it has a lid. It needs to be a kettle style grill to create a proper smoke chamber. A regular grill keeps the meat too close to the coals and doesn’t allow for the proper convection of heat.

As for charcoal, lump charcoal is always the preferred charcoal of choice for those serious about barbecue (unless they are using logs to fire their pit), but for some people, in some areas, lump charcoal can be hard to find. If you must use the standard briquettes it is imperative that you always burn them down before adding them to your grill. If you don’t, the chemicals and fillers used in these things will contribute nasty, off flavors to your final product. Always start them out in a chimney starter and don’t add them to the grill until they have burned down and are completely covered with white ash.

A few more things before I get into the recipe. The recipe as written is for making 1 pork butt. Most of the pictures will show 3 butts being made. I was doing this for my brother’s wedding reception and was feeding many people. 1 pork butt should easily feed 20 people with some to spare, unless they are big eaters. Also, plan on making a day out of it as this is going to take about 6-8 hours to cook. You don’t need to sit there and watch it all the time, but you will need to regularly replenish charcoal and do a few other things as the meat cooks. You can do other chores, or even run a few quick errands, but you need to stay close. Or you can do like I do…make a big production out of it, convince your wife that this delicate procedure takes constant vigilance then sit around all day drinking beer with a buddy or 2 and watch the grill…don’t tell! Finally, it just dawned on me that some people might be wondering why the hell I would want to cook pork butt. In culinary terms pork butt refers to a cut taken from the shoulder area of a pig. Don’t ask my why they call it “butt.” I have no clue. Anyone want to chime in?

Pulled Pork

1 pork butt, 7-9 pounds, bone in
2 Tbsp. paprika
4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. black pepper, ground
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup apple juice
2 cups wood chips (your choice-I often use hickory, apple, cherry, mesquite, or hickory nut hulls)

Four hours before you want to start barbecuing, remove the pork butt from the refrigerator. Combine the paprika, salt, mustard, cayenne, black pepper, and sugar. Rub all over the pork, using every last bit. Allow the pork to remain at room temperature. Soak wood chips in water. 20 minutes before starting to cook, fire up about 25 charcoal briquettes in a chimney starter. When ready, and covered in white ash, place charcoal coal in a ring along the outer edge of the grill. In the center place an aluminum pan or pie plate (don’t use one of your wife’s good ones or there will be hell to pay) filled with a couple cups of water. Place the cooking grate on the grill and allow to heat up briefly. Place pork in the center of the grate.

Place about 1/2 cup of the soaked chips directly on the charcoal and cover the grill with the lid.

Sweet Smoke

For proper heat control and air flow, if you have bottom vents make sure they are only open about 1/3 of the way. You want to allow oxygen in to keep the charcoal burning but you don’t want too much oxygen to allow the fire too get too hot. On the top vent you want it opened about 1/2 – 2/3 of the way open. This allows the smoke a relatively quick exit, which you want. You don’t want the smoke to become trapped in the chamber for too long or it will deposit many of the particles suspended in it onto the meat.

After about 35-40 minutes of cooking you want to start another batch of charcoal, in the starter chimney. This time use about 15-20. When ready add to the grill, again placing them in a ring around the meat, on top of the almost spent charcoal. Add another 1/2 cup of soaked wood chips. This process is much easier if you have a grill grate with hinged sides. If not you will need to remove the whole cooking grate, pork and all to accomplish this. Do this quickly to prevent the pork from cooling too much and adding considerable time to your cooking.

Meanwhile, combine the vinegar and apple juice. Once you hit the 3 hour mark, brush the meat every half hour with this mixture, making more if necessary. Continue adding charcoal, at the same intervals throughout the cooking process. We are looking to maintain an approximate temperature of about 225-230°F throughout the cooking process. Keep adding the wood chips when you add new charcoal. Once the wood chips are gone don’t worry abou them anymore, the pork has probably taken in all the smoke flavor it’s going to anyway.

After about 5 hours start checking the temperature each time you add new charcoal or mop the meat with vinegar mixture. You are looking to pull the meat at about 190°F. This may seem awfully high, especially if you are used to cooking steaks and eating them MR to medium, but this temperature is important for a nice and tender product and don’t worry, with the amount of fat and connective tissue in this cut of meat it will still be plenty moist. A quick warning though, at about 180°F you might run into a problem with what some people refer to as the “stall” or “plateau” were the temperature refuses to climb. It is a waiting game, but the temperature will eventually start to rise again. If you seem to have a problem with an exceptionally long stall (over an hour) try adding an extra 5-10 briquettes the next time your replenish your heat.

Once the meat hits 190°F remove from the grill, cover loosely in foil and allow to sit for 15 minutes, at least. Once the meat is just barely cool enough to handle start pulling and shredding the meat by hand. If cooked properly this task can be done almost completely by hand, though you may need to use a knife to chop a bit of the innermost meat.

Serve however you like and with whatever sauce you choose, but I’m partial to the way they serve it in North Carolina, on a big, soft, white bun drizzled with a North Carolina style barbecue sauce.

North Carolina BBQ Sauce

1 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp. brown sugar

Combine all ingredients. in a nonreactive saucepot, bring to a boil, remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

This sauce may seem rather sour compared to the sauces that most people are used to, but it’s a great sauce for pulled pork as it cuts through the richness of the fat laden meat. Just remember, you don’t need to dump it on like regular barbecue sauce. It just takes a good drizzle over the meat.

It’s getting close to midnight and although I sat down at the computer about 2 hours ago I’ve now started to type up this post. Instead of writing I got sucked into yet another bunch of political debates….okay, arguments. Without getting into politics here on my blog, let me just say that some people really piss me off. Our country has become so divided between the right and the left, the liberals and the conservatives, I sometimes wonder if we haven’t passed the point of no return. Of course, each side blames the other for spreading the hate and fear mongering, but both sides engage in this type of rhetoric and discourse. I have my political leanings but even those I support are part of the problem. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to vote them all out of office and start all over again.

But enough of my ranting. You haven’t come to a food blog to read about politics, but don’t worry, the recipe I have today is worth wading through that short sidebar. Once again, I turn my sites to the humble hog for inspiration, because, come on, what’s not to love about pig! Pork is such a flavorful and versatile product. Virtually every last bit of the pig can be used, literally from snout to tail and from the tops of the ears down to the hooves. And the pig has given us one of mankind’s greatest gifts – bacon!!!! What’s not to love about bacon; crispy meat, rich, juicy fat and a deep sweet smokiness. I truly feel for those people whose religion forbids them from not ever knowing the joys of bacon. But I digress, again. I blame it on the late hour and too much cyber debating.

Moving on. This recipe calls for pork chops. It doesn’t matter which type of chop you choose, but choose chops with the bone in. All chops come from the loin section, a part of the pig that lies along the middle of it’s back. This location doesn’t get used much by the pig, compared to other muscles so the whole loin is pretty tender and moist. My personal favorite for chops is a rib chop, which contains a large round eye of meat surrounded by fat on three sides and a rib bone on the other. But you may use whichever chop you like best or better yet, whichever type is on sale.

Coriander Crusted Pork Chops with Lime Glaze

4 pork chops, thick cut (about 6-10 oz each)
salt
pepper
coriander seed, whole

1/2 cup Lime Marmalade**
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. honey
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. chili powder

Grind the coriander in a spice mill or mortar and pestle until coarsely ground, leaving some larger pieces in the mix. Season the chops with salt and pepper and generously season with the ground coriander.

Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before grilling. Meanwhile combine the marmalade, vinegar, honey, cayenne and chili powder and stir to combine. Preheat your grill. Clean and oil the grates and place chops over high heat. Cook for about 6 minutes.

Flip and cook another 6 minutes. Remove to a cooler part of the grill. Brush 1 side with glaze, cover grill and cook for 3 minutes. Flip, brush other side with glaze and cook 3 minutes making sure the bottom isn’t burning. Continue this until all the glaze has been used up and the pork chops are cooked through, about 150°F. Watch the chops carefully as the glaze will burn if the heat is too high. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

**Note: Use the provided link to make your own lime marmalade or you can substitute any other marmalade for the lime marmalade. Any citrus flavor would compliment the other flavors in the recipe well.

For many of my friends, Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer, and with that, the end of many summery pasttimes. For some of them that means closing up the cabin, winterizing the boat, emptying the pool, and for some that even means contemplating the end of BBQ’ing for the season. Me, I’m just getting started. While I grill throughout the summer, I look forward to cooler temperatures, when I can enjoy sitting outside, tending a slow fire, without having to worry about passing out from heat stroke. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but I really do prefer BBQ’ing in the cooler weather when I can enjoy being outside, not when it is 90+ degrees and all I want to do is jump in a pool. For me, summertime is a time for quick grilling of burgers, steaks, chicken wings, etc. while spring and fall are when I enjoy spending hours nurturing the long slow fires required by true barbecue and smoking. This weekend I was hungry for some ribs and it being Labor Day weekend, it just seemed right to spend a part of it outside tending a grill. I the rub and the sauce I present to you today are just 1 of the many I have in my arsenal of rubs and sauces, many of which I hope so share with you in the future. When it comes to sauces, I have many that I make completely from scratch and others that start with a base of BBQ sauce that I then modifiy beyond the point of recognition. This sauce is one of those. Don’t be put off by its start as a bottled product. The end result is damn good.

Barbecued Ribs with Bourbon BBQ Sauce

Dry Rub
3/4 cup Sugar, granulated
3 Tbsp. Kosher Salt
2 Tbsp. Paprika
1 Tbsp. Black Pepper
1 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Curry Powder
2 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1/2 tsp. Dried Thyme
1 tsp. Dried Mustard

4 racks Baby Back Ribs

Mix all ingredients together and set aside. Flip the ribs so that the bone side is facing up. Using a paring knife, start to peel the thin, tough membrane from the bones. Once you have it started you can just grab it with your hands and pull it off. Generously rub half the dry rub into the ribs. Flip them over and use the rest of the rub on the tops of the ribs. Place in the fridge and allow to marinate for 3 hours for more.

Meanwhile make the sauce.

Bourbon BBQ Sauce
1 Onion, peeled and thickly sliced
1 Jalapenos (1 to 2)
1 cup Bourbon
1 qt. BBQ Sauce (your favorite store brand)
1 1/2 cups Coke
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup Yellow Mustard
2 Tbsp. Bourbon

Grill the onion slices until lightly charred. Grill the jalapenos until the skin is blackened, then using a paper towel remove as much of the skin as possible. Don’t worry about removing it all. Roughly chop the jalapeno and onion, removing the jalapeno seeds first if you want a milder BBQ sauce. Place in a nonreactive saucepan with a little vegetable oil and cook over medium heat until the onions have wilted. Carefully add the bourbon, using extreme caution as it might flame up. Add the coke and the remaining ingredients. Simmer over medium low heat for 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened again. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining 2 Tbsp. of Bourbon.

20 minutes before you are ready to start cooking. Light 20 charcoal briquettes or the equivalent amount of lump charcoal and allow to burn until coated with a light layer of grey ash. Set the grill up for indirect cooking by placing the charcoal along 2 sides of a kettle style grill. Place the ribs in the center, between the the charcoal. Add about 1/4 cup of soaked wood chips to the coals, and cover, adjusting both top and bottom vents to maintain temperature and good airflow so that the smoke doesn’t sit in the chamber too long. As the heat starts to wane add 20 more briquettes that have been burnt like the first, until covered in a light layer of grey ash. Continue adding charcoal as necessary to maintain a temperature of approximately 220-225 degrees, the optimal temperature for BBQ’ing. Add fresh wood chips every 15 minutes for the first hour and then whenever you add more charcoal. Flip the ribs occasionally. At this temperature the ribs will take approximately 2-2 1/2 hours.During the last 20 minutes brush the ribs with the sauce, glazing both sides of the ribs.