Texas Style Chili w/Brisket

Not exactly Smoking out of the box BBQ, but with it cooling down a little and with a Church Chili cook-off up and coming I decided to make some chili last night. In Texas, we don’t use beans, although when it starts getting down to less than ¼ left I have been known to toss in some beans to make it last a little longer.  But hey, to each their own. 

Something that I do with my chili that is a bit different from several others is the use of BRISKET, yes brisket in my chili.  I use it as my primary meat source.  I don’t like the texture that you get from ground beef, nor the chunkiness of using diced up beef.  I will hit the butcher shop and get a US Choice brisket (I found if I go higher quality brisket than the Choice it takes a little longer to tenderize) and have the butcher cut off about 1/3rd of the Fat Cap and then do a Chili Grind on the meat for me.  And yes, they will look at you kind of funny.  I have them split the grind into two bags, roughly 4 to 5lbs a bag. 

I get the meat home and let one bag of brisket rest while I vacuum seal the other and toss it in the freezer for use as a later date (highly recommend writing the date on your freezer bags!).  I will then gather my needed ingredients and get everything all cut up and prepared, such as dicing my onions, mincing my garlic, pre-opening my tomatoes sauce cans, measuring out my powders, etc.  

For those asking why, it is because it minimizes that chance for screwing up or getting distracted, it also frees you up to pay more attention to the meat during the browning process.

Example, I was in the kitchen two weeks ago mixing up a new batch of my Sweat and Spicy Pork Rub when we had a few people stop by, love having people over but if you are mixing stuff it can be a little distracting.  I was adding my chili powder to the brown sugar and lost count when I was asked a question.  Luckily a taste test solved the problem and luckily I didn’t over add.  My rub mix calls for 8tbsp of Chili powder and I had only added 6.  So got everything thrown together, tasted, added, tasted, added, and bam I was good to go.

Little Side NOTE:  I keep detailed notes and I use vacuum packed canisters for my rubs.  Allows you to keep the rubs longer and makes sure you have something to compare the new batches to. I spent a lot of time tweaking what I make and it’s nice to be able to compare it to the proven rub. 

Back to the Chili…

Here is the list of what you will need:

•    5lbs Brisket Chili Grind
•    1-2 Yellow Onions diced
•    3 Cloves minced Garlic
•    Salt and Pepper (meat seasoning)
•    2 tablespoons chili powder
•    1 teaspoon cayenne powder
•    1 can diced jalapenos, drain a little juice off,
•    1 and ½ cans Tomatoes sauce
•    ½ cup of water, room temp
•    2 to 3 Habaneros minced (wear gloves, you get the capsaicin under your nails and it will burn for a while. *
•    1 box of Carroll Shelby’s Chili mix (I used to do this by hand but with it all in one box – NICE)

Get yourself a large sauce pan, skillet, or Dutch oven.  Preference is yours.  If I have my PIT fired up I will use the Dutch Oven, if not and am cooking inside, I will use a large sauce pan big enough to hold twice the area of the meat I'm cooking.

Before heating the pan, add the brisket chili grind (Salt and Pepper ) and turn on the burner to low/medium. Don’t want to rush the browning of the meat or burn it.  Remember the Brisket has a higher fat content in it so need to brown it up a little slower than you would say ground beef.  After its semi browned lower the heat to low, add the onions, garlic, chili powder, cayenne powder, diced jalapenos, and minced Habaneros (the Habaneros are only if you want it HOT).  Cook until the Onions are almost translucent. 

Drain off the liquid, return to low heat and add the tomatoes sauce, water, and all the spices from the Carroll Shelby Chili seasoning EXCEPT the Masa, save that for later.  Simmer this for about 15-20 minutes, stirring often.  You want a thick texture.  After simmering, taste and add spices to get desired flavor you are looking for.  At this point I do add about 2 teaspoons Hot Sauce that is not listed above as it is not available in the stores.  My Buddy and BBQ cook team mate, Craig Ross custom makes this sauce using Smoked Hot Peppers (Habaneros and 7-Pod Brain Strains) that were grown in garden.*

Once I have flavor and heat (spice) where I want it I add in the Masa.  Take the packet of Masa and add it to a ½ cup of room temperature water, mix together, then pour into the chili.  Simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes.

The Chili is ready to eat at this point, however while I taste it and get a couple bites, I usually let it sit up overnight so all the spices and flavors meld together.  It also works in to the meat allowing for a softer bite. 

*My buddy Craig has grown hot peppers for a few years now, and I have grown them for about a year.  Huge learning curve and it isn’t forgiving.  We grow everything from Jalapenos to Habaneros to Super Hots such as Bhut Jolokia, to the Moruga Scorpion (hottest pepper in the world).  We use them in sauces and mixes and more.  I love hot and spicy, plus the health benefits are awesome.  Anyways, as I said above wear gloves when working with hot peppers.  When you mince/dice those hotter peppers up the capsaicin is really fine and will work into your skin and under your finger nails.  Heck when dicing up the hottest super hots wear two pairs of gloves.  Once in your skin it is there for awhile.  Wash thoroughly and make sure to get under the nails.  Ask Craig what happens if you don’t!

Enjoy

DivePigs BBQ's First large Cook

Recently, was asked to cook some meat for a church function and decided it would be a good learning experience.  Ran it past Craig and he agreed. 

The Task:  BBQ for 60-75 boys / men to be consumed on Saturday the 6th of October, 2012.
The Goal:  BBQ some awesome food and get feedback on our flavors to improve / refine our flavors.

Pre-Prep Work:
This started Monday and carried through all the way until Friday when we started the Smoke.  Went to Costco and get 45 brauts, 32 hot dogs, and 14lbs of Pork Shoulder (aka Boston Butt).  Went to Kroger and spoke with the butcher who told me they would have fresh packed Brisket arriving on Wednesday.  Came back Wednesday and discovered they didn't have larger Briskets that I had originally hoped for so ended up picking up two 10lbs + briskets for the event.  The Pork Shoulder and Brisket remained in their cry-o-vac sealed bag until Friday and kept at the appropriate temperatures. 

Also picked up throughout the week were general essentials such as:  brown sugars, ground mustard, onion power, garlic powder, chili powder, basting brushes, aluminum pans, and a few other items. 

Picked up our Fuel:  Competition grade charcoal, Competition grade lump coal, Apple wood chunks, Pecan Wood.  Fuel will make or break your smoke so don't go cheap and make sure you have plenty on hand!

Friday, Food Prep Day:
I arrived home from work around 5:30pm and Craig met me at my house around 6pm.  We unloaded his smoker from the back of his truck and got our smoke kitchen in my backyard setup.  12x12 EZ UP, and eventually added a wind break as the wind was killing our smoke fire box temperatures.

Went back inside and started on the meat.  Craig handled the Brisket and I handled the Pork Shoulder.  When we opened our cry-o-vac'd meat and started trimming we were both a little disappointed in the quality of the meat we'd purchased for the event. Normally I have not had much issue with Costco and Kroger for meats but they are beginning to be less and less consistent with quality.  Buying cry-o-vac does pose the challenge of making sure you get a good piece of meat and one looks for certain things such as pack date, meat color, texture, feel, etc. and for the most part they met those requirements we had.  But once opened it was a heck of time trimming off excess fats and my Pork Shoulders, which are normally more squarish barely resembled what I have always used.  But hey, this is what we had and we went with it.

*In the future we will most likely get our meat from Rudolph's Market, Hirsch's Meats, or Restaurant Depot - not sure which yet but we've been told for the Dallas Metroplex these are the places to go. Either way, Kroger and Costco got crossed off my list of places for the larger cuts of meat.

Typically with Briskets and Pork Shoulders, fat needs to be trimmed as fat gets in the way and keeps rubs and smoke from penetrating the meat.  I trimmed up the shoulders, something that usually takes about 30 minutes (took me over an hour), then injected the shoulder's with my homemade Pork Injection.  Then while the Pork was marinating in the injection, I waited about 30 minutes then I went outside and started my fire.  My goal when cooking pork shoulder is a temperature between 225 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. After I got my fire started, I came back inside, flipped my shoulders upside down so excess injection would drain, then I applied a my homemade pork rub #1.  After applying the rub I tend to give the rub enough time to get wet and adhere to the meat.  So I went outside to get my smoker temp and it was a little low. 

Meanwhile, back in the bat cave, err um kitchen, Craig had finished his meat preparations (dry rubs, spicy mustard, sauce, and I believe he injected 1 of the briskets) and was joining me outside to check his fire.  It was at his point he grabbed his keys and headed to Walmart.  We needed tarps for the EZ-UP to block the wind.  It put us behind about 45 minutes but was needed and well allowed our injections and rubs to marinate intimately with the meat a little longer before being touched by the heat of the smoke. 

We got the Tarps up and connected to the EZ-UP and then got our temps a little more under control and then meat added. GAME ON! 

Thermometers were added throughout the Smokers (for those not experienced with this typically smoke boxes have a hot end and a cooler end.  The end with the fire box tends to be 10-20 degrees hotter and sometimes even greater if you have a lower quality Smoker.  Either way I rotate my meats throughout the evening to ensure one is not over cooked. Others use a foil method to balance it out; Craig uses this method with his smoker.

My schedule was ever 45 minutes to check the fire, check meat temp, rotate my shoulders. Craig's schedule was pretty similar to mine except he wasn't rotating his brisket just checking the internal meat temp to know when to wrap the brisket closest to the hot end with foil.

At 3 hours into the smoke, I removed pork from smoker, transferred to clean aluminum pans along with 1 cup of apple juice in each pan, cover with heavy aluminum foil and returned to the smoker.  A piece of meat can only take so much smoke before it reaches its max.  I've found, that for me, this is around 3 hours.  The heavy foil locks in the moisture and helps keep the meat from drying out.  From this point its about another 6 hours before I will see the meat again.  

Problem we ran into was a cold front that hit mixed with winds that were making it tough for us to maintain temps over 200.  This will mostly be solved when my professional level smoker arrives, but since it wasn't here and all we had were our, as we call them, introductory smokers, we worked throughout the night keeping those temps up so our product would be good.

**Second note: Anyone getting into BBQ Smoke, take note - if you love sleep, I mean really love sleep, prepare yourself.  Cause BBQ Smoke is one mean mistress that hates sleep! 

So we were up all night and well into Saturday before our meats were nearing ready.  When my pork reached 195 degrees internal temp, usually after about 9 total hours on the smoker (today it was 10ish hours), I brought the pork inside, transferred it again to a clean aluminum pan, applied a layer of Gerry's Pork Peach Glaze, and then took it back outside and returned it to the smoker.  I checked the fire for the last time, made sure the smoker was around 225 and then went inside for about 30 minutes.  I returned back outside, and added a 2nd layer of glaze, waited 15 minutes then added a 3rd, and then after another 15 minutes added a 4th.  Waited oh another 20 minutes, looked at the pork shoulders, liked the bark and the feel of the meat so brought them inside to rest.

Craig's first brisket, the one he had foiled at about 5 hours into the smoke was the first to come off, even before my shoulder, and he had it inside resting.  Checked his 2nd brisket then went back inside to get Points started from his brisket.  By the time he got that done other brisket was ready to go.

For the next hour plus, we prepared our meats, slicing, cubing, shredding, applying extra sauce where needed, the packaging them up for transportation to the church.  I also, managed to get the 30 minutes needed to grill up the 45 brauts and 32 hot dogs and even allowed them to get a little smoke before we had to leave. 

Got to the church and fed, I believe 57 people and no one went hungry. 

Over all we did take back a few lessons learned:
- Better quality meat
- For 60-75 people we really needed another 10lbs of meat
- Little better time management
- A Timer alarm with a SNOOZE function
- There are more but ...

Now we are waiting on feedback via email from those we fed.  As this was our first big cook we are taking advantage of having a small sampling pool to let us know what is thought of our flavor profiles.

Overall awesome fun time and great learning experience!

Just what is DivePigs BBQ

Who are the DivePigs?

We are a couple of really good friends (the kind of friends you are blessed to have in life) that are passionate about Life, Family, Scuba Diving, BBQ, growing Hot Peppers, Photography, and have a firm understanding that it is the simple things in life that can lead to true happiness.

The primary members of DivePigs BBQ (Gerald Davis - ME, Craig Ross, and Alan Burden) are active in the Scuba Diving education program and teach / dive master for a Dive Shop in the Dallas/Ft Worth area.  Being active meant a lot of weekends spent camping over night at the dive park and well what do you do on camping trips?  YOU GRILL!!! That is what you do.  However, we kind of strayed away from Grilling as we leaned more towards the flavor, the consistency, the texture, the juiciness of Smoked BBQ!

*** SIDE NOTE:  Listen up and listen well - Grilling IS NOT SMOKED BBQ!  Grilling involves taking a piece of meat and throwing it over some direct heat and cooking it.  BBQ is the process of using indirect heat and smoke to flavor and cook meat over several hours.  While we do occasionally grill (which is an art in and over itself) we prefer the Smoke!

Craig has been growing hot peppers for several years and making his own dry spice mixes and recently sauces.  I love the flavor and spice they bring so started using them in my dry rubs and injections.  Got Craig and I got together, collaborated, and next thing we new DivePigs BBQ was borne and off and running.

I am in the process of ordering a Smoker on a trailer that will be here before teh end of year and we are excited to start cooking on it, as well, our current smokers are the more generic, poor man smokers that tend to have a lot of temperature control issues and limited space.

Don't get me wrong, even with the addition of a new Smoker we have a ways to go but are looking forward to the many good meals along the way.  This blog will document our Journey along the way.

                               (Left to Right:  Craig Ross, Alan Burden, Gerald Davis - Me)