Category: Dinner

Low and Slow Baked Chicken Thighs

This recipe is the basis for what we’re doing here.

1) Brine ~5 pounds skin-on bone-in chicken thighs for at least one hour in the fridge with brine mix of 4 cups water, 1/3 cup salt, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup white vinegar.

2) Create rub from 4 Tbsp brown sugar, 3 Tbsp paprika, 2 Tbsp red pepper flakes, 1 Tbsp black pepper, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 nutmeg, 1 Tbsp salt

3) Generously rub all sides of chicken after patting dry and wrap all chicken in 1 or 2 tight foil packets on a drying rack on a cooking sheet

4) Bake at 260 for 2 hours

5) Open foil packets and pour juices into a sauce pan

6) Remove thighs from foil and place on drying racks in broiler until crisp, flipping once

7) Reduce sauce on high heat and by adding flour. You can cut juice with flour and water to reduce saltiness. Reduce until sticks to a spoon.

8) Serve sauce with chicken and enjoy!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

This recipe is going to be vague… it’ll get better as I get better at making it!

1) Throw Pork Sirloin Tip Roast (or similar) in the slow cooker for about 8 hours with spices including: paprika, red pepper flakes, black pepper, garlic salt, cumin, and others to your liking plus one 12 oz beer (I used Lagunitas IPA) and 16 oz water.

2) Pull pork once tender using two forks (probably after 4-6 hours)

3) Drain out juices from pork keeping half in a sauce pan and discarding other half, spread pork on a lined backing sheet

4) Reduce juices via heating and adding flour until thick enough to stick to a spoon, add an equal amount of your favorite BBQ sauce and pour over spread pork

5) Broil for about 10 minutes stirring every few minutes to crisp

6) Serve with side of more BBQ sauce and enjoy!

Slow Cooker and Broil Pork Carnitas

What you need:

  • Pork! I used about 4 pounds of Pork Sirloin Tip Roast from Costco
  • 2 limes
  • 2 cups of chicken broth or cubes
  • Spices! I used in order of amount cumin, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, garlic salt, pepper

How to do it:

  • Put pork, broth and spices in the slow cooker on low for 8-10 hours (everything but the limes
  • Pull out pork with slotted spoon and put on cookie sheet
  • Simmer broth until cooked down to be thick enough to see trail of a spoon when stirring (can add flour as needed)
  • Pour sauce over pork on cookie sheet
  • Broil about 10 minutes stirring once or twice
  • Squeeze juice of 1-2 limes on top of meat and enjoy!

Super Duper Watson Nuggets

These turned out pretty dang good for a quick ad-hoc dinner with no measuring and very little planning before turning the stove on.

What you’ll need:

  • Chicken breasts
  • Seasoning
  • Olive Oil
  • Pan that can get hot – ideally cast iron
  • Some sort of side to go with this meat dish, I did a pan fried mix veggies with what we had in the fridge (onion, bell pepper, asparagus)

What you’ll do with the meat to turn it into Watson Nuggets:

  • Cut up the breasts into about 1.5 inch squares. For the chicken breasts I used it was about 12 chunks for 1 breast.
  • Combine your favorite dry seasonings in a bowl. I used a combination “to taste” of italian bread crumbs, black pepper, red pepper flakes, Ms. dash garlic & herb seasoning, garlic salt, and basil.
  • Lightly coat chicken cubes with olive oil
  • Dump them in handful sized batches into the dry seasoning mix moving them around as if you’re kneading bread until the cubes are covered in the seasoning and mostly dry to the touch.
  • Throw the chicken cubes into a pretty hot cast-iron pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil. It should be quite a sizzle when they hit the pan.
  • Flip each cube after about 3 minutes or until darker-than-golden brown on the first side.
  • Pan fry another couple minutes until second side is browned to perfection
  • Serve and enjoy! No dipping sauce required, but would be good with whatever you like on chicken nuggets… BBQ sauce, ketchup, honey, mustard, etc.

Pork Tenderloin and Fruit!

What you need:

  • unseasoned pork loin or tenderloin (about 2 pounds)
  • a bunch of spices
  • dutch oven
  • some fruit (I used 1 apple and not very ripe pear)
  • olive oil
  • an oven and a stove

I have no idea how you should do it, but this is what I did:

  1. Preheat the oven to 450
  2. Put dutch oven on high flame on the stove to warm up with some olive oil in it
  3. Lather the meat with some olive oil (use your hands, don’t be afraid to get a little dirty)
  4. Rub all over loin your favorite spices. I used red pepper flakes, garlic powder, basil, pepper, and garlic salt.
  5. Brown loin on all sides in dutch oven for a total of about 8-15 minutes depending on cut and heat. Start with the fat side up.
  6. Dice pear and apple into about 1 inch chunks
  7. Turn off stove and add pear and apple plus the dutch oven lid
  8. Place in oven
  9. After about 10 minutes remove the lid
  10. Pull out after another 5-15 minutes depending on cut. Use the old fashioned poke test to know when to pull it out of the oven.
  11. Let meat rest on cutting board for 5-10 minutes and place fruit in a serving bowl
  12. Slide meat against the grain into about half inch thick hunks
  13. Enjoy!

We served this with a delicious Kale salad that I have no clue how to make.