eats

Sweet Potato & Chicken Power Bowl

Inspiration Sparker

This recipe was supposed to be completely different. We were actually hoping to prepare CookingLight’s Beef and Broccoli Stuffed Sweet Potatoes. Unfortunately, the sweet potatoes had some bruising on them, so we were forced to cut those spots off and salvage what was left. Fortunately, what we created instead was delicious!

IMG_3395

We are excited to share this Sweet Potato & Chicken Power Bowl treat with you. It should provide about four servings and is in line with the Paleo diet. We always try to stretch our meals so we have lunch the next day. We save a lot of money by not going out to eat for lunch, despite it being a culture at both of our offices. To note, this meal could also easily be made to Whole30 standards if you substitute the jarred roasted red bell peppers and olive oil. Either way, here goes nothing:


Ingredients:

  • 4 sweet potatoes
  • 1 spear of broccoli
  • 4 garlic gloves, minced
  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1 (12 oz) jar roasted red bell peppers, drained and chopped
  • 1 lb of ground chicken
  • 1/4 cup chopped green onions
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 3 tablespoons Volcano Spice Gourmet Seasonings’ Hawaiian Style Chili Salt
  • 3 teaspoons onion powder
  • 3 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
  • Cracked pepper to taste

 


Directions

  1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. While the oven gets to temperature, peel and dice sweet potatoes. (Since our potatoes had some bruising, we were forced to peel them to ensure we removed all of those bruised areas. But you don’t have to peel them if you don’t want to!)
  3. Lightly coat diced sweet potatoes with a one tablespoon of olive oil. Season with one tablespoon of the Volcano Spice Gourmet Seasonings’ Hawaiian Style Chili Salt, one teaspoon of onion powder, one teaspoon of garlic power, parsley flakes, and cracked pepper to liking.
  4. Place on baking sheet and roast for 12-15 minutes.
  5. While the sweet potatoes are roasting, remove broccoli florets from their stems.
  6. Lightly coat broccoli florets with a one tablespoon of olive oil. Season with one tablespoon of the Volcano Spice Gourmet Seasonings’ Hawaiian Style Chili Salt, one teaspoon of onion powder, one teaspoon of garlic power, and cracked pepper to liking.
  7. At this point, the sweet potatoes should have been roasting for about 12 minutes. Remove them from oven, flip, and sprinkle broccoli over the diced sweet potatoes.
  8. Roast for another 12-15 minutes until broccoli florets become golden.
  9. While the broccoli and sweet potatoes continue to roast, heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauce pan on medium heat, and swirl to coast the pan.
  10. Add chopped onion and red bell peppers, and cook for 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently.
  11. Add garlic, and cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
  12. Stir in red pepper flakes, one tablespoon Volcano Spice Gourmet Seasonings’ Hawaiian Style Chili Salt, one teaspoon onion powder, one teaspoon garlic powder, one teaspoon chili powder.
  13. Add ground chicken, and cook approximately 6 minutes, stirring to crumble.
  14. Remove sweet potatoes and broccoli from oven. Divide into fourths and place 1/4 in bowl. Top sweet potatoes and broccoli with 1/4 chicken mix from saucepan. Garnish with green onions (because we were able to be fancy this week).
  15. ENJOY!

Here are some pictures from the process:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


This healthy power bowl gives you a lot of energy and fills you up for a long period of time. It’s easy to prepare, especially if you pre-chop all of the vegetables. Without pre-chopping our vegetables, it probably took us about an hour to make. Although green onions is something we would not typically have minded skipping, we think it complements this recipe really well, so we highly recommend.

If you make this soon, let us know how it goes!

eats, extras

“Reverse, Reverse”….. Reverse Seared Steaks!

Our First Extra

img_0230
Joey, John, and Nick at Sunshine State Eggfest before they won People’s Choice

John Churey…. or Bar B “Chu” as we like to call him, is one of Joe and Melissa’s great friends from Joe’s time at Florida State University. Also an Insurance Wholesaler by trade, Chu is an “Egghead” (Big Green Egg Enthusiast) through and through! After all, he has enough of em to make an omelet…four to be Eggsact!! Not to mention he is head chef of “Risk It…. FOR THE BRISKET” BBQ Team that won the 2018 Sunshine State Eggfest Peoples Choice award, but that’s a post for another time.  In between weddings and insurance Chu loves hanging out at Wassis Meats in Melbourne, FL cooking, and talking all things Big Green Egg every Saturday with the Wassis Posse (Riverway Mike, Capt. Phil, Johnny Bacon, and the Crew). Come on by if you’re ever around the Space Coast!

We’re Eggcited to have Chu as the first “Extra Treats” guest blogger! Follow along his cooks on Instagram @bar_b_chu !

Let’s Start This Thing In Reverse

Love steak, but intimidated by all those Instagram pictures you’ve been seeing? Or looking to switch up your normal hot and fast grilling methods on steaks and chops? Introducing the Reverse Sear! Much like the name implies, the reverse sear is simply a traditional sear….in reverse. Traditional searing starts with searing initially, to create a beautiful crust before baking at a lower temperature until the desired internal temperature is achieved. The Reverse Sear is simply, the reverse! Start by baking steaks or chops at a low temperature (200-250 degrees) until their internal temperature is 5-10 degrees shy of your desired finished internal temperature. Once the steaks are close to desired finished temperature, take a hot skillet or grate and sear for that crunchy, flavorful crust  you would expect to find at the country’s finest steakhouses! Steakhouse quality, without the steakhouse price!

If that didn’t sound like enough of a culinary roller coaster for your taste buds, we stepped this up another notch and added bacon…grease to the equation. Render down some thick cut bacon ahead of time, set the grease aside, and enjoy a little bacon appetizer along the way!


Directions for Reverse Sear:

  1. Rub your steak with a generous amount of seasoning. For Beef I recommend Wassis Classic Steak, or Four41 Fat Henry’s.
  2. Fire up your Big Green Egg, letting the coals burn until smoke stops. Usually 15-20 minutes. Then set Egg for Indirect cooking (with ConvEGGtor, aka plate setter) and adjust vents accordingly to achieve 200-250 degree dome temperature. Return grate to Big Green Egg.
  3. Once the Egg is up to temp, place steaks on grate and let bake until internal temperature reads approximately 5-10 degrees shy of desired finished temperature. A Thermoworks Termapen is a great addition to any pitmasters tool box!
  4. Once steaks are 5-10 degrees shy of finished temp, set aside and cover loosely.
  5. Remove Grate and ConvEGGtor with a good pair of heat resistant gloves, (Blue Fires are my personal favorite), place grate and a Lodge Cast Iron Skillet back on egg, open bottom vent all the way and let the egg heat up for 5-10 minutes until skillet is very hot, leaving the dome open.  
  6. Place butter or bacon grease in skillet and let it heat up.  
  7. Carefully place Steaks in the hot grease or butter for 30-45 seconds per side, keeping a close eye not to burn.
  8. Remove Steaks from Lodge Cast Iron Skillet, and Enjoy Immediately! No Need to rest the meat when using the reverse sear method.
  9. Meat Sweats Commence!

Works on Pork Chops, too!

Feel free to try Reverse Searing on your favorite Pork Chops as well, you’ll love the results! You can achieve similar results with a gas grill/Sous Vide / stove top or any combination of culinary gadgets you have at your disposal, although I am partial to the results produced by the Natural Lump Charcoal, and the heat & moisture retaining properties of the Big Green Egg!

Follow along @Bar_B_Chu on Instagram!

eats

Simple Spatchcock Chicken w/ Salt & Vinegar Potatoes

Earlier this week we planned a simple, yet delicious, meal consisting of a full chicken which we can stretch into lunches the next day (surprise, surprise). For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a “spatchcock chicken” is, it is a whole chicken which has had the backbone removed so it can lay flat while cooking or roasting. When preparing the chicken we like to use a sharp pair of kitchen scissors  and simply cut up both sides of the backbone until it is removed. By doing this you allow the chicken to cook quicker on the grill, opposed to a beer can or rotisserie style.


Ingredients:


Directions

  1. Remove the backbone from the chicken, rinse thoroughly, and pat dry leaving the skin on.
  2. Season chicken with Meat Church’s “The Gospel” All Purpose Rub until thoroughly coated and dust with Wassi’s Maple Reserve rub for a touch of sweetness.
  3. Set the Big Green Egg to 400 degrees direct and place the chicken breast side down for 15 minutes or until the skin becomes crispy.
  4. After the 15 minutes, flip the chicken to the back side with the legs/thighs fanned out and let roast for 30-40 minutes until the breasts reach 155 degrees.
  5. While the chicken is on the egg, wash the red potatoes and place into a pot of water and set the stove to high and boil for 25-30 minutes until they are soft.
  6. Strain the potatoes and water and let them cool briefly.  Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, use a heavy glass/mug to press them into small circles.
  7. Heat butter in a pan on medium-high heat until  melted and then place the pressed potatoes in the pan and rotate them until crispy on both sides.  Salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Once the potatoes are crispy add the white vinegar and turn off the heat letting the vinegar soak into the potatoes.
  9. Remove the chicken after reaching 155 degrees and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
  10. Serve with a side of Trader Joe’s Sriracha & Roasted Garlic BBQ Sauce and ENJOY!

This is a great recipe for hosting and/or meal prepping! You should get around 4-5 servings, dependent on how many scraps you end up feeding your dog. If you try it, let us know what you think!

eats

A Twist On Carne Asada

Inspiration Sparkers

Our twist on this Carne Asada recipe was inspired by this Primally Inspired Carne Asada recipe and this Mexican Food Journal Grilled Tomato Salsa recipe. Thank you for fueling us and our foodie fashion.


This Week’s Eats

We typically try to plan out our meals each week, and we spend the weekend grabbing the supplies we need. On Sundays, we prep as much as we can for the coming week (i.e. chopping vegetables, marinating meats, etc.). That way, it’s easy for one of us to take over dinner each night. We both take turns cooking, depending on our schedules. Joey does all of the grilling, and Melissa does most of the oven and stove-top meals.

Last Sunday, we prepped this incredible salsa recipe, because two of our weekly recipes called for salsa, including our Carne Asada recipe. Plus, we had been dying to make salsa on our Big Green Egg!


 

IMG_0179

Grilled Tomato Salsa (Paleo, Whole30)

This recipe makes about two cups of salsa. Here is our take on Grilled Tomato Salsa:

Ingredients

*Side note: I know our picture has two jalapenos, but we’re babies, and could only handle the heat of one blended in.*

Directions

  1. Peel and cut the onion in half, and season cut sides with Volcano Spice Gourmet Seasonings’ Hawaiian Style Chili Salt.
  2. Place all vegetables on Big Green Egg at 300 degrees indirect. (We smoked everything over apple wood chunks.)
  3. Watch vegetables until skins begin to char. This should take pproximately 45 minutes to an hour.
  4. Remove from grill and let vegetables cool down.
  5. Remove garlic cloves from bulb, some seeds from jalapeño, and skin vegetables the best you can.
  6. Place everything in the blender and mix for 15 seconds. (We wanted to make sure we had a chunkier salsa.)
  7. Add salt, pepper, lime juice, and cilantro to your liking.
  8. Serve warm or cold – and enjoy!

 

IMG_3308

Avocado Grilled Tomato Salsa (Paleo, Whole30)

The Carne Asada recipe called for a Tomatillo Avocado Salsa, but since we knew we were already prepping salsa, we just bought avocados to incorporate our twist on the recipe.

For our twist, take 3/4 cups of the finished Grilled Tomato Salsa and blend 1 1/2 small avocados. Garnish with extra cilantro on hand. Even after finishing our Carne Asada, we had to grab chips to enjoy more of this salsa! It’s delicious, nutritious, and very refreshing!


 

IMG_3309

Carne Asada (Paleo)

This recipe makes 3-4 servings. Here is our take on Carne Asada:

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Season flank steak with Wassi’s Classic Steak Rub, and dust with Lane’s BBQ Kapalua Rub about an hour before firing up the grill.
  2. Place seasoned steak on Big Green Egg at 400 degrees direct for 2.5 minutes per side.
  3. Remove from grill and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
  4. Cut the steak into 1/2 inch slices against the grain.
  5. Serve with the Avocado Grilled Tomato Salsa and enjoy!

Final Product Photo:

img_3311.jpg

The original recipe encourages you to serve with extra cilantro and lime wedges, but we’re just not that fancy – hah!