Recipes
Pork Belly Burnt Ends July 19 2017, 1 Comment
I have been cooking pork belly for years. I have made what many are now referring to as "Pork Belly Burnt Ends" at the Red Dirt BBQ & Music Festival in Tyler, TX for the past 3 years and they have been a huge hit. I figured it's high time to share that recipe with all of you.
I make this BBQ two different ways. Traditionally I have smoked pork belly whole, then cubed it, sauced it and finished the burnt ends cooking process. However, today I am going to focus on a new method that has become more popular as of late which includes cubing the belly before it's smoked. This allows for the meat to absorb smoke on all sides of the cube and makes for a tasty bite.
- 1 Skinless Pork Belly
- Meat Church Honey Hog, Honey Hog Hot or The Gospel (depending on your taste buds desires)
- Meat Mitch Naked Sauce (sub your fav sweet sauce)
- Burleson’s clover honey
- 2 ½ disposable aluminum steam pans
- Apple juice for spritzing
- Wire rack
- Thermoworks MK4 Instant Read Thermometer
- Texas Pepper Jelly Apple Cherry Habanero Rib Candy
Prepare your smoker at a temperature of 275 degrees. I recommend medium smoke wood for this cook such as hickory or pecan.
Butcher the Pork Belly
Cube the pork belly into 1” x 1” cubes.
Season the Pork Belly
Thoroughly coat all sides of the pork belly cubes with your choice of Honey Hog, or The Gospel. You can even use Holy Gospel or Honey Hog Hot. I prefer a spicier rub becuase I finish these with a sweet sauce. Allow the rub to adhere on all sides for at least 15 minutes.
Smoke the Pork Belly
Place the pork belly in the smoker fat-side up. I prefer to do this on a wire rack. This cook will take 3 hours. Spritz the pork belly with apple juice every 45 minutes or whenever it starts to look dry. Using your Thermapen MK4, pull the belly when the meat reaches an internal temperature of 190°F - 195°F. Some people pull there belly a lot earlier, but I want it really tender!
Finish the Burnt Ends
Place the cubes in the 1/2 aluminum pan. Season and toss the cubes with more Meat Church rub. Cover the cubes with Meat Mitch NAKED BBQ sauce. Drizzle Burleson’s honey across the top. Optionally, add the Apple Cherry Hab rib candy to taste. Finally, toss the cubes thoroughly to ensure they are completely covered.
Return the pan (uncovered) to the smoker and cook for another hour or until all liquid has reduced and caramelized. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and enjoy!
Breakfast Fatty May 31 2016, 0 Comments
Ingredients- 1 package of bacon
- 1 package of breakfast sausage
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup of shredded cheese (we used a 3 cheese blend)
- 1/2 white onion chopped
- 1/2 green bell pepper chopped
- Meat Church Honey Hog BBQ Rub
- Salt & pepper
Prepare your Cooker
Prepare your smoker to a temperature of 275. We used a Big Green Egg with a ConveGGtor. This can also be cooked on a grill with an indirect setup.
I recommend apple wood for this smoke. A fruit wood will pair nicely with pork while not being too smoky for breakfast.
Prepare the Breakfast Fatty
Start by lightly sautéing the onions and bell peppers. Scramble the eggs and add to the onion and bell pepper mixture. Salt and pepper to taste and set aside.
Next make a 6x6 bacon weave. Lay 6 pieces of bacon side by side (touching) on parchment paper which will help to prevent sticking. Then weave the remaining 6 pieces of bacon across those 6. Make sure your bacon weave is tight. There are several videos online if you need further help with the bacon weave.
Next layer the breakfast sausage evenly across your bacon weave. Make sure the sausage extends to the edges of the bacon weave.
Add the scrambled egg mixture evenly across the sausage. Then spread the shredded cheese evenly across the top of the eggs. Top with a sprinkling of Honey Hog BBQ rub.
Carefully roll the bacon weave up tightly to form what looks like a burrito. Tuck the ends of the bacon into the side of the breakfast fatty to secure all the contents.
Cover all sides with a nice coat of Honey Hog BBQ rub.
The Cook
Place the breakfast fatty on the grate and cook until the internal temperature reaches at least 160 degrees. That will ensure the ground sausage is fully cooked. This will take about 1 ½ hours.
Remove the breakfast fatty from the cooker and let rest for at least 10 minutes. Slice 1” thick slices. This is great by itself, on a biscuit or as we do in Texas…on a fresh flour tortilla!
Pork Crown Roast December 24 2015, 0 Comments
Ingredients- 1 crown roast of pork (or a bone in pork loin)
- Meat Church Honey Hog Rub
- Aluminum foil
- Roasting pan or disposable aluminum 1/2 pan
- Apple juice for spritzing
- Glaze of your choice*
Heat the smoker or Big Green Egg (indirect) to 275 degrees. We used apple wood for this cook. However, pecan or hickory would have also been good choices. Total cook time will between 2 - 2 1/2 hours.
For this cook we selected an amazing Kurobuta Crown Roast from Snake River Farms. This is 100% Berkshire, a heritage hog breed, which has more marbling resulting in a more juicy and flavorful pork than that "regular" pork you buy at the grocery store. This is like the wagyu of pork. After you try this pork you will understand why SRF calls it "the other read meat."
What is a crown roast? It's a bone in pork loin that is frenched to expose the bones and wrapped in a circle with butcher's twine for presentation. It's basically the prime rib of pork. You can buy it already butchered in this manner or prepare it yourself. There any many videos on YouTube showing this process.
Crown Roast
Apply the Meat Church Honey Hog rub liberally on all sides of the meat. Don't be bashful with the seasoning. Pull all of the slices of the loin apart to apply this fine grain seasoning in every crevice possible. Allow the rub to soak into the meat for 30 minutes.
Wrap each tip of the crown roast in a small piece of aluminum foil. This will protect the bones during the cook process and prevent them from turning black.
We are shooting for a finished internal temperature of 140. Medium rare is 130-135 and Medium is 135 - 145 for pork. You don't want to dry this pork out!
Place the crown roast in the pan and put it on the smoker. Spritz the crown roast with apple juice every 30-45 minutes.
Remove the roast from the pan as well as remove the aluminum foil from the bones when if reaches an internal temperature of 125 degrees. This will be approximately 90 minutes into the cook. Spritz and return to cooking.
Remove the roast when you have reached an internal temperature of 135 degrees. Tent it with aluminum foil and allow it to rest for 15 - 20 minutes. Carefully remove the butcher's twine and slice into the juicy and succulent chops!
*Optional Glaze
We applied a Peach Bourbon glaze that complimented the pork wonderfully. If you chose to glaze, apply it the last 10 minutes of the cook so the glaze can "lock in."
Bacon Wrapped Onion Rings August 01 2014, 0 Comments
Ingredients
- 4 sweet onions
- 1 package bacon
- Sriracha sauce
- Honey Hog BBQ Rub (substitute your favorite sweet BBQ rub)
- BBQ sauce
- Skewers
Prepare your smoker at a temperature of 250 degrees. These can also be cooked in an oven or grilled directly. However, when grilled directly, the onions are often not as tender as desired.
Slice onions into ½ slices. Pop the middles out of the slices leaving the 2 outer “rings.”
Brush the Sriracha sauce liberally on each of the onion rings.
Wrap the slices of bacon around the onion ring. It will take approximately 2-3 pieces of bacon per onion ring.
Secure the bacon to the onion ring by running a skewer completely through both sides of the onion ring.
Lightly season the outside of the onion ring with our Honey Hog BBQ rub.
Smoke or cook the onion rings for 90 minutes. You will know they are done when the bacon looks nicely cooked!
*Optional – Lightly sauce the onion rings with your favorite bbq sauce 10 minutes before you remove them from the cooker. I recommend a sweet BBQ sauce.
Ribs April 13 2014, 2 Comments
The following recipe is going to teach you a "competition style" rib that is sure to wow your guests at your next BBQ.
Ingredients
- Pork ribs (preferably St Louis cut)
- Meat Church's Honey Hog BBQ Rub + Honey Hog Hot BBQ Rub
- Meat Church Dia de la Fajita
- 1 cup of apple juice for spritzing
- 1 bottle of squeeze butter
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1/3 cup of honey
- 1 tablespoon of hot sauce (optional)
- Sauce if desired
Prepare your smoker at 250 degrees. We recommend hickory wood for this smoke.
Flip the ribs meat side down and remove the membrane off the back of the rack. This is very easily accomplished by grabbing the membrane with a paper towel and pulling it off. Removing the membrane will allow your rub to penetrate into the meat more effectively.
Apply one heavy coat of our Honey Hog Hot BBQ rub to the bone side.
Allow the rub to "soak in" for 15 mins.
Flip the ribs over. Apply a light sprinkling of our Fajita rub. Next, apply a heavy coat of Honey Hog to the meat side. Cover the meat 100%. Allow it to fully adhere for another 15 minutes. (Ideally I would allow 30 minutes per side if time allows).
Place the ribs meat side up in the smoker. Spritz the ribs with apple juice every 45 minutes. Smoke for 2.5 hours or until you get to a beautiful mahogany color.
Wrap the ribs in aluminum foil to protect that perfect color. Lay out 2 long pieces of aluminum foil. Create a bed of butter, brown sugar and honey on the foil. I recommend one handful of brown sugar, 2 good beads of butter and one nice bead of honey. Lay the ribs meat side down on the sweet concoction with the meat side down\bones up.
Return the ribs to the smoker and continue to cook for another 2 hours or so.
When the meat has pulled back and exposed the bone about 1/4" inch the ribs are done.
Remove the ribs from the foil and sauce or glaze them at this point.
It is only necessary to leave the ribs on the cooker for 10 - 15 minutes to set the sauce. This will keep the bbq sauce from running down your face.
Remove the ribs from the smoker. Allow to sit for a few minutes. Then slice and eat!!