Smoked Lamb Shoulder for the Jewish New Year

This year, I decided that for the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) I would smoke a boneless lamb shoulder in addition to other festive foods. What I really enjoy about my local butcher is that you ask for is what you get (if not more). My requested 5-6 pound lamb shoulder turned into 7.5 pounds. In addition, he had a great package of beef short ribs that I couldn't pass up.


Lamb:
6 pound boneless lamb shoulder roast
2 tablespoon fresh garlic
2 tablespoon fresh rosemary
2 tablespoon fresh thyme
cooking string

Mop:
1/4 cup pomegranite juice
1 tablespoon fresh garlic
3 sprigs of rosemary
3 sprigs of thyme

Rub for Beef Ribs:
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (to taste)

Start by opening the lamb shoulder up and undoing any string that may be holding together your roast.

Combine the garlic, thyme, and rosemary

Spread the garlic/rosemary/thyme mixture all over the lamb and tie the roast again

While this was marinating, I used the rub on the ribs and made pancakes for the kids

start the smoker by taking 30 charcoal briquettes and lighting in the chimney

In the bottom of the smoker, pour charcoal making a space in the middle and add your cherry wood

When your neighbors start smelling your BBQ and come over to take a selfie

After 3 hours, I pulled the ribs off of the smoker

and sauced them before covering them and placing them in an oven to finish cooking

Take the pomegranite juice, garlic, thyme and rosemary sprigs

Every 30 minutes for next 2 hours, go and mop the lamb using the sprigs

Cook the lamb until you reach an internal temperature of 135 degrees Farenheit and allow carry over temperature to 140 degrees.

Pulled BBQ Beef Sliders

One of my favorite low and slow recipes is pulled BBQ beef. While historically this is done with brisket, I like doing it with the less expensive beef chuck roast. The last time that I made this, I served it on slider rolls, however next time I am thinking of getting mini tortillas and have them as pulled BBQ beef tacos.

Recipe:

5 pound chuck roast
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
Disposable aluminum pan

Start by lighting about 25 charcoal briquettes and setup your smoker with charcoal and wood for minion method smoking

For this smoke, I am using cherry wood 

Cut the chuck roast into large chunks and spread the rub evenly over the meat

Once the charcoal is white, pour it in the center of the charcoal and the wood

For the first 3 hours, cook the chuck roast chunks in the pan uncovered. After 3 hours, cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook for an additional 2-3 hours until the meat is fork tender

After 5.5 hours the meat looked amazing with great bark

Take the chunks and two forks and start shreadding the meat

Take 1/4 cup of the juice from the bottom of the pan and mix with 1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce and mix with the shredded beef

With this BBQ, I also grilled some yellow and green squash that I marinated in olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and black pepper and smoked some chicken

I

BBQ Beef Sliders with smoked chicken and grilled squash

Chicken Shwarma BBQ Style

To say that my kids are picky eaters is an understatement. Shwarma is a staple in my diet and considered one of my four basic food groups with Coffee, Steak, and Pancakes being the other three. Convincing my children that this is a must style dinner meal would be a foodie's greatest challenge. This weekend, I decided it was time to introduce my children to new culinary delights.

Like any other Sunday, the morning began with, "What's for Breakfast?". This was an easy one, since I would be able to utilize leftover Challah from Shabbos. "French Toast" came the reply from the kitchen.

As the day wore on and errands were run in preperation for the start of school this week, the dinner question started to come around. The mysterious answer was "Middle Eastern Chicken". And with that, the adventure began. As today got hectic, I had to settle for fresh bakery pita over making it myself.

Recipe:

Israeli Salad

1 Cuccumber

1 Tomato

2 Sour Pickles

Chicken Shwarma

6 pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs

1 onion sliced thin

Marinade

4 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Tablespoon Cumin

2 Tablespoon Tumeric

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

1 Tablespoon Onion Powder

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Cayenne Pepper (to taste)

8 Pita Bread / Hogie Rolls

Tehina Sauce

Skin and debone the chicken thighs and place in a bowl with olive oil and the marinade. Mix well and let sit at room temperature.

Fill 3/4 of a Charcoal chimney and light it.

While the charcoal is going, dice your vegetables for your Israeli salad.

And start sauteing your onions

Once your charcoal is hot, grill the chicken thighs on both sides until cooked through

When the chicken is cooked, bring inside and dice into small pieces. Add the pieces to the onions in the pan and heat through, stirring to combine the flavors and ingrediants

To assemble: Cut the top off one pita bread, fill the cavity with the chicken and onion mixture, top with tehina and the Israeli Salad and even more tehina as you like.

Here is another way of doing it in a hoagie roll

Once the kids heard this was really shwarma, they voted this one of the top 5 dinners.

#smokalicious Shabbos

A work from home Friday means a #smokalicious Shabbos. My son has my same culinary BBQ tastes and always appreciates when I bring some smokiness to the Shabbos table. Since this was the official BBQ month, it was go big or go home. For this Shabbos, I did some smoked ribs with cherry and pecan woods, and smoked chicken with hickory wood.

Started chimney with about 30 charcoals.

 Minion method with cherry and pecan woods

 Beef Flanken Ribs marinating with spice rub and brown sugar

Ribs Smoking

Ribs coming off to be sauced and wrapped (sorry for the shadow)

Chicken Smoking at 250 Farenheit

Chicken smoked with hickory wood

 Apple Bourbon Vanilla Kugel

First Day of #BBQMonth

May is the official BBQ Month. In our house, every month is BBQ Month, but it's hard not to get into the festivities. To truly embrace the the month of May, I also decided to try my hand at my first BBQ video recipe. For this May 1st BBQ, I did smoked chicken and turkey legs on my Weber One Touch Gold. This meant that we would see crispy skin with smoked chicken on a high heat, versus the low and slow method that yields more smokey flavor, but rubbery skin.

Starting the chimney

Searing the chicken and turkey

Finished Product