When I purchased the pasta I had no idea what I was going to make with it.  But I knew when I saw and tasted this pasta that I had to come up with something.  In addition to the protein I wasn’t quite sure what sauce to serve with it.  After some thought I decided to go towards a more Mexican style dish.  I picked up a couple of Tomatillos and a bunch of cilantro.  What I came up with is a Tomatillo Chipotle Cream Sauce served with a grass-fed chicken I purchased at local farmer’s market.

I cut the chicken up into 6 pieces and seasoned them with Todd's Dirt. They were grilled on

BBQ Grail’s Tomatillo Cilantro Cream Sauce

• 3 Tomatillos, husked and chopped
• 1 bunch Cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 cloves  garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup cheese, shredded (I used a 4 cheese Mexican Blend)
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.   Make sure you drain as much juice from the tomatillos before putting them in the food processor.  Blend until smooth.  Pour mixture in a saucepan and reduce until thick over low to medium heat.

If using a regular pasta add minced jalapeno or other chili to the sauce when blending in the food processor.

Plate the pasta and chicken a spoon the sauce over both.

Start with a 1lb chub of Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage and some Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Cajun Foreplay rub.

Coat the sausage chub with the rub.

Smoke your sausage chub at 225 degrees (or so) until it reaches 165 degrees internal. What was a sausage chub is now a FATTY!

Slice and fry up a couple pieces of fatty, add a toasted English Muffin, poached egg and some Cilantro Chipotle Sauce and you've got a breakfast to be proud of.

Add some fruit, canteloupe so you've got a balanced meal

I got a tweet from @nephewsbbq (Dylan Moody) asking if I’d like to have some samples of his BBQ sauces to try.  I told him I’d be happy to give them a taste.  A few days later a box arrived with jars of all six flavors.   I don’t normally review six BBQ sauces all at once, but I figured in this case it would be the best thing to do.  So I had a few friends over, cooked up some chicken drumettes and we taste tested all the sauces.

Nephews BBQ sauce is a gourmet line of bbq sauces where we pair the sweetness of fruit with the spiciness of chili peppers. The result is an award winning line of unique bbq sauces that will make you the king of your next backyard bbq or tailgate. Nephews started out as a wedding favor for friends and family at his wedding in 2009. The response was overwhelming and after winning an award in December Nephews BBQ Sauce was born. Once you try our sauce we are confident you will invite Nephews to all your bar-b-ques!

So here’s a compilation of the comments from five wing users over the course of an evening.  It’s interesting to note the degree of “heat” each of the taste testers could handle.  My comments about each sauce is marked in italics.

“SWEET THUNDER”:

It’s not a surprise that all of four of the taste testers thought this sauce was sweet.  Everyone considered the sauce to be mild.  Other comments included: “very smooth,” “good flavor,” “to sweet,” “no heat and good for everyone.”  A couple of the taster testers noticed a lot of vinegar.   For my tastes this sauce would be more of the traditional type of sauce I would use for pulled pork or chicken.  There is a taste of vinegar, and that’s not a bad thing, but it does have a tendency to stand out on lightly seasoned meats like chicken.  For someone not used to a vinegar type sauce they might have a problem with this.   This is a great everyday sauce.

“PEACHY ‘POTLE”:

For everyone the peach flavor popped right out on this sauce.  Comments: “Moderate heat,” very good flavor,” “nice peach,” “everyone would like this sauce.”  I tasted the peach right off.  This sauce would go with just about anything.  If you like fruit based sauces this is one you’ve got to try.  There’s not a lot of chipotle flavor and for most people that will be good.  For my tastes this is a moderate sauce.  But don’t think it’s “hot” because it’s not.  I’m just not sure what level is between mild and moderate.

“HABAN’ORANGE”:

Everyone got the orange in this sauce.  It’s not hidden at all.  Comments: “good tangy flavor,”  “very good flavor,” nice citrus,” “mild to sever heat,” “mild heat.”  WOW!  This sauce has some pucker power.  The citrus/orange just whacks you right up front and doesn’t go away.  I love this sauce.  Don’t let the habanero in the title, this sauce isn’t nearly as hot as other sauces on the market that use habanero.  I’d use this sauce on just about anything, but it’s going to be a staple for pulled pork and fish.

“ANGRY NEPHEW’S”:

Okay, this sauce just about killed one of my taste testers.  It’s the hottest of the bunch.  Comments: “burn baby burn…lips, tongue and throat,” “good flavor, nice afterburn,” “for people who want a hot flavor,” “a very nice kick to it.  Not outrageously strong but still a strong burn,” “not for wimps.”  This sauce is more of the traditional type “hot” BBQ sauce.  It’s nice but for me, when compared, to the others there’s not anything I would call special about it.

“CHERRY ‘POTLE”:

Just like the other fruit sauces the flavor of the fruit just jumped right out front and took charge for all the tasters.  Comments: “very strong cherry flavor,” “not much heat, small kick at the end,” “love the sweetness,” “mild.”  I found this sauce to be much like the peach sauce.  And that’s a good thing.  My two favorite woods to smoke with are peach and cherry and this sauce will compliment many of the dishes I like to cook.  Again, not a lot of the traditional chipotle flavor.

“GHOSTLY PUMPKIN”:

Pumpkin and Ghost Peppers!  This was the sauce we were all a little hesitant to try.  One of the hottest peppers on Earth combined with pumpkin, not your traditional BBQ sauce combination.  Comments: “slight pumpkin flavor,” “mild to warm,” “did not taste pumpkin,” “moderate heat,” “good pumpkin flavor,” “good spice flavors,” “nice mix of the pumpkin and pepper flavors.”  I expect the heat of this sauce to just kill every opportunity for the pumpkin flavor to be found.  Not true at all.  This is a mild to moderate hot BBQ sauce.  The pumpkin, for me, just popped.  When I tasted this sauce I immediately thought of Thanksgiving.  Weird, I know.  I really love this sauce.  It’s different, yet not so odd that it won’t go with your meats or side dishes.  I’ve had lots of non-traditional sauces (gimmick) and most of them aren’t meant to be taken seriously.  This sauce is seriously good.

Let me be honest here.  When Dylan first contacted me and I went to their website and read about these sauces I was not sure what I was getting myself into.  I had the misfortune of trying strawberry BBQ Sauce once and I wasn’t ready for another “spit out my meat” episode.  But I’d committed to trying them so I did.

These sauces are different.  Different in a good way.  What I especially appreciated was that the fruit seemed to take the front of the stage.  I love the flavors of these sauces.  The “peppers” take second fiddle.  They are there but they are in the sauce in a manner that doesn’t mask the fantastic flavors of the fruit.  For the most part the heat doesn’t overpower anything.  I review a lot of sauces and there are few that I dislike.  But there are even fewer that I’ve come right out and said, “Buy this sauce.”

You can find out more about Nephew’s sauces here.

On my Facebook page I post a “Topic For Discussion” each morning.  A couple of weeks ago the topic was Egg Nog.  The topic turned into a discussion with Laura of Laura’s Best Recipes on how hard it would be to come up with a couple of recipes that used Egg Nog as an ingredient.  Laura has a recipe she’s working on, mine is Egg Nog Chipotle Battered Fried Shrimp with Jalapeno Cranberry Dipping Sauce.

Jalapeno Cranberry Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 can Cranberry Sauce
• 1 Jalapeno, seeded, deveined and finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate for several hours before using so flavors have a chance to mix.

Egg Nog Chipotle Battered Shrimp

Ingredients:

• 12 to 14 ounces Egg Nog
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1+ teaspoon chipotle powder

Directions:

Beat the egg and add to the flour.  Stir in enough Egg Nog to give you a consistency slightly thinner than pancake batter.  When you have the desired consistency add in baking powder and enough chipotle powder to give you the heat you want. The batter is going to pretty sweet and it won’t take much chipotle powder to change the flavor.  What you want is the batter to be sweet on the front of the tongue and give you just a little heat on the back of the tongue on the way down.

The Egg Nog makes a thick batter so don’t be afraid to add some regular milk if needed to give you a thin consistency.

Batter your shrimp and fry them until done.  Serve with the Jalapeno Cranberry Dipping Sauce.

Here’s what we came up with for dinner tonight:

Celeste whipped up some amazing bread dough

Celeste put the dough in a bowl for the first rise before she left for church choir practice. I received the instructions to punch it down with it doubled in size.

I FORGOT!

While Celeste was making the bread dough I unwrapped the pork that was resting.

During the first rise of the bread I pulled the pork. I should have "reseasoned" with some additonal rub. I always do that but for some reason I forgot this time.

Celeste rolled the dough out nice and thin and cut it into different sized circles. We weren't sure how much the dough would rise again or how much pork to put in them, so we made different sizes and shaped.

Celeste starting forming the "pockets" while I took the pictures

Here they are in the oven.

After we took the rolls out of the oven we brushed them lightly with melted butter mixed with Big Z’s sauce. And last, here is the final product all plated up with some Bush’s bean and Celeste’s Chipotle Slaw!

And a fresh jalapeno right out of my garden

I can slave over a brisket or pulled pork and my friends will be thankful for a taste.  But if you ask many of them what one item they’d me want to make for them the answer is Pig Candy.  Who would have thought that combining bacon with brown sugar and a little chipotle powder would be such a hit.

Start with a good amount of brown sugar and chipotle powder to taste. Mix it up good, you don't want a clump of chipotle powder to hit your tongue.

I prefer good thick bacon. The thinner stuff works good to, but it cooks really fast so watch it.

Lay your bacon out on the grate

Put a good coating of the brown sugar/chipotle mixture. Cook at your desire temperature until it starts to get a little crisp. I use 245 degrees with apple wood.

When it starts to crisp up I like to turn it over and give it another dose of the sugar mixture.

Let it cool and enjoy!

Nice little center cut pork loin with a nice sear on high heat.  Moved it to indirect with some guava wood.

Nice and slow until internal reached 155 degrees.

Some nice little guava smoke on the kettle

Used Wolfe Original Rub and then when it reached 135 degrees started glazing with a new sauce I picked up.

Glazed and almost ready…

Check out the close-up. Bits of chipotle and bacon. What better to go on a pork loin.

Now for the internally self basting part. Stuffed the pork loin with a couple of mild italian sausage. Man, did that make for a juicy and flavorful bite of pork…

Dang this was good…

A little John Henry’s Wild Cherry & Chipotle Rub on the chicken. This stuff is simply amazing. The flavors are just so fantastic and the smell of the rub right out of the bottle makes you want to just like the bottle.

A little close up of the John Henry’s…

My trusty Weber Kettle in action. I love my Weber…

And finally ready to go back into the house for eating a meal of chicken and sausage…

And finally plated with potato skins and Mrs Bigdog’s Famous Broccoli Salad…

That is until I discovered “The Art of Chipotle Gourmet Paste” by Pfleider Pfoods, Inc. One 6.5 oz jar of paste contains the equivalent of several cans of chipotle in adobo sauce, without the need to drain, de-seed, strain or anything. Just open the lid and spoon out as little or as much as you need. The paste is all natural and contains no preservatives. It’s also gluten-free.

According to the Phleider Pfoods website, they grow their own jalapenos from specially selected seeds and then dry and smoke them with some type of super secret proprietary method. Whatever they use, it provides a dynamic chipotle flavor without some of the bitter aftertaste you sometimes find in canned chipotles.

I discovered “Chipotle Gourmet Paste” when trying a crockpot beef recipe found in a magazine distributed in Raleys grocery stores in Northern California, and since then I’ve used up the whole jar adding it to sauces, dressing, and bbq sauce. Just about everything. Keeping the jar in the refrigerator has provided untold opportunities to try the chipotle flavor profile in different dishes without fear of wasting the rest of the can. It also makes it simple to control the amount of heat you have in your food.

“The Art of Chipotle Gourmet Paste” is available in some grocery stores and online.