Cheater BBQ: Review, Recipe and GIVEAWAY

I recently received a copy of the cookbook Cheater BBQ in the mail.   Imagine how much fun a cookbook junkie like myself had with a cookbook based on an unfamiliar, but totally wonderful new concept in cooking!  Then, as an added bonus, I was asked to interview the authors, Min Merrell and R.B. Quinn.  For a small-time mom like myself, that was quite an opportunity. 



R.B. is an old-school BBQ aficionado who has been cooking outdoors since his mom put him in charge of the family brazier (that's fancy talk for outdoor cooking pit/bbq).  Min is a food marketing and recipe development veteran of more than 20 years.  She is also the one who convinced R.B. that there was a quicker way to get wonderful tasting barbeque.  Enter the cheater techniques. 



By using an oven or a slow cooker, aluminum foil and a good helping of "bottled" (a.k.a. liquid) smoke, these two have opened the way for common folk (that's you and me) to rival the BBQ Gurus of the food world.  We can take cheap cuts of meat and create meals to rival those served in such restaurants as Tony Roma's... for a tiny fraction of the cost!! Cheater BBQ has recipes for rubs, brines, barbeque sauces as well as such yummy sounding dishes as Chinese Restaurant BBQ Ribs, Filipino Adobo-Q Chicken and Besto Pesto Burgers as well as the pulled pork, oven briskets and bbq chicken you would expect. They also included ideas for using up the leftovers.



Now for those of you that may be a little concerned about the safety or naturalness (I may have just made up that word) of liquid smoke, never fear.  It is all natural.  It is exactly what it sounds like: bottled smoke.  Through a process in some ways similar to distillation, smoke is captured,  filtered of carcinogens, and then added to water to become the product that will save you time and money.  When I asked Min and R.B. if they had gallons of the stuff on hand, they said that they had bought gallons of all four flavors of Colgin brand ( can be found here), quarts of Wrights (which is more concentrated and can be purchased here and is also the cheaper of the two brands), but that they also found the small bottles to be the perfect size to use on a big cut of meat.  R.B. even admitted that he has been known to have those small bottles in his car's glove compartment....just in case.



Min and R.B. said that many recipes call for too little liquid smoke.  In order for 6 pounds of beef to get that smokey BBQ flavor, to penetrate the outer fat or membranes of meat, a good amount of bottled smoke must be used.    One of the added benefits of cooking your meats this way is that the flavor stays...it even gets better with time.  You can prepare these dishes a day or two before you have guests over and then reheat them without losing any taste.  You can freeze these dishes without losing any taste.



If you are sitting on the fence about this whole cheating thing, let me share with you the recipe that Min and R.B. swear will convert you.



Low and Slow Texas Oven Brisket:

1 medium onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, chopped

4-6 lb beef brisket, with a layer of fat

3-4 Tbls Cheater Chili Dry Rub (1/4 cup chili powder, 2 Tbls kosher salt, 2 Tbls coarsely ground black pepper, 1 Tbls garlic powder, 1 Tbls ground cumin)

1/4 cup bottled smoke

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

Heat oven to 250 degrees.  Scatter onion and garlic in the middle of a sheet of aheavy duty aluminum foil large enough to generously wrap around the meat.  Lay the brisket on top and rub all sides with the dry rub.  Pour the bottled smoke and Worcestershire sauce over the meat.  Seat the foil around the meat.  Carefully place the foil pack in a large roasting pan.  Roast the brisket for 7-9 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees and the meat is pull apart tender.  Remove the brisket from the oven.  Open the foil and allow the juices to collect in the pan.  Move the brisket to a cutting board and thinly slice it against the grain.  Serve with the warm meat juices.



And to help you have the opportunity of trying the Cheater BBQ technique yourself, I have been given one extra cookbook to give away.  US entrants only, please.



You may enter by leaving a comment.  Make sure that you include a way for me to contact you if you win. 



Because it is Christmas, you may enter once a day, every day until the contest ends on Monday, December 14, 2009 at 10pm PST. Just keep coming back to this post and commenting. 



The winner will have 24 hours after I send the email announcing the good news that they have won to respond.  After that, I will pick a new winner.  I will also post the winner at the top of this post, too.





This is linked to Tasty Tuesday, Tempt Your Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table,  Tightwad Tuesdays, Works for Me Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Crockpot Wednesdays, and What's Cooking Wednesdays