Dueling smokers Kettle vs MES, stuffed chicken & peppers, burnt ends, and charro beans

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clifish

Master of the Pit
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May 25, 2019
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Long Island, NY
#1 son is in town from NH with a friend and wanted some smoked vittles. I decided to do stuffed, bacon wrapped chicken breasts, stuffed bacon wrapped peppers, pork belly burnt ends and charro beans (wife also added 5 lbs of mashed tators).

Saturday I seasoned up the pork belly chunks with Oakridge BBQ dominator rib rub.
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Pulled and kept a bunch aside to go in the beans. For the rest I wanted to try a different direction...Korean BBQ. Broke out a foil pan with some smoked butter, Bibilgo Korean BBQ sauce, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, teriyaki sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic. ginger and a little sugar at the end.
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Fried up some bacon on the griddle for the beans
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Beans smoked for a few hours, not going into the makings as this has been discussed multiple times
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into the fridge they both went, Today I cooked up some ground sausage, peppers and onions to go into the filling
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mixed with whipped cream cheese and some gruyere cheese. I wanted to go in a different direction with a few things and the cheese was one of them.
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Ground up a bunch more of the gruyere
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Chicken split and pounded dusted on all sides with Oak Ridge BBQ Chili lime rub. More gruyere, cream cheese mix and I wanted to try something different so I added spec (smoked prosciutto) to the inside as well.
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Of course wrapped in bacon and more rub on the outside. Then it was onto the peppers, frying peppers and jalapenos stuffed, rubbed with even more bacon on top.
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Now I knew I had somewhat of a busier day with yard work, oil change and flush out the salt/sand from my sons car after another tough winter in NH. So I would normally have resorted to just using the MES with the tube and pid but after gmc2003 gmc2003 posted his kettle cook it got me thinking. I need to put more time into the kettle especially on smokes that take at least a few hours. After thinking more, I realized neither smoker had enough real estate so needed both anyway. 2 stuffed breasts went on the MES and 3 on the kettle.
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I used cherry pellets on the mes and cherry chunks on the kettle. I knew the temp swings on the kettle would probably cook the chicken faster and I was right. Temps went from 240 to 320, still need to work on getting them a little more stable. I did use a rib rack on the kettle to keep as much of the filling inside on the chicken and not spill out. MES of course stayed at 270 the whole time.

Had the beer pillar in action with my smoking buddy "Brooklyn" taking a liking to the IPA, I also snuck in an hour or so in the pool and hot tub.
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Plated up
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It was nice at the end that I could slide the chicken on the kettle over the coals to crisp up the bacon. Cut shot below reveals a gooey moist center, a very enjoyable meal for all.
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Man what a feast!! It all looks amazing but I’d especially love that stuffed chicken. Great work!
 
Off da-hook. That is a fantastic spread. Looks delicious. Lots of work went into that cook, I appreciate that. Points!
 
Nice job Cliff . It all looks great , but love the looks of those beans . Nice work bud .
Nice to have options too . I run 2 or sometimes 3 smokers / grills at a time .
 
That's awesome Cliff! Knocked it out of the park! Bet you're #1 dad too after that meal.

Ryan
 
What a feast! Everything looks great and with that much food, I would have lended a hand by eating it!
 
Chores, pool time, and still turned out a great meal! Looks like a great weekend.
Jim
 
Man what a feast!! It all looks amazing but I’d especially love that stuffed chicken. Great work!
That's a great looking batch of food, and i'm with Jeff jcam222 jcam222 . The stuffed chicken , perfect

David
Thanks, the stuffed chicken is always a hit.

So many moving parts! That looks epic. And those beans look so freaking good.
Nice job Cliff . It all looks great , but love the looks of those beans . Nice work bud .
Nice to have options too . I run 2 or sometimes 3 smokers / grills at a time .
yeah thanks, I love doing those charro beans, this time I split it with both black soy beans and red kidney. I also like it a bit chunky with veggies.
Off da-hook. That is a fantastic spread. Looks delicious. Lots of work went into that cook, I appreciate that. Points!
That's awesome Cliff! Knocked it out of the park! Bet you're #1 dad too after that meal.

Ryan
What a feast! Everything looks great and with that much food, I would have lended a hand by eating it!
Chores, pool time, and still turned out a great meal! Looks like a great weekend.
Jim
#1 got a good feast . . . nicely done.
Thanks everyone, I don't have to explain to any of you how much work and prep goes into these kinds of meals. It was nice to get a break while they cooking to do other stuff. We also packed up a ton of food for the son to bring back to NH.
 
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So basically you had a bacon-laced food extravaganza :emoji_laughing: I'm on board with that and it's a truly amazing looking meal. Love the chicken though. That sounds off the charts good. Well done Cliff!!

Robert
 
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All looks good Cliff. Absolutely amazing job.
I like the beer pillar, and although I'm a dog person. Brooklyn is the borough that I was born in. So that's cool.

Point for sure
Chris
 
Wow. That all looks great. It's nice to have multiple cookers for sure
 
That is an awesome cook to return home to! Man you had it all….and I’m very jealous of you guys who can have a swim break when cooking🤣 beautiful meal all around. I love finishing on the kettle, awesome move! Thank you for the inspiration!
 
So basically you had a bacon-laced food extravaganza :emoji_laughing: I'm on board with that and it's a truly amazing looking meal. Love the chicken though. That sounds off the charts good. Well done Cliff!!

Robert
Yes, Bacon on Bacon...luckily one of theonly things not wrong with me is cholesterol..lol
Awesome just Awesome what a great looking meal all around. Dang now you got me thinking and that may not be good.

Warren
yeah me thinking is never good either
All I can say is that looks awesome!
Thank you!
All looks good Cliff. Absolutely amazing job.
I like the beer pillar, and although I'm a dog person. Brooklyn is the borough that I was born in. So that's cool.

Point for sure
Chris
Thanks Chris, you started it with the kettle post. I was never a dog person always had cats.
 
That is an awesome cook to return home to! Man you had it all….and I’m very jealous of you guys who can have a swim break when cooking🤣 beautiful meal all around. I love finishing on the kettle, awesome move! Thank you for the inspiration!
Thanks Jed, it was a ton of work but the reaction of all that sat to eat was well worth it.

Having kids that moved away and now only visit sure makes you appreciate it when they come home.
 
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