Rainy Day Strip Steaks, a New Steak Sauce, and Sauteed Rosemary Potato Slices
Rainy Day Strip Steaks
It wasn’t raining today, but it was a little too windy to grill outdoors, so I tried my backup plan, and used my George Foreman electric grill on the kitchen countertop.
This Rainy Day Strip Steaks method, along with my new Sauteed Rosemary Potato Slices, made a delicious Sunday afternoon lunch! I didn’t have any Choice New York strips, but I already had a couple of Select strip steaks, which are generally too tough for anything but chopping them up and making beef tips or stew after boiling to smithereens.
Sauteed Rosemary Potato Slices
However, I was craving something to try using my new steak sauce, Jim’s Improved Spicy Steak Sauce. Some people don’t use steak sauce at all, but every once in a while a guest might ask for some, or you have a steak that needs a little help, like my steak today.
The potatoes were a welcome change from the fare that I usually serve with my steaks. They were easy, tasty, and were fork-tender!
Sweet Chipotle BBQ Sauce
After passing out samples of my new Sweet Chipotle BBQ Sauce, a couple of cashiers at my local supermarket told me that it was better than any store-bought sauce they had been using of the honey-chipotle variety. Everyone that tasted it wanted the recipe. One of these cashiers told me she planned on using it in her ground beef-baked bean recipe. I personally have used it for dipping chicken tenders, on pulled pork sandwiches, and on grilled chicken breasts…all tasted delicious.
You’ll find that the minimum amount of chipotle pepper flakes in the recipe will give you some heat, but some like about twice that much. If you’ve never seen chipotle pepper flakes at your supermarket, order them from www.myspicesage.com. You will be amazed at the creative dishes you can make with these tasty, spicy flakes. You can also order brown chipotle powder, which is twice as hot as the flakes, so be careful.
For the bourbon in my recipe, I used Evan Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, often referred to as Evan Williams Black, because of the black label. Jack Daniels also makes an excellent 86 proof bourbon. You need to know that if you use a tablespoon of bourbon that I used in my original recipe, after 3-4 days, the bourbon flavor actually gets stronger, perhaps too much. In my current recipe, I only use a teaspoon.
If you save and clean your old salad dressing or sauce jars like I do, all you need is a jar that holds about 2 cups (16 ounces). You can also order sauce jars and lids from www.usplastic.com at very reasonable prices. Just go there and type “sauce jars” in the search field.
Jim’s Ground Beef Enchiladas
Jim’s Ground Beef Enchiladas
This Jim’s Ground Beef Enchiladas recipe is my fourth attempt recently at making tasty ground beef enchiladas. All the recipes I tried seemed to be concentrating too much on cheese as an ingredient, or used flour tortillas (which I don’t like) and with my new recipe here, you can either include the cheese or leave it out. It’s not so much that it overpowers the taste like other recipes I’ve tried. So, if you’re a beef enchilada lover, you’ll probably love this one!
By the way, don’t try to hurry things up by skipping the part about heating the corn tortillas, because if you do not heat them properly, they will fall apart in the pan like mine did the last time!
Jim’s Ground Beef Enchiladas – Baked Fresh
Chipotle Bourbon Sauce & Glaze Updated
Chipotle Bourbon Sauce & Glaze
This sweet and only slightly spicy Chipotle Bourbon Sauce & Glaze was inspired by a TV commercial showing a dark sauce dripping off the edge of a hamburger. This sauce may remind you of the Jack Daniels sauce served at T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant, using it on almost all types of meat, grilled, sauteed, roasted, fried, or baked. I used it today for the first time on fried chicken tenders. Oh, my! It was so good! I have a list of meats that I’m eager to try this on: pork chop, ham, chicken, steak, ribs, sausages…I can’t stop thinking about it. Yummy!
FOLLOW-UP NOTE: Although this recipe may have been inspired by TGI Friday’s Jack Daniels Grill Glaze, it is not the same. I don’t use roasted fresh garlic or cayenne pepper or Jack Daniels whiskey. My latest version, included here, also doesn’t use crushed pineapple, and I have reduced the water to 1/2 cup to help shorten the cooking time. Try using just enough water to help dissolve the brown sugar and decrease the cooking time. I use chipotle pepper flakes (www.myspicesage.com) instead of cayenne pepper. I carefully toast dried garlic and onion flakes instead of using fresh garlic and onions, because I don’t like the chunks of fresh onion in the sauce. I use Evan Williams Black bourbon instead of Jack Daniels whiskey. This sauce may never thicken to your liking while cooking, but it will thicken when stored in the refrigerator. Some people have even frozen extra sauce successfully without changing the flavor, which is an idea I like. This is probably the best sauce I’ve ever created, because it is equally at home on any kind of meat entree I can dream up. Don’t pass this one by!
Spicy Sugar Maple Chicken Breasts
Spicy Sugar Maple Chicken Breasts (Boneless)
Over the past few days, I’ve been toying with a new spice rub (Spicy Sugar Maple Rub) that I found on the Internet. It calls for some maple powder, but since I don’t have any, I substituted maple syrup and mixed it with the rest of the rub ingredients to help make a paste of sorts. It is really tasty on chicken breasts.
Today, I tried it for the second time on some boneless, skinless breasts. See Spicy Sugar Maple Chicken Breasts. Sometimes I have a tendency to hurry things up, and afterwards, I remember that anything on the grill with sugar in it is going to burn unless you take care of it. The first time I tried it a few days ago, I got the grill too hot and the chicken was overdone. Just be sure to watch the sugar, because it will burn if the heat is too high for too long.
Crock-Pot Southwestern Chicken
Back in September, I published a recipe called Southwestern Rosemary Chicken. After some experimentation, I decided I needed another Southwestern slow cooker chicken recipe without rosemary. So, here we have what I call Crock-Pot Southwestern Chicken. Today, I tried pulling off the skin and then coating the entire exposed meat area on top of the chicken breasts with the olive oil and seasonings. It turned out a little dry after 3 hours on High. As a result, I re-wrote this recipe leaving the skin on to help trap some of that moist heat under the skin, which still embeds robust spicy flavor throughout. I think you’ll like this one. Just remember to dispose of the skin. It’s not good for you!
The two side dishes I had today were quick and easy to fix: canned green beans with canned diced new potatoes with some added seasonings, plus my Dilly Corn (using canned corn).
Mexican Chicken Stew
Mexican Chicken Stew
Today’s lunch, Mexican Chicken Stew, was created very quickly, and is one of the tastiest stews I’ve ever made. The added can of chopped chiles spice it up a bit, but I’ve never had anyone complain that it was too spicy.
When I first made the original Mexican Chicken Stew about 1994, my second wife, Carol, liked it so much that she asked me to cook a batch big enough for a dozen people for a potluck lunch at her elementary school. She also asked for 20 copies of the recipe in case anyone wanted it. Not only did she give away all 20 copies of the recipe, but all the stew was gone. After our divorce, she published my recipe in the school’s 1998 cookbook, of which I still have a copy.
Using the newly written frozen pre-cooked chicken method, I found it to taste almost twice as good as the original method using raw chicken breast. This is the best version of my Mexican Chicken Stew yet!
What do you think of it?
Jumbo Spicy Cheeseburgers
Jumbo Spicy Cheeseburger
I thought today would be a good day to try out my new Jumbo Spicy Cheeseburgers on the outdoor gas grill. After all, it wasn’t 100° yet when I went to my covered patio this morning…only 94°. I think you will love this one if you’re a burger addict. I used a 1/2 pound of ground beef chuck made into two large, thin patties, then put a slice of Pepper jack cheese, chopped onions, and Cavender’s Greek Seasoning between the two patties, sealing the edges.
Patty preparation on non-stick foil before grilling.
Then you grill it, and serve it on a jumbo hamburger bun with my Habanero BBQ Sauce (recipe included when you click on the main recipe link above) and hamburger dill slices. Whoa! Get back, Nellie! Don’t worry; it’s not too spicy for those who can’t tolerate too much spiciness, but you’ll know it’s not a regular cheeseburger when you bite into it.
NOTE: If you’re on a low sodium diet, you should avoid this recipe. You might be safe trying my Spicy Cheeseburgers for 2, which is lower in calories, fat, sodium, and potassium. It also uses my low sodium version of Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasoning, Jim’s Greek Seasoning-Low Sodium.
