BBQ Stuffed Baked Potatoes

There is a place in my home town out in West Texas that sells the best BBQ stuffed baked potato. In fact, I am not sure that they really sell anything other than that. Sure they have the sides and all the other fixings of a great BBQ place, but no one actually buys that stuff. It is all about the BBQ baked potato. Here is my attempt at recreating it along with homemade BBQ sauce.

First we will start with the meat. This step should occur in the morning as it will cook in the crock pot all day.

Ingredients:

1-2 lb beef roast

2 garlic cloves

1 T coarse ground pepper

1 can of coca-cola

Begin my placing the beef roast in a crock pot. I promise this is a beef roast and not pork, I had my flash on. Don't worry, I corrected the issue for the next picture.

To the beef add the cloves of garlic and pepper. There is really no need to chop the garlic - it will basically disintegrate during the cooking process.

To the crock pot add one whole can of coca-cola. I know this might seem strange, but it actually serves as a great liquid cooking agent in the crock pot and leaves the meat with a slightly sweet flavor. It also pairs up nicely with the spicy BBQ sauce we are about to make.

Coca cola is composed of several chemicals. One of the chemicals in coca cola is food grade phosphoric acid. It gives coke the sour and tangy flavor and also is responsible for coke's ability to clean rust and corroded metal. Another chemical in coca cola is dissolved carbon dioxide. Once the can is opened the pressure that was built up in the can is decreased and also decreases the solubility of the carbon dioxide - resulting in the fizzy carbonation. Yummy! Check out this Mythbuster video of the 101 uses of cola (they don't really show that many uses) that I use to show in my Chemistry class.

Put the lid on the crock pot and allow to cook for 6-8 hours. My crock pot only has one setting so I am assuming that is medium heat but it might be high.

Here is what the beef roast looks like after about 5 hours. It is looking good, but not really breaking up as much as it should be - it needs a couple more hours. Which means it is also time to start the other components of the meal.

Place clean potatoes in a baking dish and pierce them a couple of times with a fork. Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until soft.

Now for the BBQ sauce. This sauce is a work in progress. Each time I make the sauce I adjust something to try to get the actual flavor of a BBQ sauce that one would get at an authentic BBQ smoke house.

Ingredients:

1 c. ketchup

1/2 c. water

2 T apple cider vinegar

3 T brown sugar

2 T honey

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1 T lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)

2 garlic cloves

1 t course ground black pepper

1 t onion powder

1 t ground mustard

1 t Franks' hot sauce

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan.

Bring liquid up to a boil and allow to boil for a couple of minutes.

Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

Ahhh, back to the beef. This is what the roast looks like after 7 hours. It looks pretty done to me. Plus I'm hungry.

Remove the beef from the crock pot and place into a bowl. My friends El Smokeador y Smokehopper have some interesting and yummy looking ideas with what to do with the cooking liquid - go over and check it out along with all of their other recipes!

After that quick advertisement, back to the BBQ potatoes! Shred the beef in the bowl. It should be pretty easy to do. Before shredding I finally removed that hunk of fat off of the roast.

If you have timed it out right, the sauce on the stove should be pretty much done simmering. Add about half of the sauce into the bowl and mix to combine.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and top with the beef mixture, cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce. Yummy! Any left over beef is also great in a sandwhich or tortilla.

Fajitas

While I was born and raised in Texas, my mother and father were Yankees. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could" - that perfectly describes my parents. They moved to Texas in the seventies, leaving behind friends, sisters and parents. I am sure that was a tough move, especially since I am still sad about a move across the state, but I am so glad that they did.

I remember when my grandparents came down to Texas for a visit and to see one of my sister's graduations. We wanted to make the trip special and show them everything Texan. After eating Bar-B-Q and steaks it was time to move on to Tex Mex. At the restaurant we ordered fajitas for the entire table. It was so cute to see that my grandfather over filled his tortilla. He ended up having to eat his fajita with a fork and knife. Guess that is a Yankee for you.

I absolutely love Tex Mex food, especially fajitas. Just the thought of tender grilled meat topped with pico de gallo and sharp cheddar cheese and wrapped in a warm tortilla makes my mouth water. Yours too - I'm hoping - because that is the recipe I will be sharing with you today!

Ingredients:

1/2 c. lime juice

1/3 c. water

2 T. vegetable oil

3 t. vinegar

3 t. soy sauce, low sodium

3 t. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 t. liquid smoke

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. chili powder

1/2 t. cayenne pepper

1/2 t. course black pepper

1/2 t. onion powder

1/2 t. cumin

2 cloves garlic

1 lb. top sirloin or skirt steak

Combine all ingredients in a zip loc baggie. I like to place the baggie in a mixing bowl. That way I don't have to worry about holding on to the baggie while pouring in the ingredients or leaking.

Be sure to get half a cup of lime juice. The juice is really the key part of the marinade. I like to use fresh limes, but hey I am also the girl that uses jarred garlic. If you want to buy bottled lime juice I wont judge.

The purpose of a marinade is to tenderize the meat and provide flavor. The best marinades are made with acidic liquids because the acid breaks down the tissue of the meat. The acids in our marinade are the lime juice and vinegar. Lime juice has a pH of 2.35 and vinegar has a pH 2.4. pH measures the acidity or bascity of a material on a scale from 0-14. pH is defined as the negaive log of the H+ ion concentration. A pH below 7 is acidic, a pH above 7 is basic, and a pH of 7 is neutral.

Place the steak in the zip loc baggie with the marinade. This is also an excellent marinade for chicken, but I prefer beef fajitas. Let the beef marinade for at least four hours and up to 24 hours. If you have time for it to marinate overnight, do it. Trust me.

Grill the meat on an indoor grill pan or on an outdoor grill. Mr. T came home at a decent time so we decided to grill outside. Grill the steaks on medium high heat for four and an half to five minutes per side. Mr. T prefers his fajita meat to be cooked more thoroughly than a steak. He is the grill master in our household, but reduce the time if you would like some pink in the middle.

Let the meat rest for a couple of minutes before slicing into it. I have found that an electric knife makes slicing the meat very easy - thank you Grandmama.

Garnish with pico de gallo and cheese wrapped in a warm tortilla. I feel obliged to state the following for anyone like my Grandfather: be careful not to over fill the tortilla or you will be forced to eat them with a fork and knife.

I served chips and hot sauce and sweet corn cakes for sides. I am planning on posting the recipe for the corn cakes soon. Any left over meat is great in quesadillas!