Now that you have the back story I now have to share with you one of the most amazing meals that I think I have ever had (and it wasn’t even prepared by me lol).  Well she totally surprised me one night with this dinner and I was totally blown away and have been craving it ever since… Soooo last night she made it for me again and this time I got a picture.

Ok let me share the recipe with you, hopefully just the sound of the ingredient list will make you drool as much as it does me.

Ingredients

4 boneless chicken breasts
12 strips of bacon cooked and drained
4 slices of baby swiss cheese
1/2 cup favorite BBQ sauce
garlic salt
black pepper

Directions

So since the ingredients state that the bacon should be cooked I am going to assume that you know that you need to cook the bacon and hopefully you know how to do that.  By the way, just in case you were not aware this chicken has BACON!  Season the chicken with the garlic salt and black pepper and place on the grill on high heat or directly over your coals for just a couple of minutes.  We want to get a little char on the chicken, then brush each breast with BBQ sauce and turn.  Once turned lower the heat or move to a cool spot on the grill and top each breast with 3 strips of bacon and cover that with a slice of swiss cheese (the benefit of swiss is that it melts but doesn’t run all over the place, plus it tastes great).

Continue to cook on low heat until chicken is done (usually about an additional 15 minutes) then brush the top with a little more BBQ sauce and remove from the grill.  Allow this to set for just a minute so that the juices stay in the chicken when you start to eat it… I mean this makes for some very tender, juicy and amazing chicken.

To plate you simply need to place the chicken over your favorite green vegetable, on this night we had green beans and it was a great match.

Give it a shot, it’s a super quick and easy meal that your family will absolutely love.  I mean who doesn’t love BACON?

The problem is that I totally left the house without my Big Butz BBQ sauce so I had to improvise and to my surprise everything turned out fantastic.

I ran up to the grocery store around the corner and picked up boneless skinless chicken breasts and a few odds and ends.

I figured I was ready until I walked up to the isle of BBQ sauce and knew that I had to make a decision.  I couldn’t get the thought of using Big Butz Original on this chicken but certainly was not going to drive the 15 miles back to the house so I felt a little stuck.

I figured I would take a change and grabbed a bottle of Cattlemen’s Carolina Tangy Gold sauce and would just use that.

Now, I’m big on basting my Chicken with BBQ sauce and have found that most mustard based sauces seem to do much better since there is usually a little less sugar in the sauce.  And this is definitely a mustard based sauce for the ages.

As soon as we got back I went ahead an got the Bubba Keg fired up.  Um,  yeah, we drive around town with the thing because you never know when it’s going to be needed.

Dropped in a couple of handfulls of lump coal, got my firestarter in and got it lit.  Now it’s time to just prep the chicken.

I decided to go basic and just added a little garlic salt and black pepper to the chicken and put it on the grill.

I got the chicken started and started brushin’ the breasts down with the Cattlemen’s.  Start, brush, cook, flip, brush, cook, I actually turned the chicken every couple of minutes to just make sure that I had plenty of sauce on the chicken.

Well, I’m here to say that I was pleasantly surprised as to how fantastic the chicken turned out.

The sauce didn’t burn but did help lock in all of the juices in the chicken.  Every bite was super juicy and tender yet bursting with flavor.

I definitely recommend trying out the Cattleman’s Carolina Tangy Gold if you get a chance, I can promise that it works perfect with chicken.

Keep an eye out because I think I will be using this sauce again real soon…. After I run out of Big Butz.

We’re servin ‘em up with black beans and a Natty Light instead.

But, overall I can tell ya that I completely fell in love this weekend with the new Bubba Keg grill that my boy “Ogre” just had to make sure we used.  I will let ya in on a little secret and tell ya that a HankBob review of the Bubba Keg will be comin’ soon.

In the meantime just enjoy my rantings on these lime marinated scallop fiesta ho-tep taco thangs!

Initially I had planned to do a BBQ Lasagna that would be grilled and then I realized that Smoke In Da Eye BBQ has already done that.  Not only has Smoke In Da Eye BBQ done it, I think they have actually perfected the stuff, you can read about it here on their blog.  So, I decided to give credit where credit is due and congratulate Smoke In Da Eye BBQ on the best sounding recipe for BBQ Lasagna that I have ever seen.  (Eventually I will make one of my own anyway haha)

So, that being said, I decided to just go old school and make a standard lasagna with a little twist.  The flavors came out incredible and even though I made two large pans I ended up with no leftovers, I guess it was purty good.

I know the title of this dish is kind of scary but I have to admit, I don’t think I have ever had anything that tasted this good in my life.  It has to bad for you since it tastes so freakin good so I couldn’t resist the title.

Every once in a while I make a meal to share with everybody that is soooo good that I get people offering to pay ridiculous amounts of money for me to make it again.  At this time I don’t have a restaurant and just enjoy cookin for my friends.  But the more times that I get offered money the harder it is for me to turn em down.

Eh, that’s enough about my internal wars lol.  Take a look at this recipe, try it out, and fall in love with Lasagna all over again.  Garfield never had any lasagna this good.

Ingredients:

1 Box Lasagna Noodles (you can use ready for the oven noodles and save a step of boiling the noodles)

2 8 oz packages shredded parmesan cheese

1 8 oz Ricotta Cheese (I use Sergento)

2 8 oz packages shredded mozzarella cheese

2 eggs

1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce

1 jar alfredo sauce

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

chopped oregano

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground hot italian sausage

Preparation:

If you decide you want to boil the noodles I’m pretty sure now would be the time to get that started.  While the noodles are boiling go ahead and put the ground beef and ground sausage in a pan to brown also add the garlic at this point.  Once completely browned, drain and set aside.  (Remember, you also have sausage in this pan so make sure to cook fully.)

While browning get the cheese spread ready.  In a large bowl, add the ricotta cheese, 1 package of the parmesan cheese, and two eggs.  Mix until completely mixed.

Start with a 13×9 inch lasagna pan and coat the bottom of the pan with a liberal dose of pasta sauce.  Then layer your noodles until you cover the entire bottom of the pan, and let the layering begin…

This is the order that I go, but you can choose your own adventure if you’d like:

First, cover the noodles with sauce, then I had 1/2 of the browned ground meat, then I add 1/2 of the cheese mixture.  I spread each to make sure that I have completely covered all of the noodles.  I then top that layer with mozzarella cheese, and then a new layer of noodles.  And repeat the steps to make another layer.

On top of the third layer of noodles, pour the alfredo sauce and spread to cover all the noodles.  Use the second bag of parmesan cheese to cover all of the alfredo.  Add the chopped oregano.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and let cook uncovered for 1:15 which should leave you with a nice cheesy crust on top.

Remove from oven and let stand for 20 minutes before serving.

I will tell you, this so freaking good and different enough from the norm that it will blow minds so be careful who you let try it.

Well, sorry I don’t have a picture of this stuff cookin but I guess I’ll just have to get over it and give you the recipe and show you some foods that were made with it in a few other posts.

Apple Chipotle BBQ Sauce

1 bottle of ketchup
1/4 cup mustard
1/2 cup of cider vinegar (you might add more to taste later)
4 tblsp worchestesire sauce
1/2 cup apple jelly
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (comes in the can that way)
1 beer (darker the better) or wine if you prefer

That is what you’ll need to make your base now my personal touch.

Sautee up:
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 sweet onion (finely chopped)
with 1 tblsp olive oil.

Once they start to get a little color add your beer (or wine if you prefer whatever you have on hand)

While this is going put the chipotle peppers in a blender and add water until the blender is 2/3 full and puree until it is a nice paste.

In the sautee pan now add all of the ingredients together and stir.  Let it simmer on medium heat remembering to stir regularly until you get a light boil.  Taste at this point and you may need to add more mustard and vinegar but it should have a nice bite to it.

If you want it hotter use 2 cans of chipotle peppers.

You are going to let this simmer for about 3 hours so the alcohol will cook out but it will have a really nice flavor at the end.

I had the neighbors over for dinner last night and wanted to throw a few twists at em so I grilled these chops, grilled a few balsamic glazed peaches, made some faux potatoes and sweet peas with baby portobello mushrooms and it really turned out pretty impressive.  I also made an awesome sugar free dessert but I’ll save that for another post.  The really cool thing was that my neighbors daughter ate the “potatoes” and said they were the best she had ever had.  I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was cauliflower I think it would have just crushed her dreams of not eating veggies haha.

Well, give it a shot, let me know what you think…

This recipe works perfect for about six chops, if you need more just make more!

For the Chops

1 package of pork chops

garlic salt

lemon pepper

Take the chops and season with garlic salt and lemon pepper to taste, make sure to season both sides and place in the fridge for a few minutes while you get the glaze ready.

For the Glaze

3 tblsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 can sliced peaches (in syrup)

2 tblsp Honey

2 tblsp Maple Syrup

1 tblsp lemon zest

1 tblsp Worcestershire Sauce

If you like a little heat (which I do) you can mince up 1 roasted jalapeno to add to the mixture.

This is easy, just combine the Balsamic Vinegar, the syrup from the can of peaches, two peach slices, and all of the other ingredients in a bowl.  Mash the peaches in as you are mixing all ingredients.  You don’t even have to cook this, it’s ready to glaze as is.  Now that wasn’t so tough was it?

Oh yeah, set a little bit of this glaze aside because you are going to want to use it after everything is cooked.

Ok, it’s time to grill

Place the chops on a hot grill for about 3 minutes on one side.  About a minute before flipping them brush the glaze over the chops and let them sit for another minute on the grill.  The goal here is to get everything nicely coated and only flip the chops once to get nice grill marks.

Now, flip the chops over and immediately brush the new side with the glaze.  Notice we didn’t brush this side before putting them on the grill?  Well, there is some sugar in the syrup that we used to make the glaze and we don’t want that sugar to burn as the chops grill.  So, now that they are flipped let them cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Turn the chops over as you remove them from the grill, this will have the freshly cooked side up, add just a little more glaze to the chops just to make em sparkle.  Oh, God, no I didn’t say sparkle, stupid Twilight!!!

Anyhow, go ahead and plate up the chops, now that they are on the plate, use the glaze that you set aside to drizzle over the chops for a perfect presentation.

This a pretty simple and quick fix to add to any side that you want to do.  Keep posted and I will put up some info on the faux potatoes, sweet peas, dessert, and grilled peaches pretty soon.

I hope you enjoy, remember, be safe and get out of the house and grill somethin!

If you get bored readin, just check out one of my videos and watch the fun happen right before your eyes, you probabaly won’t be disappointed.