HotSauceDaily

Arrange your taco shells like this, so they don’t collapse while heating.

Seems kinda trivial or silly, but this really works! By interlocking 4 shells, like you would fold a cardboard box, they each hold the next one open - the shells don’t collapse. This makes them much easier to fill with all your goodies.

Be sure to check out my Taco Seasoning Recipe - it’s simple to make, and is *much* better than those envelopes of salt/spices/chemicals sold as taco seasoning.

Tags: tacos, tips

These angled measuring cups are great! You can clearly see what you are measuring by simply looking down at the angled measurement marks, no need to lift the cup up into the air. Much more accurate this way.

I use the mini cup (2 ounces) as our main cocktail measure now.

If you’ve ever looked at these and thought they’re just plain goofey, well, maybe they are, but they work great, and clean-up easier than you’d think.

We picked up the set of three (1 cup, 2 cup & 4 cup) at Bed, Bath and Beyond for about $20. Cheaper than buying them separately at $8 or so each. They’re also on Amazon.com for about the same price.

Tags: cups, measure, oxo

Bone Suckin’ Sweet Hot Mustard is the key to this *easy* to make crock-pot recipe. Readers of this blog will see that I’m a hugh fan of Bone Suckin’ sauces.

Their Bone Suckin’ Mustard did not disappoint me.

Sweet at first, with brown sugar & molasses, then the heat kicks in… bits and pieces of jalapenos bite you back. It’s unlike any other sweet & hot mustard I’ve tried.

Bone Suckin’ Fireballs

• 16 oz Bone Suckin’ Sauce
• 12 oz Bone Suckin’ Mustard
• Big shot of Bone Suckin’ Hiccuppin’ Hot Sauce ( I used about 1/4 cup )
• 5 lbs pre-cooked meatballs (not the Italian style)

Dump all that goodness into your crockpot, cook on high for 1 hour, turn to low, finish cooking for about 3 - 4 hours. Serve them hot and watch them disappear. Yum!

Check out BoneSuckin.com for this and other awesome recipe ideas, and be sure to check out their other sauces too!

Tags: bbq sauce, bone suckin, crockpot, hotsauce, meatballs, mustard

This Caprese recipe features Rosso Bruno tomatoes. In the winter months, these small tomatoes are the closest thing to garden fresh I’ve ever tasted. They are about the size of a nectarine, or a large plum. Bursting with fresh from the garden flavor, they are delicious!

Caprese (pronounced ka-pray’-she) is a classic appetizer made with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil on bread or toast points.

These Rosso Bruno tomatoes are hard to find, but if your grocer carries them, you’ll love them.

A natural hybrid, you can read more about these at the grower’s website: www.dulcinea.com

Are these little treasures in YOUR area?  How do you like them?  Click the comment link below!

Tags: basil, mozzarella, tomatoes

I’m really anxious to try Tabasco’s new Sweet & Spicy flavor of their first ever dipping sauce! It comes in their traditional bottle, but they are marketing it as their first dipping sauce for Asian-Style foods.

Somebody at the McIlhenny Company’s Avery Island outfit is very excited about this sauce, as evidenced by all the suggested uses on the bottle’s carton:

• DIP: Use straight from the bottle as a dip for chicken fingers, french fries, grilled shrimp, spring rolls, fried chicken, taquitos, vegetables and more.
• MIX: Mix TABASCO SWEET & Spicy Pepper Sauce with an equal amount of mustard to make a tasty mustard for hot dogs, hamburgers and sausage. Or brush it on baked or grilled ham or chicken as a glaze.
• QUICK FIX: Pour TABASCO SWEET & Spicy Pepper Sauce over a block of cream cheese. Use as a spread for crackers.
• New TABASCO SWEET & Spicy Pepper Sauce adds a sweet twist to many popular foods. It’s perfect for parties or snacking - a real crowd pleaser.

(marketing people are funny - SWEET & Spicy Pepper Sauce is always printed that way with the mix of caps and italics. )

You hold the very first pepper sauce from TABASCO brand that you can use as a dipping sauce, glaze or basting sauce and as a condiment.

TABASCO SWEET & Spicy Pepper Sauce is made by blending ginger and other favorite Asian flavors with TABASCO Pepper Sauce. So, try it when food calls for a little sweet heat.

Tags: asian, dipping sauce, garlic, ginger, hot sauce, spicy, sweet, sweet & spicy, tabasco

Pickapeppa Jerk Seasoning, Bone Suckin BBQ Sauce on chicken legs, done on the grill, and eaten until our eyes rolled back… I can barely write this post. It was that good!

The Big Picture:

We smeared the Pickapeppa Jerk Seasoning onto the chicken, and put them in the Fridge overnight to get all happy. Then we grilled the chicken sloooowly over indirect low heat on the grill. Near the end of grilling, we slathered a bbq sauce made with Bone Suckin’ Sauce and Busha Browne’s Spicy Jerk Sauce to get a nice glaze and to add some sweetness to the mix.

Served with cole slaw and beer… this recipe was truly “food porn” and everyone was happy!

The Details:

We cut up the chicken leg “quarters” into drumsticks and thighs. This was messy and time consuming to me, but Wifey came to the rescue. Personally, I’d be happy buying the chicken parts all ready to go. But we got a great deal on the package, so we went with it.

(Now, all this coming from a white-meat lover… but I’ve learned the delicious secrets of dark meat, and am now converted. Besides, white meat dries out too fast.)

We coated the chicken parts, by hand, with the Pickapeppa Jerk Seasoning… getting under the skin, as well as on top. We then placed the chicken in the Fridge to marinate overnight.

We grilled ‘em, sauced ‘em, and then ate ‘em. The End……………. Oh. You want more details?
Okie dokie.
Read on…

The Grillin’ part: I set up the Weber Kettle for a 2-zone medium fire. A handful of wood chips were tossed on the hot coals.

The chicken was placed skin-side down and cooked for 1 hour over indirect heat. (About 250-275°) Tip: point the legs towards the fire.

After 1 hour, the chicken pieces were flipped over, and cooked for another 45 min. to 1 hour. At this point, add more charcoal to keep things going, and throw some more wood chips on the hot coals.

Within the last 20 minutes, I basted the pieces a few times with the Bone Suckin’ / Busha Browne mixture. This created a wonderful, sweet, spicy glaze as you can see in the pics.

Bottom Line:

Ingredients:

• 6 drumsticks & 6 thighs - about 3-5lbs chicken
• 3-5 Tbls Pickapeppa Jerk Seasoning - about 1 Tbls per pound
• 1/4 Cup Busha Browne’s Spicy Jerk Sauce
• 1/8 Cup Bone Suckin’ Sauce (BBQ)
• handful of soaked wood chips or chunks (approx. 1 cup)

I hope this recipe inspires you to try jerking your chicken on the grill. If you have any questions, please contact me.

In the near future, I hope to have a jerk chicken cook-off, comparing 3 or 4 jerk seasonings I have on hand: Walkerswood Traditional Jerk Seasoning, Neera’s Hot Jamaican Jerk Spice Grilling Paste, and Pickapeppa Jerk Seasoning.

I would LOVE to know what you think of this recipe! Please submit a Comment below!

Tags: bbq, bone suckin, busha browne, chicken, glazed, grill, hot, jerk, marinade, pickapeppa, spicy

Celery, paprika, garlic in a rib rub equals sweet, spicy heaven on a bone!

We seasoned our ribs with the Powderpuff BBQ team’s rib rub recipe, braised them in the oven with a Cider Squirt basting sauce, and finished them off with Bone Suckin’ BBQ sauce. The Bone Suckin’ Sauce is very thin, so it’s a great finishing glaze.

These are the *best* ribs we’ve ever cooked, bar none!!

Apparently, the team’s founder and pit master, Janeyce Michel-Cupito, has temporarily retired.

I found this recipe in Steven Raichlen’s “Sauces, Rubs and Marinades” where he writes

In 1993, Powderpuff won first place in the KC Royal rib competition for these smoky, mahogany-colored ribs. This is all the more remarkable because Janeyce served them Memphis-style (dry) in a city that loves a sweet, sticky barbecue sauce.

This is such a simple rub recipe! I was attracted to it because the base of celery salt sounded so good and different. After tasting the original recipe, I decided I wanted a hit of dry mustard, and so added 2 Tbs to it.

Powderpuff Rib Rub*

• 1/2 cup celery salt
• 1/3 cup paprika
• 1/3 cup dried garlic flakes (McCormick’s minced garlic)
• 3 Tbls fresh ground pepper
• 2 Tbls dry mustard*

*-we added the dry mustard

Makes 1 cup rub - enough for 4lbs of ribs.

Cider Squirt basting / mop sauce: *

• 2 c. apple cider
• 3/4 c. cider vinegar
• 1/2 c. bourbon (we had Scotch on hand, what the hell…)
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 c. worchestershire sauce
• 1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 t. salt

Combine all ingredients is saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool, and place in spray bottle, or bowl to spray or brush on ribs every 30 minutes or so. Keeps for 1 or 2 days.

*Steve Raichlen's "Sauces, Rubs & Marinades", pg 111

Here’s how we built these awesome ribs:

1. We rubbed 2 racks of baby-back ribs with the Powderpuff Rub, and let them get happy in the fridge for an hour or so.
2. Wrapping each rack in foil, we poured in about 1/4 cup of the Cider Squirt into each packet.
3. Placed the ribs into a 350 degree oven** for about 2 hours - you want to see some of the meat pulling back from the bone at this point.
4. Get those ribs out of the oven, take them out of the foil, and place ‘em on indirect heat on your grill.
5. After 30 mins on the grill, spray them with the Cider Squirt and turn them over for another 30 min.
6. Okay, time to turn them over again, and squirt them again.
7. After an hour on the grill, they’re begging for some sauce, so brush them with the Bone Suckin’ or whatever your favorite bbq sauce is, for the last 15 minutes of their life on the grill.
8. Bring these puppies in, and serve with your favorite sides and enjoy!

** - Raichlen would *never* agree to starting ribs in the oven - he’d make me eat a bag of McRib sandwiches first! Sorry Steve, it’s Winter in Maryland!

Tags: bbq, celery salt, dry mustard, garlic, paprika, ribs, rub

Bone Suckin’ Sauces are all natural, fat free, gluten free, and NO high fructose corn syrup.

This is my new BBQ friend… I love this stuff.

We made our Powderpuff Rub Ribs with Bone Suckin’ Original sauce. A nice, thin sauce that makes a great finishing glaze on your ribs or chicken.

They also make this sauce in Thicker Style (pictured), Hot, and Hot Thicker styles.

Ingredients:

• Tomato Paste, Apple Cider Vinegar, Honey, Molasses, Mustard, Horseradish, Lemon Juice, Onions
• Garlic, Peppers, Natural Hickory Smoke Flavor, Natural Spices, Salt & Xanthan Gum (natural thickener)

Their Hot Sauce is also pretty darn tasty! “Hiccuppin’ Hot” is what they call it, and with all the same quality ingredients as the BBQ sauces, with the addition of Habanero pepper… it kicks butt!

http://bonesuckin.com

Tags: bbq, bbq sauce, bone suckin, glaze, hot

Smoky, hot chipotle peppers in a seasoned adobo tomato sauce. Candy in a can!

Chipotle (pronounced “chee-POHT-lay”) peppers are ripe, red jalapenos that have been dried and smoked. In their dried form, they look brown and leathery. In the sweet, adobo sauce, they are soft and red.

The adobo sauce, which can be purchased canned by itself, is a lightly spiced, thin tomato sauce. See ingredients below.

These babies are hot, smoky and sweet. You have to chop them to use in recipes, because the whole pepper is too big and hot to add whole.

Chop some up and throw in your burgers before cooking, add to barbecue sauces, baked beans… or whenever you want that fresh, hot and smoky chipotle flavor in your recipe!

They are the base for my Mega’s Smoky Chipotle Salsa as well as the main ingredient in Rachel Ray’s “Texas Hold-ums Mini Chipotle Burgers with Warm Fire-roasted Garlic Ketchup” - yea, it’s a mouthfull! But they are incredibly good!

I prefer the La Morena brand, or La Costena or Herdez brands. Stay away from the San Marcos brand, I think they are inferior.

After opening, these keep in the fridge for 3-4 weeks in an airtight container.

Ingredients:

• chipotle peppers, tomato puree, paprika, sugar, salt, onions, sesame oil, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves and oregano

You should be able to buy canned chipotles in adobo at your grocer -look in the international foods isle.

TheSpiceHouse.com offers canned, as well as dried and powdered versions of chipotles.

If you’d like to make your own, I found this recipe that looks pretty authentic, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Tags: adobo, burgers, canned, chipotle, salsa, smoked, smoky

Sriracha HOT chili sauce, crispy chicken wings, and tons of garlic, make these spicy wings the *best* chicken wings we’ve ever cooked!

The wings are marinated in olive oil & spices, then baked for 30 mins. before being deep-fried to finish cooking, and get their wonderfully crispy skin. Then, you toss them in the Sriracha, butter, cilantro, and garlic sauce before serving. Yum!!!

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds chicken wings, split (serves 4)
• 3-4 quarts vegetable oil for deep-frying

For the marinade:

• 1/8 cup ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbl kosher salt
• 1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the sauce:

• 1/3 to 1/2 cup Sriracha chili sauce (or to taste)
• 3/4 stick (6 tbl) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced

—————————————————–

1. In a large bowl, combine coriander, cumin, cinnamon, salt and olive oil. Toss in wings to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight. (We put the wings in a 2 1/2 gal zip-loc bag and poured in the marinade)
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place wings in a single layer on large, rimmed baking sheet(s). Roast for about 30 minutes, until wings are firm, but not done. (They’ll finish cooking in the deep-fryer)
3. In a clean bowl, add Sriracha, butter, cilantro, zest and juice, and garlic
4. Working in small batches, deep-fry wings until crispy and browned, about 5 min - add each batch to sauce, and toss to coat well
5. Serve hot, on a platter with your favorite condiments

(serves 4 - figure 1lb wings per person)

Brian’s Tips:

The lightly seasoned marinade seems to hardly be enough to flavor the chicken wings, but, trust me… it does it’s job.

I’m usually the “more must be better, right?” kind of cook… so I was disappointed in the volume of this marinade. But it really gets the job done with “less is more” attitude.

You would think the hot Sriracha sauce would be too much to handle, but it mellows after blending with the butter, and soaking into the wings.

We added the minced garlic to the sauce, but next time, we are going to save some to throw on the finished wings instead - adding a raw, crunchy garlic flavor. Reminds us of Beck’s Garlic hot wings, in Sykesville, MD. Anyone?

The original recipe by Cleveland, OH, Chef Michael Symon, is in the Feb ‘08 issue of Food and Wine Magazine.

Update (04/01/08): Sriracha Sauce needs no refrigeration.

Any questions? Would love to hear from you. Email me at: hotsaucedaily [at] gmail.com

Let me know if you try this, and how much you like this awesome wing recipe!

Tags: garlic, hot, spicy, sriracha, wings