A pork rib roast is a glorious holiday feast centerpiece that’s every bit as delicious and eye-catching as a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/win-the-holidays-with-herb-crusted-sous-vide-prime-rib-rib-roast prime rib] or a beautifully glazed [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/transform-pork-shoulder-into-a-spiral-fresh-glazed-ham ham], provided you treat it right. This recipe and method guarantee you a picture-perfect glazed pork roast that also tastes incredible. Buy the right cut; [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pork-roast-butchery trim, french, and truss it correctly] (or have a butcher do it for you); cook it gently so the tender, lean loin is just past blushing; and then brush it with [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/root-beer-glaze Sweet and Sticky Root Beer Glaze]. Finally, finish it in a hot oven to yield pink, perfectly cooked meat ringed around by a deeply burnished sweet-savory exterior. You’ll have one of the most impressive roasts you, or your guests, have ever seen. It’s so good it may make you wonder why we all make such a big fuss over the standing rib roast when the pork rib roast has been right there the entire time!
If the [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/classic-oven-roasted-standing-rib-roast standing prime rib roast] is the king of the holiday table, that’s only because most people overlook its porcine cousin: a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/glazed-pork-roast pork roast]! To make this under-appreciated roast shine, you have to source really good pork and use the right cut, and it has to be trimmed, frenched, and trussed properly. Even if you’re not planning on doing all of this yourself, it’s helpful to understand the process, as it will make it easier to buy what you need. Our method for frenching a pork rib roast is designed to make the roast look as appealing as possible, which has the added advantage of producing a discrete off-cut consisting entirely of rib meat, which you can cook up as a delicious chef’s snack!
[link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/glazed-pork-roast Pork roasts] and [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/transform-pork-shoulder-into-a-spiral-fresh-glazed-ham hams] just cry out for a sweet and sticky savory glaze, and this old-fashioned root beer glaze produces a gorgeous caramel-colored coating that makes the savory pork even more delicious. Using root beer as a base provides caramel coloring, hints of vanilla and sarsaparilla, and a hit of tanginess from the citric acid (or, sometimes, phosphoric acid), which is used as a preservative and flavor enhancer in sodas. To capture the more pronounced botanical notes of old-fashioned root beer formulas, we bolster the glaze with dried sassafras and sarsaparilla so the root beer flavor really pops (similar to what we do with our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/root-beer-syrup Root Beer Syrup]), and the extra honey and sugar guarantee the glaze takes on the right texture when it’s slathered over a roast, producing a thin, even, and beautifully shiny coating.
Blini come in all shapes and sizes, although in the States we typically think of them as delicious little vehicles for caviar and [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/creme-fraiche crème fraîche]. Our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/buckwheat-blini Buckwheat Blini] are perfectly designed for that purpose, but after all the work we did on [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/buttermilk-pancake-parametric buttermilk pancake varieties], we came up with this tangy spin on the classic. With slight adjustments to the batter from our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/buttermilk-pancakes Precision Buttermilk Pancakes], these blini are the perfect foil for caviar or silky slices of [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smoked-salmon-nova smoked salmon].
Why should Cronuts, [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/kouign-amann--2 kouign-amanns], or [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/the-secret-to-mastering-croissants-at-home croissants] have all the crispy, multi-layered fun? Why can’t potatoes get the lamination treatment? We call this the potato “croissant”: a golden-brown, buttery, crispy-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside rosette of deep-fried potato slices. You can call it 100% delicious. This idea came about while developing our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/potato-pave Potato Pavé]. We wanted to get all those layers but make them all crispier and prettier. And we did it.
Top-tier fried potatoes have a couple things in common: crispy on the outside, creamy and tender within. That goes for [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-crispy-french-fries (good) fries], it goes for tots, and it goes for [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/air-fried-smashed-potatoes air-fried spuds], too. Put those two qualities together with a stunning mille-feuille look and what do you get? The potato pavé, aka the crispy and creamy potato preparation that’s designed to live on fine dining restaurant menus and blow up on your social feeds. You might see it served as a canapé—a squat square of potato layers almost magically fused together, its crispy exterior adorned with a dollop of [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/creme-fraiche crème fraîche] and a mound of caviar. You might see it as part of the set for a meat course, alongside [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/poulet-farci Poulet Farci] and a pool of [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/chicken-demi-glace demi-glace]. Or, you might serve it up as the fanciest tater tot of all time. You can do whatever you want with this fun little bit of potato wizardry. It’s a little bit of a process, sure, but the payoff is 100% worth it. And if you want to really up the ante, check out our leveled-up version: [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/potato-croissants the Potato “Croissant!”]
Silky [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-make-a-quick-pan-sauce pan sauces] and rich [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/turkey-gravy gravies] can make a good meal great. The beauty of pan sauces and gravies is they’re not just delicious liquids, they’re delicious <em>emulsions</em>. That means they’re made up of tiny globules of tasty fat completely surrounded by and suspended within water (fortified, hopefully, with some of the tasty brown bits of fond scraped up off the bottom of the pan). But if that emulsion breaks, which can happen in the blink of an eye while it’s reducing on the stove, all that beauty disappears. The silky smooth sauce splits into a greasy mess that you certainly don’t want to pour over a beautiful plate of roast turkey and fluffy mashed potatoes. Don’t worry, though, the fix is in, and it’s easy. How do you save a broken pan sauce or gravy (and your meal)? Just add water! <b>WHAT YOU’LL NEED:</b><br> Skillet or saucepan<br> Broken pan sauce or gravy<br> Water or stock<br> Whisk<br>
A good pumpkin pie has a crisp, flaky crust and a silky-smooth custard filling. Unfortunately, most pumpkin pies miss the mark. This recipe gets you a perfect pumpkin pie. There’s no tricks, no gimmicks; in fact, it’s nearly identical to the recipe you’ll find on the can of pumpkin purée. Getting this pie right just comes down to technique and a few tweaks. We blind-bake the pie crust properly, so it’s nicely browned, super flaky, and crisp. (Just like with our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-quiche Ultimate Cheese Quiche]!) For the filling, we boost the amount of egg yolks and spices, and then cook it nice and slow, so the custard is smooth, rich, and extra custardy. This is the pumpkin pie that you’ve been waiting for.
A [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-better-way-to-turkey-cook-that-bird-sous-vide-for-the-best-feast-ever holiday roast turkey] isn’t complete without a great [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/turkey-gravy gravy], right? And for the best gravy, you need to start with great stock. We’ve designed this recipe to work with the bones and trim leftover from [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/turkey-butchery-how-to-separate-breasts-thighs breaking down a turkey] for any of our killer sous vide turkey recipes. Since you’ll probably need the turkey stock, stat, we use a pressure cooker to speed up the process—just like in our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pressure-cooked-brown-chicken-stock Pressure-Cooked Brown Chicken Stock]—which will get you a rich, brown stock in a fraction of the time it would take with a simmering approach. [fetchActivity turkey-gravy]
For many folks, Thanksgiving is synonymous with Butterball turkey. A Butterball’s promise of juicy, succulent, and tender meat—no matter how you cook it—is hard to pass up. And if it’s your one shot in the year to cook a turkey, why stress when you can depend on a sure thing? We love that! We just wanted to make it even better. This is our take on a Butterball turkey—super-juicy and tender, but not watered down in flavor, and certainly not overcooked. You can call it the Betterball.
How do you transform a chicken into a Michelin-starred dish? You make poulet farci, a fancy French term for a fancy chicken-stuffed roast chicken crown! Inception chicken, incroyable! You get all the best parts of a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-roast-chicken perfect roast chicken]—browned skin and juicy breast meat—but with the added bonus of a luxurious mushroom-and-herb-flecked farce, made with the dark meat, layered between the skin and breast. It’s an absolute showstopper of a dish and makes for the perfect holiday centerpiece for a small gathering.
Everybody loves a juicy and tender [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/diy-butterball-turkey Butterball turkey] or Costco rotisserie chicken. But most people only eat turkey once a year, and only the elite have access to Kirkland’s exclusive members-only club. So, we engineered our own Butterball-inspired chicken! This is the best rotisserie chicken you’ll ever have, no spinning rotisserie setup required. The key to a Butterball bird and grocery store rotisserie chickens is all in the brine, which is enhanced with a secret ingredient: phosphates. Specifically, sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP). STPP increases the water-holding capacity of a bird, so that it stays extra juicy even when the breast is hammered to the USDA-recommended [f 165] internal temp, and it also makes the bird more tender. By taking matters into our own hands and injecting a high-quality bird with a STPP-enhanced brine, we’re able to achieve the best of the rotisserie chicken world: a super-juicy, tender, and flavorful bird that’s not over-saturated in brine, and is actually cooked to the proper core temperature (don’t tell the authorities). This is the Butterball rotisserie chicken of your dreams.
The best chicken stock is homemade—no question. But sometimes what you need isn’t “the best”; sometimes you just need something that works well enough. Convenience, sometimes, is king. We take an all-of-the-above approach to chicken stock—we always recommend making and using your own [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pressure-cooked-brown-chicken-stock brown] or [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pressure-cooked-blond-chicken-stock blond] chicken stock, but we sometimes list boxed chicken stock as an acceptable sub, and we sometimes call for chicken bouillon powder. That doesn’t mean all these products should be used in the same way. In this guide, we’ll identify the ways we recommend using the various chicken stock products you can buy at the store, and the reasons why we use them in the way we do. For a quick glance at our recommendations, here are our favorite store-bought chicken stock substitutes from each category: <b>Boxed chicken stock:</b> [link https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Foods-Organic-Chicken-Carton/dp/B0CVSHY91T?tag=chefsteps02-20 Pacific Foods Chicken Broth]<br> <b>Chicken bouillon powder:</b> [link https://www.amazon.com/Totole-Granulated-Chicken-Flavor-Soup/dp/B007DMV732?tag=chefsteps02-20 Totole Granulated Chicken Bouillon] <br> <b>Chicken bouillon concentrate:</b> [link https://www.amazon.com/Better-Than-Bouillon-Reduced-Roasted/dp/B0087VVOB8?tag=chefsteps02-20 Better Than Bouillon] (our favorite store-bought chicken stock)<br> [fetchActivity pressure-cooked-blond-chicken-stock] [fetchActivity pressure-cooked-brown-chicken-stock]
A lot of roast chicken recipes promise crispy skin and perfectly cooked meat but fail to deliver on both. The only recipe that truly delivers on those promises is our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-roast-chicken Ultimate Roast Chicken]. But there’s another way to cook a chicken so it’s got crisp skin and perfectly cooked meat: chicken under a brick. For our version, we debone a half chicken and use skewers to anchor the parts together, which produces a flat plane of chicken skin on top of the meat, maximizing surface area contact with the pan, speeding up the cook time, and ensuring that the white and dark meat cook perfectly at the same rate. But the real key is that brick: By using an ample amount of oil, the brick keeps the skin below the level of the oil so it basically shallow-fries. Controlled unilateral cooking on the skin side produces super-crispy skin and perfectly juicy chicken.
Chicken salad often tastes more like mayo than chicken. Most mayo—for better or for worse—masks all of chicken’s delicate flavors. But what if the mayo in your chicken salad actually tasted like roast chicken, too? Sounds pretty great, right? This recipe has all the classic flavors of chicken salad, but amps up the chicken flavor with a generous helping of our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/roasted-chicken-fat-mayo Roasted Chicken Fat Mayo]. To boost the chicken flavor even further, we add a little chicken bouillon powder. This is the most chicken-y chicken salad ever. WFH lunches just got a whole lot better.
How do you improve upon the best condiment in the world ([link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/japanese-kewpie-style-mayo mayo])? Spike it with the flavor of a beautifully roasted chicken. One of the best parts of a roast chicken isn’t the chicken itself, but what settles at the bottom of the pan after a long roast: golden, rendered chicken fat and flavorful fond. Tragically, this stuff often gets tossed out, but savvy cooks will turn those drippings into a sauce or even use them to coat and cook vegetables. But why not use it to make mayo? [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/double-chicken-salad Chicken salad], chicken sandos, and chicken Caesar wraps with double the chicken flavor? Yes, please.
This chicken demi-glace is an elegant vehicle for delivering ultra-concentrated, roasted chicken essence in an umami-packed sauce, and it’s the ultimate secret weapon for leveling up your chicken dinners. Unlike our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/beef-demi-glace beef demi-glace] and our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/umami-bomb-vegetarian-demi-glace vegetarian demi-glace], we don’t use any tricks or thickeners for this chicken demi. It’s just carefully prepared chicken stock fortified with aromatics and sherry, reduced down to a perfect sticky, spoon-coating consistency. We don’t always mess with the classics.
Consommé is the apex of refinement: A strong, full-flavored stock is clarified using a little kitchen alchemy to produce a delicious, crystal-clear broth. It’s one of those French classics that you learn to make in culinary school and then often never think about again. But you should think about it, because it's fantastic as a sipping broth or elegant soup base. This recipe uses the classic technique of creating an egg white “raft.” Egg whites blended with aromatic vegetables, herbs, and lean protein (in this case, chicken breast) are stirred into good stock, then the mixture is slowly heated. The proteins in the egg whites and chicken breast bond to form a raft that slowly floats to the surface of the pot, grabbing and holding onto any particulate matter and fat in the stock.
Not all pozole is created equal. A deceptively simple soup, packed with plump kernels of hominy and tender morsels of meat and served with an array of raw vegetables and crunchy stuff like tortilla chips and fried pork rinds, pozole can run the gamut from bland to holy-smokes-this-is-good. Our pozole rojo might just be the champion of the latter camp. With a rich pork stock serving as the base, heirloom corn kernels transformed into perfectly cooked hominy, and a rust-red mole made from dried pasilla and guajillo chiles, it’s packed with flavor. Add in our secret ingredient—[link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/classic-carnitas Classic Carnitas]—and all other pozoles will pale in comparison.
Carnitas is a classic of Mexican cuisine: confit pork cooked gently until meltingly tender, then fried until crispy and stuffed into warm tortillas and topped with a bright salsa to balance the richness of the meat. This version uses traditional technique, dialed in with precision. We confit the pork low and slow in lard, then jack the temperature of the fat up to crisp the meat to finish. In a nod to whole hog carnitas preparations, we use both pork butt and ribs to produce more textural variation. The one-pot method offers one distinct benefit over other techniques, like using sous vide or an oven: You can pull the different cuts of pork from the fat when they reach your desired doneness and just slide them back in when you’re ready to bump up the temp for the finish. You can serve the carnitas in tacos, or you can put them (or leftovers!) to use in a killer [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pozole-rojo Pozole Rojo].
Shrimp toast is all about texture: juicy, succulent shrimp mousse cooked to a just-bouncy consistency, resting on an ultra-crispy, fried layer of fluffy milk bread. It’s crispy, it’s unctuous, it’s savory, and it offers an irresistible cascade of textures and flavors. That’s probably why dim sum restaurants sell shrimp toast in multiples, knowing full well you could never eat just one. Shrimp toast is usually deep fried in triangles to a uniform golden brown. This version is pan fried, but the result is arguably more impressive, showcasing several distinct layers: golden brown toast, fluffy white milk bread, perfectly cooked shrimp, and a crown of perfectly toasted sesame seeds.
What do you get when you combine the richness of a braised pork shank, the delicate texture of a custard, the juiciness of a soup dumpling, and the bounciness of a good old-fashioned meatball? You get Lion’s Head Meatballs (shīzǐ tóu). The name alludes to their shape, which is said to resemble the head of the Chinese guardian lion. And they’re just as regal and majestic as they sound: massive, baseball-sized pork meatballs that are deep fried, then braised in a savory, aromatic sauce until they’re meltingly tender on the inside, but still springy on the outside. The secret is a multi-pronged approach to make the meat mixture both bouncy and tender: two methods of chemical tenderization, mechanical manipulation, and an ultra-long cooking time.
Egg foo young is a distinctly Chinatown dish that’s been a mainstay in Chinese menus as far back as the mid-1800s. And it’s not hard to see why: It’s basically a deep-fried, savory omelet packed with all kinds of meats and vegetables, and draped in velvety, umami-rich brown sauce. It’s crispy, it’s savory, it’s a little greasy, and it’s deeply satisfying. This recipe puts a new spin on the takeout classic, but cranks up the crisp factor to 11, drawing inspiration from Thai crispy omelets, or khai jiao. It’s crispier and craggier than a traditional egg foo young, but with a super-light texture. And best of all, it’s not greasy or dense.
Chinatown barbecue shops with char siu, roast duck, and soy sauce chicken hanging in their front windows specialize in a variety of foods collectively called siu mei—a catchall term for meats often roasted over an open-fire. There are few foods as emblematic of siu mei than Cantonese roast pork belly, or siu yuk—fragrant, succulent meat hiding beneath a uniform layer of golden brown, super-crispy skin. This version is a calculated spin on the traditional process of roasting a side of cured, skin-on pig over an open fire, utilizing a few modern-day techniques. We cook the pork sous vide, ensuring a consistent, luscious texture throughout the meat. The low, slow process of sous vide also renders the otherwise tough skin soft and pliable, which makes pricking the skin—an essential step in creating siu yuk’s characteristic crispy, bubbly, crackled crust—light work. To guarantee the skin crisps and puffs, we air dry the cooked pork for three days, and then blast it in a hot oven (ideally, an air fryer). The result is a delight in textures and flavors: silky, salty, melt-in-your mouth meat and a deeply golden brown, crispy-crunchy skin.
People think Texas barbecue is all about beef: [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket thick slabs of tender, smoky brisket] and Lone Star State–sized beef ribs. But Texans also smoke some killer pork ribs. Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ gave us the rundown on how to make the best Texas-style spareribs. Like brisket, they’re a study in moderation: completely tender, but with a little bite; seasoned with a judicious amount of salt and black pepper to get a nicely textured bark; and a spare lacquering of barbecue sauce, applied right toward the end, bumps up the flavor while allowing the taste of pork and smoke to really come through. We’ve done ribs before but never ribs like these. Our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-ribs-incredible-barbecue-no-smoker-required sous vide ribs], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/apartment-ribs-smokerless-smoked-ribs-the-og-version apartment ribs], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/oven-kansas-city-style-barbecue-ribs Kansas City–style oven ribs], and [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/dry-style-baby-back-ribs smoked ribs] recipes will all get you a stellar rib dinner, but they all use baby backs. This recipe uses [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/spareribs-baby-back-ribs-what-is-the-difference whole spareribs], and they’re smoked from start to finish on a regular old charcoal grill—no offset smoker required.
Not all pork ribs are the same. When shopping for ribs, you basically have two options: <b>spareribs</b> and <b>baby back ribs</b>. Spareribs can be broken down further to produce two other cuts: <b>St. Louis–style ribs</b> and <b>rib tips</b>. Butchers and barbecue pros generally favor spareribs over baby backs, but both can be delicious when treated right. This guide will take you through the key differences so you can find the perfect rib for you.
The trickiest part about serving barbecue, whether it’s [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket brisket], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/texas-style-barbecue-ribs ribs], or [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/bbq-pork-shoulder pork shoulder], is serving it while it’s still warm. Smoking meat is a technique that [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/bbq-brisket-timeline operates on its own schedule], or rather, the meat’s schedule: It takes hours and hours to transform [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/decoding-tough-and-tender-cuts tough cuts into tender], smoky, barky barbecue. When the meat is finally done cooking, it needs to rest. And once it’s done resting, you need to serve it while it’s still warm. With so many variables in play, getting the timing right can be a nightmare. But if you’ve got an insulated cooler, you can extend the resting window of your smoked meats, keeping them warm and juicy until you’re ready to sit down and eat. Barbecue that’s ready on your schedule–that’s more like it. <b>WHAT YOU’LL NEED:</b><br> [link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0842CNQ94/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0842CNQ94&linkCode=as2&tag=chefsteps02-20&linkId=39db2853d6d60c22728abc190c1939a3 Insulated cooler]<br> Hot water<br> Kitchen towel<br> [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket Cooked] and [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-wrap-bbq-brisket wrapped barbecue]<br>
When you make a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket Texas-style brisket], you end up with a lot of [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-trim-brisket-bbq trim]. And one of the best things you can do with that trim is grind it up and make smoked brisket burgers. They’ve got everything you love about smoked brisket, but they only take a couple of hours instead of 14 (or more!). Rich and juicy, with a beautifully smoky crust that’s reminiscent of the best barbecue bark, they’re an upgrade on your regular old backyard grilled burgers, not least because the low-and-slow smoke—which makes it easy to nail whatever internal temperature you like—dries out the exterior so you can get a killer sear. While nothing compares to a masterfully smoked brisket, these burgers come very, very close.
Trimming a brisket properly is the first step in making a great [link ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket barbecue brisket]. Trimming helps the brisket cook more evenly, producing even bark formation; golden, rendered fat; and juicy meat. The goal for barbecue pros is to produce a smoked brisket that’s cooked in a way that every single slice will satisfy discerning paying customers. So, if you want to serve competition-worthy brisket, start by trimming your brisket like a pro.
Once you’ve [link how-to-trim-brisket-bbq trimmed], seasoned, smoked, [link how-to-wrap-bbq-brisket wrapped], and rested your [link ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket barbecue brisket], it’s time to slice it. Just like every other technique associated with producing Texas-style barbecue brisket, the method for slicing it up is tailor-made to the preparation, designed to minimize waste and ensure that every slice that comes off the brisket has structural integrity and is surrounded by a continuous layer of undamaged bark. We asked Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ to show us how it’s done. Grab your serrated bread knife and your perfectly cooked brisket, and let’s get into it.
We’ve tackled Texas-style barbecue brisket before. We’ve developed two indoor recipes that get you as close as you can get to the real thing without a smoker, using both [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-brisket sous vide] and a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/oven-barbecue-brisket low-temperature oven]. But we’ve never done <em>the real deal</em> smoked brisket—until now. To get it right, we turned to pro pitmaster Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ, who honed his craft for years at some of the top barbecue spots in Central Texas. Joe lives, breathes, and dreams about barbecue. He walked us through every detailed step of the brisket process: [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/bbq-brisket-timeline how to plan the cook], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-trim-brisket-bbq how to trim brisket], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-wrap-bbq-brisket how to wrap it], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-slice-bbq-brisket how to slice it]. And, of course, how to smoke the dang thing! Best of all? He showed us how to make pro-level brisket with a regular old charcoal grill. No offset smoker required. This is the best brisket you’ll ever have. We guarantee it.
[link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-smoked-bbq-brisket Smoking a Texas-style brisket] takes time—<em>a lot</em> of time—and patience. Transforming the oddly shaped cut of meat with two distinct muscle groups and tons of connective tissue and intramuscular fat so that it can be cleanly sliced, with each slice consisting of tender, juicy meat surrounded by a distinct ring of bark, is a careful balancing act of time, temperature, and moisture levels. And even when you’ve accomplished that perfectly, serving it to your family and friends at a reasonable hour requires serious scheduling skills. There’s no point in making the perfect brisket if you make everyone wait around until 11 p.m. to eat it! Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ helped us create this smoked brisket timeline to give you all the information you need to know to serve your perfectly smoked brisket at its peak, at whatever time works for you.
Wrapping is one of the key techniques for making great barbecue brisket. The wrap can be used for two purposes: to help rest a finished brisket or to help finish cooking a brisket that needs a little help getting to the “memory foam” tenderness we’re looking for in the flat before pulling it off the smoker to rest. For resting, the wrap ensures that every part of the oddly shaped cut of meat cools at a similar rate, so all those hours you spent smoking the brisket don’t go to waste. As a cooking finishing move, the wrap allows you to [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/bbq-brisket-timeline bump up the temperature of the smoker in the final stages of tenderization] without drying it out or burning the bark. We asked pitmaster Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ to demonstrate three techniques: two butcher paper methods—a beginner and a pro-level wrap—and a new-school “foil boat” method.
A great steak dinner doesn’t start in your kitchen—it starts at the store. The difference between a so-so meal and a stellar one isn’t just about cooking technique. Sourcing the best quality beef that fits your budget is just as important as getting a good sear and nailing the internal temperature. To help you cut through the noise and buy the best steak cuts possible while also taking into account your flavor preferences and budget, we put together this buying guide.
Whenever you go to a steakhouse, a butcher, or even the grocery store, you’re presented with a lot of industry jargon and confusing marketing terminology. From the diet and breed of the animal to the yield and quality grades, as well as how extensively it has been aged, there’s just a lot of information to sort through and analyze. To demystify the wide world of beef, we’ve put together this guide.
There’s nothing like a great steak dinner. Rosy red beef, [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/perfect-pomme-puree some spuds], a side of [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/creamed-spinach creamed spinach], an [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/wedge-salad ice-cold wedge salad], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/shrimp-cocktail shrimp cocktail], and a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-chocolate-cake towering slice of cake] to cap things off. Our only beef with a steakhouse feast? The dent that it puts in your wallet if you’re footing the bill. With that in mind, we’ve set out to save you a few bucks by bringing the [link https://www.chefsteps.com/steakhouse steakhouse to your house]. Grant and master butcher Kevin Smith of Seattle’s [link https://beastandcleaver.com Beast and Cleaver] and [link https://www.thepeasant.com The Peasant] teamed up to select 10 different cuts of steak and cook them 10 different ways, ranging from chophouse classics like a mammoth porterhouse, to sleeper value steaks like a cheap chuck steak. We’ve got steaks that can feed a crowd, and we have steaks for folks on a tight budget. There’s enough boeuf for everyone!
Say goodbye to London broil and say hello to the London Royale! London broil is a value steak, typically cut from the round, and it may be the worst named steak in the world. The cut doesn’t exist in London, for one thing, and this tough cut should never, ever, be broiled. Treat it with care, however, and you can turn this inexpensive cut into one of the most delicious steaks—so delicious that we decided to rebrand it as London Royale. Since it’s a tough, lean cut, the best way to cook it is super rare—blue rare, as some people call it. With a brief, hard sear on all sides, the center should be just warm. Sliced as thin as possible and then doused in hot browned butter infused with garlic and rosemary, this is a beef carpaccio fit for royalty.
Picanha is the steak that you can cook like duck breast. The sirloin cap, from the rump of the animal, even looks similar to a super-sized duck breast with a triangular shape and robust fat cap. We like to score the fat cap and slowly sear the picanha in a pan to evenly render and crisp the fat before giving it a butter baste and finishing it in a low oven. Because of the uneven shape of the cut, cooking it this way produces a gradient in doneness, so you get a wonderful range of textures and flavors, from the crispy fat and more well-done meat around the edges of the picanha, to the blushing medium-rare interior.
Toro is the best steak you’ve never heard of. Why is that? Well, because it’s a cut that master butcher Kevin Smith of Seattle’s [link https://beastandcleaver.com/ Beast and Cleaver] came up with! Seriously, it’s one of the few steaks you won’t find in our [link https://www.chefsteps.com/cuts Cuts catalog]. The toro is the highest abdominal muscle on a cow, and it has <em>a lot</em> of marbling—it may just be the most marbled muscle on the whole animal. Because of that, and the fact it comes from the belly area, Kevin thought the Japanese word for fatty tuna belly—“toro”—was the perfect name for this steak. Because of all that intramuscular fat, it’s important to cook the steak to medium-rare plus, so the fat renders and becomes tender. There’s nothing pleasant about chewing on cold fat. The cooking method maximizes flavor: After searing and butter-basting the steak to a rosy medium-rare, we slice it before it’s fully rested and toss it back in the still-warm brown butter that’s been spiked with umami-rich shio koji. The open grain structure of the toro readily absorbs the broken pan sauce, for a deeply savory and satisfying steak that is our new-found favorite cut.
When a beautifully cooked hunk of beef hits the table at a steakhouse, you know what to do: Roll up your sleeves and go to town. Steak is beauty, steak is life, and that’s true whether you use a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/make-your-own-steak-knives razor sharp steak knife] and a fork, or you grab the dang thing in your hands like the glorious carnivorous animal you are and down it in huge, honking bites. There’s no wrong way to eat steak. However, we believe that when you’re served a whole, unsliced steak at a restaurant, there is a way to slice it on the plate that maximizes enjoyment—making it more tender and more delicious. And it isn’t as simple as “slice against the grain”; it’s about taking into consideration the unique attributes of specific steak cuts, their disparate muscle groups and fat content, when the only tools at your disposal are a steak knife and a fork. We turned to master butcher Kevin Smith of Seattle’s [link https://beastandcleaver.com/ Beast and Cleaver] to fill us in on how he likes to cut up three “trophy” steak cuts that people love to order at steakhouses—[link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-filet-mignon filet mignon], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/porterhouse-steak porterhouse], and bone-in ribeye. It’s a master class in enjoying the best beef cuts to the absolute max. <b>WHAT YOU’LL NEED:</b><br> Perfectly cooked steak ([link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/porterhouse-steak porterhouse], [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-filet-mignon filet], ribeye)<br> Steak knife<br> Fork<br>