Please help me show off my new egg!

mojo

Hi everyone! I'm brand spankin' new to egg cooking. I built a new house and was so impressed with the BGE in the store that I designed an entire grill center around the large BGE which is built into the outdoor bar. I moved in only 2 weeks ago and in that time I've only used my 42" Lynx gas grill twice. I may never use it again! On the egg I've cooked steaks, chicken and most recently a pork tenderloin which was out of this world!

With that in mind, I'm having friends over this weekend and I want to show off my new egg. I expect about 6 people on Friday and maybe 12 or so on Saturday.

I don't want to experiment with food on my friends but I may have to do just that. I have the ceramic plate setter so I believe I'm set up to do indirect cooking, but I have no other major accessories. Can I get a suggestion for meats that I can prepare for my guests that are simple and basically loved by all? The amount of available recipes is truly dizzying and I'm a bit short on time. I don't need to worry about sides or desserts, my wife has them covered.

Thanks in advance and I am really excited to dig into cooking on the BGE.

Mike

crghc98

start searching the recipe section. Find what you think you like then do a text search. Chances are you will find a string of posts with pics.

Wings, ribs, pulled pork, roasts, stuffed pork tenderloins, are all great for parties. ABT's, stuffed fritos, grilled pineapple, etc for apps.

Midnight Smoker

Welcome!!

Definitely ABTs for appetizers. Unique and hard to screw up.

You've already done a pork loin so if you want to stay safe, do some variation on it. Different rubs, stuffings, etc...

Pulled pork.

Spring Hen

Hi Mike!
Welcome to the world of eggheads. The sooner you can attend an eggfest the more you will enjoy both the Forum and your egg. There is a great wealth of knowledge here and wonderful people. As for your party, I would have a pulled pork prepared for sandwiches and, as stated before, have ABT's and maybe some chicken wings for hot appetizers. I also like to spice up some chicken breasts and cook them while company is there, then, slice them up for fajitas. Have a bunch of grilled onions and green peppers and tortillas standing by and let everyone make their own.

Hope you have a great time.

Judy

edbro

If it is not a fancy party then you could do pizzas.

Chicken thighs or a spatchcocked chicken always turn out great. Everybody loves chicken and it is easy to cook for a crowd.

vidalia1

Steaks Friday night

Pizza and or pulled pork Saturday with ABT appetizers or Moink Balls or Stuffed Tostitos....all are delicious and pretty easy...

gdenby

Steaks are definitely one of the showiest cooks, especially if you are searing, and the guests get to see the roaring !! fire.

I agree that if you have already done pork loin, a stuffed loin is likely to please and impress. On a similar note, stuffed butterflied leg of lamb is a very sumptuous meal.

If you have done ribs before, the Egg is likely to help you make them really well.

There are many variations on chicken thighs that most people like. A simple but effective cook is boneless skinless thigh marinaded in teriyaki. If you want to get a little decadent, boneless thighs wrapped in bacon are pretty good.

Quesadillas are simple fun meal for parties. The guests can assemble their own from a variety of fillings. With the new platesetter legs down, they can be done really quickly, a few at a time. Just keep them coming till every one is satisfied.

Good luck, and have fun.

Ripnem

Pork t-loins and any chicken make people go crazy.

Bottom line is the Egg will most likely show you off

As long as your not passed out in the corner, your partys will have them all wanting an Egg or to come over more often for your food.

Good move on the Egg and I hope all your new Eggs will it into the layout and that big Gasser. :laugh:

Mainegg

pork tender loin and while it is resting throw on some grilled Romain. chop and serve with fresh grated Parmesan cheese. this always impresses everyone. they can not believe you are grilling lettuce LOL

mojo

Wow, I am overwhelmed by the number of responses to this thread. What a great forum!

OK, I have decided to make steaks for Friday night. I bought bone-in rib eyes and I plan on searing them at high heat on both sides, then allow them to dwell until done.

Pulled pork seems like a great meal for Saturday. Now I just need to surf the recipes to see which one I like best. I'm also sold on the ABTs for appetizers. I had to search this forum to figure out what an "ABT" is (wow I have a lot to learn!). I assume that since the pork takes so long to cook that I should prepare the pork first, and while it's 'resting' I would then cook up the ABTs, right?

As for all the other suggestions from you nice folks, I'll put them in my back pocket for another weekend. This is gonna be fun!

Eggscriber

Hey,
My favorite thing to cook, and that which people absolutely flip over is grilled shrimp on the egg.
It is super easy and quick. I buy frozen deveined, peeled shrimp at Costco or the grocery store, thaw them right before cooking under cool water and season them very lightly with Adobo sin pimiento seasoning, Traeger's Veggie Shake, or any mild garlic or citrusy seasoning. Add a little olive oil to keep them from drying out, skewer them and cook for about two to three minutes per side. Cook them direct at high temp to get a little char. They are foolproof and I think better than any shrimp you could ever get in any restaurant.
They'll look like this:
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/uu307/Sgold65420/Egg0409044.jpg

mojo

Those are gorgeous! Mouth ... ... watering ... ... must have beer!

mojo

OK, potential problem (or maybe not).

I was going over the recipe for North Carolina pulled pork and the Polder was mentioned. I did a search around the house and realized I don't have a temperature probe. For a first time cook, would you recommend I 'go for it' and cook the butt, and just check the temp with a meat thermometer using the 2 hr/lb. of butt rule, or would you not risk it without a temperature probe?

Thanks!

Midnight Smoker

No problem. A traitional meat probe just doesn't have the response time of a new fangled electronic probe and you can't read it remotely. As you measure different parts of the meat, give it time to respond and don't peek too much. Pork butts are hard to screw up.

mojo

Report on my experience

It can be summed up quite simply: Disaster followed by great success.

I had made steaks before and they were delicioius, so I thought that would be a perfect start to the weekend. Well, I over cooked them to just about well done. It was disgusting! On my 1st steak experience we all wanted medium rare, so I seared them for 2 min/side and let them dwell for 5 minutes - came out perfectly. One person wanted medium well, and I stupidly seared for 3 min/side and dwelled for 10 minutes. When I lifted the lid there were flames everywhere. Amazingly the meat was still quite moist but definitely over cooked.

The next night I prepared the Boston butt. I got a 10 pounder, made the North Carolina rub that is popular on this site, and prepared the coals using the large-med-small stacking method. I actually ran out of paprika for the rub and substituted Old Bay, which was a good call. I threw the butt on the grill at 5:00 p.m., stuck around for about an hour to make sure all was good, then we went out to a concert. We got home at 1 a.m. and the temp in the dome was 150 :S The fire had gone out. I think the wind died down while I was gone and the 1/3" air intake was too small for the lower wind condition. So I got the fire going again, stayed up 'til 2 a.m. and went to bed with the temp reading 210*. At 6:30 a.m. I checked the dome and it was at 200*, so I thought everything was cool. I cranked the temp up to about 300*, made sure it was stable, then we all went out on the lake and had a great day.

When we got home at 4:00 I had planned on checking the meat temp, finding a finished product and removing it so I could prepare the ABT's (guests arriving at 6:00). Instead I found the dome temp at 110* and the fire was again out, but this time I had run out of fuel. So I quickly added more coals, got the temp back up, and ran inside to prepare the ABTs. I stuffed them with rub-seasoned cream cheese (I used Julio's Seasoning) and shrimp. By the time the turds were ready to grill, the butt center was only at 190*, so I put the ABTs into the egg right along with the butt. 30 minutes later (5:45 p.m.) the butt was at 200* so I wrapped it in foil and kept it in a warming drawer. At 6:15 the ABTs were done and served to the guests. As they were eating the turds they all watched me pull pork off of the bone with ease, and I passed out crunchy pieces of bark/meat right off the fork to all of my friends.

I have never gotten so many compliments on my cooking before - NEVER! Thanks to all of you for helping me to make my first egg party a success. I'll be attending my first Eggfest in May and plan to learn a ton.