Cooking: Relaxing with my MiniMax Big Green Egg

For Mardi Gras week, we skipped most parades except for my hometown parade.  We took it easy and just relaxed at home.  This meant I cooked almost exclusively on the Big Green Egg.  For all my cooks I used Big Green Egg Lump charcoal. Here is a run down:

Chicken Wings:  For Super Bowl Sunday, I baked some chicken wings.  I soaked some pecan chips and set the BGE to 350 and let them go for about 35 minutes where they turned crispy.  I just used some Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoningSlap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning.  They came out fantastic and can’t wait to do this again.  Also, because the wings took up the entire cooking space, I found out where my hot spots were with some extra crispy wings!

Pork Butt:  On Lundi Gras, I smoked a 3.5 lb pork butt.  I got the egg to around 250 degrees with some apple wood chunks.  I seasoned it with the only rub my grocery store had, Slap Ya Mama, and some fresh rosemary.  I put it on there and left if for 5 hours and 15 minutes.  When it was ready, it was dark outside and we had no power.  It made slicing/pulling the butt really difficult.  Of course, Entergy had brilliant timing and the power came back on as soon as I was finished.  We made sandwiches with small multigrain buns.  We lightly painted with Jack’s Kansas City Style Bar-B-Que Sauce. The meat was smoky and juicy.  I can’t wait to do this againwr but maybe cook it a little longer.  The internal temperature was 183; I would like to see how it pulls at 195.

Salmon and Fresh Corn:  Salmon was the first cook on the egg that I didn’t care for.  I soaked a cedar board for an hour before my cook.  The fish came out fine, but I prefer pan fried in a cast iron skillet.  The corn was great. I removed the silk and spread butter and slap ya mamas and put the husks back. I cooked indirect for 30 minutes at 400 and followed some internet advice to leave them alone.  Next time I’ll rotate them every 10 minutes and go to 40 minutes with them.

Chicken Legs:  I used some Pig’s Ass Rub, which was a lot better than it sounds.  I purchased it because it said Memphis Style seasoning.  I cooked at 350 for an hour.  The skin was kind of rubbery but the meat was juicy and smokey.  This was my fault because I wanted to pan sear the chicken first but I just got lazy. Lesson learned.

During that last cook, while enjoying a fresh Envie from Parish Brewing, I realized how much I enjoyed my week of cooking.  The weather was perfect in the upper 60s/low seventies each day.  The egg does such a good job of keeping its temperature that I was able to relax and just enjoy being outside with a book.  Now, I’m still a novice and will continue tweaking my cooks.  I read the forums and search for advice all over the internet. In other words, I think I’m turning into an EggHead. And I promise to take pictures of all my cooks for when I write Egg-related blogs!

My wife definitely did well by getting me the Big Green Egg.