CHICKEN VERDE

We have some Pollo Verde in the house tonight. This is a special grilled chicken dish with some dried green chile powder as an ingredient. This powder is from "Havasu Spice Merchants". This dried green pepper is mild and will add a special flavor to a grilled chicken and onion stew.

Cut up a bird and coat it liberally with salt, pepper and a little splash of green chili powder. Cut an onion and season with the same.

Fire up a grill with your favorite charcoal. When the fire is hot. Place your onions and chicken and sear on both sides. You do not need to cook the chicken all the way. When you have color on both sides of the meat and vegetables, Reserve.

Take a large Dutch oven and bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add green chile powder, 1 teaspoon oregano , 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 tablespoon honey, salt and pepper to taste.Bring it to a boil and add onion (chop onion), and grilled chicken. Lower to a simmer. Cook until chicken is done and sauce thickens.Add some chopped cilantro.

Cook some rice and some Asparagus and clear a spot on the Couch. Something about grilling just kicks everything up a notch. Oh, Man, Oh Man!

BARBEQUED BACON

It is only 5 more days to Heather Lauer's book,"Bacon: A Love Story: A Salty Survey of Everybody's Favorite Meat" hits the bookshelf. Chilebrown is a proud and very humble, handsome, suave and debonair contributor. Because of this wonderful event,We have fired up the grill to barbeque some bacon.

A medium mesquite wood charcoal fire was built. Tonight some bacon from Prime Smoked Meats was sliced and placed on the grill. I am using a Weber Kettle grill. The lid was used often to prevent flair ups. The cooking time was about 15 minutes.

How did these slices of pork goodness taste? I will tell you. They were Extra, Extra smoky! There was some crispness (burnt) textures going on. If you attempt this recipe yourself, be prepared for bacon smoke flavor to adhere and stick to everything in a 100 yard radius of your barbeque. What more can you ask for?

DOS DE MAYO

On a quest to find the 'Holy Grail' of chileverde brings the Mad Meat Genius crew to 'La Cabana'. This is a long and hard journey to find the best pork and chile dish. In these troubled times with the Swine Flu, Ms. Goofy and I have risked our lives to report our humble findings. We would like you to share this dish of Verde Delight!

This salsa looks delicious, but does not deliver. There are roasted components, but lacks heat and salt. I am such a critic.

What a pretty plate. If it only delivered. The beef filled taquitos were greasy. This restaurant must have a ration on salt. Wow, I hope the chileverde is ready for the Mad Meat Genius Slam.

The pork was tender and the sauce was green. That was about it. The Negro Modelo was cold and that probably was the best part about our dining adventure. Onwards to another establisment. We will find the Holy Grail of Chileverde.

La Cabana

1500-B Monunent Blvd

Concord Ca.

925-959-9729

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Mojo and Oscar just want to say Happy Birthday! to 'Cookiecrumb'.

UNO'S PIZZA

Oh boy, do we love deep dish pizza. One of our old favorite places in the 80's to get deep dish pizza was 'Uno's Pizzeria. At one time there were 4 Uno's in the Bay Area. Three in the City and one in Oakland, was our choices. They are now long gone. Uno's has morphed into Uno Chicago Grill located in Antioch, California. Antioch is a growing community on the very far outskirts of the Bay Area. We were returning from the Asparagus festival and Uno's was on our flight path home. It was our duty to have an Uno special. This deep dish delight would be our ticket to a blast from the past.

The Antioch Uno Chicago Grill was located in a new conglomerate of chain stores that looked like any other new community of businesses built in the last 10 years. Once inside it was kind of like any other national syndicate of franchised restaurants. This did not resemble the Uno's of our memories. Would we be dissapointed?

We ordered the 'Numero Uno' pizza. This pizza has pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms and onions. It also has lots of cheese and a chunky tomato sauce. This pizza was so good. The crust was very buttery and rich just like we remembered. The meat and vegetables complimented each other to form a beautiful pie. This orb of meat and goodness was a stroll down the pizza memory lane.

One detail of our pizza experience, that stood out, was the outstanding service we received. Our server made our visit most pleasurable. The owner stopped by our table to see how our meal was. When he found out that Ms. Goofy was in the house, he comped us a bananas foster desert.

Great deep dish pizza and wonderful service was a winning combination. The Antioch Uno Chicago Grill will be a destination to return to.


Uno Chicago Grill
4827 Lone Tree Way
Antioch California 94531
(522) 522-8554
Matt Pellouchoud/Owner

HERE COMES THE JUDGE

"Here comes the judge, Here comes the judge.". Yes, You too can become a judge. The Kansas City Barbeque Society will be offering a class to become a certified barbeque judge. It will be a one day class. It will be held Saturday July 11 in Fairfield California. What will you learn? This is from the KCBS;

{As part of the class you will receive instruction in KCBS scoring, procedures, allowed and disallowed display techniques, new rules for 2009, and actually score (and eat!) competition entries in all four KCBS categories. After scoring each meat, scores will be discussed and you’ll receive feed back that will help you to more systematically score entries. If you are a new competitor, you’ll get some real insights into what constitutes a winning entry in the judges’ eyes.}

The best part of this class is the hands on tasting of barbeque. Once you have completed this class, You will be eligible to judge future KCBS competitions. Let me tell you that this is one serious fun experience. Hope to see you there.

Certified BBQ Judges Class

ASPARAGUS FESTIVAL

Joey "Jaws" Chestnut was dethroned by Patrick Bertoletti in the Asparagus eating contest.. Patrick ate over 7 pounds of deep fried asparagus in 10 minutes. It was a feat of gastronomical fortitude. This was a monumental event that was witnessed by Chilebrown, Ms. Goofy and a massive crowd of asparagus enthusiasts. Bertoletti did not break 'Jaw's' record of 8.9 pounds that was set last year. We noticed that Jaws fell behind early in the competition. A couple of times he almost lost his payload . Ms. Goofy is going to start practicing so she can enter next year. I bought her some asparagus to practice.

It was a pleasant day in Stockton California for the festival. The temperature was in the 70's. It was a perfect day to celebrate the spears of spring.

Ms. Goofy was attacked by "Britney Spears". Luckily 'AsparaGus' came to her rescue'

Joey Chestnut is in the middle, waiting to hear the results of the eating frenzy. He lost to Patrick Bertolleti on the left.