SMOKED CHICKEN WINGS
Does it get much better than a good batch of wings?? Take them up a notch by doing a chamber vac marinade, smoking them and adding a peanut butter dipping sauce.
You don’t need a sporting event to eat wings. We’re ditching the fryer on this one and throwing them on the smoker for an extra flavor boost. I love Bachan’s Japanese BBQ sauce (not a sponsor, I just love it!) on many things, but this smoked wing combo has been my favorite! I HIGHLY recommend grabbing your wings from a local butcher vs big box shop. Flavor will be way superior and you will be supporting a local business! The chamber vac sealer is not required, but helpful boosting flavor in a shorter amount of time. Lets go!
Running short on time and need that marinade to penetrate faster? Or need pickled onions in a hurry? You need a chamber vac. We love ours because we are bad at planning, but also vac seals soups & other liquids in a flash saving your freezer space by allowing you to freeze flat & stack. 100% worth the investment.
Total prep & cook time ~ 2+ hours
Equipment:
Wire rack
Large mixing bowl
Smoker
Ingredients:
2 pounds chicken wings (from your local butcher!)
Sesame seeds to taste
1 Green Onion
Marinade
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green onion, sliced
1 tbs ginger, fresh grated
1 cup teriyaki sauce (or Bachan’s!)
Dipping Sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tbs peanut butter
1 tbs red pepper flake (less if you need)
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce or Bachan’s
1/4 cup buttermilk (optional)
Directions:
Combine marinade ingredients and chicken wings into the chamber vac bag and seal up under pressure.
Let marinade for 30 min - overnight. The longer the better, the chamber vac helps get more flavor quicker, but in my experimenting time is still better.
Preheat smoker to 180º
Pull wings and place on wire rack(s), discard marinade.
Place wire rack(s) on smoker and cook for about an hour or until wings reach 125º
Pull wings and set smoker to 350º
While smoker is preheating, mix up the dipping sauce by melting peanut butter, Bachan’s sauce, garlic and red pepper flakes in a skillet on medium heat.
Simmer for 5 minutes or until thickened to your liking. (My sauce thickened a bit too much and I had some buttermilk on hand, so added that. It gave a nice tangy bump to the sauce and I really enjoyed how it came out!)
Once smoker hits temp replace wings and cook until internal temp is 165º and have a nice crispy crust.
Transfer to your serving dish, dust with the sesame seeds and chopped green onion (to taste).
Enjoy piping hot!
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Hot Tips:
For an extra tingly zip add some Szechuan peppercorns! Start small, they pack a big punch
Air fryers and ovens work just as well if you are not a fan of smoke.
You can also use liquid smoke if you don’t have a smoker. No judgement.
Support Okayest Cook
Yeti is by far our favorite cooler brand. Outside of keeping things cold we love to rest briskets & pulled pork in ours.
ROASTED BROCCOLI
Truly the best broccoli you will ever eat. Bright, crispy, caramelized, savory, it ticks all the boxes!
Straight from Episode 6! Elevate your side experience with this roasted broccoli recipe. Never again will you risk soggy broccoli after trying this. The bright lemon and savory pine nut/Parmigiano Reggiano combo paired with the crispy caramelized florets will leave your taste buds in shock and wanting more. Putting the finishing touches on this dish should be the last thing you do before sitting down for your meal. Its at its best straight out of the oven.
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One of Lodges griddles would be perfect for this recipe! Make sure to preheat and brush with a light layer of extra oil to help prevent the broccoli from sticking.
Total prep & cook time ~ 30 min
Equipment:
Sheet pan
Large mixing bowl
Oven/Smoker
Ingredients:
2 large bunches of broccoli cut into florets
4 garlic cloves, sliced
3-5 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon
1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
3-4 tablespoons pine nuts
Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven or smoker to 450º
Wash and dry the broccoli thoroughly.
Place broccoli in a large mixing bowl with the garlic, salt and pepper, drizzle with just enough olive oil to coat broccoli when tossed.
Roast in oven/smoker for 20-25 minutes, or until the tips of the broccoli florets are browned to your liking.
While broccoli is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat. Be mindful the pine nuts take a while to develop color and burn really fast once they start.
When broccoli is done transfer to a serving bowl, zest the lemon into the bowl and squeeze the lemons juice over the broccoli. Also add a light drizzle of olive oil if desired.
Add the toasted pine nuts to the bowl and freshly grate the Parmigiano Reggiano
Enjoy piping hot!
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Hot Tips:
For an extra flavor kick add a dusting of your favorite BBQ seasoning
The Parmigiano Reggiano is where its at! Pre-grated parmesan is ok if its all you have but 100% worth the good stuff. You will not regret.
This dish is best reheated in the oven, avoid the microwave, you will regret it. Best case scenario is to finish it in one go.
Support Okayest Cook
Yeti is by far our favorite cooler brand. Outside of keeping things cold we love to rest briskets & pulled pork in ours.
VENISON SHANK IRISH STEW
My combination of osso buco and Irish Stew. Traditional? Probably not, filling and delicious? YES.
Stick to your ribs, hearty, gelatinous goodness! My Irish Stew is more of an Irish Osso Buco. Using venison shanks vs beef or lamb, but most of the other traditional Irish stew ingredients is a super fun twist to this classic St. Pat dinner. Its crazy how filling this meal is. Especially if you make some soda bread to pair up with it. This meal will stretch a LONG way! Hot tip for leftovers, vac seal and freeze. When you are ready to have it again heat it up in a sous vide machine for a ridiculously easy meal (we love Anova for the vac sealer and sous vide machine).
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My 5 quart dutch oven was a little too small for this cook, thankfully I also have a camp dutch oven to help share the load! The camp version isn’t the easiest on/in a stove with the legs, but definitely manageable! Super fun to cook over coals with out in the woods.
Total prep & cook time ~ 5+ hrs - Makes ~8-10 quarts
Equipment:
Dutch Oven / Slow Cooker
Smoker
Ingredients:
2 venison shanks cut into thirds or quarters
~2 pounds mini potatoes
1 yellow onion
1/2 of a turnip
2-3 large carrots
1 cup shiitake mushrooms
1 celery stalk
3 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1-2 bouillon cubes and 2-4 cups water or 2-4 cups stock (just enough to cover your ingredients)
1 bottle of Guinness
1/4 cup flour
2-3 tablespoons avocado oil
3-5 tablespoons butter
Directions:
Preheat your smoker to 250º
Lightly oil and dust shank pieces with black pepper, place on smoke for an around an hour, until they have developed some color and a nice amount of smoke.
Preheat your oven to 350º.
Peel carrots & turnip, dice all vegetables to desired size. I like my carrots, turnips, mushrooms and onion on the large size (potatoes as well if you don’t use minis like I did). Celery is better on the small size, garlic should be minced.
Place your dutch oven on your range and preheat to medium. Melt enough butter to sauté your onion, mushroom and celery, cook 5 min and add garlic & tomato paste and cook 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
Pull shanks from smoker and dust in flour, quickly sear them and then add the Guinness and enough stock to cover. (I added my potatoes, carrots and turnips at this point in the photos, but overcooked them, so ignore the pics at this phase..)
Cover and place in oven for 3-5 hours, until the shanks are falling apart and the connective tissue has melted.
Add salt & pepper to taste, carrots, turnips and potatoes and top off with more HOT stock if necessary. Place back in oven for another hour or so, until carrots and potatoes are tender.
Ladle out into a bowl and enjoy!
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Hot Tips:
I like to tie up my cut shanks so the meat does not fall off, but in this application if you aren’t planning to serve on the bone its not necessary.
Pull out the marrow from the bones at the end of the cook! Its an amazing rich flavor bomb that you DO NOT want to throw away.
Mix and match your vegetables to suit what your family likes!
While your shanks are cooking make a loaf of soda bread! I used THIS RECIPE. Honestly any bread will do, but the texture and sweetness of a traditional soda bread goes REALLY well with this stew!
Save your vegetable skins/greens/peels for stock or feed your compost bin, don’t trash this gold!
Support Okayest Cook
Yeti is by far our favorite cooler brand. Outside of keeping things cold we love to rest briskets & pulled pork in ours.
MILK BREAD FRENCH TOAST
The best french toast recipe I’ve made.
The best french toast I’ve ever made! 90% due to the fact I used milk bread from Amelias (check out our episode with owner Charlie McIntosh). Make with whatever bread you have on hand, just make sure its thickly sliced. I experimented with bread that has dried out overnight and fresh, honestly I preferred the fresh. Didn’t come out soggy with the bread I used. Great solid/crisp texture outside with a custardy interior. I can’t recommend using milk bread. Game Changing Good.
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French toast in a cast iron is an absolutely perfect match! Mine is a little small for this project though.. I’ve got plans to snag the griddle Lodge makes, would make pancakes and big batches of french toast a breeze!
Total prep & cook time ~ 30 min - Makes 8 - 10 slices
Equipment:
Blender
Large shallow bowl
Griddle or large skillet
Ingredients:
8-10 THICK slices of MILK BREAD
2/3 cup milk
4 large eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/4 granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (get the real stuff! 100% better than imitation)
3-4 tablespoons butter
Pure maple syrup
Directions:
Preheat your griddle to ~350º or preheat the skillet over medium heat.
Add milk, eggs, flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, vanilla to blender and blend until smooth. The blender is WAY easier to get the flour lumps out, but using a whisk is an awesome arm workout.
Pour batter into your bowl and add bread in a single layer, soak bread for 3-5 minutes, flipping once or twice. Experiment this this timing, its more critical than you may think. Also 100% dependent on your type of bread and how thick you slice.
Melt a 1/4 TBS pad of butter on griddle and place battered bread on top.
Cook bread until a light golden, 2-3 min, flip and cook until light golden.
Place on baking tray and throw in a 350º oven for 10 min to finish cooking.
Serve immediately with a 1/4 TBS pad of butter and pure maple syrup, or toppings of your choice.
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Hot Tips:
Stale bread might be better! We recommend buying fresh, slicing and leaving on your counter for a day or 2 before making if you want to go this route.
MILK BREAD IS WORTH IT! Find it, make it, you gotta try it out.
Support Okayest Cook
Yeti is by far our favorite cooler brand. Outside of keeping things cold we love to rest briskets & pulled pork in ours.
POT ROAST WITH TOMATO & RED ONION
Savory, acidic, sharp, hearty. Everything you want from a pot roast and more!
This pot roast is an amalgamation of Hank Shaws Italian Roast and our imagination/what we had on hand at the moment.. The acidic tomato, sweet red pepper and sharp red onion is a wonderful balance to the savory chuck roast. When you pile it on top of some cheesy polenta to slam all of your taste buds into submission.
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Anova offers phenomenal cooking equipment that does not break the bank. We love using their chamber vac sealer and sous vide stick.
Total prep ~ 30 min - Smoke ~ 1.5 hrs - Slow cook ~ 4-6 hrs
Equipment:
Smoker
Slow Cooker
Ingredients:
1 pound chuck roast (really any roast will do)
1 red onion
1 red bell pepper
1 28oz can crushed tomato (whole is also awesome)
4-5 medium russet potatoes
3 garlic cloves - crushed & minced
Rub of choice - we used Harvesting Nature’s Big Game Blend
1 beef bouillon cube (or enough stock to cover your roast)
1 Tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED
1 cup Polenta
2 cups water
2 cups milk
4-8 oz cheese of choice - freshly grated. (we used extra sharp white cheddar)
Directions:
Preheat smoker to 250º
Set your roast on a wire rack on the counter for 20-30 min to bring closer to room temp
Coat in a think layer of olive oil and dust with your rub. Let sit for 10-15 min
Smoke Roast for 1-2 hours, or until it develops a nice color, but not too dark, not going for fully cooked here.
If you opt to not smoke your roast, give it a good sear in a cast iron pan.
Pull the roast, place in crock pot set to warm and set smoker to 425º
Slice your red pepper and red onion into 1/2 - 1/4 inch slices and set on a baking tray or wire racks
Smoke veggies for 30 min
Dice potatoes into 6ths and add to crock pot
Add finished veggies to crock pot
Add bouillon cube and garlic (if using liquid stock use it in replacement of the water in the next step)
Add tomatoes with juice to crock pot, if needed add water until roast is covered
Set crock pot to medium and cook for around 4-6 hours, or set to high and cook around 2 hours. Keep your eye on the roast, its done when you can easily pull it apart
When the roast finishes, pull inner bowl from the crock pot to rest off the heat.
Start your polenta, cook as instructed on the box. Ours box called for 30 min simmer in the milk and water. Once cooked add the shredded cheese and still to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Shred roast. Some like to keep it separate from the veggies, but mixing back in is awesome. If you keep separate, put shredded roast in a bowl with some of the broth from the crock pot.
Place a healthy couple spoons of polenta on your plate, top with meat, veggies and potatoes, spoon some broth on top, sprinkle with flakey salt and a crack of pepper and dive in!
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Hot Tips:
Watch the ingredients of your rub! Some have plenty of salt, so adding more may not be necessary. Better to add salt once its on your plate vs adding too much early on.
Swap for yellow onion if you prefer a sweeter onion flavor to the sharp red
Venison or Elk roast would swap really in really well for a wild version
Red pepper flakes make everything better
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Aprons from Hedley & Bennett are built to stand the abuse from the most rugged cook. have the style options to match any persona. We adore our old school camo print apron.
NEUTRAL CHICKEN STOCK
Truly use all of your food and minimize food waste by making stock! Use in place of water in most dishes to amp the flavor and turn average dishes ultra savory.
This crazy simple stock base is the easiest way to jump into utilizing all of the ingredients in your kitchen and reducing your food waste. We chat about this process with Ian Groesbeck in EP 43. This stock is super flavorful, but also pretty neutral so you aren’t so boxed in when you go to use it.
support okayest cook
Aprons from Hedley & Bennett are built to stand the abuse from the most rugged cook. have the style options to match any persona. We adore our old school camo print apron.
Total prep time ~ 15 min, smoking / simmering time ~ 4-12 hours
Equipment:
Smoker
Stove top
Ingredients:
Bones & Skin from 1 chicken
1/2 yellow onion quartered
1/2 carrot diced into 1/2 inch pieces
Directions:
Preheat your smoker (or oven) to 400°
Place all ingredients on a baking pan, in the photos I used some avocado oil thinking it would help keep items from sticking, but the chicken released a lot more fat than I anticipated so the oil is not as necessary in my opinion.
Place in pan in your smoker/oven once it has reached temp for 10-15 min.
Cook until you see a nice color build up on the food items, but don’t let it get too dark (like my carrots.. FYI finely diced carrots are not the best idea to use.), this will impart some bitter flavors that are not the best.
Once the bones have hit a nice color, remove from smoker/oven and place into a medium size pan.
Add just enough water to cover the food items and bring to a light boil. Immediately reduce heat to a light simmer and cook between 4 & 12 hours.
We recommend cooking with a lid on or keep an eye on the liquid level and replace lost liquid with hot water.
Keep tasting the stock and stop cooking when you like the flavor or when you stop noticing a change. Remove all solids by dumping the stock through a fine mesh sieve into a new vessel.
If desired return the liquids to the stove, bring to a simmer and reduce to desired concentration.
Place into a jar and refrigerate until use or freeze. We recommend using a chamber vac sealer (we use Anova) for an air tight seal and freezing laying flat for optimal space saving in your freezer.
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Hot Tips:
Label how concentrated your stock is! Is it ready to use or does it need a bit of water?
Don’t add additional seasonings until you know how you will use it.
Watch salt content! If you got a pre cooked chicken that was already brined chances are the stock will be super salty.
Don’t be afraid to change things up! Add things you like, skip what you don’t. This is neutral for a reason, to be the most compatible with a variety of dishes.
Support Okayest Cook
Yeti is by far our favorite cooler brand. Outside of keeping things cold we love to rest briskets & pulled pork in ours.
SPICY SAUSAGE TORTELLINI SOUP
A unique soup that will leave you craving more. Creamy, spicy & rich, this soup will tick all of your winter soup boxes.
This is the soup Chris and Stephanie referenced as their notable meal in EP44 Kitchen Accidents. This dish is pure delight. Its the perfect balance of rich & creamy with umami undertones and will satiate the most ravenous of eaters.
support okayest cook
Aprons from Hedley & Bennett are built to stand the abuse from the most rugged cook. have the style options to match any persona. We adore our old school camo print apron.
Total prep & cook time ~ 30 min - Makes about 10 cups
Equipment:
Smoker
Stove Top
Ingredients:
1 pound ground Italian sausage
1 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic, smashed then minced
3 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon Spiceology shiitake powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (adjust as necessary, start lighter if unsure)
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup heavy cream
5 cups chicken stock
2 cups chopped kale
2 cups cheese tortellini
Salt to taste
Directions:
Quarter the onion and smoke for 30-60 min at 200º (optional)
Brown the sausage (Ep3 You Are Browning Meat Wrong)
Dice the onion, add to sausage and cook until soft, about 10 min
Add the garlic and cook for 1 min
Add the flour and cook 1-2 min
Add remaining dry ingredients & stir
Add broth and scrape the up fond with a wooden spatula (caramelized bits of food on the bottom of the pan)
Slowly add heavy cream, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer
Add the kale and tortellini and simmer 5 min.
Serve while its hot!
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Hot Tips:
If making in bulk to food prep we recommend cooking and storing the tortellini separately, it may get too soggy if stored in the liquid too long.
We LOVE Tapatío Hot Sauce, choose your favorite
MeatEaters Gnome on the Range is a killer substitute for the shiitake powder, just be aware it contains salt, so watch how much you add, you probably do not need more.
Support Okayest Cook
Yeti is by far our favorite cooler brand. Outside of keeping things cold we love to rest briskets & pulled pork in ours.
