Hot Stuff
Raise A Glass to Pork “Shooters”
Remember the bacon explosion, aka, the “Tulsa Torpedo?” Or the beer can burger? Every year or two, the blogosphere erupts with some outrageous new twist on barbecue. Steven once based an entire book on a preparation he encountered at a barbecue competition: the result, of course, was Beer Can Chicken.
This year’s phenomenon is the pork shooter—a “shot glass” assembled with smoky bacon and thick coins of kielbasa or andouille sausage, filled with cheese and Gulf shrimp, and grilled until the bacon is crisp and the filling is bubbling. Steven featured the shooters on the current season of Project Fire, episode 209, Florida Tailgate Party.
Yes, they’re a cardiologist’s nightmare. But shooters are too clever and delectable not to try. Follow Steven’s recipe, or create your own. Nearly any filling you’d use for jalapeno poppers—themselves a new sensation on the barbecue trail at one time—would work in the shooters. Cooked crumbled sausage mixed with cream cheese, pimento cheese, or anything else you can dream up.
And just in case we stirred up a bit of barbecue nostalgia, here are recipes for some of the oldies but goodies mentioned above.
Outrageous Barbecue Recipes You Need to Try:
1. Tulsa Torpedo
Photo by Richard Dallett
Think meatloaf made with three kinds of pork sausage (breakfast, Polish, and hot links), swaddled in woven bacon, and slow-smoked in Oklahoma’s distinctive charcoal cooker, the Hasty-Bake.
2. Beer Can Breakfast Burger
Think of it as a low-and-slow take on a fast food breakfast sandwich.
3. Jalapeno Poppers
Some people call them poppers. Others call them rattlesnake or armadillo eggs. But whatever you call them, jalapeño peppers, stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and grilled with wood smoke embody American barbecue at its most ingenious, irreverent, and diabolical.
4. Beer Can Chicken
The showstopper that will dazzle your family and friends. If you’ve never made beer can chicken before, start here, and once you’ve mastered the basic procedure, there’s no limit to its variations.
5. Pork Shooters
Get ready for pork shooters stuffed with briny Gulf shrimp, cheese and Andouille sausage.
What’s the most outrageous barbecue recipe you’ve ever tried? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or the Barbecue Board!
