Maple Cream Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

Maple Cream Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

I'm going to have to start this post off by saying

to Chrissy Teigen for not only being you, but for writing a hella good recipe book Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat. People, do yourself a flavor and purchase it.

Anyways, there was a recipe in the book for Maple Cream Biscuits and Sausage Gravy that was quick to catch my eye. Biscuits, gravy, and sausage... She really had me at biscuits though, they are one of my favorite foods in the world. Seriously, I had a Dwarf Rabbit in middle school named Biscuit, one love Fam. Biscuits and the Dip were meant for each other, how else do you think I've managed to attain my athletically large physique?

Anyone who knows me knows I love to take a recipe and do my own thing with it, but full disclosure, I'm not the best with baking so the Maple Cream Biscuits are too the tee of what she had in the book. Where I differ is with the sausage gravy. I went off of her recipe for homemade sausage in the book and added the Dip spin on it. I think the wife will agree, this will be a repeat breakfast in the Dant household for years to come.

Ingredients:

Sausage: For this recipe I only cooked 1/2 LB of the pork mixture.

• 2 lb's of ground pork
• 1 TBSP of Sriracha
• 4 TBSP Light Brown Sugar
• 1/2 TBSP Paprika
• 2 TBSP Garlic Paste
• 1.5 TBSP Black Pepper
• 2.25 TBSP Salt
• 1.25 TBSP Cayenne
• 2 TBSP Ground Sage
• 1 TBSP Onion Powder
• 3 TBSP Veggie Oil

Gravy:

• 4 TBSP Unsalted Butter (I used shallot butter I made earlier in the week, though not necessary)
• 1 tsp Ground Sage
• 2.5 Cups Fat Free Milk
• 1/2 Cup Fat Free Half and Half
• 1 TBSP Salt (add more to taste)
• 1.5 TBSP Pepper
• .5 tsp Cayenne

Biscuits:

• Use any biscuit, I used the book's recipe but it's not necessary. That's the YEAST baby!
  

Cooking Instructions:

Start of by mixing all of the ingredients for the sausage together in a large mixing bowl. Break off a small piece of the pork and put in a pan with a drop of oil, cook through. The reason you want to do this is to be sure your seasonings are right before wrapping up to sit a few hours or overnight.

When you are ready to start cooking, preheat the oven for the biscuits and cook accordingly. While the biscuits are going, break off a 1/2 lb of the sausage mixture and put in a pan with 1 TBSP of oil over medium heat. As the sausage is cooking break it up into crumbles. 

Once the sausage is browned go ahead and throw in the butter.

Once melted throw in the flour, and stir until all of the crumbles are coated.

Once coated, pour the milk mixture directly over the sausage, and stir constantly with a spoon until the gravy coats the back. It should be about this consistency:

Once you reach that consistency, the gravy is finished, so throw in the sage, salt, pepper, and cayenne. By this point the biscuits should be done, so it's time to indulge.

I could bath in that gravy... Dip, out...

#Dantnation

www.dantnation.com

Predator's Chicken Wing Feast

I'm a self admitted Food Network junkie... If you come over to my house on Friday night before the bars, it doesn't matter what sports are on, you are going to be watching Diner's, Drive In's, and Dives. Guy Fieri lives the dream... Another show Katie and I watch frequently is Beat Bobby Flay. She asked me last week what I would cook if I ever had to compete against him, and I said chicken wings... (Fully knowing he would kick my ass into the next century.)

There are a few different ways to prepare chicken wings: fried, grilled, smoked, baked, and the list could go on and on. Personally, I almost always smoke mine, because when you have a Big Green Egg and a Traeger can you really prefer another method?

Now I think I make a pretty damn good smoked wing, but I want to introduce you all to the best of the best in my opinion... Martin's BBQ. They have several locations around Nashville and are known for smoking whole hogs and the redneck taco (cornbread pancake with pulled pork and coleslaw, yes it's fantastic), but if you go to Martins... please... listen to the Dip, and get the Damn Chicken Wings... 

Now I don't know this for a fact, but I've watched enough people cook to take a guess on how they make their wings: smoke the wings, then refrigerate over night to bring the meat back on the bone, flash fry the next day, and then apply the saus. 

The Nashville Predators were playing so we decided to make a feast...hence, the Predator's Chicken Wing Feast including Chicken Wings, Katie's Twice Baked Potatoes, and the most delicious "Lion House" homemade rolls.

Ingredients:

Chicken Wings:

• 3-4 lb's whole chicken wings (tips removed, seen below)
• Your choice of Finishing SAUS : BBQ, Buffalo, Teriyaki, etc.
• Oil for deep frying.

Marinade:

• 1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Black Pepper
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp ginger (I use the fresh grated tubes sold at grocery stores)
• 1 tsp garlic (fresh grated)
• 1/4 cup Lite Soy Sauce (can always add more salt, can never take it away)
• 1/4 Cup Teriyaki
• 3 tbsp Sriracha
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions:

Start off by taking your wings and removing the wing tips (they don't provide much meat at all), and I like to cut the skin in between the drumette and the wingette to protect from having the skin taken off in one bite of the wing. Like so:

Next take the prepared wings and place them in a ziploc bag, or bowl to marinade. 

Pour in the Marinade ingredients over the wings and mix around, let sit for at least 4 hours to overnight.

Once you are ready to cook, turn the smoker/grill/oven on and set to 325. If you are using a grill be sure to cook indirectly, because you really want to cook these low and slow for the most tender meat and this process allows the smoke flavor to be infused.

Cook about 45-50 minutes and flip halfway through.

Once down place in a tray and cover for 4 hours to overnight in the refrigerator.

When ready to fry, pour the oil in the deep fryer (or just large pot if you don't have one), and bring the temperature up to 350.

Cook the wings for about 5 minutes and then place on a draining grate to allow the grease to drip off (if you don't have a draining grate just use a plate and paper towels).

Once dry, place in a bowl and pour over whatever sauce you would like, I used buffalo and a homemade White BBQ sauce (recipe to come later), toss to coat.

Doesn't get much better than that! Katie made some amazing twice baked potatoes to go along with the wings using turkey bacon, fat free cheese, fat free sour cream, and chives. We also smoked these.

Katie and I also made homemade rolls which we usually only make on holidays but when you're craving something why wait... They are incredible, so soft and buttery, I probably added a few pounds this weekend eating these.

The feast turned out great, the Preds not so much... Enjoy!

#Dantnation

Nashville Hot Chicken - Dip Style

The biggest craze around right now… Nashville Hot Chicken… as if fried chicken wasn’t already the greatest food known to man. For those of you that have never heard of hot chicken, here’s a little history lesson:

The story goes, the creator of hot chicken ALLEGEDLY was a womanizer, and ALLEGEDLY one morning after a late night out with his mistress, the wife wanted some revenge so cooked up some fried chicken but added a large amount of spice to it… Of course he ended up loving it and spread it throughout the world and now it’s landed in the Dip’s kitchen.

Hot Chicken has been a staple here in Nashville for years, and there are some delicious places serving it up from the original Princes to newcomers like Big Shakes out in Franklin. It seems like a new one opens up every couple of weeks….. but they all about to close down because ya boy done did it this time…

A hot spot for chicken in the Midtown area, Hattie B’s, posted their seasoning recipe online and of course I put my own spin on it. My family ate it three times this weekend, so I’d say this one is going to turn into a main stay.

The ReciDip:

Meat:

• 3 LB’s Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
• 3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (sliced into tenders)
• Little note: I don’t normally buy the pre packaged chicken tenders at the grocery store because they almost always have that real tough white tendon in them.

Seasoning:

• 3-5 Tablespoons of Cayenne
• I used 4 tablespoons (turned out to be a medium heat level)
• ½ TBSP of Sriracha seasoning
• 1 TBSP Light Brown Sugar
• 1 TBSP Sea Salt
• 1 TSP Black Pepper
• ½ TSP of Paprika
• ½ TSP of Garlic Powder

Brine:

• Milk to Cover Chicken
• 2 TBSP Sriracha Sauce
• Additional Serving of the Seasoning mixture

Dry Dredge:

• 2-3 Cups AP Flour
• 1 TBSP Sea Salt
• 1 TSP Black Pepper

Wet Dredge:

• 4 Eggs
• 1 ½ TBSP Hot Sauce (I used Tabasco)

Miscellaneous

• 1 Package Hawaiian Rolls
• 1 gallon vegetable oil
• Mayo
• Tomatoes
• Lettuce

There is one key difference between the way I did this and most people I’ve seen, the brine. Personally, I believe any sort of meat should be pre-flavorized (hell yes that's a real word) before seasoning and eventually cooking. Most people will do a simple dry brine (S & P overnight) for their hot chicken, but I ain’t no basic Dip.

So I started this recipe off by putting all of the chicken in a 2.5 gallon Ziploc and covering with milk. Next, I added the sriracha sauce, zipped up the bag and tossed it all around to coat. I let it sit in the fridge over night.

A few hours before I was ready to fry I took the chicken out of the fridge, and drained the milk mixture. Now I added in the entire spice mixture, zipped the bag back up and tossed it to coat. The chicken will sit like this until you are ready to fry.

When you are ready to begin frying, first you want to heat up the oil, I have a deep fryer so I just set the temperature to 350 and let it warm up…

Simultaneously… Almost everyone has their own way of frying but I always double dip… Take the chicken out and put it in a plate with flour, coat the chicken with the flour, next dip the chicken into the egg and hot sauce mixture, finally add the chicken into a bag with the dry dredge mixture and toss to coat. Repeat.

Once the deep fryer is ready, place the chicken in the fryer but DO NOT OVERCROWD. This could cause spillage and/or the chicken won’t cook evenly. I could only put three pieces per batch, so you can imagine the time it took to cook roughly 4 pounds of chicken. It will take about 10-12 minutes on 350 to cook the chicken.

While the chicken is cooking, combine all the seasonings into a heat proof bowl, and cut the Hawaiian rolls in half butter them up and grill/broil them (I grilled simply because I just got done grilling pizzas).

Now comes the fun part – making it Nashville Hot chicken.

When the chicken is done take it out of the fryer and put it on a wire drying rack. Take a cup and a quarter of the hot oil (be really careful) and dump it over the seasonings in the heat proof bowl. Take a fork and mix really well. From here you’ve got your hot chicken sauce:

Now just take a brush and apply a generous portion of SAUS to both sides of the chicken, because everyone knows "what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" shoutout my boy Adam Ozier. There you have it, Nashville Hot Chicken.

Since I had a lot of people over I figured having the option for a sandwich would cut the heat for some weaklings, whose identities will be kept secret so as to not shame them in front of the Nation.

Yes this is a timely process, but damn is it worth it. Again, I kept mine to about a medium heat, but you can add as much cayenne (or whatever other pepper) as you think you can handle. Just be careful, we’ve all thought we could handle the hottest of hot chicken before, and we’ve all regretted it afterwards. There is no going back…

From my Nation to yours, hope you enjoy a little bit of my hometown.

#Dantnation

www.dantnation.com

The Return

After a few years off from the blog (rest assured I've still been killin it in the kitchen), I've decided to return to the spotlight to share with the world the fruits of my labor.  The one thing I have learned is that my passion has become cooking anything I damn well please and sharing it with the people I love the most.

The past year has brought a tremendous amount of change in my life, I married my incredible totally bad ass girlfriend of 7 years, Katie, we bought a house, and in that time have somehow been gifted two of the lords most precious gifts to man.... my grills. The Traeger and the Big Green Egg have changed the way I'll cook forever. So long are the days where the weekends are for eating out... the weekends are for smokin butts. And if you don't eat smoked butts.... it's okay... I make lamb.

I've had people hound me since I stopped blogging about bringing my talents back on the line, and I'm ready to make the commitment again. I figure the amount of time I spend planning, cooking, and eating I might as well allow people outside of Katie and the boy Max (my dog) to share in my endeavors. So to my followers - I thank you in advance - the Dip is going worldwide.

#Dantnation

www.dantnation.com

Homeade Chic Fil A chicken and Pancakes

This summer on a brisk Friday morning in Jacksonville, with the arrival of my girlfriend later that day, I stumbled upon a Paula Deen show... Praise Paula, Much love. Seeing as I hadn't seen Katie in a while I wanted to make something Legen... wait for it....

DARY...

Paula had a recipe to fry a chicken finger (on a stick) and dip it in Pancake batter then refry.. So, me, being the food connoisseur that I am, took to the kitchen. I one upped you Mrs. Paula though, and I apologize for this. I made a Chic Fil A chicken finger recipe that I received from my top notch girlfriend and mixed it with this pancake batter. There has been no better union of flavors to ever come out of my kitchen. The powdered sugar based batter for the chicken mixed with the extra sweetness of the pancake better and maple syrup was incredible. It sent a sensation of flavor through my taste buds, similar to the feeling of when you first bite down on a Starburst and that flavor explodes into you're mouth. Yea I know that was deep... So if you're ever in town and want a little "Southern Hospitality" stop on by... I would never turn down an opportunity to eat this again.

Recipe~
-Soak the chicken in buttermilk overnight (this will help to keep the batter on the tender).
-Next make the batter: I just did 2/3 Flour and 1/3 Powdered sugar mixture. And the pancake batter was just Aunt Jemima.
-If you want to use the sticks to make it like Mrs. Paula, put the chicken on the sticks at this point. (I didn't do this part, made no difference. Flavors too good...)
-Fry the chicken with the Chic Fil A batter. Then dip the chicken in the pancake batter and cook until its golden brown. (this won't take long).
-Sit back pour some of natures gold (Maple Syrup) on top and let me know what you think.

#Dantnation

Lobster and Swordfish Pasta

Fans, brothers, sisters, followers, friends, family before I start to tell you this recipe I would just like to say. Your welcome. Having just moved to Florida I am now in the bed of fresh seafood. And if you don't think I'm taking full advantage of that... Check yourself. Today I took a trip to Publix seafood section and just picked two random critters to indulge myself with: Lobster and Swordfish. Since most of you are not in Florida and seafood is at best a delicacy I would recommend just using crab meat (imitation is fine, but if you have Publix use the Jumbo lump meat its very good).
The recipe is as follows:
-1 lobster tail meat cubed
-Half Pound of Swordfish cubed
-4 Cups of Heavy Whipping Cream
-2 TBSP of Olive oil
-Garlic Salt, Basil to taste
-Half an Onion Diced
-1 twig of Green Onion Diced
-One package of any pasta. (I prefer Wagon Wheels, it really butters my biscuits)

Start off by heating up a pan Medium High with the olive oil in it. At the same time start boiling water, once boiling toss in the pasta. Little trick throw in some garlic salt and basil into the water, really adds nice flavor. Once the pan is to temperature throw the cubed swordfish and lobster into the pan. Season both with garlic salt and basil, I go pretty liberally on the garlic salt. After about 2 minutes throw in the onions and green onions. It should take about 5-7 minutes for this all to cook, taste to see you can tell by the color change. Once cooked throw in the heavy whipping cream and reduce the heat to between low and medium. Let it thicken up. This should take around 7-10 minutes. Once done strain the pasta and toss it into the seafood mix. This stuff if perfect. Always gotten good reviews, don't hesitate to use the jumbo lump crab. Crab is just as delectable! Enjoy... Until next time.

P.S. Never hurts to broil up some french bread, once you get down to that sauce it really works well as a dip. Trust in the Dip.

~Dantnation

Homemade Lobster Rolls- Cajun Style

When it comes to Mississippi's seafood cuisine the first thing that comes to mind is crawfish. Well sorry about it, but this guy likes lobster a little bit more. So for my Sunday Funday I made some homemade lobster rolls. Even though I got the lobster from Kroger it still turned out to be great meat and only 13$ for two whole lobsters. Warning- This recipe is Linsanely good (shoutout Jeremy Lin).... Sorry had to insert a cheesy line about him, like the rest of the world. So here we go:

Lobster Rolls: For two
Two Whole Lobsters
Zatarans Crab boil packet.
Light mayo about 3-4 Tablespoons
Cayenne Pepper to taste, and Cajun Seasoning to taste.
1/4 of a Red and Green Pepper diced
1/4 of a red onion diced.
Two  Baby Mushrooms diced.
Two Hoagie rolls

First bring a pot of water with the zatarans to a boil. Then place the lobsters in for about 7-8 minutes. While doing this put the diced peppers, onions, and mushrooms in a skillet with butter and cook until nice and soft. Once these are done mix these with the Mayo, Cayenne, and Cajun seasoning. When the lobster is done break off the tail and claws and take the meat out of them. I recommend using cooking scissors to do this, unless you have the metal clampers. Chop up the meat and mix it in with the mayo pepper mix. Butter the bread, toast it and then put the Lobster mix on the bread and enjoy. And trust me, you will enjoy. This is a good cajun twist on a northern dish. It was grrrrrrrrreat! If you make it invite me over... and I'll tell you how my taste buds react.

~DantNation

P.S. Your Welcome