Intro: Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich, and I’m so glad you’re here.

Susie Weinrich: Today I have a super fresh and delicious dinner idea for you that you are going to be able to put together in about five minutes. It’s not a full dinner, but it’s a start. We’re talking about fresh basil vinaigrette. I think when we all think about fresh basil, we automatically think about just basil pesto. In episode 16, we talked about how to make a fresh basil pesto, but this time we’re going to make a vinaigrette and it is extremely tasty.

This is going to be a very simple vinaigrette that you probably have a lot of the ingredients already in your kitchen, except for maybe the fresh basil. It’s going to come together in about five minutes, and then at the end of this episode, I’m going to tell you some different ways that you can use your basil vinaigrette.

Tips and Tricks: A couple of tips before we get started on the full recipe. This recipe calls for extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin and regular olive oil are not the same thing. I mean, they’re both olive oils. Extra virgin though, has a very different flavor profile than your regular olive oil. The extra virgin is going to have a little bit of a spicier and more pronounced olive flavor, which I actually love in this vinaigrette recipe. If you don’t love the extra virgin olive oil flavor, or you don’t have it and you don’t really want to buy it, you can absolutely just use olive oil or canola oil in this recipe. 

The other tip that I have for you is when we’re talking about fresh basil if you’ve never used fresh basil in your kitchen, it’s usually going to come on a large stem, and then it has all the leaves that come off of that large stem. You can use the leaves, you can use the small stems, but then there’s going to be a really long woody stem in the center. Don’t use that part in your vinaigrette. It will be way too coarse and not break down enough into the pesto. No, we’re not making pesto. Into the vinaigrette. 

Basil Vinaigrette Recipe: One piece of equipment that you’re going to need for your vinaigrette is either a blender or a food processor. So make sure you have those to get started with this recipe. You’re going to take all of your ingredients and put them together in your blender or food processor. You need six tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and two tablespoons of red wine vinaigrette. One tablespoon of shallot that’s been chopped. One small garlic clove that’s been chopped, one tablespoon of water, one teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and then 15 to 20 large basil leaves. A quarter teaspoon of kosher salt, and then just a pinch of black pepper. You basically just blend that all up until it’s nice and smooth and pureed. 

Now if your blender won’t get started, you can always add an extra tablespoon of water. As always, I recommend tasting the dish before you serve it. Vinaigrette can tend to go very tart. If you like it just a little bit sweeter, you can blend in a pinch or two of sugar or honey and it will help balance the flavors for you.

So this vinaigrette can be stored in the fridge for up to a week, or you can use it right away. If you do store it in the fridge, some of that oil may tend to solidify. You just need to let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes and then give it a good shake. It will emulsify right back into the dressing.

All right, so let’s get to the good part. Let’s talk about how you’re going to use this basil vinaigrette to make dinner. If you already have a garden going, it is excellent over fresh summer tomatoes that have been sliced. Drizzle the vinaigrette over top and then put a little coarse sea salt or kosher salt or flaky salt over top. It’s delicious. It’s also wonderful served drizzled over roasted fennel or over roasted radishes. Have you ever made roasted radishes? They’re delicious. They actually taste like potatoes. It’s wild. I have a recipe for both the roasted fennel and the roasted radishes that I will link in the show notes for you.

Or you can replace whatever your favorite pasta salad recipe is. You can replace the dressing with this basil vinaigrette, and it makes a delicious, really summery pasta salad that has really fresh flavors. 

Now, those are kind of some side dish ideas. If you want to use this more as a dinner idea, you can use it drizzled over fresh grilled chicken, is wonderful. Now if you love a big old salad in the next episode, episode number 28, I go over how to use this vinaigrette in a big Italian salad. So pop over to the next episode if you want to make that for dinner. 

That does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. As always, I will link all of the recipes I talked about right in the show notes so you can find them when you are ready to make dinner.

If you’re loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow whatever your preferred podcast player is. That way you’ll just be able to find all of the new episodes right in your podcast feed.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Who here loves a good barbecue? I know I do. I live in Kansas City and we take our barbecue very seriously here. I will say that I am not a barbecue professional, I’m not out there, you know, sitting over my smoker with a brisket all day. But I do love to eat some barbecue. Okay. And we have some great restaurants here in Kansas City. But today we’re going to be making and going over the full recipe for Instant Pot Barbecue Beef Sandwiches. I know you’re probably like, oh, instant pot. That’s not a real barbecue. No, it’s not real barbecue, but it sure is tasty. It’s a super great way to get that tender shredded beef when you don’t have a smoker or a barbecue that you can cook it on, or maybe you just don’t have eight hours to make smoked beef, but you’re craving it. This is the perfect recipe. 

I will also tell you if you don’t have an Instant Pot, I have this recipe available for your oven or your crockpot, and I will put a link to that full recipe in the show notes for you.

Tips and Tricks: Let’s get into some tips for making amazing barbecue shredded beef. First of all, we’re talking chuck roast here. That’s the cut of beef we’re going to use. It is a wonderful cut that has a super delicious beef flavor and so it’s a great option for your barbecue beef. A few things to think about when you’re looking for a chuck roast in the grocery store. You want to find one that is well-marbled. Marbled just means that it looks like it has kind of veins of fat throughout the whole entire piece of beef. 

Next, you want to find one that’s decently large, about three to four pounds. The last tip with your chuck roast is, You do not need to get a prime chuck roast. You can just get a choice or even select if that’s what you have available or you’re trying to save some money. That will work perfectly fine for your barbecue beef. 

With this barbecue beef, I include a complete recipe for a barbecue seasoning or a dry rub. If you have one that is store bought that you love, or you have one that you make that you love, that you know goes really well on beef, you can absolutely use that. You’ll need about a quarter to a third cup of your barbecue seasoning for this recipe. 

One last thing I want to go over before we get into making the full recipe. I get this question a lot. If I double the recipe, do I double the time? The answer is, it depends. With this recipe, we’re cutting the beef into large three or four-inch pieces, so if you double the recipe, there’s no need to double the time. Because all of the pieces of meat are going to be equal in size. Now, if you were going to make this recipe and instead of a three or four-pound chuck roast, you were going to get a six or eight-pound chuck roast and not cut it into pieces, then you would need to increase the time because the size of the one piece of meat would be increasing. So I hope that answers and clears up the question about doubling the time and the recipe. 

Instant Pot BBQ Beef Recipe: Let’s get into making our Instant Pot Shredded Barbecue Beef. You’re going to start with about a three or four-pound chuck roast. You’re going to pat it dry with some paper towels, and then cut it into three or four-inch pieces and trim away any large chunks of fat, and go ahead and discard those. Then set all of that chuck roast aside, we’re going to make the barbecue seasoning. Like I said in the tip section, If you have a barbecue seasoning that you like, go ahead and use that. If you don’t, here’s how you make this recipe. In a small bowl, you’ll combine one and a half tablespoons of brown sugar and one tablespoon of chili powder. Two teaspoons of kosher salt, and then one teaspoon each of black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then a half teaspoon each of smoked paprika. Make sure you use the smoked, it’s different than sweet or a regular paprika, make sure you get the smoked. So half a teaspoon of smoked paprika and half a teaspoon of dry ground mustard. Go ahead and mix all that up. I like to use a fork. The tip here is to make sure that you get all of the brown sugar worked down into the seasoning. You don’t want any large chunks of brown sugar left in the mixture. Now, you’ll want to remove two tablespoons of the seasoning and set that aside because we will use that after the barbecue beef has cooked to season it again at the end. With the remaining seasoning that you have, you’re going to sprinkle that over all of the cuts of the chuck roast. What I like to do is kind of press it onto the beef so that it adheres to each piece. 

Now we’re going to turn over to the actual Instant Pot. In the liner of the Instant Pot. You want to pour one cup of water, one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, and one tablespoon of Worcestercershire. Then I like to take one full yellow or white onion, cut it up into eight pieces, and lay that down in the bottom of the Instant Pot. What that base in your Instant Pot is doing, it’s allowing you to add liquid so that your instant pot can come to pressure and cook your beef. It’s also laying down a flavor profile that’s going to cook the beef and infuse more flavor.

All right, then you’re going to take that seasoned beef and place it on top of the onions in the Instant Pot. When I pick the beef chunks up, if any of that seasoning falls off, I like to take those beef pieces and mop up all of that seasoning and get it all stuck so that it goes right into the pot. Then go ahead and put the lid of the instant pot on. Turn it to lock it in place. Turn the pressure valve to seal on top. Then you’re going to set it to cook for 45 minutes on high pressure. At the end of that cook time, you’re going to do something called a natural release for 10 minutes. You don’t have to do anything for your pot to move into natural release. As soon as that 45-minute cook time is up, it will move into natural release where some of the pressure is dissipating. It’s not heating any longer. So let your pot count back up to 10, and then you’ll finish with a quick release by turning that pressure valve on the top. Once that pin drops in the top, you can go ahead and open up your pot. Then remove all of the beef chunks from the Instant Pot. What I like to do is put them on a rimmed baking sheet so that no liquid spills out or anything. It keeps everything contained together. Now, whether or not you add the onions to the beef, that’s totally up to you. This will be super tender, so you should just be able to take two forks and shred everything up.

Some people will ask me what to do with the liquid that’s in the bottom of the pot. You could add some of it to the beef, but I wouldn’t add all of it because sometimes that liquid that’s left over down there can be a little bit greasy. Now that you have your beef all shredded, we have that two tablespoons of reserved seasoning that we saved in the beginning. Give your beef a taste. See how much seasoning you want to add to the beef. Toss it all together, and give it another taste. If you want more seasoning, add more. If it’s good to go, then you can add some barbecue sauce. I don’t have a recipe for barbecue sauce. As I said before, we live in Kansas City, so we have excellent barbecue sauce here. So use whatever your family likes to eat, whatever you like the flavor of, whether it’s sweet, vinegar, smokey, or whatever you guys like. Toss your beef with about a half a cup of barbecue sauce, and then it’s time to serve. 

So let’s get to talking about how to serve your shredded barbecue beef and what side dishes you’re going to have. I recommend serving these as sandwiches and getting some heartier buns, something that’s going to hold all of that juicy barbecue beef. Now, as far as toppings go, some of the things that we like are of course, extra barbecue sauce. Creamy coleslaw is excellent on top of barbecue beef. Onion rings are another kind of fun topping that you might not think of. We also love pickles or pepperoncini slices.

For side dishes, we like to keep it barbecue classic. So we’re talking potato salad, creamy coleslaw, and baked beans. Then maybe add some chips in there. One other combo that we really like is to serve a cheesy potato casserole and then broccoli bacon salad. 

As always, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode, right in the show notes so you can find them when you are ready to make Instant Pot Barbecue Beef for dinner. 

If you’re loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would so much appreciate it if you follow or subscribe right in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner Makes your Dinner Time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: What’s up everybody? Today I have a delicious and healthy recipe for you. We don’t do healthy a ton around here, so I thought I would sneak one in. We are making pizza zucchini boats for dinner. If you like pizza and maybe you’re trying to eat a little bit healthier, this is a great alternative to just ordering pizza or making a frozen pizza. So instead of a pizza crust, we’re actually going to use a hollowed-out zucchini and fill it with all of your favorite pizza toppings. And it is delicious. I promise you, you won’t miss the bread, and in fact, you may want to make your pizzas this way from now on. Although a thick-crust pizza can’t be beat once in a while, right? So this recipe prep is going to take you about 15 minutes. The cook time is about 30 minutes, so you’re about 45 minutes in total. 

The ingredients you’re going to need are, of course, fresh zucchini, Italian sausage, onion, garlic, dried basil and dried oregano, a marinara sauce or pizza sauce, and then some of your favorite pizza toppings. For this recipe, we’re going to recommend black olives, bell peppers, and mushrooms, and then of course you need shredded mozzarella cheese. 

Pizza Zucchini Boats Recipe: Let’s get right into making your pizza zucchini boats, or do we want to call them zucchini pizza boats? I guess it’ll work either way. You’re going to preheat your oven to 350 and you’re going to prepare a large casserole dish, so at least a nine by 13 or larger if you have it. Spread about half a cup of the marinara or pizza sauce across the bottom. Then you’re going to just go ahead and set that aside.

Your next step is to hollow out your zucchini. So what I like to do is line up three to four fresh zucchini. Cut the ends off of each side and then split them in half. So you’re going to end up with six to eight zucchini pizza boats. Next, you want to take a spoon and hollow out the inside of each zucchini, so you’re making literally what looks like a canoe or a boat. You want to leave a little bit at the end to hold the pizza toppings in, but otherwise, just take that spoon and scrape out that seedy middle portion. Then go ahead and set those right into your prepared casserole dish. 

Next, we’re going to prepare the filling that’s going to go in your pizza boats. So you’ll take a skillet over about medium heat, and you’re going to brown and crumble the Italian sausage. One of my favorite kitchen tools that I have is what I call a meat masher. If you’ve listened to some of the other episodes, you’ve probably heard me talk about it. It looks like a little spatula that has about five prongs on it and helps you crumble your ground meat. It works really, really well on any kind of sausage because when you’re crumbling sausage, it can be kind of sticky and it just works right through it. So I will link that product in the show notes for you. 

As soon as your Italian sausage is completely cooked through, drain off any excess grease, then you’re going to lower the heat to medium-low and add half a cup of chopped onions, three chopped garlic cloves, half a teaspoon of dried basil, half a teaspoon of dried oregano, and then just saute that until the onions are slightly softened, so about five minutes. Then you’ll finish by stirring in one cup of marinara sauce or pizza sauce. We highly recommend RAOs pasta sauce. We’re not sponsored by them. We just love the RAOs marinara or the RAOs, what is it? Basil Marinara, I think? I think it’s tomato basil marinara. It is delicious and is perfect for these zucchini pizza boats.

All right, time to put everything together. So in those hollowed-out zucchini boats that you have in that casserole dish, divide the sausage mixture equally among all of those zucchini boats. Then you will divide equally a half a cup of black olives, a half a cup of sliced mushrooms, a half a cup of diced bell peppers across all of the pizza boats. Then you will divide one and a half cups of shredded mozzarella cheese across all of the pizza boats as well. 

Now it’s time to bake. My tip for whenever you’re baking something that has cheese on top and you have to cover it with foil, take your large sheet of foil and spray the underside with some type of non-stick spray. That will make it so that when you actually pull the foil off, it doesn’t pull all the cheese off with it. So spray some foil, cover that dish, and bake it at 350 for 20 minutes. Then once that is up, you’ll remove the foil, pop it back in the oven for about 10 more minutes, and that’s it. You just want to let them cool for about five minutes and it is time to eat. 

These are actually quite filling, so when you’re serving the zucchini boats, I recommend serving two per person. If you have some really hungry people, they might want to eat three. As far as side dishes go, just a simple side salad or a Caesar salad would be delicious paired with your zucchini pizza boats. 

As always, I will link all of the recipes and all of the equipment that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes so you can find them when you’re ready to make these for dinner.

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it so that you can find all of our future and new episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Do you ever try to grill chicken for dinner and it just turns out dry and like a little piece of shoe leather? It’s the worst. Chicken has a tendency to dry out so quickly, especially when you’re cooking it over that dry heat, like on the grill.

Intro: But I have a great recipe that’s going to come to your rescue, and you are never going to have to suffer a dried chicken breast again. We’re talking about buttermilk-marinated chicken breasts that are perfect for grilling. You only need four ingredients to make your grilled buttermilk chicken. Obviously, chicken breasts; boneless skinless chicken breasts. I think you could also do this recipe with chicken thighs or really any other type of chicken. But for this recipe, we’re talking about boneless skinless chicken breasts. You obviously need buttermilk, kosher salt, and some garlic cloves. If you want to add a little extra flavor profile in there, you could always add some fresh herbs as well. I’ve definitely used rosemary. You could do thyme, you could do oregano, you could try basil. Any of those would work. 

This definitely isn’t a throw-together dinner. You have to plan ahead just a little bit because you’re marinating the chicken in the buttermilk. So you want at least 12 to 24 hours to do the marinating. 

At the end of this episode, I’m going to give you a few different ways to serve your juicy chicken breasts. 

Tips and Tricks: All right, let’s get into a couple of tips for buying chicken and making this recipe. First of all, when you buy chicken, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Look for air-chilled chicken. Of course, you can buy organic, free-range, vegetarian fed, is that a thing? Vegetarian-fed chicken? I swear I know what I’m talking about. Okay, so when you’re buying chicken, all those other things are great, but the one thing that’s going to make the biggest difference in the flavor and the texture of your chicken is buying air-chilled chicken. 

The next tip, you can absolutely make your own buttermilk. It’s just low fat, maybe 2% milk, and either a little lemon juice or a little vinegar added. However, the buttermilk that you buy in the grocery store is actually a low-fat milk with lactic bacteria added that produces lactic acid. That lactic acid is what does the magic on your chicken in a very soft way. It tenderizes your chicken and makes sure that it stays really juicy when you grill it. 

Next chicken tip. If you have those monster chicken breasts that are super, super thick, and enormous, I highly recommend that you cut each breast lengthwise so that then you end up with two thinner breasts. What that does is it just allows the chicken breast to marinate a little bit better. It also allows it to grill or cook more evenly. If you leave it big and thick like it is. The top thick end will take much longer to cook than the skinny tail end.

Two final tips. Make sure you’re using kosher salt, not iodized table salt. They are completely different. Kosher salt is much milder and has a grainier texture, whereas iodized table salt has almost, when you taste them side by side, the iodized table, salt definitely has more of a chemical flavor than a salty flavor. So if you’re using iodized table salt in your kitchen, I highly recommend grabbing some kosher salt, tasting them side by side, and then making the switch to kosher salt. 

The last tip is with the garlic that you’re going to add to the marinade. When you add garlic to a marinade and then you’re going to cook whatever meat you’re marinating, I highly recommend either just chopping the garlic into large pieces or just cracking the garlic so that the insides are exposed. When you mince the garlic, those tiny garlic pieces will stick to the meat and then possibly burn on the grill. So next time you do a marinade, definitely try just cracking or making the garlic into larger chunks. Those are all my tips. 

Buttermilk Chicken Recipe: Let’s get onto the recipe. Actually, this recipe’s going to take me like two seconds to tell you how to make. You need six fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts. Place those in either a rimmed baking dish or you can use a large Ziploc baggy. You’re going to want to salt the chicken with your kosher salt very generously on both sides. Then crack six fresh whole cloves of garlic and nestle those all around the chicken. Now if you’re going to add any of the fresh herbs as we talked about at the beginning, you can go ahead and nestle those down in there as well. Just like the garlic, I don’t recommend chopping up the herbs because they will stick to the chicken and possibly burn. I recommend if you’re using oregano, thyme, or rosemary, you can just stick the whole sprig of herbs down in with the chicken. Then you’re going to take two cups of the buttermilk and just pour it right into the dish with the chicken, nestle that chicken down into the buttermilk, cover the dish, and pop it in the fridge.

You’re going to marinate it anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. I wouldn’t recommend doing less than 12 because that’s not going to be enough time for that lactic acid to affect the chicken. I wouldn’t do it any more than 24 because, beyond 24, it may start to break the chicken down and get oversaturated. 

All right, then when it’s time to actually cook your chicken, what I recommend is if you’re grilling the chicken, which by the way I think is the very best way to grill this buttermilk marinated chicken. If you’re going to grill it, then pull that chicken out of the fridge and leave it at room temperature until the grill is ready. This is called tempering and I recommend it for almost all meat that you’re going to grill or bake or cook, and it just basically tempers it so it’s not ice cold right out of the fridge and lets it cook a little bit more evenly and retain more of its juices. 

So while your chicken is tempering, you want to set your grill up for direct and indirect grilling. When you pull the chicken out of the buttermilk marinade, just make sure there are no large pieces of garlic stuck to the chicken. Let some of that buttermilk drain off the chicken, and then if there’s a lot left stuck on there, you can always take a paper towel and pat it a little bit, but it’s okay if there’s some excess buttermilk left on the chicken.

Then take your chicken out to your grill and you’re going to start over that direct heat and you’re going to cook it for about four minutes per side. Then what I like to do is move it to the indirect side, check it for the temperature, and if the internal temperature is 160, you can pull that chicken off the grill. If it hasn’t quite reached 160, then you’re going to want to leave it on the indirect heat side. Pop the lid on your grill and let it cook anywhere from, this is going to sound like a long time, anywhere from one minute to five minutes. It really depends on the chicken, because they can vary so much in size. You really want to cook your chicken to temperature, not time. So you have to cook your chicken anywhere from 160 to 165 to be safe to eat. 

So once you have reached 160 to 165, you can remove your chicken from the grill. Let it sit for about five minutes and then it’s time to eat. 

I have some great recipes and ideas for using your tender and juicy grilled buttermilk chicken. The first is just eating it as grilled chicken. I have a killer recipe for a horseradish cream sauce that makes an amazing dip for your grilled chicken. I would serve that with just some grilled veggies, and then I’ve talked about this recipe before. It’s for crispy oven potatoes from my friend Lori over at Josie + Nina. These potatoes are a dream. I talked about them in episode three of garlic steak bites. They would also go really well with your grilled chicken, so I will make sure and link that recipe in the show notes for you. The grilled chicken would also be amazing on top of just Alfredo, so you know, a chicken Alfredo situation, or on top of a Caesar salad if you want something really fresh and light and delicious for a hot summer night. Or the last one would be a grilled chicken sandwich. This is not going to be your average boring grilled chicken sandwich. I’m talking start with a brioche bun. Add a huge slathering of that horseradish cream sauce that I talked about earlier. Add some lettuce, fresh-cut tomato, avocado slices, and then some thick-cut crispy bacon. Add those buttermilk-grilled chicken breasts, and these sandwiches will knock your socks off. Super, super delicious. 

That does it for today’s episode. As always, I will link all of the recipes that we talked about right in the show notes so you can find all of them and make your delicious dinner. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all the future episodes, right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Hey everybody. If you’ve been around here for a while, then you know that one of my very favorite foods to eat is enchiladas. If we go to a Mexican restaurant, I’m going to order enchiladas. You better believe it. My favorite is when they have the enchilada trio and you can get a chicken enchilada, a beef enchilada, and a cheese enchilada all on one plate, the best. 

However, what I don’t like is making enchiladas at home. If you make them the really traditional way, they can be absolutely time-consuming. From making the filling, making the sauce, warming and dipping the tortillas, then filling them, then baking it, like it’s a whole thing. So today we are gonna go over a wonderful recipe called beef enchilada casserole. That’s a wonderful way to get all of those enchilada flavors without going through all of the rolling and the dipping and the saucing of traditional beef enchiladas.

Tips and Tricks: I have a couple of tips before we get into this recipe. The first one is going to be for your beef. I recommend that you use an 85/15 for your beef enchiladas, and the reason is that you are sauteing the beef and it’s kind of cooking in its own fat, which is great because the fat is flavor, right? But you don’t want too much fat so that it is actually greasy. Like with my burgers in episode one, I recommend using an 80-20 because some of that fat will cook out into the fire. But when you’re sauteing your beef in its own juices, using something a little bit leaner, works a little bit better, in my opinion. 

Now also, when you’re cooking your ground beef, I have a kitchen tool that I am obsessed with. I’m not somebody who likes to have a lot of kitchen tools just to have the kitchen tools and the coolest gadgets. I like to have things in the kitchen that I use often. This meat masher, I’m not even sure if that’s the correct term for it, but I use it all the time. I bought it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to use it. I use it all the time. It basically looks like a spatula that has four or five prongs that are crisscrossed so that you can mash the meat up and make it a nice crumble without having to work too hard. It especially works really well on any kind of sausage that can be really sticky. 

All right, the next tip is for your tortillas. Traditionally enchiladas are made with corn tortillas, so that’s what I like to use in this recipe. My favorite for the most flavor is using yellow corn tortillas. 

The last tip I have, and I will always give you this tip, shred your own cheese. I hate shredding cheese. It is probably one of my least favorite kitchen tasks to do. But I still do it because it makes that big of a difference. When you buy that pre-packaged, pre-shredded cheese, it actually has corn starch and different agents on it so that it doesn’t clump and it preserves. When you buy and shred your own cheese, it’s not gonna have that so it melts up creamier and tastier. So always shred your own cheese. 

Enchilada Casserole Recipe: Let’s get on to making your beef enchilada casserole. You’ll start by grabbing a nine by 13 casserole dish and go ahead and just set that aside. You’ll also want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Now we’re going to turn to the stovetop and make that ground beef. In a large skillet over about medium heat, you’re going to brown and crumble your ground beef. Then drain off any excess grease. You’re going to add one medium white onion that’s been diced, three garlic cloves, and one teaspoon of kosher salt. Continue to saute that until the onions are slightly softened, so about five minutes. Then you’re going to stir in three tablespoons of water, two teaspoons of chili powder, and one teaspoon of cumin. Now if you want cilantro in your enchiladas, I know it’s not traditional, but if you like that flavor, you can also add in a third cup of fresh chopped cilantro. Give everything a stir and that is your filling. 

Now it’s time to turn over and layer up our casserole. You’re going to need two 10-ounce cans of red enchilada sauce. If you want to make your own, you absolutely can. You’re going to need about two and a quarter cups of your enchilada sauce that you make. Pour about a third of a cup of enchilada sauce across the bottom of that 9×13 pan, and spread it so it coats the entire bottom of the dish. Then you’re going to take five of your corn tortillas, lay them out into the pan, and then that last one split it in half so it just covers both sides. 

If you want to see a picture of this, you can go into the show notes and pop over to the recipe. I have pictures of all of the layering that goes on in this dish. So then you’re going to top those tortillas with half of the beef mixture. Then pour in three-quarters cups of that enchilada sauce and you’ll sprinkle on half a cup of cheese. Now with the cheese, you want to have a total of an eight-ounce block that has been shredded. You can use cheddar cheese or you can use a pepper jack or a Monterey jack, or the combination of all of those will work too. 

So back to layering up our enchilada casserole. You’re going to top that cheese with five more tortillas, laying them out again so you have two whole, two whole, and then the last one you will break in half and just pop at the end. Sprinkle the remaining beef mixture over top of that. Three-quarters cup of enchilada sauce, another heaping half cup of cheese, and then you’re going to finish it with five more tortillas, the remaining enchilada sauce, and the remaining cheese. That’s it. That’s your whole layering process for these enchiladas. You’ll cover that pan with foil and bake it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes. With any kind of casserole, you know, lasagna, tetrazzini, anything like that, once it comes out of the oven, you always want to let them cool for about five to 10 minutes so that everything kind of settles together. So go ahead and let it cool for about five minutes before cutting it and serving. 

When I serve these beef enchiladas, I like to just cut them into squares and serve everybody just a nice large square portion. Some side dishes you can think about serving with this enchilada casserole are just your traditional Mexican side dishes. So refried beans. I have a great recipe for 15-minute refried beans. Which, let me tell you here, the secret to really good refried beans is using a can of whole pinto beans and a can of refried beans that you mix together with some seasonings and lots of cheese and you just bake ’em for a few minutes and that’s it.

Then I also have a recipe for Mexican rice that I will link for you in the show notes. As well as this really delicious chopped pineapple that has a cilantro, citrus honey sauce that you pour over it. It makes a great side dish if you want something fresh to serve with your enchiladas. Of course, don’t forget the margarita. Who doesn’t love a margarita with a little enchilada? Delicious. 

So that does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. Of course, I will link all of the recipes I talked about right in the show notes so you can find everything you need. They are all free printable recipes. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Sloppy Joe, Sloppy, sloppy Joe. Now welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: I hope you know what recipe we’re talking about today. We are keeping it casual and super easy with a sloppy Joe sandwich. I grew up in the eighties and nineties in Iowa, and so this was kind of a common dinner item, I guess a weeknight dinner item. They may have also been known to you as taverns or made right sandwiches, or maybe even manwitch. 

Now, if you’re like, what in the heck is a sloppy Joe? It is basically a ground beef sandwich with a little onion, and a little garlic that has this sweet, tangy, salty, savory sauce that coats all of the ground beef, pile it on top of a bun, and there you go. I do like pickles on mine too, though. So that’s a great addition. 

A couple of tips when you’re making your sloppy Joe sandwiches at home. You want to use leaner ground beef, so I like to use an 85/15. It just has a little bit less fat than an 80/20 when you’re cooking your ground beef in a skillet and it’s cooking in its own juice and fat. Keeping it a little less greasy is a good thing.

Another tip is that you want to have a little bit of a heartier bun when you’re eating sloppy joes. Since the sauce coats the ground beef, it can tend to make your bun soggy. So this is a good time to go for something a little bit heartier like a Kaiser or a potato roll. Those are all my tips. There’s not much to it. 

Sloppy Joes Recipe: So let’s get into this recipe for sloppy Joe sandwiches. You are going to start by adding one and a half pounds of ground beef to a large skillet over medium-high heat. You’ll cook the ground beef while you’re crumbling it until it’s completely cooked through, which will take about seven minutes.

Then you’re going to want to drain off any fat from the cooked beef, removing the beef from the pan as well, so you’re left with an empty skillet. Now in that skillet, you’re going to add, if you need a little bit of oil, add a little bit of oil and add one cup of yellow onion that is finally diced, and three garlic cloves that are minced. You’re going to saute that until the onions are pretty translucent, which is gonna be about five minutes. Then add the beef back to the onions and stir everything to combine it together. Finally, over low heat, you’re going to add two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, three tablespoons of brown sugar, one tablespoon plus one teaspoon of mustard, half a heaping cup of ketchup, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and then any black pepper to taste however you like it.

Go ahead and stir that all together so that the sauce coats everything and that’s it. You’re ready to have Sloppy Joe’s. All you do to serve this is pile it high on top of buns and that’s it. Now, as I said before, I do like pickles on top of mine, but that is totally optional.

When you are serving Sloppy Joe sandwiches, you definitely have to keep the side dishes casual. We’re talking tater tots or potato chips, maybe some raw veggies or fruit. It’s like dinner casual, clean out the fridge of side dish night. 

That’s it for today’s episode. Of course, I will link the full printable recipe to homemade sloppy Joe’s right in the show notes so you can find it when you’re ready to make them for dinner. 

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you rate and review this podcast in your preferred podcast player. That will just help other people find Let’s Make Dinner. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode makes your dinner time a little easier year.

Intro: Welcome to another delicious episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: I think we can all agree that we love ramen. You know those 25-cent packets of noodles, aren’t those delicious? But what if I told you that you could take that, throw away the seasoning packet, and make something so much more robust and a full one-pot dinner? You would be in. Right? We are making Easy Beef Ramen Noodles for dinner. 

Tips and Tricks: We’re going to start by going over a couple of tips for this recipe. Number one, it comes together really quickly. So as soon as you start cooking, it’s like step after step after step. So you want to prep all of your ingredients before you actually start making the recipe. 

The second tip is for the fresh ginger that the recipe calls for. Number one, if you buy a knob of fresh ginger, the very easiest way to peel it is by using the edge of a spoon and just scraping it across that brown outside portion of the ginger.

Number two, you can actually freeze ginger. It freezes really well and I think it will keep for up to six months in your freezer. Or number three, this is what I do now. I actually buy frozen cubes of minced ginger at the grocery store. I buy mine at Trader Joe’s, and I believe the brand is called Dorot Gardens, and they literally are just little tiny one-teaspoon cubes of fresh ginger that are minced and then frozen. Totally easy to keep on hand. 

Tip number three. We’re talking about using flank steak here, which is really thin and has a very specific grain. When you’re cutting beef, you want to cut across the grain. Flank steak is a little wide, so first with your flank steak, you’re going to cut it with the grain in half, so you have two smaller halves. Then you’re going to cut these thin little quarter-inch strips, making sure that you cut against the grain. That is how you will be able to chew your beef. If you cut your beef with the grain into these quarter-inch slices, you will be chewing for days. 

The last tip that I have, this recipe calls for frozen broccoli. The reason it calls for frozen broccoli is because of cooking time. The frozen broccoli cooks down perfectly in like two minutes in the pot with the noodles and the beef. If you were to use fresh broccoli, you would have to cook it for a little bit longer, and you risk overcooking the noodles and the beef. So stick with the frozen broccoli, I promise it works. 

Beef Ramen Recipe: Now let’s get to making this recipe. As I said before, it comes together super quickly. So you want to do a little bit of prep before you actually start cooking. You’re going to want to peel and mince two tablespoons of fresh ginger. You’ll want to mince three garlic cloves and dice half a cup of white or yellow onion. Slice up the beef. Then measure out your seasonings and sauces. Let me go over these right now. You’re going to need one tablespoon of vegetable oil, three and a half cups of beef broth, a third a cup of low sodium soy sauce, two tablespoons of toasted or regular sesame seed oil, and three tablespoons of oyster sauce. One tablespoon of sambal, which is just like an Asian chili paste. You’ll be able to find it right in the grocery store near the Asian food section. One tablespoon of brown sugar, and then open up your ramen packets and just you’re only using the noodles. That little season packet that came with it, you can discard that. You only need the noodles. 

So let’s get to cooking. You’re going to need a large pot, and you’re gonna set it over medium heat. Once that is hot, you’re going to add one tablespoon of vegetable oil, half a cup of diced white or yellow onion, three minced garlic cloves, and two tablespoons of that fresh ginger. Let that saute together for about five minutes until the onions are nice and soft. Then you’re going to pour in three and a half cups of beef broth, one tablespoon of sambal, one tablespoon of brown sugar, three tablespoons of oyster sauce, a third cup of low sodium soy sauce, and two tablespoons of the sesame seed oil. Give that a nice stir so everything combines and the sugar melts down into the sauce. Then you’re going to add that one pound of flank steak that you cut into quarter-inch strips right into the pot. Give it a nice stir, and then increase the heat to medium-high and bring it to a hard simmer, not a full rolling boil.

Once that broth is simmering, you’re going to add in three packages of ramen noodles. Again, don’t use the little season packet that came with those noodles. If you’re having trouble fitting the ramen noodles in the pot, you can always crack those ramen blocks right in half and then fit them down in. You’re going to simmer the noodles for about three minutes, and then at the end of that time, you will add in a 12-ounce bag of frozen broccoli florets. You’ll simmer it for about another one to two minutes until they are warmed through, and you just remove it from the heat, give it a stir, and it’s time to serve. 

When you’re serving this beef ramen, I recommend serving it in bowls with a little bit of broth and seasoning. Garnish it with toasted sesame seeds, a little extra sambal, maybe some red pepper flakes, and some green onions. This really is a one-pot meal. There’s really no need for any side dishes here. The only thing I could think that maybe you could add is this recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts with a sambal aioli. It is so delicious. But not totally necessary. Again, this is a one-pot meal. You don’t need any side dishes.

I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you so you can find them when you’re ready to make these easy Beef Ramen noodles. 

If you like what you’re hearing on these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow within your preferred podcast player. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

All right, today we have an extra special little bonus episode for you, and we are talking about Roasted Strawberry Margaritas. If you know me well, then you know that I love tequila. I love the way it tastes. I’ll drink it on the rocks. I love it in a margarita, and I especially love it in this roasted strawberry margarita. This cocktail is so delicious. It tastes like a craft cocktail. When I think of craft cocktails, I always think of a bartender behind the bar with suspenders on and a handlebar mustache setting drinks on fire and, and using fresh herbs and serums and syrups that nobody knows what they are.

You’re going to get that level of cocktail, but at home, in your own kitchen, at your own bar for not $400. This is an excellent cocktail to make in the summer when you have an abundance of really fresh, ripe strawberries. I have a tip for you. When you are buying strawberries at the grocery store, look for a container that has the darkest red color. Those strawberries that are really, really dark red, those are the juiciest and the ripest. 

Now I have another tip. When you bring those strawberries home, this is not scientifically proven. This is just, this is just a Suzy tip. Store the strawberries in the fridge upside down. I find that my strawberries last a little bit longer when I store them upside down, and I think it’s because most of the air holes are actually around the bottom of the container and more air can circulate through there and they don’t mold as fast. 

Tips and Tricks: So anyways, we’re not talking about moldy strawberries today. We are talking about roasted strawberry margaritas. Let’s get onto this recipe. There are a couple of things that you’re going to need to make this recipe correctly. Obviously, you need an oven because we’re making roasted strawberries. You need a sheet pan. You need some parchment paper, and you need a cocktail shaker. Like I’ve said in other recipes, if you don’t have a cocktail shaker, that’s totally fine. You can actually just use a mason jar with a lid. But since it is glass, you want to be extra careful when you do the shaking.

Roasted Strawberry Margaritas Recipe: You’re going to start making your roasted strawberry puree by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Then process one pound of fresh strawberries. You’re just going to clean them. Remove the stem and cut them in half. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. That parchment paper is actually going to collect all the jam and juice that’s going to cook out of your strawberries. So you definitely want to have the parchment paper. Add the strawberries on top, and then you’re going to toss them with two tablespoons of sugar. Roast them in the oven for 15 minutes. Then once they’re done, they’re going to be all kind of juicy and jammy and delicious. Let that cool for about five minutes. Then you’re going to pour all the juices and all the roasted strawberries into a blender or a food processor and blend them up until they are completely smooth.

You may need to add one or two tablespoons of water to get the blender going. That’s totally fine. Now you can use that strawberry puree right away, or you can store it in the fridge for up to five days, so you can make this ahead to make your cocktail time a little bit easier. You’re going to have about one cup of strawberry puree, which is going to be enough for four margaritas.

To make your roasted strawberry margarita, we’re going to prep a glass just like you would when you make a classic margarita. Run a lime or a strawberry around the edge of the glass, and then dip it in some kosher salt. When I make roasted strawberry margaritas though, it’s just like my pineapple margarita, I only like to dip half of the rim in the kosher salt. So sometimes you can take a salty drink or sometimes you can take just a sweet drink of the strawberry cocktail. Go ahead and fill that glass halfway with crushed ice. 

Now move over to your cocktail shaker or mason jar. Add a couple of cubes of ice. Then you’re going to pour in two ounces of the roasted strawberry puree, one and a half ounces of tequila. You can use a silver or a Reposado in this margarita recipe, half an ounce of Triple sec. I always like to use Cointreau, half an ounce of fresh squeezed lime juice, and then a quarter ounce of blue agave syrup. I like to use light blue agave syrup, and it’s not blue in color, it’s just I think the actual plant is called blue agave. I like to use the light because it doesn’t have as aggressive a flavor as the darker colored one. So if you’re in the store, grab the light one. 

Now, pop the lid on your cocktail shaker and give it a really vigorous shake for about 20 to 30 seconds. You’re going to strain that right into your prepared glass and then garnish it with a lime or a fresh strawberry, and that’s it. Your craft cocktail is ready and it’s going to be delicious. This is such an impressive cocktail to serve to guests. So I highly recommend if you’re having a summer cookout, or summer party that you make these roasted strawberry margaritas.

As always, I will put the link to the full recipe for the roasted strawberry margaritas in the show notes, so you can find it whenever you want. I will also link my classic Margarita and my pineapple margarita that I talked about in this episode. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode makes your cocktail time a little sweeter.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, everybody. I am super excited to share this recipe with you today. It is probably one of the most requested recipes from my family, and I’m talking to my kids, which is saying something because I have very picky eaters here at my house.

When I ask the question, okay, what do you want for dinner? Like, what sounds good? What can I make this week that I know you’ll eat? The number one request is the Lasagna Skillet. Traditional lasagna takes a million hours to make, and I have a killer recipe for a traditional Lasagna on Mom’s Dinner that I’ll link for you, but this is Lasagna Skillet. So you may have also heard of it called Easy Lasagna or Lazy Lasagna because it is ready in about 30 minutes. It has really simple ingredients. It’s all made in one pan, right on your stovetop. 

Tips and Tricks: All right, a couple of tips on a few of the ingredients. Number one, this recipe only calls for half a pound of ground beef. So if you have another recipe that says called for one and a half pounds of ground beef, like burgers or something, and you have a half pound left, this is a perfect recipe to use up that half pound of ground beef.

Second, I recommend using ground beef that is a little less fatty so we’re not talking in 80/20 here, you’re going to want something more like an 85/15 or a 90/10 or a 93/7, something with a little less fat so you don’t end up with a really greasy dish. 

The next ingredient I want to talk about is the lasagna noodle. I have tried this recipe with both traditional lasagna noodles and with oven-ready lasagna noodles, and both work just fine. So whatever you have in your cabinet will work. 

Another ingredient that I hope doesn’t turn you off, but this recipe calls for cottage cheese, and I know traditional lasagna has ricotta cheese in it. However, I did grow up eating lasagna with cottage cheese in it, and America’s Test Kitchen actually recommends cottage cheese for your lasagna because it doesn’t tend to break down or become gritty and stays really nice and creamy when it’s baked. So give it a try. If not, you can sub the ricotta cheese, if you’re like, I am not eating cottage cheese in my lasagna. But I promise it’s delicious.

Lasagna Skillet Recipe: All right, so let’s get on to making this recipe for a lasagna skillet. You’re going to want to start with a large skillet that has a lid. You need that lid to trap the heat in there and the steam to cook the noodles. So start with that over medium heat, and you’re going to add half a pound of ground beef and completely cook that through while you crumble the ground beef. Again, I’ve talked about this in other episodes. One of my favorite kitchen tools that I use all the time is called a meat masher, and it kind of looks like a spatula that has, I’m not even sure, does it have five or eight prongs that help you mash and crumble any ground meat really well. So I will link that product in the show notes for you. 

Crumble up and cook your ground beef through. Then if you have any excess grease in the pan, go ahead and drain that off before you move on. Then you’re going to stir in half a cup of diced either yellow or white onions, and two fresh garlic cloves that have been chopped. Saute that around for just about another five minutes until everything is cooked and softened.

Next, you’re going to stir in two cups of your favorite marinara sauce. We love RAOs, either marinara or tomato basil. They’re both absolutely delicious. Add one and a half cups of water. Then raise the heat to medium-high to bring that to a nice hard simmer or a boil. Once that is bubbling, you will turn the heat to low. You’ll need about eight dry lasagna noodles that have been broken up into pieces and we’re talking like Mmm, anywhere from a two-inch to three-inch piece each. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I mean, they can be shards of lasagna, or noodles, it doesn’t matter. Again, this is just lazy lasagna. What you’re going to do is nestle all of those broken lasagna noodles down into the liquid and make sure that everything is kind of covered or coated, or at least touching the liquid. You’ll pop the lid on and simmer that for about 10 minutes. Then take the lid off and kind of zhuge the pan around and see if any of the lasagna noodles are sticking to the bottom of the pan. If the pan is looking a little dry, like the noodles have soaked up a lot of that water and liquid, you can add another half cup of water at this point.

Now you will take one cup of cottage cheese and just dollop it right into the pan and then kind of stir it in a little bit. Then sprinkle the top with about four ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese. My tip here is to use freshly shredded mozzarella cheese, and that will be half of an eight-ounce block of cheese.

You’re going to cover the pan again and let it simmer for an additional 10 to 12 minutes until the noodles are all cooked through. Remove it from the heat and let it sit uncovered for about five to 10 minutes just to let it cool. And your dinner’s ready. That is your lazy lasagna. I think a traditional lasagna would take you at least two hours to make. So here we’ve got 30 minutes. You’ve got delicious, I mean, really, really delicious, even my kids love this, lazy lasagna. 

When you’re serving this, to keep it nice and easy, I recommend just using a begged Caesar salad that you bought at the grocery store, and if you want to bulk it up a little bit more, you can even serve some garlic bread right on the side.

As always, I will link all of the recipes I talk about. About in this episode, right in the show notes so you can find it when you are ready to make Skillet Lasagna for dinner. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would really love to have you subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player that will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast beat. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, y’all. We are out here keeping it real today, and I’m going to share with you the best recipe for Bacon Jam. You heard it right, Bacon Jam. It’s a pound of bacon made into this delicious, jammy, syrupy condiment that you can put on top of burgers, on top of cream cheese, or eat it with a spoon, but that might be weird. Okay. I’m going to start off by reading you this comment from the actual recipe on my site, momsdinner.net. Jill says, made this and it was so like five ohs, good. I called a burger place I knew that made Bacon Jam and they wanted $8 for four ounces. My daughter didn’t think it would be as good, but it was delicious. One of the best recipes out there, I feel. Okay. First of all, yes, one of the best recipes out there. Second of all, this is some high-dollar stuff, people. If they were selling it, for $8 for four ounces, that means that Bacon jam is worth $32 per pound. $32. That’s like prime tenderloin or prime rib prices. So this is a recipe you want to have in your arsenal. This is a recipe that you want to make at home and not buy at a restaurant. It’s actually made with super simple ingredients, most of which you probably already have. So we’re talking a pound of bacon, yellow onions, garlic, brown sugar, and raisins. Stick with me on the raisins, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and water, and then if you like a little kick of heat, you can add some cayenne pepper. 

Tips and Tricks: Let’s talk about the raisins for just a second. This is a very salty and tangy dish. To balance out the saltiness and the real richness of the grease and the bacon, the raisins and the sugar are the perfect balance. Your bacon jam is not going to taste like raisins. It’s not going to be like you’re eating oatmeal raisin cookies. They just add a nice little texture and a nice little sweetness throughout your bacon jam. So if you think you can stand it, definitely don’t skip the raisins.

One more thing. When we’re talking about serving the Bacon Jam, we’re going to be talking about serving it on top of burgers. If you don’t have a good burger recipe or you need a little help in the burger department, pop back to episode number one where I go over the perfect grilled hamburger. It is full of tips and tricks to make a killer grilled burger.

Bacon Jam Burgers Recipe: Onto the Bacon Jam recipe. You are going to start with one pound of bacon and you need to cut it up into one-inch pieces. So of course, you could use a sharp knife and a cutting board, or if you have a pair of sharp kitchen scissors, go ahead and use that just to clip the bacon into one-inch pieces. Now, pop it into a large skillet over medium, medium-high heat, and you’re just going to cook it until it’s nice and crispy.

Once that’s all done, take a slotted spoon and transfer all of the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. The bacon grease that is left in the pan, you want to make sure and reserve that because we’re going to need it for the next step. So pour all of that grease into a heat-safe container. Note: a mason jar is not heat-safe enough. I have made this mistake and I poured hot bacon grease into a mason jar and it literally cracked in half. So a better option would be like a metal bowl or something like that. 

Now you’re going to need two cups of yellow onions, and I find that this is about either one large onion or two small onions. What I like to do is thinly slice it and then give it a nice, rough chop so you don’t have any long strands of onion left. Pop that into your empty skillet with three tablespoons of bacon grease. Let that saute for about 15 to 20 minutes until the onions are nice and soft and translucent. However, while those onions are sauteing, you want to go ahead and rough chop the cooled bacon so that there aren’t any really large chunks of bacon left.

Now back to the onions. Once they’re nice and soft and translucent, you’ll add two minced garlic cloves in there and give it a stir. Then you can add all of the bacon to the pan as well as a third of a cup of brown sugar. Stir everything so that the brown sugar coats all of the bacon and the onions, and let it cook for about two minutes. Then you’re going to add two tablespoons of raisins, one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and about a third a cup of water to that bacon mixture. Then you’re going to let it simmer over medium-low heat for about five to eight minutes. While that simmers, it will start to get kind of thickened and syrupy, and that’s when you know it’s ready.

You can give your bacon jam a little taste, see if you want a little more sugar, see if you want a dash of salt, and see if you like it a little spicy. You can add some cayenne pepper and then let it cool and you can serve it right away on top of your burgers. Or you can put it in an airtight container in the fridge for about five to seven days, and when you’re ready to use it, you can just reheat it on the stovetop right in a skillet.

For serving this bacon jam on top of the very best burgers you have ever had, I’m going to give you the building blocks. Are you ready? Start with a brioche bun that’s lightly toasted on the grill. Top the bottom bun with a little green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce. A slice of tomato that has been seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then add your burger, pile on the bacon jam, and then sprinkle on something that’s called Boursin cheese. It’s amazing. Now if you’ve had Boursin cheese and it’s not your favorite, it’s just really creamy and buttery and garlicky. If you don’t like that, you could also use blue cheese. Pop that top bun on and you are good to go. You are going to crave these all summer long. 

As far as side dishes go, of course, I just recommend your classic barbecue burger side dishes. So fries, sweet potato fries, sweet corn pasta salad. Coleslaw, baked beans, whatever you like to serve when you have a barbecue. 

I will place the link to the full principle recipe for you in the show notes so you can find the recipe for Bacon Jam whenever you’re ready. 

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would rate and review this podcast in your preferred podcast player. That will just help others find Let’s Make Dinner and enjoy these delicious recipes. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome in, y’all, to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: Today we are talking about a very special grilled dinner that is near and dear to my heart. This is the Grilled Pork Burger episode. So I grew up in Iowa and on the 4th of July in my hometown, there is an enormous festival, party, whatever, in the park. There are lots of craft vendors, games, and fun things to do. There’s a parade, there’s a boat parade. Then there are also food vendors in the part, and one of the main things that you want to get on the 4th of July is grilled pork burgers. We love them so much, and I knew that I needed to have a grilled pork burger recipe on my site, momsdinner.net. So sure enough, I tested, I tried, and I finally nailed it, and it is excellent. It’s a very popular recipe on my site. It is a Grilled Pork Burger. We are not talking about sausage, we are talking about ground pork, which by the way is also a super economical option for your grill. These pork burgers are also topped with a homemade garlic cream sauce that will knock your socks off. 

Tips and Tricks: Here are the ingredients you want to have to make your grilled pork burgers. Two pounds of ground pork, saltine crackers, milk, Worcestershire sauce, Lawry seasoned salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then to make the garlic cream sauce, you want to make sure you have mayonnaise, sour cream, dijon mustard, fresh garlic, and kosher salt. Then of course, to serve, you want to make sure you have buns, lettuce, tomato, onion, or whatever you want on your burger. 

Just like we talked about in episode one, where we made beef burgers, all of those same tips are going to apply to your grilled pork burgers. So number one, do not overmix the panade with the meat. You want it just to all come together nice and light and fluffy. 

Second of all, after you form your patties, you want to take your thumb or a clean spoon and make a divot in the center of each burger patty. That’s going to reduce the amount of shrinkage that you get on the grill. When that fat cooks out of the burger, your burger patty will shrink up. But if you have that little divot in the center, that’s really going to reduce the amount of shrinkage you get. The other thing with your pork burgers, I do like to cook them to 160. I know that you can eat pork closer to 140, 145, but since you’re eating that ground pork and you’re not sure of that exact source, you know it’s not like one cut of meat, like a pork tenderloin, I do recommend cooking your pork burgers to 160. 

The other tip is making a panade. I said it earlier. A panade is basically a method for keeping ground meat recipes juicy. I was going to say moist. We’re going to say juicy. In this recipe, we’re using saltine crackers and milk, and Worcestershire sauce to make that panade to add to the ground pork. Even though you’re cooking it then to 160, it’s still going to be a juicy burger. 

Grilled Pork Burgers Recipe: Let’s get to making our pork burgers. You’re going to want to set your grill up, whether you have a charcoal or a gas grill for direct heat grilling. Now in the kitchen, you’re going to start with 12 saltine crackers. You’re going to squish all those up so that they make a nice cracker crumb. To those cracker crumbs, you’re going to add a quarter cup of milk, two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, and one teaspoon of Lawry seasoned salt. Then one teaspoon each of onion powder and garlic powder. Mix that all together and then let that sit for about five minutes so that it kind of makes like a little panade paste. Then once that’s ready, you’re going to add two pounds of ground pork. You can either use clean hands or you can use a fork, but lightly mix everything together so that that panade is mixed throughout all of the ground pork. 

It’s time to make your patties. You can make six third-pound burgers, or you can make eight-quarter-pound burgers. Whatever you want to do. Form your patties, and as I said before, press your thumb or a clean spoon into the center of each patty, making a little divot to reduce the shrinkage on the grill. Take your pork burgers out to the grill and you’re going to start them over direct heat with the divot side down. You’re going to grill it for about four to five minutes. On the first side, flip the burgers over so the divot side is up and you’re going to cook them for another three to four minutes on the second side. If you have an instant-read internal thermometer, that’s a lot of words. If you have an instant-read internal temperature thermometer, is that what it’s called, why can’t I think of what it’s called? Anyway, take the temperature of your burgers and make sure that they’re 160 degrees. If they haven’t reached 160 degrees, pop them over indirect heat and pop the lid on and let them cook a couple more minutes until they reach that 160. Then you’re going to let the burgers cool for about five minutes before eating. In that five minutes, you can go ahead and make the garlic cream sauce that you’re going to serve with your burgers. 

In a little bowl, you’ll just mix a quarter cup of mayonnaise, a quarter cup of sour cream, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, one garlic clove that has been finely minced, and just some kosher salt to taste. Stir that all together, and that’s your sauce. It’s delicious.

When you serve your burgers, I like to use just like a brioche bun or a sesame seed hamburger bun. Smear a little bit of that garlic cream sauce on both sides of the bun, the top, and the bottom. Add some lettuce and some red or white onion. Here’s my tip with the onion. After you slice it, rinse your slices under a little bit of cool water because then the onion won’t overpower the entire burger. Also, when you add your tomato, add a little bit of kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder before you serve your dinner. The seasoned tomato makes a huge difference.

So on your bun, add the sauce, add your lettuce, tomato, onion, and your pork burger. Maybe a little bit more sauce, and you’re good to go.

For serving these burgers, I love to serve sweet potato fries or sweet potato tater tots. If you’ve never had those, those are delicious too. Then either corn on the cob or I have a wonderful recipe for homemade creamed corn that’s made with corn on the cob that you cut off of the cob.

Of course, I will link all of these recipes for you in the show notes so you can access them whenever you’re ready to make these grilled pork burgers for dinner. 

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Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.