Slow Cooker Pot Roast Sliders with Blue Cheese

Okay, here's a quick one with only one picture - sorry, I'm the worst blogger ever sometimes.  In my defense, I was trying to throw a party, which went over much better once I served everyone some pot roast sliders.  And that brings us to the recipe, which I found online and modified slightly to improve the flavor and healthiness, and also to use what I had available.  I'll note that the original recipe called for chuck roast and I used top round, which is MUCH more lean and probably didn't have quite the same flavor or moistness as would have been found in the original, but it was still delicious, meaning this is pretty forgiving.

If I had it to do over, I would brown the meat, and would definitely use chuck roast to get something a bit more moist and rich, but I was pleased with the immense amount of flavor these sandwiches had, most of which happened to come from the pungent blue cheese paired with the tender threads of a mild, tender beef.  I'll definitely make this again, new and improved, and post a few more pictures some time soon.  In the meantime, go with this for now, or substitute your favorite preparation for a 2 pound pot roast yielding fork-tender beef that can be shredded, and you won't be disappointed with the end result.


Pot Roast Sliders

• 2 lb beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat, or top round if you've got one lying around
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 C soy sauce
• 1 cup beef or vegetable broth
• 1 packet french onion spice dip mix, or soup mix

• 12 white dinner rolls
• 1 C mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 3-5 oz blue cheese crumbles
• 1/4 C mayonnaise
• 2 tsp prepared horseradish
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp poppy seeds (optional, I didn't have)
• 2 tsp dehydrated onion, or 2 tbsp minced onion, sauteed in 2 tsp olive oil until slightly browned
• 1 tsp sugar

If you have time, season the beef with a bit of salt and pepper, and brown it in a skillet.  If not, just throw it right into the bottom of your slow cooker, and cover with the next 8 ingredients.  Cook on high for 4-5 hours, or low for 7-8, until fork tender.  Remove to a casserole and shred with two forks.  If this is done too early, cover with foil and place in a 200 deg F oven with a bit of cooking liquid to keep warm.  Mix the horseradish with the mayo and black pepper to make a slathering sauce for the buns - this will keep them from getting soggy.

Once it's showtime, boost the oven to 375 deg F and remove the meat.  Next, slice your dinner rolls in half and assemble the sandwiches.  On each roll, spread on a layer of the horseradish mayo at least on the bottom half, ideally both halves, then top with shredded beef, mozzarella, and blue cheese.  Close up the sandwich.

Melt the butter in a microwave-safe dish and stir in Worcestershire sauce, poppy seeds, onion, and sugar.  Brush this onto the tops of the rolls.  Cover this with foil, and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes, then serve.

Fettuccine with Black Garlic and Blue Cheese

I'm calling it right now, like I did about chipotles roughly ten years ago, but now I have a blog to use as my own personal stenographer:

Black Garlic.

This stuff is going to be everywhere soon.  Haven't heard of it?  Good, that means I beat you to it.  But you're about to find out about it, so steady yourself.

Many foods have been fermented over the years.  Pepperoni.  Cabbage.  Beer.  Some other things that tend to smell funny when fermented, like shark and peanuts (not kidding, look them up).  And now, garlic.  Apparently in 2004 some Korean dude figured out that if you expose garlic to high, humid temperatures, you can get it to ferment into something unbelievably delicious - kind of like a cross between the best roasted garlic you've ever had, balsamic vinegar, and fermented black beans, if you've ever tried those in lobster sauce.  It has something to do with the sugars in the garlic, and amino acids, and all kinds of chemistry that only a few people seem to have figured out, due to the "carefully controlled process" that this Korean guy worked out when he set up BlackGarlic.com and took his product commercial (see black garlic: how it's made).  So this isn't some naturally occurring thing - it's a new discovery, and you've got to get it from this guy, or one of his competitors.  But trust me, it's worth it.

Black garlic.  What?

I was given a small tub of this by my excellent mother about a year ago, and tried to figure out what to do with it.  And it took so long, about a year later I thought "maybe this needs to be thrown out".  But then I realized it's basically gone as bad as it's going to get, and gave it a shot.  So glad I didn't toss it - this was more delicious than any garlic I've ever eaten, and if it's stale at this point, then I can't even begin to imagine what the fresh stuff tastes like.  Picture if everything savory in the world just jumped into your mouth at once, dripping with garlic and tamarind-like flavors, in a small black morsel the size of a Hershey kiss and the consistency of a roasted beet.  That's black garlic.

Because it was so delicious, I wanted a recipe that would do it justice, not overpower, and allow the flavor to come through distinctly.  So I went with a simple pasta that also uses the pungency of blue cheese, but very little else, to showcase the garlic.  Amazing use of the stuff, and I can't wait to make it again.


Fettuccine with Black Garlic and Blue Cheese
modified slightly from suddenlunch.com

• A slice of great bread, coarsely crumbled (about 4 tbsp, I used rosemary olive oil bread)
• 1 tbsp of olive oil, or black garlic-infused oil
• 9 ounce package of refrigerated fettuccine, or tagliatelle
• 6 oz blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 more tbsp of olive oil
• 5-6 cloves black garlic, coarsely chopped
• Freshly ground black pepper

The setup is really easy

Toss the breadcrumbs with 1 tbsp oil in a small bowl.  Over medium heat, cook the breadcrumbs until crispy, shaking often.  You could also bake these if you like.

Dry-frying the breadcrumbs gets them delicious and crispy

Chop or crumble the cheese and mix together most of it with the chopped garlic and the second tbsp of oil.

Cook the pasta according to instructions on the package.  Set aside about 2 ounces of the cooking water, then drain the pasta.  Now toss together the pasta and the blue cheese mixture in a pan, adding the reserved cooking water as necessary until you have a light sauce.

Taste and season with ample amounts of freshly ground black pepper, then stir in some of the crisp crumbs and top the pasta with the rest, as well as the rest of the blue cheese crumbles.  Serve immediately.

Variations: add sliced, pan-seared chicken breast, add chopped chives as additional garnish

Buffalo Chicken Finger Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

In college I lived on chicken wings.  Juicy, fatty, crispy little bits of deliciousness, covered in Buffalo wing sauce.  I was in the camp that wings should not be breaded - they should just be fried plain.  And yet somehow, I also liked 'boneless wings' served at the Wings Over X chain (insert multiple Northeastern cities for X) which, despite my proximity to Buffalo, seemed to take hold as an acceptable name and menu item.  A boneless wing?!  What the heck is that?  Do they mean a deboned wing, which would be a tiny lump of chicken skin, a whole bunch of fat, and about 0.1 ounces of actual meat?  Or perhaps a chicken finger, which is what it really was?  Oh well, you can't argue with people on things like this, although I frequently try.

'Boneless wings', AKA chicken fingers

Usually a conduit for various sauces, these 'boneless wings' were in reality heavily breaded chicken tenders, steeped in any of a number of different liquids or spice blends.  More often than not, the sauces were the best part, with tantalizing names like honey mustard, spicy teriyaki, and golden BBQ sticking in memory.  Trying to recreate these for me has been like trying to catch a butterfly in a tornado - you know you're probably close to your target, but you're pretty sure it's never going to happen.

I've decided it's time to crack this nut - both in how to make a good chicken finger, and how to make these dipping / tossing sauces.  As a start, I ran out and bought 40 pounds of chicken tenders.  Most of these have been frozen so I can time release their awesomeness.  But the first batch went towards my first chicken fingers attempt, and then into a standard (although excellent) Buffalo sauce recipe.  Though it wasn't the style I was shooting for, I liked these a lot, and they got incredible marks from my guests.  So I thought I would share them with all of you.  Note: these are NOT my New Year's double breaded wings, for the friends who are reading this and want to recreate them.  That recipe is still being tweaked, and will be posted shortly.


Buffalo Chicken Tender Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Serves 4

• 1/2 cup white flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 cups panko
• 10 chicken tenders
• at least 1 quart frying oil, either vegetable, canola, or peanut
• salt, in an easy to dispense shaker

• 1 large head lettuce, preferably butter or Romaine (or, if you're boring, iceberg)
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1/2 large red onion, sliced very thinly into rings
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1/2 pound roasted asparagus
• 1 large carrot, shredded
• 1 medium cucumber, sliced
• 1/8 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Before we even start, you should know that you need a few pieces of equipment to even consider this.  First, a heavy pot or electric fryer.  Second, a good frying thermometer or digital thermometer reading up to at least 400 F.  Third, a metal mesh 'spider' for removing and turning the chicken pieces.  And fourth, a decent amount of counter space.

First off, get yourself organized.  I have been frying many things for many years, and if you're not set up and ready to both get things into and out of your frying vessel, you will make mistakes, possibly including burning yourself and those around you.  This means clearing the counter, considering how you're going to pre-treat your chicken, and determining what happens to them afterwards.  For this recipe, I'm going with a standard three-phase breading, so I laid that out on one side of the pot, and then had my drain plate and seasonings ready on the other side of the pot.  Sanitary, efficient, and workable by two people - smashing.

The 'raw' side of the house

The 'cooked' side of the house.

Now, consider your vessel.  Notice that I didn't say your fryer, even though I do have a pretty epic fryer.  You CAN buy a fancy electric number that precisely controls the temperature.  But if you just don't have the space, a heavy pot at least 3 times deeper than the oil level you plan to use will be just great.  Why so deep? Because of a few things - first, the oil will expand when you heat it.  Second, the oil level will rise when you put things in.  Third, this is going to bubble and splatter, and the taller the walls of the pot, the less mess you will end up with.

Note the vast amount of space I have left in the pot.  I actually used so little oil that I was really pan-frying these, and I had to flip them part way through cooking.

Finally, consider your breading method and sauces.  I mentioned the three-phase.  What is that?  It's a very common method for breading meats (and vegetables - consider eggplant Parmesan) consisting of flour, an egg wash, and then breadcrumbs.  Here I use panko, a delicious coarse Japanese bread crumb made by pushing stale bread through a series of mesh screens.  Highly recommended if you can get a big bag cheaply from the Asian grocery store.  Also of note, I seasoned my flour slightly with some cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper, but only just a little.  A lot of that gets wasted anyway since you don't use all the flour, so I would recommend seasoning the meat directly.  For the egg wash, take your eggs and the water and beat together to form a uniform consistency.  Arrange in the order shown in the picture above.

To prepare, heat your oil to 350 F, get your sauce ready on the other end (recipe follows), and bread half of your tenders.  Toss chicken in the flour, try to let the egg wash drip off when you dunk them in there for a second, then roll lightly but thoroughly in the panko (the chicken, not you).  You can either put them directly in the oil, or finish the lot one or two at at time, letting them sit on a rack for a second while you get them all ready.

Once ready, put your chicken in the oil, and boost the flame so the oil temperature doesn't drop too much.  You're looking to stay in the 325 - 350 range the whole time.  If you're deep frying, just give the tenders a nudge every once in a while so they cook evenly.  If pan-frying (not fully submerged), turn them when the edges seem browned and the fingers start bubbling a bit more slowly.  Just turn them once.  Keep your eye on the temperature, making sure you don't get too high or too low.

The completed and draining fingers, before saucing

When the fingers are done, remove to a plate lined with paper towels or a rack over a baking sheet, and season with salt immediately.  Place each finger in the Buffalo sauce and toss to coat.  Then serve over your salad, which I leave to you to create.

A Buffalo chicken finger salad with homemade dressing.

Buffalo Wing Sauce

• 8 tablespoons Louisiana hot sauce (Frank's is the brand used in Buffalo)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• salt to taste

To prepare, melt butter in microwave or on stovetop.  Stir ingredients together in a large bowl.

 

Here's the sauce, with a couple of fingers going for a quick swim.  It doesn't look healthy, but that's because it isn't.  But man, is it good.

Blue Cheese Dressing

• 1/2 cup regular mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 3 oz blue cheese
• 1/2 tablespoon wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• few grinds black pepper
• 1/2 tsp sugar (optional, to taste)

To prepare, stir ingredients together in a large bowl.  Will keep in the fridge for at least a week.