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Labor Day BBQ Recipes For The Bubba Keg Grill (now the Big Steel Keg Grill)

Another Farm Picnic Requiring Portability

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I had to quickly come up with some Labor Day BBQ Recipes when my wife, once again, volunteered me at the last minute to cook for her equestrian friends out at the farm. I decided that this time I wasn't going to smoke anything because it just takes too long and I wanted to watch some tennis this weekend. So, I decided to come up with a couple of easy dishes that I could do onsite, after minimal prep time at home.

Since everyone else was bringing sides, I was tasked with a main dish. I decided to do a few different ones to make things interesting. I wasn't really sure what traditional Labor Day BBQ recipes were, so I just found a couple of recipes that I either liked, or was ready to try for the first time.

Spicy Cornbread & Sauage Casserole

I found this website a while back (can't remember which one) where this guy was calling any sweet cornbread corn cake. I thought that was hilarious because I grew up on the hardcore stuff, but preferred the sweeter variety. Anyway, this recipe, as you'll see, has some things that make it sweet and some things that make it hot. It just doesn't taste like the harsh corn bread I grew up on.

Actually, I don't know if this should be one of my Labor Day BBQ recipes, but I do know that it's southern, and I live in the South, so you just have to adapt.

As for the cornbread mix, it was straight hard core Corn Meal Mix.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of Hot Sausage
2 cups of Corn Meal Mix
1-1/2 cups Milk
1 Egg beaten
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (optional)
3-4 fresh Jalepenos (chopped)
~2 cups of grated cheddar cheese
2 cans of cream corn
1 extremely large cast iron skillet - no subsitutes
1 charcoal type grill

Preparation:

Get your grill or cooker going at about 350° F

Brown the sausage in your cast iron skillet. When it's finished, place it in another container until you need it. Mix the corn meal, the milk, the egg and the oil. The oil is optional because I rely on the grease from the sausage which is still in the pan!

Next, mix in the cream corn blend well. Not it's time to add half of the mixture to the cast iron pan. I usually sprinkle some more corn meal in the pan to help keep things from sticking.

Spread the cooked sausage on top of this layer. Then add the cheese and the jalapenos. Next, add the rest of the corn bread mixture on top.

Cook in (cover down) the grill for 45 minutes.

You're gonna love it! Now for the next of my Labor Day BBQ recipes.

Click here for a printable verion of this recipe

Spicy Apricot & Peach Wings

Ok, this one requires some advanced preparation since there is a marinade involved. I'm telling you, it's worth it. I've always loved wings, but hate them when they're fried.

I doubled this recipe due to the number of wings I cooked.

Ingredients:

1 dozen whole wings - separated
1 cup of apricot peach preserves
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dijon (I used spicy brown) mustard
2 tablespoons kosher salt
4 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder (I accidently used onion powder but it turned out great)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more if you're a sicko)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Preparation:

Spicy Apricot Grilled Wings After you've separated your wings, mix all of these ingredients together until well blended. It may be a bit lumpy from the preserves. Don't worry too much about that.

I put the wings into a freezer bag and poured in some of the marinade. Got the air out, sealed it up and mixed it up until everything was coated.

Stick them in the fridge for 4 hours or so.

Time to Cook:

Set your grill up to cook indirectly. On my Bubba Keg Grill (now the Big Steel Keg Grill) I used a platesetter. If you have a regular charcoal grill, just set it up so you have a void area on one side.

You'll want to cook the wings (indirectly!) at about 450° for 30-35 minutes. Turn them one during the cook. On the Bubba Keg Grill (now the Big Steel Keg Grill), they cooked faster because it's essentially a convection oven. So, make sure you monitor them, but don't open the lid every two minutes!

There is something about lump charcoal. All the chicken I cooked has this black, silvery coating on them. If you still cook on gas grill, you really have to try your favorite meat cooked over lump. It's unbelievable. These wings were phenomenal!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe

Another Darn Good Chicken Marinade

I also cooked a ton of boneless thighs and chicken breasts. I decided to add something to my Labor Day BBQ recipes that was a bit different just to break things up. So, I found this marinade recipe and decided to give it a try. It doesn't have a kick to it like the one for the wings, but it is really one of the better tasting marinades I've found.

I tripled this recipe due to the amount of chicken I was preparing.

Ingredients:

Whatever kind of chicken you like.
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder (when I reached for this I realized I had used onion powder in the wing marinade by accident -oops)

Mix all of the ingredients until well blended. I used freezer bags again. You can use a dish if you prefer. Just make sure you don't let this marinate for more than 4 hours because the lemon juice will start cooking your chicken!

Cooking:

Once again, I cooked this indirectly for 30 minutes. The Bubba Keg Grill (now the Big Steel Keg Grill) never really got above 350° although in a less efficient grill you probably want the temp up as high as 450°. I'll leave you to experiment with that.

The most important thing to remember is that you've gotta keep the lid down and don't constantly peek or you just lose precious heat. And please, if you're cooking on a gas grill, give it a break just one and try these recipes over coals. Even a cheap kettle grill will turn out chicken with a taste beyond belief. If you have something that fires natural lump charcoal, even better!

So those are my Labor Day BBQ recipes. Everyone seemed to enjoy it all, so I encourage you to try it too. Let me know what you think!