Outlaw Potatoes

There’s a little barbecue joint near us.

We’re not sure what it’s called. The owners themselves don’t seem to really know what it’s called, either. In some places, it’s “Taste of Texas,” and in others, it’s “Texas BBQ Joint.” Neither are particularly imaginative, but I don’t really mind because their food is pretty good.

One thing on their menu is a concoction called, “Outlaw Potatoes.” It’s a baked potato smothered in sour cream, cheese, green onions, and either pulled pork or chicken.

This is my own version of it.

I did this first part the night before, since I want dinner to be ready when I got home today and didn’t really want to wait forever. Anyway, last night, I coated russets in olive oil, sprinkled them with coarse kosher salt, and put them in an oven. The foil underneath was to catch oil as it dripped.

After an hour, they were soft when squished, so I took them out, let them cool, and refrigerated them.

Next, I prepared the slow cooker Texas pulled pork. First, put some vegetable oil in the crock pot. I was using brand new measuring spoons because most of mine have mysteriously (and maddeningly) disappeared from my kitchen over the last month or so. I have no idea where they’ve gone and this is driving me absolutely crazy. Two sets, practically obliterated. *sigh*

Next, put a chunk of pork in there. The recipe said to do four pounds, but this piece here was that big and seemed like far too much.

So I cut it in half

And only put half in the crock pot. The other half went in the freezer. I think I’ll be making jambalaya soon with it.

Now for the sauce. Here’s some barbecue sauce (Famous Dave’s, of course).

Normally I like to mix up the sauce separately, but this time around I didn’t want to dirty any extra dishes, so I put it right on the pork.

Then I added some apple cider vinegar.

And chicken broth (I always use reduced sodium, if I can).

We’re just getting started. Here’s a bit of brown sugar added to the pot:

A bit of yellow mustard:

Some Worcestershire sauce:

Some chili powder:

Some dried thyme:

And finally, some minced garlic:

I had waited until this point to mix it together, but now was a good time for that.

Lastly, I chopped an onion and added that.

And with that, I put the lid on it and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I took it out and plugged it in.

After I got home from work that afternoon, it smelled amazing. This is what it looked like:

Remarkably fork tender.

Just a few minutes of shredding with two forks, and this is what it looked like.

Now for the assembly. First, I sliced a potato lengthwise, heated it up in the microwave, and pushed the ends toward each other to open it up a bit.

Added some plain Greek yogurt (healthier than sour cream!), shredded cheese, and chopped green onions. They probably would have added crumbled bacon at the Taste of Texas, but I didn’t think it would really add a ton so I didn’t bother.

Then, finally, I topped everything with the pulled pork.

Very delicious.

An easy dinner, and a satisfying one. Very flavorful and filling.

And very easy. Perfect for a weeknight.

Egg Muffins

Hubby and I have been talking about getting back into the habit of working out. For him, it makes sense to do it in the mornings at the little gym in his building at work. This got us to talking about streamlining his morning routine and ways we could make it quicker and easier.

Then I remembered this Pinterest find, egg muffins. From what I could tell on the site, they would make for a quick, easy, hot breakfast that could be kept in the fridge and heated up last minute.

So I made them!

I started off with some breakfast sausage. Don’t worry, I didn’t use all of this!

I squeezed three links out of their casings and into a hot skillet.

I used my meat-breaker-upper to crumble the sausage as it cooked.

While it was cooking, I made the educated decision to incorporate some leftover roasted baby red potatoes from earlier in the week.

As the sausage sautéed, I used a paring knife to quickly cut up the potatoes into much smaller chunks. Since they were cooked but cold, this was super easy.

Then I prepared my muffin cups. The original blogger prefers silicone cups, but I didn’t have those. Her second best was paper liners, but I didn’t see the point of that with egg muffins. So I just used cooking spray to heavily grease a nonstick muffin tin.

And brushed it around just to make doubly sure that it was evenly coated.

That probably wasn’t necessary since I was using pork sausage, but oh well. I went ahead and put some sausage into each of the 12 muffin cups.

Topped by some of the chopped potato.

Then I got out some grated cheese and put that in.

This last step attracted a silent but intense observer. He loves cheese and is always hopeful that I will indulge him, though he knows better than to beg.

Anyway…

Next, I chopped up some green onions.

And put those on top of the cheese.

Next, I cracked a dozen eggs into a big bowl.

After whisking, I added some salt.

And some dried parsley. I would, have preferred some chives, but Wegman’s was out.

After mixing all that up, I poured the egg mixture carefully into each of the muffin cups, topping everything that was already in there.

Then I put it into the oven, which I had preheated to 375 degrees.

My buddy practiced his wistful face while we waited for them to cook.

25 minutes later, they were looking beautiful!

I believe my exact words, as I pulled them out of the oven, were, “Holy awesome!”

They had definitely done some rising in the oven.

They came out of the muffin tin super easily, luckily.

Oh my.

Light and airy, since they were baked.

Pretty good. Not knock-your-socks-off good, but certainly better than simple fried eggs or something light that. Could have used more salt, but other than that, a pretty good breakfast for the next few days!

They’re quite versatile. I could have added all kinds of veggies or meats or whatever I wanted, and so I probably will next time. It’ll keep us from getting bored, I think.

 

EDIT: I made these again a week or two later. I made some changes. (1) Instead of breakfast sausage, I used chopped ham. (2) Instead of potatoes, I used chopped and sauteed peppers (red and green). (3) Instead of salting the entire egg mixture, I salted each muffin once the egg was poured. (4) I added chives, since Wegman’s had them this time.

They were better this second time! They were more flavorful all around – better seasoned and more flavors than before. I recommend these changes!