Zesty Burger Sauce

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One way to put a twist on a burger and turn it from good to great is by creating a custom sauce for it. The Big Mac from McDonald’s is one of the most famous burgers in the world and part of its success is the “special sauce” that adorns it.

The majority of the time when I make a sandwich, I grab a salad dressing rather than ketchup or mustard to top it just to ad another layer of flavor. I’ll use ranch dressing on any cold meat sandwich because, to me, ranch is the bacon of the sauce world – it makes everything it’s used on taste better.

For this recipe, I make a custom sauce for burgers or any sandwich made with beef. It features horseradish which provides a spicy, aromatic quality that compliments the bold flavor of the meat. Garlic powder, chili powder and cayenne pepper add zest and spice to the sauce while mayonnaise and sour cream form the base and provide the creaminess. All together, this sauce will take any burger or roast beef sandwich to the next level of yum.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Zesty Burger Sauce

Now that summer is here and the majority of my cooking involves a grill or fire, I’m noticing a pattern. The real creative part of what I have been putting out involves compliments or additions to grilled meat – like this sauce. I make lots of spice rubs, sauces, marinades and side dishes when I’m grilling and for the last couple months that has been the focus of the food I have documented.

I love working the grill, but that is just a small part of making a great plate of food over the fire – a perfectly seasoned and cooked steak doesn’t need anything else to be amazing, which is why the compliments are so important. They must stand up to the meat and this sauce does just that. It was good enough to win the praises of my niece despite the fact that it's spicy. Usually she doesn’t like anything with even a hint of heat, but she liked this enough to eat an entire burger slathered with it.

If you like horsey sauce from Arby’s this is a must try.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Zesty Burger Sauce

Makes 1 cup; 1 hour
1/2 C Mayonnaise
1/4 C Sour cream
2 Tbs Horseradish
1 Tbs Chili powder
1 tsp Garlic powder
1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper

Make sauce, refrigerate
In a bowl mix together mayo, sour cream, horseradish, chili powder, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Once thoroughly combined, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour for flavors to meld. Use on burgers or beef sandwiches.

Burger Boom Boom Sauce

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This sauce is an obvious twist on traditional thousand island dressing, only I have replaced the ketchup with chili sauce and the pickle relish with pickled jalapenos. I first tasted a sauce like this at Williams-sonoma with their “Burger Bomb sauce” which was good, but I knew it was something that I could recreate from my pantry.

I’m sure the Burger Bomb is a little more complex than this simple sauce, but it works. The mayo, pickled jalapenos and chili sauce could all be put on a burger separately to enhance the flavor of a sandwich – I just went the extra step and made a sauce out of them.

I would like to build from here with this one. I think that I could add a couple more elements to brighten up the flavor like lemon juice and zest as well as give it a little more kick with the addition of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. I want to improve the sauce but it was fun to make, came together fast and made a good burger great. Can’t ask for more than that when you’re cookin' on the fly!

BEHIND THIS BITE

Burger Boom Boom Sauce

I’m still working hard on taking better sandwich photos. The sandwich photographed here looks a little fat. I trimmed the top and bottom bun down and I think I went a little too far because it looks like a slider, but it’s not. The patty is a half pound monsters. The trimmed buns around the sandwich remind me of those photos of people at Walmart that get shared on Facebook - the buns are like a tight top and shorts surrounding an exposed rotund belly.

Having said that, I still think the sandwich in the photo is appetizing it just needs more on the buns – I think I have actually said that about a female once or twice in my life and feel like a real food geek saying it about a picture of a sandwich I made – but so be it!

My food photography is still a work in progress. Can't wait to shoot another one soon.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Burger Boom Boom Sauce

Make 3/4 Cup
5 minutes active; 30 minutes inactive
1/2 C Mayonnaise
1/4 C Chili sauce
2 Tbs Pickled jalapeño, finely diced

Make sauce
Mix together mayo, chili sauce and pickled jalapeños in a bowl until well combined. Place in refrigerator for at least half an hour. Use on as a condiment on burgers and hot dogs or with fries for dipping.

Chipotle Ranch Sauce

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Back in May I was eating at my favorite taco joint in Fort Wayne called Salsa Grille and the manager was walking around, visiting with customers. When he approached me, I asked him about some of the sauces they served. He told me where I could find the recipe for one in particular - Tomatillo Ranch Dressing.

The dressing features a packet of ranch seasoning and I have been using it to punch up sauces ever since. Two of those sauces I featured here. First, the aforementioned Tomatillo Ranch Dressing, then I went out on a limb and made Sweet Pickle Ranch Sauce.

Well, I now have another – Chipotle Ranch Sauce! You can find it on grocery store shelves and Subway has a version called Southwest Ranch, but this version has more flavor punch than anything you can buy at a store or chain restaurant. It’s best after it has sat in the fridge for at least an hour to let all the flavors mingle and it’s good on anything from chicken tenders, to burgers and even tacos. I think I’ll keep a batch of this in the fridge at all times.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Chipotle Ranch Sauce

I have been using ranch seasoning packets so much that I think it is time for me to make a homemade version or at least put together a homemade ranch in general. It adds so much flavor to a sauce and gives it that mouth-watering quality.

Recently, I posted a number of items that I made for a Taco party that served 125 people. I made a quart of Tomatillo Ranch dressing and told people to use it as a finishing sauce on tacos and plates of nachos. All of the sauces I made for the party got good reviews, but I heard more about the Tomatillo Ranch than any other. That was part of the reason I went back to the drawing board and made this sauce, I figured I could get at least one more unique and delicious sauce out of the seasoning. It has become a pantry staple for me and I think I need to see how it works in a dry rub or breading next.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Chipotle Ranch Sauce

Makes 2 Cups; 5 minutes
1 C Buttermilk
1 C Mayonnaise
1 pkg Ranch seasoning mix (1 oz)
2 Tbs Chipolte pepper in adobo, seeded, minced
1 tsp Garlic minced

Make sauce
In a bowl whisk together buttermilk, mayonnaise, ranch seasoning, chipolte pepper and garlic until well incorporated. Place in refrigerator and let flavors meld for 1 hour before serving.

Sweet Pickle Ranch Sauce

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I have been using packets of ranch seasoning mix in a number of salads and sauces lately and for this recipe I was inspired by a tomatillo ranch dressing that I recreated after trying it at a local restaurant called the Salsa Grille in Fort Wayne. I use many of the same elements but I exchange the tomatillo for sweet bread and butter pickles and add some of the pickle brine for extra flavor pop.

The end result is a sauce that has the zesty ranch flavor along with the sweet but tart flavor of the pickle. It’s an amazing enhancement to any burger, and personally, I loved it on steak tacos and quasadillas. It’s really a universal sauce that is also good for dipping fries and even dressing salads.

Recently I took a jar of this to my family campground and busted it out for a late night snack of leftover burgers. My cousin put a little of it on his sandwich to start. Each time he took a bite, he put the burger down and spooned more of the sauce onto it. There was a point that I thought he should just take a bite of the burger then do a shot of the sauce to chase it down.

That's how it is with this sauce though, it has an addicting quality that leaves you almost craving it. I think it’s the pickle ranch combination because they are two flavors that really grab the taste buds.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I have made more sauces and rubs this summer than I ever have and I seem to be accumulating lots of unique jars and bottles to store them in. Last Saturday I went to a mall on the Southwest side of Fort Wayne and visited two of my favorite stores, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Williams-Sonoma. When I left I had enough jar and bottle space to make about 23 pounds of rubs and 60 gallons of sauce.

With canning season just around the corner both stores had some really cool stuff on sale, especially Williams-Sonoma, they seems to really be dialed in to foodies like myself because they always have the coolest stuff for the kitchen, BB&B is also good, but not quite at the level of Williams-Sonoma.

When I got home I literally had to do a spring cleaning to find room for my new jars and had to make a commitment not to buy any more until I have used the ones I have now at least once. That vow stands for new jars, I’ll still buy a unique jar or two at a garage sale or flee market because those you might never see again, and I can always smash a couple of the store bought jars to entertain my nephews if I need to make room for some one-of-a-kind garage sale treasure.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Makes 1 quart;
10 minutes (2 hours resting)
1 C Buttermilk
1 C Mayonnaise
1 C Cilantro fresh
1/2 C Sweet pickles, diced
1 pkg Ranch dressing mix (1 oz)
1/4 C Juice from sweet pickles
1 clove Garlic

Blend, refrigerate
In a blender place buttermilk, mayo, cilantro, pickles, ranch seasoning, pickle juice and garlic. Blend until smooth. Pour into a jar, seal and refrigerate for at least 2 hours for the flavors to meld. Use as a dressing or condiment.

Pineapple Habanero Barbecue Sauce

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McDonald’s introduced the Bacon Habanero Ranch Quarter Pounder recently and as soon as I saw the advertisement I knew I had to try it. I love spicy food and can handle it as long as I limit the amount that I consume.

In the past, when fast food chains introduce new products billed as “spicy” I usually try them and think “wimpy,” so I ordered the new offering with my expectations low.

The Bacon Habanero Quarter Pounder really surprised me - it was spicy! Hot enough to make my nose run a little after trying it for the first time.

I was so impressed that I decided to make my own sauce featuring habanero peppers. To tame the extreme heat I simmer them in pineapple juice. As the juice reduces, it takes on their heat and flavor. I then use the juice to make a barbecue sauce with enough sweet to balance the heat. The end result is a spicy sauce different from McDonald’s, but perfect for adding a little fire to the next backyard barbecue.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I hadn’t worked with habanero peppers in a couple of years before creating this recipe. They’re just way to hot to deal with. I love spicy food but chopping up a raw habanero and throwing it into a dish is almost guaranteeing that it will be to hot to eat. Delicious spicy food is one thing, insane, agonizing, set your ass on fire the next morning food is another.

Food can be painful and habanero pepper will deliver if not treated with the proper respect. The technique employed here is the best way to extract flavor and heat from the pepper, it provides the dish with a hint of the habanero’s power and allows you to actually taste it’s fruity apricot-like essence.

I’m starting work on a habanero aiolo for the near future. I want to create a dipping sauce for french fries that is creamy and spicy. I’m not sure how to accomplish that but it seems like a nice habanero challenge. I just hope that I can get it right the first time and don’t have to suffer through a habanero overload.

They're painful.

Eat well, cook often... 

THE RECIPE
Makes 3 cups; 1 hour
3 Habanero peppers
2 Cinnamon sticks
1 can Pineapple juice (46 oz)
1/4 C Red onion diced
1 Tbs Garlic minced
1 C Ketchup
1/4 C Cider vinegar
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs Honey

Make pineapple reduction
Cut slits in sides of the habanero peppers. Place peppers and cinnamon sticks in sauce pan then pour in pineapple juice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until pineapple juice is reduced by two-thirds or about 1 1/2 cups, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from heat, discard peppers and cinnamon.

Sauté vegetables, finish sauce
In a sauce pan over medium heat sauté onion in a little olive oil until soft 2 to 3 minutes. Season to taste. Add garlic, cook 1 minute more. Add pineapple reduction, ketchup, vinegar, dijon mustard, worcestershire and honey. Mix together with a whisk and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, let cool. Use on grilled meat or as a finishing sauce on burgers.

Baby Back Ribs

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Ribs are not easy to cook on the grill. I spent an entire summer two years ago trying my best to figure out the perfect method.

What I learned: bake them in the oven first!

For the grill flavor, all that is needed is to finish them off over some charcoal, just a few minutes to caramelize the sauce and soak up the smoke does the trick. I was able to get good ribs on the grill but they weren’t fall-off-the-bone. I accomplished that starting them in the oven wrapped in foil then finishing over the coals.

This recipe features an original rub and sauce.

The rub features paprika and ground mustard with a little cayenne thrown in for some kick. The spice mix provided a great flavor foundation and alone would have made the ribs really tasty.

The sauce featured molasses and dijon mustard and was a sweet and mildly spice compliment to the rub. The molasses provided a sweet balance to the spice of the dijon and was the real star of the sauce.

Overall, these ribs were absolutely delicious. The cooking process, rub and sauce worked as planned and made for a restaurant quality rib.

I dug into these like a maniac.

If your looking for a rib recipe - this is it.

BEHIND THIS BITE
Every time I eat ribs I think of my 9-month stint working at the Texas Roadhouse. One of their selling points is fall-off-the-bone ribs. (As a server, they expected us to say that to customers.) The Roadhouse ribs are delicious but what I remember most about them is the mess that customers would make eating them, especially teenagers. Hands, faces, seats, tables, ketchup bottles - everything would be covered with rib sauce.

I remember one kid on his 13th or 14th birthday. He had sauce covering his face and I won’t ever forget him looking at me and telling me how great they were as the sauce literally dripped from his cheeks. It was comical.

Even when I’m alone I don’t like to get anywhere near that kind of messy when I eat. It amazed me that people would actually do that, or let their kids do that in public. As amazed as I was at the messes, it was often a great laugh or a highlight of a shift, which would sometimes be a grueling marathon of slinging steaks and ribs at customers for hours on end.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 4; 3 hours
THE RUB
3 Tbs Paprika
3 Tbs Salt
2 Tbs Pepper
2 Tbs Ground mustard
1 Tbs Garlic powder
1 Tbs Onion powder
1 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 - 4 to 5 lb slab Baby back ribs

THE SAUCE
1/4 C Onion, diced
1 Tbs Garlic, minced
1 C Ketchup
1/2 C Molasses
1/4 C Vinegar
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
1 tsp Liquid smoke
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

Make rub, prepare ribs
In a bowl mix together paprika, salt, pepper, mustard powder, garlic powder, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Remove membrane from bone-side of ribs. Liberally rub the seasoning over both sides of the ribs, wrap in aluminum foil and let marinate in fridge at least 25 minutes or up to overnight.

Bake ribs
Place ribs in a preheated 325° oven and cook until meat is tender and has receded from the bones, Approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest 20 minutes.

Make sauce While ribs bake, in a sauce pan over medium heat sauté onion in a little olive oil until soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Season to taste. Add garlic cook 1 minutes more. Add ketchup, molasses, cider vinegar, dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat.

Finish ribs
Slather ribs on both sides with sauce. Place on a prepared charcoal or gas grill for a few minutes on each side to caramelize sauce. Slather more sauce on ribs after each turn. Total time on grill 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to a cutting board, slice and serve.

Chipotle Sauce

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A while back I did a dried chili extravaganza here at Behind the Bites. As a result of having seen the post, Greg Patterson, of SpicesInc.com sent me some samples from his store to try out.

SpicesInc is an on-line spice store with an inventory of any spice imaginable. Not only do they sell spices, but there are recipes for how to use them and a some history of the individual products. I find that very helpful in using them to enhance recipes.

A package of dried chipotle chilies was in the mix of what Greg sent and I thought it was a good time to make chipotle sauce for some tacos.

Instead of using just water to reconstitute the chipotles I thought I could add a little depth of flavor with chicken broth instead. This sauce is very simple to make and it’s awesome on tacos and burritos, but could be used for a number of things like flavoring chili or salsa – or even mixing into a barbecue sauce.

Any dried chili works with this recipe, from the mild ancho chili to the mind blowing habanero, it’s all up to the cook. The chipotle gives this sauce a smoky, hot flavor.

BEHIND THIS BITE
Having a food column in the local paper of the town you live comes with some benefits. One I have experienced is people ask me to cater and cook for events which leads to some nice money on the side. The box of goodies that Greg from SpicesInc sent was my first real benefit of having a food blog on-line. It was very flattering and lots of fun opening the box and rifling through the goodies he sent. I love Mexican cooking, so it couldn’t have worked out better for me that SpicesInc sent a variety of dried chilies and Mexican spices.

Since I left my everyday job in the world of journalism to pursue a career in food I have had little victories that keep me pushing forward. The box of spices in the mail was one of them. It reminds me of when I first got into journalism and received a pay check for my job at the Ball State Daily News.

The check was for $56.

I was in aw, even though that was the pay for two weeks of full-time employment. I just couldn’t believe I was actually getting paid for something I really loved to do. Needless to say, I wasn’t doing it for the money.

I feel that way now and believe I have been doing the finest and most original work of my career. The pay isn’t where I want it and I have a long way to climb, but I believe in the work and have enjoyed doing it more than I think I ever have. It feels right and that is the instinct I have always followed and it never fails to lead me to the place that I should be.

Amazing what a small gift box of spices can do for the big picture.

Special thanks to Greg at SpicesInc!

Eat well, cook often ...

Chicken Wings With Bacon Chipotle Sauce

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Over this past Memorial Day weekend my cousin-in-law grilled up an inspiring mess of chicken wings. He used a teriyaki glaze that he kept basting them with as he turned them on the charcoal grill. The end result was a juicy and tender bite with great flavor. I’m glad there were bones to slow me down, because if there hadn’t been I would have plowed through the entire batch like a great white shark at a seal gathering.

For this recipe, I make my own version of grilled chicken wings. The sauce is made from scratch and features bacon and chipotle pepper as smoky elements to compliment the charcoal flavor from the grill. Also included is a hefty amount of fresh cracked black pepper for kick.

I made these with my nephews visiting. They begged me to leave the sauce off a few but I refused. I talked them into trying the wings by convincing them they were “peppery” and not “spicy.” It worked because they ate as many wings as the adults did at our Friday night feeding frenzy.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I love chicken wings, but for the most part I have only ever had them breaded and fried. Grilled wings are a relatively new experience. I love the smoky grill flavor and it’s a little healthier.

I make the sauce for these and leave out any Tabasco which seems to be the spice of choice with wings. I like buffalo style but for me a little goes a long way. Tabasco sauce is so acidic that after a few bites, all I can taste is the acid and it is not a pleasant flavor. That is why I enjoy making my own sauce. I can make it as hot as I want, I just do it without Tabasco. No offense to the residents of Buffalo, NY. It’s just not my style.

As I mention in the introduction, my nephews were visiting when I made the wings and they pleaded with me to leave the sauce off of some, but I didn't. I’m glad that they trusted me enough to try them with the sauce and I was genuinely surprised at how many they ate. My youngest nephew really chowed down. I am hoping that they will be more inclined to try spicy food, I’m sure they will eventually enjoy the spicier stuff like their uncle. They just have to acquire a taste for it.

Heat is kind of like beer, you have to gradually get into it before you can go bonkers. I’ll introduce my nephews to the spicy stuff now, but they're gonna need to wait until they’re legal before I tempt them with Miller Lite. By that time though, I'm sure they will have already have become experts through the corruption of their friends – especially if they decide to go away to college.

Eat well, cook often ...

Homemade Horsey Sauce

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When I think of Arby’s, I think of one thing – the horsey sauce. They are most famous for the roast beef, but I wouldn’t think of eating there without a gallon of their delicious horsey sauce to spread on my sandwich and dunk my curly fries in.

The first Arby’s restaurant opened in Boardman, Ohio on July 23, 1964 by Leroy and Forrest Raffel. They decided on the name Arby’s from the initials R.B., which stood for Raffel Brothers. The franchise grew quickly and the menu was refined. They added their famous horsey sauce in the 1970s, along with curly fries and the beef and cheddar sandwich. Today, there are more than 3,500 Arby’s restaurants.

For this recipe, I make my own version of horsey sauce. It’s a modified version of a mayo-based barbecue sauce that is popular in the South. To it, I add horseradish, dijon mustard and some finely minced garlic for some zing. I slather it on a sandwich featuring roast beef, cheese and sautéd veggies –  creating an Arby’s feast at home.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I had another recipe ready to go for my weekly column for print, but then I had a craving for horsey sauce and roast beef before settling in to watch the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. I documented it and decided to go with it. In the past, I have made this sauce to accompany steaks on the grill, but because it is winter here in Northern Indiana, I went the roast beef sandwich route. There is something about horseradish and beef that really works for me.

I bought this roast beef at the deli in one of the many super markets we have here in Fort Wayne. I would love to have made it myself but I think roast beef is an involved enough recipe to merit an entire post all to itself. The store-bought roast beef used here was, I have to admit, delicious and tender. (And expensive, $16 for 1.5 pounds!) It will take a little time to actually top it with a recipe of my own - better get to work.

Eat well, cook often ...