Dinner Outside: Smoked Faux Mexican Street Corn and Marinaded Shrimp

When you want a tasty, quick to make, summertime meal I think corn and shrimp certainly fill the bill. If you can lay your hands on peeled and deveined shrimp it becomes considerably easier. You could cook the shredded mop over direct heat on a hot grill and there are ways to quickly cook corn but I think the modest amount of extra time needed to infuse some Smokey goodness is worth the wait.

▶️ Play Dinner Outside: Smoked Faux Mexican Street Corn and Marinaded Shrimp

Marinaded Shrimp Recipe

• 1 pound jumbo shrimp (16-20/pound), peeled and deveined
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (short) tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Mix up the marinade. You might need a bit more liquid. Coat the shrimp. This is a dish that you cook right away. If grilling on direct heat or cooking on the stovetop the shrimp will cook up in 5-7 minutes. If you want to smoke them I’ve found they take about 25 minutes at 250 F.

Faux Mexican Street Corn

For 4-5 ears of corn

• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1/2 tbsp ancho chili powder (I used chipotle)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• Juice of 1/2 lime (~1/2 fluid ounce)
• Optional: melted butter to coat ears
• Coteja (feta worked great) cheese.

Instructions

1. Mix chili-mayo ingredients and put aside until ready (in fridge say)
2. Cook corn. I put the corn with husks on on indirect heat at about 300 F. It takes about 25 minutes to cook and you should rotate the corn cobs two or three times during the cook.
3. When the corn is done baste it with butter then mayo mix.
4. Top with cheese.

Dinner Outside: Chuck Roast Burnt Ends

Chuck Roast Burnt Ends

▶️ Play First Try Chuck Roast Burnt Ends

This is my first attempt at making these. I seasoned the 1.1 pound chuck roast with some seasoning I had around and placed it in my smoker which was running at about 260° to 275°F. When I was pretty sure the internal temperature of a chuck roast was at 170°F I took it out and turned it into approximately 1 1/2 inch cubes. I placed those cubes in an aluminum pan and then covered them with about 2/3rds cup barbecue sauce and water mixture (about 1/4 cup water). I covered the aluminum pan and returned it to the smoker to cook for about 40 minutes. I did removed the covering foil and let the cubes cook somewhat longer. They probably cooked for about three hours though the last 30 to 40 minutes of that time we’re definitely on a somewhat cooler smoker. The flavor was wonderful but the cubes, some of them were definitely a bit on the larger side, could have been more tender.