Tuesday, January 28, 2014

{recipe} bbq pork & fancy green beans



This recipe may not look like much, but it's my favorite thing I've made so far this month other than the baked donuts!  For the pork I just decided to go for it without using a recipe, and it turned out great!  The fancy green beans are my version of The Pioneer Woman's Best Green Beans Ever, and are pretty much identical to hers with a couple minor changes.

One of the reasons I like to share yummy food here on my blog is because it's also my recipe book of sorts.  When I'm visiting family, or away from home, it's so easy to access my favorite recipes here....and it really helps to have my notes about little details most people take for granted since I don't cook much : )



BBQ Pork Tenderloin
Serves 4

Ingredients

1 small pork tenderloin
1 bottle TJ's Bold & Smoky Kansas City Style BBQ Sauce
Sea salt
Ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Add the sea salt, pepper, and olive oil to both sides of the pork tenderloin and place on your baking sheet.  Cook for 30 to 50 minutes, until safe interior temperature is reached checking with a meat thermometer (you're thermometer will be labeled).  Once fully cooked, use two forks to shred the pork into bit size pieces.  Turn your crock pot on high.  Add all the shredded pork and the full bottle of BBQ sauce into the crock pot.  Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Serve warm.

Notes:  My meat thermometer is broken, so I ended up overcooking the pork just to be safe (it was a very small pork tenderloin and I cooked it for the full 50 minutes.  This worked out fine, since it became extremely moist from simmering in the BBQ sauce.

 

Fancy Green Beans
Serves 4

Ingredients

4 oz fresh green beans (approximately)
Grease from 6 strips of bacon
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 large onion, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Ground black pepper

Directions

Cook 6 strips of bacon, leaving the bacon grease inside your skillet/pan.  Package up the bacon and refrigerate for a later snack.  Cut off the stem ends of the green beans (I used a package of Trader Joe's fresh green beans). Add the garlic and onions to your skillet with the bacon grease and cook for a minute. Then add the green beans and cook until the beans turn bright green, about a minute. Add the chicken broth, chopped red pepper, salt and pepper to taste. Turn the heat to medium (or low depending on how hot your skillet gets) and cover the skillet with a lid, leaving the lid cracked to allow steam to escape. Cook until the liquid evaporates and the beans are a little soft, yet still crunchy, 20 to 30 minutes. You can add more chicken broth during the cooking process (if it evaporates too quickly), but don't be afraid to let it all cook away so the onions and peppers can start to caramelize.

Notes:  I don't have a lid for my stove top pan, so I used a larger lid that fit over most of the ingredients with lots of room for steam around the edges.  Because of this, I had to cook my green beans on medium-low for 15 minutes and medium for 15 minutes.  After, the green beans were perfectly cooked while still crunchy, but there was quite a bit of chicken broth left.  Next time I'll probably use a little less broth so the veggies will caramelize even more.  I recommend serving the green beans with all the cooked veggies for amazing flavor.


I cannot recommend trying these two recipes together more.  They compliment each other perfectly!  Hope you enjoy!!  XO

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