[Steven] To understand the Texas psyche, you have to experience its barbecue.

Beef may be the big dog here, but there's a lot more great live fire cooking to choose from.

On today's menu, grilled quail with onion pear salsa.

This is fabulous.

Man, it's a long way from brisket.

Smoked and grilled ribeye steaks with jalapeño horseradish butter.

Imagine steak channeling bacon.

That's what this steak tastes like.

And a sizzling sausage sandwich known as a hot gut hero.

This is a riot of textures and flavors.

It's the Texas Trinity, hot off the grill.

From the Arneson River Theatre in San Antonio, I'm Steven Raichlen, and this is Planet Barbecue.

[opening theme music] [announcer] Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" is made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: [Steven] If barbecue is a religion, Texas might well be its mecca with their tradition of live fire cooking that dates back millennia.

Spanish missionaries introduced beef to a melting pot rich with Native American foods such as game birds, mesquite beans, cactus, and pecans.

Mexican vaqueiros initiated a cowboy culture that thrives to this day.

At the turn of the last century, German and Czech immigrants introduced old world sausage making and brewing techniques, cornerstones of modern Texas cuisine.

This show explores their legacy focusing on three foods that comprise what I like to call the Texas Trinity.

The first is beef, the second is quail, while the third is a sausage, which the locals affectionately call hot guts.

Texas takes its name from the Caddo Indian word for friendship.

We like to say that in barbecue there are no strangers, just friends who haven't met.

I first met Jason Dady at the award-winning Two Bros. BBQ Market in San Antonio when I was writing Project Smoke.

I was hooked at the first bite.

Here was a classically trained chef who could smoke and grill like the best of them, turning out briskets of quivering succulents and ribs so sweet and tender, they all but ate themselves.

He's here today to show us an essential Texas bird that's often overlooked.

Jason, welcome to Planet Barbecue.

Thank you.

So, what's the bird?

[Jason] We're going to do some Texas bobwhite quail, one of my favorite proteins, and really one of the true gems of Texas.

What's the first step?

We're going to make a little pear salsa with it, a take on Pico de Gallo, but using pear and red onion.

Pear and red onion.

How interesting.

[Jason] So, we're going to take a little bit of red pear here.

Very straightforward.

Just kind of cut these into little slabs.

So, I like that technique.

It's almost like a steak, a pearl steak.

Absolutely.

They grill all at the same time and texture wise.

Take a little bit of red onion here.

Same thing, same thickness.

We want everything to cook at the same time.

Little bit of olive oil.

Okay.

Extra virgin olive oil.

Don't need a lot, just enough to kind of barely coat.

And then we'll just do a little bit of kosher salt and black pepper.

And we're going to throw these right down on the grill over the coals.

And I notice you're working over a wood fire.

We're using mesquite, which is the quintessential Texas wood along with post oak, right?

[Jason] Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's a great fire.

Great aroma.

You can see the red pear turning to more of, kind of a green pear in a way.

[Steven] Yep.

[Jason] So that's telling me it's cooking from the bottom up, which is great.

So, we'll give these a quick flip.

We've got this beautiful char on them.

[Steven] Nice.

The heat of the grill is actually caramelizing the sugar in the onions and the pears.

[Jason] Absolutely.

We can see how this is starting to bubble up here, Steven.

A little bit of that.

So, we know those are good to go.

I'm just going to do a very simple kind of rough chop on these.

[Steven] Okay.

So, to finish this salsa, we've got the onion and the pear, a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.

[Steven] Okay.

And then we're going to do a little bit of sherry vinegar kind of in replacement of say a lime or citrus, right.

Just a touch of that.

We've got some fresh cilantro here.

[Steven] All right.

[Jason] Just rough chopped.

Got to have that in pico de gallo.

And a little bit of red chili flake instead of say, a raw jalapeño or serrano.

For heat.

Right.

I'm going to hit it with a touch more salt.

[Steven] Great.

And then we can just toss this here.

And this is just going to be a beautiful little kind of salsa that'll go over the top of the quail when we're done here.

[Steven] That looks fantastic.

So Steven, I'd like to get this glaze started if you wouldn't mind helping me here.

We've got some guava paste here.

Great.

[Jason] A little bit of local honey.

About equal parts of each works out great.

All right.

[Jason] That's perfect.

[Steven] Think it's about equal parts, carefully measured.

You nailed it.

Right.

[Jason] And then we've got a little bit of guava nectar as well.

We can use that as kind of the baseline for the texture that we want.

We want something not too thick and not too thin.

That's the perfect texture.

[Steven] Oh, nice.

It's going to be just a nice little glaze right over the top of that quail.

Let's get the farro started.

So, we're going to make a little farroto.

Let's take some of this heavy cream right into the bottom of a heavy bottom sauce pan.

Nice hot pan.

Comes up to a boil real quick.

That's perfect right there.

[Steven] Good.

Okay.

[Jason] Up this to a nice boil.

So, I'd add about two cups of that farro there.

I'm going to hit it with just a touch of salt and pepper.

And the nice thing about this is because the farro's already been pre poached, we just need to bring it up to temperature.

The cream will reduce just a little bit.

All right.

And then it'll be ready to add our blue cheese and our herbs.

[Steven] Excellent.

Okay, Steven, so this is up to a full boil.

It looks great.

Let's turn the heat off.

[Steven] All right.

[Jason] Add the blue cheese in there.

Right.

[Jason] Yep.

One more little scoop if you can.

One more little scoop.

That's perfect right there.

And by turning the heat off and stirring it in, what it'll do is it doesn't melt the blue cheese completely.

So, what we'll have is these nice kinds of chunks of blue cheese in there.

Little chunks of blue cheese.

And that can sit and hold.

You can go ahead and add your mixed herbs.

[Steven] The whole thing, or?

Just a nice little pincher.

That's perfect.

[Steven] I love fresh herbs.

[Jason] That's perfect.

[Steven] Good.

Jason, that looks beautiful.

[Jason] Now that we have the farro ready, I think it's time to get these quail on the grill.

Okay.

So very simple, straightforward.

We're going to take the quail.

We've already butterflied and pulled the wings back.

Just a touch of olive oil and salt and pepper.

Little salt and pepper.

Nice even layer.

Yep.

And I see you sprinkle from on high, so you get good distribution.

Absolutely.

And one of the most important techniques that there is.

Okay, so we're going to throw these on the grill and just kind of open them up kind of wide and lay them flat just so you kind of fan them out as much as you can.

The more skin we can get on the grill, the tastier this bird's going to be.

Cooking time on this?

Two, three minutes.

And what I'm looking for, is I'm looking at the smoke that's coming off of the grill.

If it's a nice light white smoke or gray smoke, I know my fire's at the right temperature.

We certainly want some smoke so we know that fat's starting to render down just a little bit.

After about 30, 45 seconds here, we'll take our tongs and just kind of do a quick little lift up just to make sure-- [Steven] Nothing is sticking.

That they're not sticking on us.

And these are looking real good.

Okay, so we'll bring these in and let this fire do its job.

So Steven, I want you to see this.

See how that is starting to pool up there?

That little kind of juice there in the middle?

[Steven] Yep.

Yep.

[Jason] That's telling me it's ready for a quick little turn here.

[Steven] Little turn.

Again, so you get an even grill.

[Jason] When our breast meat really starts to turn color, it's good to flip.

It's a very lean bird, so it's very easy to overcook.

And we can flip these here.

Nice golden brown charred crust going on.

[Steven] Beautiful, beautiful.

And then we're going to come right back to our guava glaze immediately.

All right.

Because we don't want to overcook the bird.

And then I'll always of course do one quick little kind of kiss of the fire with the glaze, and then these are going to be ready to go.

You can already immediately smell that sugar caramelizing.

[Steven] You bet.

[Jason] It smells really, really great.

Let's give this a quick little kiss here just to let that sugar caramelize one extra little time.

Okay.

Thirty seconds and these things are ready to eat.

We're going to do one more quick little glaze here just to make sure we get it all over the legs as well.

And these are looking absolutely fantastic.

Fantastic.

[Jason] I'm going to pull these off.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to eat.

I'm starved.

[Jason laughing] [Jason] So we're going to take some of this farrotto right down the middle of the plate here.

Our quail.

Going to come back with our little pear pico.

[Steven] Ah.

Beautiful textures here.

Lot of great flavors.

And then we're going to come back with a touch of basil oil.

This is just a little basil and olive oil pureed together.

Kind of adds another little nice herbaceous kind of note to it.

Isn't that extraordinary?

[Jason] And that's our grilled Texas bobwhite quail with blue cheese farrotto and pear salsa.

[Steven] I want to tell you, that looks gorgeous and man, it's a long way from brisket.

[Jason] So for me, when I'm eating quail in particular, the first thing you always want to do is grab a leg.

Get a little bit of that pear on there with a little bit of the guava.

Mm.

Mm.

This is fabulous.

First thing I get is the wood smoke from the mesquite and then that sweet glaze, the sweet musky guava glaze.

That's pretty darn good.

Yeah, the quail is tender.

[Jason] Mm.

You get a little bit of that spice from that salsa as well.

So, it's just got this nice kind of complexity of sweetness, salty spiciness with kind of the nuttiness of the farro.

Time to bring this dish out of retirement.

Maybe so.

[Steven] Thank you for coming on Planet Barbecue.

See, there's a lot more to Jason Dady than just brisket and ribs.

I appreciate it very much.

It's a true honor and, you know, so proud to represent San Antonio and South Texas and one of, really our true gems of South Texas.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

When it comes to Texas, one meat is king, beef.

Whether it's hill country brisket or TexMex barbacoa, beef is the meat that defines the lone star soul, and nothing makes a Texan's heart beat faster than a perfectly grilled steak.

What if you could combine the slow smoky succulence of barbecued beef with the sanguine sizzle of a ribeye?

Get ready for a steak that's both smoked and grilled.

I have here a whole beef ribeye.

Cut it into steaks that are one and a half to two inches thick.

Arrange the steaks on a sheet pan.

And season generously with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and pat the seasonings into the meat with the flat of a fork.

Now turn the ribeyes over and season the other side the same way.

Now to the grill.

To grill the steaks, I'm using a wood burner.

I fired it up with mesquite logs.

And raise the grill grate high above the fire.

This is a two-step grilling process.

The first step is to smoke the steaks high above the fire, low heat, so they absorb that fragrant wood smoke.

Then we'll lower the grate and sear the steaks over a hot fire.

Take your steaks, arrange them on the grill grate.

This stage of the smoking process takes about one hour.

With our noble ribeyes, crusty, smashed potatoes.

Start by placing Yukon golds on two sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Dot with butter on top.

And season with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Then fold the foil over the potatoes, bringing in the top and bottom to make a sealed packet.

Take the foil potato package and lay it directly on the embers.

Roast the potatoes in their foil package for 30 to 40 minutes or until tender, turning the package once so the potatoes roast evenly.

We have one final preparation to make, a jalapeño horseradish butter.

It starts with a stick of unsalted butter.

Add two finely chopped seeded jalapeño chilies.

A quarter cup of chopped fresh flat leaf parsley.

An inch or two of freshly grated horseradish.

And with the horseradish, you want to just peel off this outside skin.

Then grate the horseradish into the butter.

Now add a little sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and take a wooden spoon and mash these ingredients together.

Now take a sheet of plastic wrap.

Spread it out on your work surface and spread the jalapeño horseradish butter on top.

Gather the horseradish jalapeño butter up and roll it into a compact cylinder.

Then twist the ends.

It's almost like a Tootsie Roll.

Chill the butter and the refrigerator until firm.

Meanwhile, back to the steaks and potatoes.

It's time to flip the steaks and smoke the other side the same way.

Transfer the potatoes to a sheet pan and let cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, lower your grill grate.

The smoking phase is over, and now we're getting ready for the grilling phase.

So, we've gone from low heat, lots of smoke, to high heat, not so much smoke.

Unwrap the potatoes and transfer them to a cast iron skillet.

Then using a grill press or other heavy weight, smash the potatoes.

Smash the potatoes to about a quarter of an inch thick.

Add a little more butter and place the skillet on the grill, over high heat.

Now for your steaks, they are starting to grill nicely, so we'll turn them over.

We're constantly watching your meat, moving it from hot spots to cold spots in order to obtain a consistent result.

The steaks certainly look cooked.

They're crusty, sizzling, browned on the outside.

But I always like to check with an instant read meat thermometer.

And when you insert the thermometer, insert it through the end of the steak, not from top to bottom.

You're looking for 135 degrees for medium rare.

That's pretty close.

Now transfer the steaks to a wire rack over a sheet pan.

Why a wire rack?

You don't want the bottom to get soggy.

You have such a beautiful crust here.

So, a wire rack allows the air to circulate.

And here are your smashed potatoes.

Take two slices of the jalapeño horseradish butter and place them on the steak.

And for the ultimate drama, light a blowtorch and melt the butter into the meat.

Well, here's the moment of truth.

Let's see how he did.

Very tender.

Mm.

What's amazing about this steak is its architecture.

Crusty and smokey on the outside, beefy and tender inside.

Imagine steak channeling bacon.

That's what this steak tastes like.

And I love the way the heat of the jalapeño horseradish butter accents, elevates, embellishes the steak.

Now your potatoes.

Mm.

They too are crusty on the outside.

Soft, creamy, buttery on the inside.

Now that's a potato.

So, there you have it.

Grilled ribeye with jalapeño horseradish butter and smashed potatoes.

Because sometimes to cook the perfect steak, you have to smoke it as well as grill it.

If you like laws and sausages, the German statesman Von Bismarck has said to have observed, you should never watch either one being made.

Texans have no use for such euphemisms.

They call their beloved beef sausages hot guts.

Hot as in jalapeños, guts as in... well, let's just say we're talking natural casings.

A lurid introduction to what may be the ultimate sausage sandwich.

It starts with a pickled cabbage mixture called encurtido.

Take two cups of distilled white vinegar, place in a bowl with four teaspoons of coarse sea salt.

Add four allspice berries, a generous pinch of dried oregano.

Whisk the mixture until the salt crystals dissolve.

Then stir in shredded cabbage, slivered onions, and shredded carrots.

Stir the mixture to mix.

Let the mixture cure for 24 hours.

Here's a batch of encurtido I made yesterday.

Next, make the grilled onions and chiles poblanos.

Cut the onion crosswise into half inch slices.

Using toothpicks, secure the onion slices so they hold together during grilling.

And arrange the onion slices and the poblano chile slices on a sheet pan.

Brush with extra virgin olive oil.

This keeps the vegetables from sticking and adds an extra layer of flavor.

Season with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Grill the onion slices and peppers until golden brown on both sides.

This will take about three to four minutes per side.

Once the onions are browned on the bottom, turn them over.

Ditto for the peppers.

Next, make the mustard horseradish mayonnaise.

Add mayonnaise into dijon style mustard.

Now add a generous spoonful of prepared horseradish.

Stir these ingredients together.

Mm.

And there is a mayonnaise with a sharp, decisive bite.

Once the onions are browned on the bottom, transfer them to your sheet pan.

Remove the poblanos as well.

Now place your hot guts on the grill.

We're almost done.

One final step.

We need to butter and toast the hoagie rolls.

Open your hoagie rolls and generously butter the cut sides with softened butter.

And place the hoagie rolls, cut side down, on the plancha.

And once the hot guts are browned on the bottom, turn them over and brown the other side the same way.

Now take your poblanos and cut them into thin slices.

Then remove the toothpicks from the onions and break the onions into rings.

Now the fun part, build your hero.

Start with a toasted bun and slather it with horseradish, mustard, mayonnaise.

Then place a hot gut on top.

Sprinkle with grated pepper jack cheese.

Then slivered poblanos.

Then grilled onions.

And finally, to balance all this richness, your vinegary encurtido.

And there's your hot gut hero.

Let me show you another one.

Take a bite.

Mm.

This is a riot of textures and flavors.

The crusty bun, the cool crunchy encurtido, the grilled onions, poblano chilies, the pepper jack cheese.

And at the core of it, this amazing, smoky hot gut sausage.

Mm.

Hot gut hero, number three of the Texas Trinity.

Thanks for watching.

We are Planet Barbecue.

See you next time.

[announcer] For recipes, books, and more live fire cooking, visit StevenRaichlen.com.

You can also follow Steven Raichlen on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" was made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: Just make sure we got it on the legs.

Oh.

[crash in background] Oh boy.

[helicopter whirring] I'll keep doing it until the helicopter goes away.

He's here today to show us an essential test.

He's here... Of prepared horseradish.

[Melanie Gonzalez] Hold on.

Hold for sound.

Here was a classically trained chef who could smoke and grill like the-- like the best of them.

[stuttering] Welcome to Project Fire, except it's Planet Barbecue.

[laughing]