Recipes, Tips, and Guides

Roasted pumpkin gives this turkey chili its body, but the ancho chile powder and homemade guajillo adobo set the direction. Ground turkey, Great Northern beans, onion, carrot, bell pepper, and jalapeño make a hearty pot, with kale stirred in toward the end and lime juice added just before serving. The pumpkin goes in soft and mashable, rather than puréed or neatly cubed. Some dissolves into the broth, while some stays in loose pieces, making the chili thick without losing all

This chorizo sweet potato chili brings together a pound of chorizo, black beans, sweet potato, poblano peppers, and bell pepper in a beef broth base. A spoonful of homemade guajillo adobo pulls everything together, adding another layer of chile flavor alongside cumin, chili powder, and garlic. The sweet potato softens into tender chunks that balance the seasoned chorizo. Black beans give the chili substance, while the peppers and onion build flavor into the broth. Avocado and

This one is another entry in the Gameday Chili Series, where we're making a different chili for football each Sunday. Instead of building this version around meat, the squash and beans do most of the heavy lifting. Butternut squash probably isn't the first ingredient that comes to mind when you think about a pot of chili, but that's exactly why it works here. The squash adds a subtle sweetness and hearty texture alongside black and pinto beans, tomatoes, peppers, and a homema

Smoked White Bean Chicken Chili: The Game Day Chili Series The Game Day Chili Series continues with my girlfriend's specialty: white bean chicken chili, built around smoked chicken, cannellini beans, green chiles, and corn. Garlic, cumin, oregano, and jalapeño give the pot plenty of flavor, with fresh lime juice added at the end. For the Bus Stop BBQ twist, I’m using my smoked chicken and smoked chicken broth. The chicken brings smoke and seasoning directly into the chili, wh

The Game Day Chili Series continues with beef chili, but this one goes a little further than the standard ground beef, beans, tomatoes, and chili powder. It starts a few hours earlier with homemade beef broth made from beef shank, onion and pepper scraps, garlic, and spices. That gives us two things for the chili: a rich homemade beef broth and a beef shank that's been braising in it for three to four hours. Pull that beef apart and combine it with browned ground beef, black

Guajillo chiles are one of those ingredients that deserve more attention in the kitchen. They're earthy, slightly fruity, mildly spicy, and packed with flavor without bringing overwhelming heat. When toasted, rehydrated, and blended with garlic, vinegar, and spices, they become a rich, versatile adobo sauce that works in everything from chili and tacos to marinades and grilled meats. This particular recipe came together while making another entry in the Bus Stop BBQ Gameday C

Eggs Benedict is already one of the great breakfast combinations: toasted English muffin, poached egg, and warm hollandaise sauce. Swap the traditional Canadian bacon for smoked salmon and it gets even better, especially if you've already got homemade smoked salmon sitting in the fridge. It's a pretty simple breakfast once you get comfortable poaching an egg and making hollandaise, and it's one of the better ways to turn leftover smoked salmon into something completely differ

Football season means Sundays on the couch, too many games going at once, and, this year, a new pot of chili every week. My girlfriend and I decided we're making a different chili each Sunday throughout football season, which gives us a perfectly reasonable excuse to see just how many directions we can take a pot of meat, beans, peppers, and spices. First up is Roasted Poblano Turkey Chili, built around five roasted poblanos, ground turkey, black and pinto beans, and plenty o

Buzara is one of the signature seafood dishes of the Adriatic coast. Fresh seafood, garlic, olive oil, white wine, tomatoes, and parsley come together in a simple broth that's been filling Croatian dinner tables for generations. It's rustic, unfussy, and exactly the kind of meal that reminds you good ingredients don't need much help. For our version, we kept those traditional flavors but gave the fish a short trip across the kamado before it reached the pot. The smoke stays s

Fruit and BBQ have always gone together. Peach, cherry, and apple sauces have earned their place alongside smoked meats, but blackberries deserve a lot more attention. Their deep, slightly tart flavor brings richness without turning your sauce into dessert. For this version, we leaned into those natural flavors with fresh blackberries, real vanilla bean, roasted jalapeño, and a splash of lemon yuzu juice to brighten everything at the end. The result is a sauce that's sweet, s

Pulled pork is one of those BBQ recipes that teaches patience. You start with a big pork shoulder, hit it with salt, smoke, time, and heat, then spend the next several hours pretending you’re not checking the temperature every 12 minutes. Eventually, the meat gives up, the bone slides out, and you’re left with a pile of smoky, juicy pork that works in sandwiches, tacos, nachos, rice bowls, breakfast hash, or straight from the cutting board while calling it “quality control.”

Frozen peas make a bright, creamy pesto with very little preparation. Blended with olive oil, Parmesan, skillet-toasted pine nuts, and lemon juice, they turn into a thick sauce that works with pasta, grilled vegetables, or a piece of toasted bread. The peas bring sweetness and body, while Parmesan adds salt and savory depth. A quick toast gives the pine nuts a richer flavor, and lemon juice keeps the finished pesto balanced. A little water loosens the mixture without needing

Growing up in a Balkan family, burek was always one of those dishes that showed up at gatherings, holidays, and celebrations. Flaky phyllo dough wrapped around a savory meat filling, baked until golden brown, and guaranteed to disappear faster than anyone expected. For this version, we kept the filling traditional with a blend of beef, pork, and lamb, but finished the entire dish on the Kamado. The result isn't a heavily smoked BBQ dish. Instead, it's a classic Balkan meat pi

The reverse sear changed how I cook steak. Period. Forget searing first. Forget guessing by feel. Forget hovering your hand over the grill like some backyard steak wizard trying to commune with the fire. This method flips the whole script. You start the steak low and slow, bring it up gently to temperature, then finish with the hottest sear you can manage. The result? Edge-to-edge pink. A crust that actually matters. No gray band. No sad overcooked ring. No slicing into your

Octopus sounds fancy. The kind of thing you'd expect to order at a waterfront restaurant while pretending you know what wine pairs with seafood. Turns out it's also one of the easiest things you can throw on a grill. The secret is buying pre-cooked octopus. Somebody else already did the hard work. Your job is simply to add fire, smoke, and a little char. That's a trade I'm willing to make every single time. The best part? It takes less time than cooking a burger. Ingredients

There are normal brunch foods. Then there are pork belly French toast skewers. This is what happens when BBQ crashes brunch with a tray of cherry-glazed pork belly and refuses to leave. You get smoky pork belly burnt ends, golden brioche French toast, fresh strawberries, powdered sugar, and a hot honey drizzle all stacked onto one skewer. It’s sweet, smoky, rich, sticky, crispy, custardy, and just messy enough to feel like brunch made the right kind of bad decision. This is n

I’ve cooked on a lot of different grills. Cheap charcoal grills. High-end gas setups. Offset smokers. I’ve owned some. Borrowed others. Cooked on plenty. But the kamado sits in the best spot on my patio. That is not an accident. Once upon a time, my stepdad said to me, "I would like to buy you a BBQ. Choose one that's around $1,000." Challenge absolutely accepted. I spent hours and hours reading blogs, looking at product reviews, having stress dreams about choosing the wrong

You can spend $2,000 on gadgets nobody uses. Or you can buy the things that solve 90% of every cooking problem. Let me save you money and cabinet space. The Non-Negotiables These are the tools I’d buy first. Not because they’re flashy. Because you’ll use them constantly. 1. Meat Thermometers This is the difference between guessing and knowing. A good thermometer keeps you from undercooked chicken, overcooked steak, and brisket panic. You don’t need three different lectures he

There’s a moment when you realize a flat top grill changes the game. It’s usually sometime between your first smash burger and your first full breakfast cook where you’ve got eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and pancakes all going at once… and nothing is falling through grates, nothing is flaring up, and everything is cooking exactly how you want it. A flat top isn’t just another grill. It’s a different style of cooking entirely. If your smoker is for slow, low-and-steady cooks, and

A kamado grill is the best backyard cooking machine you can own. It can smoke low and slow. It can sear like a tiny ceramic volcano. It can roast, grill, bake, and generally make you feel like you’ve unlocked some ancient charcoal-powered side quest. Oh, and it can also morph into a pizza oven. But here’s the thing: the grill itself is only half the setup. If you want to actually enjoy using a kamado, especially for smoking, you need the right starter kit. Not a garage full o