Getting Back to my American Roots

After 2 Decades of Living outside the United States

My American BBQ Roots are back!

After living 20 years in the Philippines, in most ways I got away from cooking BBQ. They have barbeque in the Philippines, but it is different than American style Barbeque.

Now that we are back in the States, and especially since we own our home now, I can barbeque as much as I want!

I didn’t barbeque in 2019

In 2019, when we moved back to the States, we were renting an apartment. Actually, we rented the upstairs of a house, but they called it an apartment. We really did not have a place where we could barbeque, so we did not even buy a grill. We just cooked in the house – oven, stovetop, microwave, or whatever.

I really had my mind on barbequing, though. Within a week or so after buying our new house, I bought both a smoker and a gas barbeque grill. I’ve really been enjoying that.

I decided to get a pellet smoker

Back in around April 2019, Feyma and I went to a Home Show in Indianapolis. We enjoy checking out those kinds of events. At this particular event, one of the first booths we encountered was the Traeger booth, where they were selling pellet smokers.

I had already been looking at (ogling) the Weber SmokeFire pellet grills. They looked really good, and I wanted one. However, as the salesman showed me the Traegers, I was liking them and switched my desire to a Traeger. But, since we were “enjoying” apartment life, well, a pellet grill just was not in the picture, yet. 

One thing I knew, though… I wanted a pellet smoker. When we lived in Washington State in the 90s, we had a charcoal smoker. We liked smoked food, and I enjoyed smoking. We also had a pellet fireplace insert, and we liked that. The combination of the two seemed like a natural to me.

One day in Lowe’s

One day in April, before we had closed on our house we were at Lowe’s. I happened to see a Pit Boss Vertical Pellet Smoker. It was about ¼ of the price of the Traeger Pellet Smoker that I wanted, and, frankly, I liked it better than the Traeger, so suddenly that is what I wanted!

I did some research and found that the Pit Boss had gotten some really good reviews. My only disappointment was that the Pit Boss did not have WiFi capability, and I thought that would be pretty nice. But, as I reflected on the decision, I decided that the WiFi was more of a gadget, and not that important to me, so soon after we owned the house, I bought the Pit Boss!

I love it! I’ve smoked in the Pit Boss at least a half dozen times now, and it has never failed me. I don’t regret the purchase at all.

The Gas Grill

About a week later, I purchased a gas grill. I have had some real nice gas grills in the past, and, honestly, I could have easily spent $5,000 or more on a really nice gas grill. However, I decided to get a relatively cheap grill and try it out for a year or two. I really planned to do more smoking than grilling anyway.

I saw several choices of inexpensive gas grills at Home Depot when I visited there. I think the cheapest ones there were $199. I saw some others at $249, and they looked like good choices for a “starter” gas grill, so I chose a Dyna-Glo grill at $249. When I took it home and tried it out, I was pretty surprised at just how much I liked it!

My thoughts that I would do more smoking than grilling were wrong, though, I’ve learned. I do about an equal amount of each. But, just like the Pit Boss Smoker, I have no regrets with my purchase of the Dyna-Glo gas grill. I am sure I’ll upgrade in a year or two, but for now, this is suiting my needs perfectly.

What have I smoked?

So far I have done a lot of smoking. I have smoked the following things:

1. Whole Chickens
2. Chicken Thighs
3. Chicken Wings
4. Chicken Drumsticks
5. Pork Ribs
6. Pork Butt (making pulled pork)
7. Various veggies, especially corn on the cob

As far as I can recall, I have not had a single smoke that turned out with sub-par food. Everything we’ve done on the smoker has been so tasty!

What have I grilled?

Pretty much the same things on the smoked list, except for the Pork Butt, that is too big to do properly on the gas grill.

Again, everything I’ve grilled on the Dyna-Glo has come out really nice. 

Enjoying the fruits of my outdoor cooking

Here are some pictures of one of my recent smoking sessions. Can you see how juicy that chicken is, even the breast meat? It was delicious.

Now that is some tasty chicken

Juicy

I’m saving every last drop of juice

Corn on the cob too

Asparagus is one of my favorites

Here are some pictures from a recent grilling session. I cooked skewers of chicken thighs, bacon, and onions. I sauced the skewers too with a home-made BBQ sauce. It also was super delicious.

I had bacon on each skewer in between the chicken pieces

Chicken thighs cut into smaller pieces

Everything raw on the skewers

Just put on the gas grill

About half-way into the cook

Just about done

I also cooked some asperagus

Wow, the chicken looks good!

On the table

Ready to eat

Outdoor cooking at our house is a pleasure

With the beautiful scenery in our yard, looking at the river and the wildlife that is common here, cooking on either the smoker or the grill is a real pleasure. I enjoy my time outdoors enjoying the new place. Another advantage is getting back to my American roots. I have always enjoyed outdoor cooking, and am enjoying it even more after such a long absence!