Flavors
Smoke-roasting is what I call a hybrid cooking method that combines indirect grilling with smoking. In a nutshell, instead of baking the potato in the oven, you indirect grill it, adding hardwood chips or chunks to the fire to generate smoke.
And that technique is so effective, you’re actually going to do it twice: once to cook the potatoes through, and again, to heat the stuffing.
Tips for Grilling Success
- Charcoal grill: Rake the coals to the sides and roast the potatoes in the center, adding soaked wood chips to the embers.
- Kamado-style grill: Intersperse the wood chunks with the charcoal.
- Gas grill: Place the wood chips in the smoker box (if your grill has one). If not, position a couple of hardwood chunks under the grate directly over the burners (nestle them between the Flavorizer bars).
- Pellet grill: Don’t do anything special, because the smoking wood is already in the pellets.
Ingredients That Make It The Best
But I get ahead of myself, because we also need to talk about the flavorings. There are five: each elevating the lowly potato to the next level.
First, there’s butter, because butter makes everything taste better. Then there’s sour cream, adding a delicate creamy acidity. Next come chopped chives, because chives possess a more delicate onion flavor than scallions (but you can certainly substitute the latter). I also like the gentle heat of diced jalapeno, but I’ve made it optional.
This brings us to the cheese—cheddar in an ordinary stuffed potato—smoked cheddar in your baker, because here at Barbecue Bible, smoke is what we’re all about.
Last, but not least, comes bacon, which enters the preparation twice. First, you brush the potatoes with freshly rendered bacon fat to make the skins nice and crisp. Then you add fried bacon slivers for an incomparable porky smokiness. If you’ve ever cheated with commercial bacon bits (not that anyone in this barbecue community would do that), real bacon will come as a revelation. Just be sure to use a genuine smokehouse bacon, like Neuske’s or Benton’s—not cheap commercial bacon, which is flavored with liquid smoke.
No, I haven’t forgotten the paprika and it goes on top to add color and one final blast of smoke flavor. Because you’re going to use pimenton—smoked paprika from Spain. (One good brand is La Chineta.)
So here’s a stuffed “baked” potato that has smoke coming it at it from every direction: from the bacon, smoked cheese, pimenton, and of course from the hardwood you add to the fire.
I venture to say it’s the best baked stuffed potato on the planet. If you don’t agree, you can always pass me yours.
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