Gluten Free

Homemade stock is the foundation of all truly great soups and stews. Not everyone has the time to make it, but if you do you’ll find it really makes a difference in your cooking.

We use this versatile dressing on more than just salad greens. It makes a good dippin’ sauce for fried or grilled meats and veggies as well as a sauce for Chicken-Fried Chicken sandwiches (page 69) and Fried Green Tomatoes (page 28).

This is the lusty cousin of our All-Purpose Red Rub (see page 167). It’ll make whatever you rub it into earthy, spicy, and complex. But don’t use it only on meat destined for barbecue; sprinkle it on anything you’re grillin’, including veggies. Mix it into bread crumbs before coating food, or stir it into a casserole. It’s a great flavor-boostin’ agent.

Just like the name says, this is the basis—the true mother of all the sauces we have in this book. It is a balanced blend of sweet, savory, spicy, and smoky flavors that acts as our leapin’ off point for creating a world of barbecue sensations. It can even stand alone as a traditional slatherin’ sauce for ribs and chicken. Now being the shameless promoter that I am, I gotta inform you that there’s a fine line of Dinosaur barbecue sauces. So if you don’t feel like jerkin’ around cookin’ the Mutha Sauce, just check out Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Sensuous Slathering Sauce (page 174).

Rubbin’ spices into meat is the essential first step of great barbecue. This is a good starter rub, but feel free to personalize it. Add some of your favorite herbs or pulverized dried smoked chiles. Just make sure you keep the sweet, savory, and spicy flavors in balance.

To mop or not to mop, that is the question. There seem to be two schools of thought about moppin’ ribs while they’re cookin’. Personally, I think that if the ribs look dry and thirsty you should mop ‘em. Mop sauce should never contain sugars that would burn before the ribs are cooked through. A good mop sauce is based on the spicy flavors of the rub.

For years I carted cases of this citrus-flavored Cuban marinade back from Miami, til we started making it in the restaurant. The real thing is all tarted up with the juice of bitter oranges—nearly impossible to find. So we add a touch of lime juice to freshly squeezed orange juice to give it the right kick. It’s one of the most versatile pantry ingredients you can make. Use it as a marinade for pork and chicken, pour it over cooked veggies or potatoes, or toss it with salad greens.

I used to think I made a pretty good rice pudding. Then I went down to Miami and tasted the Cuban version, and I sent myself back to the stove. Now ours is modeled after the best ones I tasted down there. It’s perfumed with a bit of lime peel and has a creamy texture and a smooth taste spiked with rum.

This is the ultimate “anything goes” dish. All you need is some sausage and any kind of raw or cooked meat you might have on hand. We use a tasty mix of sausage, chicken, pulled pork, and ham. The only thing you can’t skip are the chicken livers. That’s what makes Dirty Rice dirty and gives it its deep, rich flavor. We’ve been servin’ it every Wednesday as a featured side, and we’ve found that Central New Yorkers really appreciate this frugal New Orleans specialty. It’s also good as a stuffing for Cornish hens, pork chops, or turkey.

This has been the Dinosaur’s Wednesday soup special for as long as I can remember. It’s a good, hearty soup that’s perfect for places like Syracuse and Rochester, New York, that are blessed with six months of winter a year—not that folks stop eating Corn & Potato Chowder in the summer. Made with fresh corn, just picked and cut from the cob, this soup takes on a real summer attitude. Best of all, you can make it in less than half an hour any time of the year.

Now this is real comfort food. It makes me feel like I’m doing something good for myself every time I eat it. Delicious and healthy—what more do you want?

Texans like meat, and in Texas, chili is all about meat and spices. We make ours with chunks of sirloin and season it with a blend of ancho chiles, which lend an earthy, sweet, raisin flavor, and pasilla chiles, which give a spicy, deep taste. Our Texas Red Chili is a “wanderin’ special” on our menu, showin’ up every now and then. During deer season in November, we may even make it with venison.

Back in the early days of the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, I made a pilgrimage to New Orleans, and it seemed natural to bring some of the wonders of the Big Easy back up north. The thing that really grabbed me was jambalaya, a dish with infinite possibilities. There’s no one recipe for jambalaya because its whole reason for bein’ is to let the cook get personal and real creative with the bits of meat or fish hangin’ around in the fridge. You can give it your personal touch any way the spirit moves you. Try makin’ it with other veggies, throwin’ in some shellfish, messin’ with the seasoning—this is your chance to be a link in the evolution of one truly great leftover dish.

This is a good old Italian recipe that makes an appearance on our menu every once in a while. It’s brimmin’ with Old World flavors and looks damn good on the plate. It’ll keep your main courses from gettin’ boring.

If you were wonderin’ what to do with all that leftover pulled pork or brisket you smoked, or if you have some nice roast turkey hangin’ around, give this a try. It’s our only breakfast item and it goes great with a couple of eggs on the side.

I was eating at my favorite deli in the world—the Second Avenue Deli in New York City—when the pickle tray came out and inspiration hit. Why were we buyin’ pickles when we could make our own to go with our sandwiches? So we came up with our own brand of Garlic Dill Pickles spiced up with slices of fresh jalapeño peppers. They’re appetizing and guaranteed to get your taste buds tinglin’. Folks are always asking us to bottle ‘em, but til we do you can make up your own batch. Keep ‘em in a crock with a tight-fittin’ lid in the fridge. They keep for weeks and weeks.

This is how my mother cooks green beans. They’re so good and so simple that right from the start we made them our Tuesday vegetable of the day at the restaurant.

Most Yankees have a preconceived notion that they don’t like grits. When we put them on the menu, lots of folks are resistant. It’s a tough sell for the waitresses, but once they get customers to try them, they’re hooked. Our flavor-boosted grits are rich and powerfully earthy. Serve them instead of mashed potatoes.

Mean Money Greens are one of our special daily sides. We make ‘em in the good old Southern manner—boiled with salt pork for hours til they melt in your mouth. Realizin’ that this technique might not fit the time constraints of the modern cook, we’ve revisited this dish and can now give you an updated, healthier version that preserves most of the B vitamins found in collards and brings out their natural peppery flavor.