Now. That's a sandwich.

I had a bit of a Twitter tantrum last week because I’m just plain sick of hearing about the amazing McRib sandwich from McDonalds. Apparently the word on the street is that it’s just so disgusting that it’s somehow good.

That really doesn’t make sense to me.

That said, the idea behind the sandwich is a great one. I nice big pork patty on a hoagie bun with BBQ sauce, pickles, and onions? Sounds good to me!

So I decided to make a homemade version of the sandwich. The recipe I came up with is really simple and actually cheaper than buying the sandwich from McDonalds. Plus, now I have a bunch of them frozen so it’s faster for me to make one now than driving to McDonalds.

So let’s all please stop talking about the McRib and start talking about the NickRib.

The Nickrib

Yield: 6 sandwiches

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

2 Pounds pork butt, ground
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
2 Teaspoons black pepper
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
2 Teaspoons coriander, ground
2 Teaspoons cumin, ground
1 Teaspoon red pepper flakes (opt.)
1 bottle (16-18 ounces) BBQ sauce
Pickles
Onions
Hoagie Buns

Helpful Equipment:
Food processor

Directions:

1) Cut pork butt into cubes. Try to separate fat and meat so you can grind them separately.

2) Grind or process pork. Do the fat first and grind it much finer. Then grind meat and mix the two together.

3) Add in spices to mix meat together.

4) Form six patties from the meat weighing about 5.5 ounces each.

5) Sear patties in a hot pan, over medium-high heat, for about 4 minutes per side.

6) Layer all patties in a baking dish and slather with BBQ sauce. Bake patties at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

7) Add a patty to a hoagie bun and top with extra BBQ sauce, pickles, and sliced onions.

8) Once patties are cooled, you can freeze these by putting each patty individually into small plastic bags with extra sauce. Then put all those small bags into a large gallon sized freezer bag. To reheat, just cut off the plastic from one patty and microwave for about 2 minutes.

The Original

Must to my dislike, I figured that I should probably swing by Mickey D’s and see what all the fuss was about before I tried to recreate this sucker.

I noticed a few things.

1) It costs $3. That means six would cost $18. My six homemade sandwiches cost me $13 to make.

2) It made my car smell like a BBQ sandwich farted.

3) It was much smaller than I thought it would be and didn’t look very appetizing.

This costs $3.

I did try this sandwich though and wasn’t really impressed. Obviously, the patty was super-moist because they inject it with all kinds of stuff to preserve it. The BBQ sauce tasted like chemicals. The best part of the sandwich was the pickles and there were only two.

A Patty Problem

I did some research before I jumped into this sandwich. There were a bunch of other people that thought it would be a good idea to make their own versions of this sandwich. I immediately noticed a problem with some of the homemade versions.

The versions I saw were either amazing and complex like this awesome BBQ pork belly sandwich that takes about 5 hours to make and requires 3 pounds of pork belly. On the other end of the spectrum, there were people who actually took the time to post on just microwaving frozen pork patties and putting BBQ sauce on them. That takes only 2 minutes, but you end up with basically the same thing that McDonald’s makes.

I tried to find some middle ground. I wanted a good patty, but I didn’t want to have to braise pork belly for 6 hours to get it. So, I decided to go with pork butt. For one, it’s a really economical cut of meat so I knew I’d be able to keep my costs down (even the best pork butt will run about $2.50/pound). Secondly, pork butt has a lot of fat in it, so I knew it would keep my patties nice and moist.

The process I used for making my patties is pretty straightforward. If i had a food grinder, it would’ve been even easier, but I just used my food processor. First, I cut my pork butt into fatty pieces and meaty pieces. I wanted to grind/process them separately. The fat needs to be a lot finer then the meat. I ground my fatty parts until they were almost a paste and then just pulsed my meaty parts until they basically resembled ground pork.

Shortcut: You could definitely use ground pork to make these. I might recommend adding in some processed bacon to up the fat content a bit if you do use ground pork though.

The Spices

Of course, the nice thing about making your own patties is that you can actually mix in some real flavor. I stirred in some coriander, cumin, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper.

Might as well spice it up.

Making the Patties

Since we’re going to be putting these guys on a hoagie bun, you want to make the patties kind of oblong. Each patty should be about 5.5 ounces and be about six inches long. It’s okay if they are pretty thin, they will shrink up as they cook.

I went ahead and made all of my patties and just sat them on wax paper until I could cook them.

About 5.5 ounces.

Searing the Patties

Cooking these bad boys is a two step process. It works like a charm to make a really moist and tasty patty. To start, just sear each patty in a hot pan over medium-high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side. This should almost completely cook the patties because they are so thin.

The important part though is that they get a nice sear on them.

Get a good sear on these guys.

Baking the Patties

Once you get all your patties seared, add them to a large oven-safe dish and slather them with your BBQ sauce. If you have a really thick BBQ sauce, I recommend adding about 1/2 cup of water to it to thin it out a bit. It’ll thicken up again as it bakes.

This was a good idea.

Just completely coat all the patties in BBQ sauce and then bake them at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. This will completely infuse the patties with that delicious BBQ flavor.

This will smell good.

The Toppings

I kept the exact same toppings as the original: onions and pickles. I sliced my onions pretty thin though and use way more than two pickles.

Same toppings. Just more.

Finishing the Sandwich

As far as the bun goes, you can toast it or leave it soft. It’s good either way. Pile a patty on the bun with some extra BBQ sauce and then top with onions and pickles.

Done deal.

You can spring for more than two pickles.

Freezing the Sandwiches

These patties actually freeze really well. This means that you could double the recipe and have great sandwichs for a long time. I froze mine by making sure they were completely cool and then putting each patty individually in a small plastic bag with a few spoonfuls of extra sauce. Then I put all of those small bags in a large freezer safe bag.

When you want a sandwich, just cut the plastic off the patty and microwave it for about 2 minutes. Slap it on a bun with some extra BBQ sauce, onions, and pickles and you’re all set. I thought the re-heated version was just as good as on day one.

That's a real sandwich.

I was really happy with how these turned out. They cost a fraction of the original sandwich and now that they are made it takes me less time to make one then it would take for me to drive to McDonalds and buy one.

Most importantly, it isn’t even a competition when it comes to flavor.

If I wanted to make this post super-popular, I guess I could take a play out of the McDonald’s playbook and take it down for a few months and then BRING IT BACK!

Or I could just ask you all to share it. When you hear people raving about the McRib, let them know about the NickRib.

I think Americans are for some reason scared to death of the full chicken. Most people buy boneless, skinless breasts and call it good. In reality though, you get much more bang for your buck (not to mention flavor) by buying one of these:

On a budget? Meet your new friend.

Even if you buy really quality, hormone free chicken, you will get huge discounts if you buy the entire bird because you have to do the butchering yourself. The bird that I bought for this series of posts weighted about 4.5 pounds and cost only $12. Per pound, that is way less than factory raised boneless, skinless, flavorless breasts. And I fed two people for four meals with it. From a budget standpoint, that is hard to beat.

The first time you cut up your own chicken, it might be a bit intimidating. It really isn’t too bad though. I thought about trying to explain it in this post, but then realized that there are plenty of authorities out there that do a fantastic job of detailing the process. There are very good explanations of the process at Cooking for Engineers, Gourmet Sleuth, and here is a Youtube video where she uses a technique that is new to me but seems to work.

The key is to relax and take your time. Eventually, you should end up with eight pieces of chicken and some leftovers.

Easily four meals for 2 people.

Before I get started with the first meal, two quick notes:

1) If you are feeding more than two people you would have to adjust the recipes I’m posting over the next few days. What’s nice about every recipe is that none of them require a specific cut of chicken. You could cook the entire chicken using any of the recipes so feel free to experiment. Or you could buy more than one chicken.
2) If you are a serious meat eater you might find that these meals are a bit light. The goal with these meals though is to eat less meat, but make sure that it is packed with flavor.

That’s why the first meal is Barbeque Chicken.

Obviously, you can use any part of the chicken for this, but if I have to pick, these guys are my favorite to use for barbeque.

Trying to get a leg up.

As far as the barbeque part of this goes, you could buy sauce from the store, but in the spirit of saving money, I thought I would make some from leftover stuff in my fridge. I don’t even like to call this stuff barbeque sauce. I like to call it confidence sauce. I call it that because it is very flexible, you can add stuff to it easily and use what you have, but no matter what you put in it, it is probably going to be good.

Confidence (bbq) Sauce

- 1 Cup Ketchup
- 1/4 Cup brown sugar
- 3 Tablespoons bourbon (you could use tons of things here. Orange juice, vinegar, etc.)
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- 1 Tablespoon chili powder (adjust to your tastes. Also play around with other spices like cumin, paprika, or red pepper flakes)

Ketchup is in the bowl.

Once all of that is mixed together, put it in a saucepan and let it start simmering on low. Stir it occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Update: For this BBQ sauce, I actually used some homemade ketchup that I made for a guest post over at Endless Simmer. Check it out: In Defense of Ketchup.

Confidence in a pan.

While that is reducing (should take 10-15 minutes), you can get your chicken started. I like to use a pan that goes easily from stove top to oven. For me that is my cast iron skillet. On medium high heat, cook your legs for 5-6 minutes a side until they sear nicely.

Seared chicken.

Once your sauce is reduced nicely, turn off the heat. It’s okay if it cools a little bit and it is better to have it a bit thin rather than too thick as we are going to cook it in the oven also. This was mine after probably 10 minutes.

Reduced by probably half.

Then slather this stuff on your chicken. I piled on as much as I could, but had some left over which I served on the side.

Come on.

Put this in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until your legs are cooked through.

These legs are very flavorful. I could have eaten a few of them, but honestly one was enough to satisfy me. I served mine with sauteed spinach and some Au gratin potatoes.

The full meal.

I can’t say enough about the homemade barbeque sauce. It is really easy to make and, in my opinion, is a lot more flavorful than many of the brands sold in the store. And it gives you a chance to clean out the pantry a bit.

Could I eat a whole chicken like this? Yes.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the second meal I made with my chicken.  It’s easier to keep up if you sign-up for Macheesmo updates via email or RSS.

Getting the perfect pizza dough and perfect crust is something I could write on for days, but let’s be real: If you don’t have a brick oven that can get up to 900 degrees (I don’t) then you aren’t going to get it right. It is impossible. But you can get darn close!

Round 1: BBQ Chicken. BBQ Sauce, shredded chicken, red onion, gouda.

I knew that we were going to be doing this a few days before so I made a slightly more complicated crust that requires a day of rest in the fridge. It’s one of the better pizza dough recipes I’ve seen. Check it out here. If you don’t have an extra day and need pizza NOW, then check out Alton Brown’s recipe which I’ve also tried with great success.

So what can you put on these things? Well, really anything. I wanted to keep my crust pretty thin so I limited each pizza to just a few toppings. If you put on too many toppings then the crust won’t cook evenly.

Also, since I had 6 pizzas to make, I thought I would take a little self-guided photography lesson through depth of focus. Hence, all of these photos have varying levels of focus.

Mush, red onion, mozz. Turns out mushrooms shrink a lot on a pizza.

As far as equipment goes with pizza making, the only thing I would say really helps is a pizza stone. It makes for a much better crust. If you have a pizza peel, it will make it easier to get the pizza on and off the stone. I don’t have one actually. I just use the back of a baking sheet with a bit of cornmeal on it. Put the dough on the baking sheet, shake it back in forth to loosen it up, build your pizza, then deftly slide it off of the baking pan and onto the stone!

Mush, basil, mozz. Can you say depth of focus?

About now we were a few bottles of wine into this party and I realized this was maybe the best party idea I’ve ever had.

Spinach, pepperoni. Serious Pepperoni.

Spinach, mush, garlic, mozz. This was maybe my favorite.

Last but not least: Back to Basics. Just cheese.

As a final note, I’ve desperately been trying to submit a photo to Food Gawker and so far have tasted nothing but the tang of rejection. Leave a comment if you like any of these. Maybe I’ll get up the courage to face the Food Gawker Gods…

If you want to make some pizza on your own, you may want to invest in a Pizza stone and peel. Worth every penny.

If you actually attended this party, and are reading this, you have an obligation to comment on which one was your favorite.