Banh Mi Style Smoked Bratwurst

Bratwurst on a grill is a backyard BBQ go-to. Most everyone likes a charred-burnt sausage (I think), so you can’t really screw it up. The bite results in a mouth burn only rivaled by pizza rolls. And it’s easy.

Sure, world bratwurst day is August 16th, but National Hot Dog Day was two days ago – close enough. Not like I actually planned any of this out, but it works.

I had these planned for a lazy Sunday – but I ended up doing them on a Saturday AND Sunday. A couple of my favorite bands were in town, a buddy came over and made them that Saturday night – then another buddy wanted to try it as well. I mixed some things up, but let’s look at what we’re doing.

Banh Mi. From the best I can tell – a Vietnamese sandwich. Sounds like it’s a staple food, but it’s completely new to me. I was also introduced to đồ chua, which is a pickled carrot/radish. But not any radish – the white daikon radish. So off to the fantastic Asian market I went.

I’ll make mention here – Since I did these on two different nights, I took two separate rounds of half-assed pictures. I put more love into the Result photos on Sunday.

---

Recipe

---

The Prep Table

Nothing crazy with the prep on this one. I bought some nice hefty looking rolls at the grocery store – something a little different than a hot dog bun. I wedged out the top and kind of compressed the innards to give me some space for the filling and meat. This was simple:

I mixed up a quick batch of Sriracha Mayo – I think 2 parts mayo, 1 part sriracha… ish. I’m not huge into mayo, so I wanted a creamier sriracha, and I found a happy medium. I think it was like 1/3 cup of mayo and I just squeezed the sriracha in until I liked it. (It was quite a bit)

The đồ chua was a little special. I simmered and settled the water, white vinegar, and sugar. I julienned the carrot and daikon radish into super thin slices. Measured it out to the mason jar and when the vinegar was cool, jarred it up and refrigerated it. I did this on Saturday – so when we ate it later that night, we didn’t get much pickled flavor. Sunday was better, but Thursday was absolutely terrible. MrsForensicBBQ was not impressed on the odor coming from this jar. For my/our preference – 2 day max with đồ chua.

As far as the brats go – I tried two separate flavors: Jalapeno Cheese and “Stadium Brats”. My thought was “flavor vs. boring” and we’ll see who wins.

The sauce was made, the đồ chua was pickled overnight, the veggies sliced – it was just time to smoke up some brats. Let’s get with the process.

---

The Process

Both Saturday and Sunday, I had friends coming over. I started each day with Lil Biz (my RecTeq Trailblazer) on LO (or 180 degrees). It’s meat in casing – I’m not expecting much smoke at all, but we were going to add low heat until the friends arrived. You can see I also had the GrillGrate lying in wait in the back. If you have a RecTeq – get yourselves a set of GrillGrates.

So the Jalapeno Cheddar were frozen for months – vacuum-sealed so they got that weird flat look. The “Stadium Brats” also had that weird look of pale, un-fun meat. Not a great look for a cooking/smoking blog – but I give you the honest truth on this site.

I wasn’t really paying attention to temperatures until the friends came by. When we got hungry, I pulled the brats off, cranked the RecTeq to about 400 degrees and it was time for the Grates.

Have meat, add heat and when they’re done, it’s time to build the “Banh Mi Bratwurst”. Super thinly sliced jalapeno and cucumber and chopped cilantro round out the toppings for this one.

---

The Result

I took photos from Saturday and Sunday – and I’ll put them all up here. For photo’s sake – The first one I think looks the best. The sliced jalapeno on one side, cukes on the other – some of that đồ chua on top and drizzled with the sriracha mayo. Throw some cilantro on top and dig in! (You’ll see thicker sliced jalapeno on some – I didn’t know if I wanted a thicker or thinner, since I’m a huge fan of the jalapeno flavor. More thin was better than fewer thick.

The Stadium “boring” brat won out. The cheesy jalapeno brat brought it’s own flavor and while it wasn’t bad – it didn’t help the flavor. The boring brat let the Banh Mi shine – the fresh flavors of the veggies, the crunch of the pickled veggie – the vinegar undertone made for a very delicious bite. I wouldn’t say this is a Bratwurst BBQ replacement, but it was a fun change for a great weekend. If y’all haven’t checked out real country music – Jamey Johnson and/or Whiskey Myers – you’re missing out.

Thanks for giving this one a read. Let me know what you think! And don’t forget to sign up for the e-mails below:

---

The Recipe