Another year of ForensicBBQ is in the books. As we turn the page on yet another year, we’ll finish it off with our second tailgate post. These are always fun ones – and today was no different. It helps that our November game turned out to be outstanding weather. She was a bit windy, but we’ll take it. A great day for football!
And cheese steaks. I’ve done blackstone cheesesteaks many times on here, so I won’t be re-hashing that. I’ll show you some new techniques, and my re-creation of the Jersey Mikes Cherry Pepper Relish.
The Relish
So I did my absolute best to make this tailgate-friendly, despite everything telling me to go hard. And by hard, I mean spicy. This thing is asking for habaneros. I can’t wait to add to it when I make it again. But we’re being gentle today, and we’re going simple with some onion, garlic, cherry peppers, and a red pepper. I bought some fresno peppers too in case it needed something. Throw it all into a food processor and taste as you go.
Now the recipe I picked from had some other additions, but I scrapped ’em. (like the crazy amount of sugar). Post food process, I tasted it and it was pretty delicious – albeit very seedy. It did lack zip. And not the zip that I require in my recipes, just any kind of kick. So in goes the fresno peppers. Bingo. Flavor profile was there, consistency was not, so we’re going to cook it off and make it a relish.
This was my special addition to the meal. We’re just going to go fast and furious for the cheesesteaks – I needed a topper.
The Tailgate
So a quarter of a crew got sick and couldn’t make it out. We’re still going strong with the planned ingredients, better to have too much than not enough. Doug and I chopped and diced and got everything ready, and Doug got to griddlin’.
Pictures – customary for our tailgate posts – are lacking. I did manage to grab one of the steak before we dished ’em out. Some requests were made for no cheese (?!?!) and no pepper, but pretty much everyone got the works.
Thought maybe chicken was a good addition, and it was well received. While Doug did the steak, I tended to the bird and threw a little bit of different on there. I added some minced garlic to the P&O and then I took a quarter of the chicken and mixed it with buffalo sauce. That one was underwhelming. I’ll even say, skip the buffalo sauce. Next time may be a creamy garlic kind of mix.. but negative on the buffalo blackstone cheesesteak. We went through equal parts beef/bird – I don’t remember how many sandwiches we ended up making, but it was fun as always.
My apologies for the lack of pictures – happens damn near every time.
The Leftovers
To use up the leftovers, here’s a little bit of extra tips/tricks and secrets I’ve tried and picked up. The peppers/onions above were leftovers from MrsForensicBBQ’s recipes. The beef was fresh. Got a soft saute on the P&O and the meat browned and seasoned – now let’s get wild.
Just right in there. Mix it up. It was going on there anyway, so might as well cook it right in. Two reasons: One, keeps it hot – and two, I’m actually doing wraps for these, because I was breaded out after yesterday.
I tried this on the last pound of chicken at the tailgate, and it was VERY successful. The problem with today – it was twenty degrees cooler and the cheese slices weren’t exactly slices after being left out all day at the tailgate. So better planning, separation and even cook would’ve been better – but this was still the way to go. Throw the cheese down, scoop the steak on top and then mix.
The cheese is so much better incorporated this way than just throwing the cheese on top – and waiting for it to melt before the beef burns. This was so crazy good, I’ll never do it another way. I mixed the P&O together because I said – I’m making wraps.
The right two were made to perfection. The one of the left was way too packed, but it was either going to be two mini wraps or one giant one. I went giant.
Thanks to Zach and the family for another great year of tailgates and we’ll come back in 2026 with something new! I know comments aren’t a thing after many years of doing this – but if you have an idea, LEAVE A COMMENT.
Happy New Year. I got a special Christmas recap post planned.. but MrsForensicBBQ is going strong through the holiday season.
Mmmmmm
Mmmmmm 👍
Mmmmmm 👍 looks good