Ancho Chicken, Coffee-Cocoa Beef Roast

A shout-out to Albuquerque's Fruit Basket whose chile-not-chili powder appears in a great many of my dishes.



Coffee-Cocoa Beef Tenderloin with
roasted asparagus and carrots

 Both the Ancho and Coffee-Cocoa dry rubs work well on a variety of meats.  Whatever you choose to do, try to get the spices on the meat and at least refrigerate it overnight.  The longer the dry rub sits on the roast, the better it gets IMHO.  Of course, if you're planning way ahead, go ahead and vacuseal and freeze the dry rubbed roast for a no-prep meal later.

The Ancho Chicken in particular is a rock-star leftover when sliced and added to a green salad.  Leftover Coffee-Cocoa pork or beef roast makes a tasty sandwich the next day, too.
Pin It

Mocha Ham

I am a big fan of Steven Raichlan's Primal Grill.  I love the nerdy/hip style, I love that he cooks outside and usually has to finish the show in the dark (what vérité), and I love a lot of his recipes.  I am not the Chief Griller at my house, and I'm still trying to convince the CG to try his Moules Éclatées (mussels cooked on a flaming bed of pine needles), but I have adapted several of his recipes for indoor cookery. 

The Java Chicken is A.Ma.Zing, especially if you do it on the grill.  However, today it is threatening rain and I have a vast quantity of pig still left in the freezer, so here is the indoor pork variant of this recipe.  Don't brew any coffee specifically for this recipe, just use the dregs in the coffeepot.  I don't use a mop sauce while grilling because opening and closing the grill makes it hard to keep the coals hot, but in the oven, a mop sauce is worthwhile (it's usually known as "basting" when it's done in the oven).

I've got a fresh ham roast because we get our pork from a local farmer and they'll butcher to order.  It's basically a thick-sliced (1 1/4") piece of uncured pork leg.  Don't use a regular (i.e. cured/smoked) ham if fresh ham isn't available to you.  A pork tenderloin roast is good, as is pork top loin roast and bone-in chicken parts.  This rub/sauce combo is really quite good on just about anything you care to grill/roast. 

You can prep this ahead for next-day/same-day cooking or freeze it.  The spice rub can be made ahead and stored in your spice cabinet in a sealed container or applied to the meat in advance.  I think the longer a dry rub sits on a piece of meat the better, so I would apply it and freeze the roast, if that's the route you're going.  The ingredients for the sauce can be measured, chopped and combined in advance, leaving just the simmering for the last minute or you can go ahead and simmer the sauce and fridge it or freeze it at completion.  If you freeze the simmered sauce, you may still need a few minutes of simmering to thicken it back up before applying to the roast. 
Pin It