Oct 28, 2022
Written by: Crove Food Co.
What do you call a table that’s not yours? Nacho table! I couldn’t resist that joke for this stop of the Tailgate Tour and here’s why…
On September 24 we made our fifth stop of Tailgate Tour which took us back to Knoxville, TN for round 2! The Tennessee Volunteers went head-to-head with their rival, the Florida Gators. I am a die-hard Tennessee fan, so I try to make it to as many games as possible, and I could not miss this one. Tennessee has not beat the Florida Gators since 2016 and has only beat them twice in 18 years… Hate is a strong word, so let’s just say, in my house we strongly dis-like the Gators. Friends and family made the trip to Knoxville for this game, and I was so excited to have them there to tailgate with us.
The first time we traveled to Knoxville for the opening weekend of the Tailgate Tour we found the perfect parking lot. We went back to the exact same spot at the corner of Clinch Avenue and 14th Street. We arrived before the sun came up to claim our spot. After we got the trailer unhitched and unloaded, it was time to start cooking! We set up our tailgate with our Traeger, Weber Kettle, and our new Hasty Bake. We recently received the Hasty Bake Suburban 414. Known as the “mini-work horse”. It is smaller in size and caters to anyone with limited space. It smokes, bakes or grills and can handle just about anything. We also brought our GrillGrates and love to use them on all our grills.
Today’s recipe lineup includes Pork Belly Burnt Ends, Nashville Hot Chicken Wings, and our TikTok famous nachos turned into a Nacho Bar. I did a lot of food prep back at home to be more efficient with my time since this was an early game. While we traveled, all the ingredients stayed cold in our ORCA hard-side coolers. I never have to worry about any food safety issues when using these. ORCA coolers are the perfect on the go “refrigerator.”
The first thing we started on were the Pork Belly Burnt Ends. These are one of my favorite foods of all time. They are sweet, smoky, juicy, and crispy. They are a one bite treat, making them perfect for tailgating. I cut up the pork belly at home, so I was able to save time by skipping that step on site. I seasoned them with Crove Food Co. Pork Rub & Seasoning and then I realized I forgot something… The BBQ Sauce! I did not panic, but instead saw this as a chance to be creative. Tailgating goes that way sometimes; you forget things and you must make do with what you have on hand. After the pork belly smokes, you want to braise them. Most liquids will work for braising, so I chose beer as my liquid along with butter, brown sugar, and pork rub. My amazing sister-in-law brought me a bottle of Allegro Spicy BBQ Sauce in the final minutes of cooking, so I was able to add that at the end. These turned out amazing! One person said, “This is the best meat I’ve ever tasted in my life”, so I’ll take that as a win!
Recipe for Pork Belly Burnt Ends:
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While the Pork Belly Burnt Ends were on the Traeger, the next thing we got started on were the Nashville Hot Chicken Wings.
I love Allegro Marinade’s Nashville Hot marinade. It is spicy and so good on any chicken dish especially chicken wings. I marinated the chicken wings for about three and a half hours in my ORCA. Then, I generously seasoned the chicken wings on both sides in our Crove Food Co. Poultry Rub & Seasoning and put them on the smoker. Our poultry rub has been one of our most popular rubs with classic flavors like salt, garlic, onion, lemon pepper, pairing perfectly with the Allegro Marinade Nashville Hot. When we serve wings, I love to ask people what they prefer- drums or flats. That is still up for debate.
Recipe for Nashville Hot Chicken Wings:
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For the last recipe of the day, I chose to make a Nacho Bar. This is where my joke comes in that I totally over-used that day. What do you call a table that’s not yours? Nacho table! Well… turns out our nacho table was for everyone. We had tons of people standing around enjoying these mouth-watering nachos. If you follow us on TikTok, then you have most likely seen our nacho videos. We usually like to assemble them in a pot and dump them out ensuring that the ratio of cheese, meat, and chips is perfect, but since we were serving so many people at this stop, we had to get creative. We did a Nacho Bar and covered an entire table with nachos- different concept, same great taste. We chose Adobo Chicken and Carne Asada as the meats topped with our Pico de Gallo, Queso, and Salsa Verde. One side of the table was steak, and the other side was chicken. We added our homemade Salsa Verde to the chicken. We usually like to fry our own tortilla chips, but because of time constraints we had to use store-bought chips. Trust me on this one, take the time to fry your own chips, they are so much better and will level-up your nachos!
Recipe for Nacho Bar:
Adobo Chicken:
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Carne Asada:
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Pico de Gallo:
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Homemade Tortilla Chips:
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We tried out a new game at this stop, “Spin to Win”. Similar to Wheel of Fortune, but tailgate-trivia style. We asked football and cooking related questions. If the question was answered correctly, then the participant got to spin to win a prize. Some of the questions were about Gordon Ramsey’s most famous lines and another question was what is the name of the field that the Tennessee Volunteers play on. My favorite question was “How many YouTube subscribers do we currently have?”, to which she replied, “I don’t know, not enough?”. She was correct! She got to spin the wheel and won an ORCA cup. If you aren’t subscribed to our YouTube channel, please do that. If we get to 100,000 subscribers, then we are heading to the Superbowl next year in Arizona. We also played some games on the Tennessee River Jam corn hole boards and handed out prizes for those that could score before me.
You can find the full recipes on our website at crovefood.com and you can watch me walk you through the day on our YouTube Channel.
A huge thanks to our sponsors GrillGrate, Tennessee River Jam, ORCA, Cowboy Charcoal and Allegro Marinade, we were able hand out FREE samples to friends, family and strangers who stopped by before the game. We loved getting to show off the products from our sponsors at this stop such as: GrillGrates for our Weber Kettle, ORCA Cooler Hard side to keep all our food cold, Cowboy Charcoal’s Charcoal and Applewood Pellets, Cowboy Charcoal Briquettes and Allegro Marinade Nashville Hot. We also got to showcase and cook with our new line of Crove Food Co. Rubs & Seasonings which include Beef, Fajita, Poultry and Pork and are available to order online. Shop now at crovefood.com.
The highlight of the whole day was sitting in Neyland Stadium with my wife and my family and watching the Volunteers beat the Gators for the first time since 2016. The next stop on the Tailgate Tour will take us to Louisville, KY when the Louisville Cardinals will take on Wake Forrest on October 29. Make sure you are following along on our social media platforms where we will announce exactly where we are set up! Stop by to tailgate with us and try out samples, play games and hang out with our team!