Smoked Beef Cheeks Pita
Take your BBQ game up a notch
Calories 3814kcal
Equipment
- Chef Knives
- Chopping board
- BBQ
- cast iron pan
- mixing bowl x 2
- tongs
- tinfoil
- Measuring utensils
- esky/freezer bag
- meat thermometer
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg beef cheeks
Rub
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp brown sugar
Other
- butter
- honey
- brown sugar
Pitas
- 240 g 00 flour extra for kneading
- 300 ml warm water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 7 g packet dried yeast
- canola oil
Slaw
- 1 spring onions
- 100 g red cabbage
- 100 g pineapple
- 100 g carrot
- 1 handful coriander
Sriracha Mayo
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 4 tbsp sriracha
- 100 g mayonnaise
Instructions
Beef Cheeks
- Set your BBQ to 130c for smoking using whatever your preferred wood chunks to be
- Mix all the rub ingredients together, oil your beef cheeks and gently pat the rub onto the beef cheeks
- Once your BBQ is at temperature and smoking add your beef cheeks to the BBQ on indirect heat *see tips*
- Smoke the beef cheeks for 3-4 hours until internal temperature is about 75c – spritzing the beef cheeks after 1 hour *see tips*
- Once the cheeks are at 75c remove form the BBQ, wrap in foil or butchers paper with a sprinkle of brown sugar, drizzle of honey and a knob of butter. Continue to cook for approx. 2 hours or until internal temperature is approx. 93c *see tips*
- Remove from the BBQ, wrap in a towel and place in an esky/freezer bag to rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Once ready to serve pull using obligatory black BBQ gloves 😉
Pita
- Place the yeast, sugar and warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer, cover and leave in a warm place for 5 minutes
- Add the salt, flour and oil and using a dough hook knead until it comes together
- Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic
- Oil the stand mixer bowl and place the dough back in. Cover and allow to rise for 1 hour
- Punch the dough back (literally punch it)
- And turn out onto a floured surface, knead until smooth and cut into 8 equal sized pieces
- Flatten/roll out until they are a couple mm thick (don’t worry about them being a perfect round shape)
- Drizzle a VERY HOT cast iron pan with 1 tsp oil and fry the pitas in the oil for 1 minute per side
Slaw
- Grate the pineapple & carrots
- Finely slice the red cabbage and spring onions
- Combine all the vegetables/fruit
- Mix the mayo ingredients together and toss the slaw in some of the mayo reserving some to drizzle on the pita
Notes
Tips/Tricks
- when cooking the beef cheeks the approx. internal temperature should be 93-95c but test the meat with a skewer/probe. You are looking to be able to push the probe through like butter. They may need a few minutes longer if not soft enough
- beef cheeks take approx. 5 hours to smoke but sometimes can cook quicker or longer. My advice is to start a little earlier as you can leave them to rest wrapped in foil/tea towel in an esky for up to 2 hours
- when cooking the pita you want the cast iron pan smoking hot and you need to add a drizzle of oil to each cook
- feel free to use shop-bought aioli/mayo and shop-bought pitas to make the recipe a little easier but once you try the homemade ones you won’t want shop bought again 😉
- you can make the pitas in advance and leave them covered in the fridge until ready to roll out
Nutrition
Calories: 3814kcal | Carbohydrates: 233g | Protein: 246g | Fat: 208g | Saturated Fat: 62g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 54g | Monounsaturated Fat: 76g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 688mg | Sodium: 12297mg | Potassium: 5484mg | Fiber: 17g | Sugar: 32g | Vitamin A: 28503IU | Vitamin C: 172mg | Calcium: 310mg | Iron: 33mg