this week's new recipe

Wednesday night (before the Pepe Le Pew fiasco), I was trying to decide what I would cook for our Friday night gathering. I had almost decided to do baked shrimp, but then found a link to The Pioneer Woman's Spicy Whisky BBQ Sliders - and I knew I had to try it. And it counts as my new recipe for the week.

I wasn't exactly sure how many people would be here, but I knew I would need more than the twelve sliders the original recipe would make. I used a 5 lb. package of lean hamburger meat, and got 32 or 33 sliders. I sprinkled the patties with Famous Dave's Steak and Burger seasoning.

the magic ingredients

I browned the patties in batches (until almost done) and then because I was cooking many and wanted to keep them warm, transferred them to my dutch oven.

waiting for sauce

 The last few patties were transfer to another skillet to finish cooking. I knew that there were be a few kids here that wouldn't want the spicy sauce.

these will be regular sliders for the non-spicy crowd

Finally I had a skillet full of bits and pieces - because I used lean ground beef there was very little fat; I added a bit of olive oil to brown the onions. And I chopped two medium onions for this large batch.

look at the brown bits mixed with the onions - yummy

When the onion were nice and soft, I added the whisky - the whole bottle. And OH. MY GOODNESS! Why have I never cooked with whisky? When that whisky hit those lovely browned onions, the smell was amazing. I will definitely be using onions and whisky in more recipes. Maybe onions and mushrooms with a reduced whisky sauce for steaks?

Sorry, I got distracted just thinking about the possibilities. After the whisky, I added the bottle of barbeque sauce. I love Sweet Baby Ray's any flavor, but the Raspberry Chipotle is one of my favorites. I decided it wasn't enough and added another bottle of plan bbq sauce. After adding the jalapeno slices, I poured the sauce over the patties waiting in the dutch oven and let it all simmer for about 30 minutes.

wish you had scratch and sniff

Lovey came in at about this time. I could hear him "mmmm - mmmming" all the way into the kitchen.

While the sauce simmered, I split the buns, buttered them, placed them on a large cookie sheet, and when we were ready to eat I just popped them in the oven to toast them up.  Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up in the eating that I didn't take any pictures of the assembled sliders. As a matter of fact, I completely forgot about my camera for the rest of the night.

**I wasn't compensated in any way to mention the products  pictured here. The Pioneer Woman, Sweet Baby Ray, and Famous Dave do not know me. But I'm sure they would love me if they did. I'm fun!