Four Points By Sheraton Hotels Kicks Off Tailgating Menu

Football & BBQ are meant to be together – and in true spirit of America’s favorite sport, renowned Chef Elizabeth Karmel has teamed up with Four Points hotels to create the Ultimate Tailgating menu just in time for the height of the football season.

Karmel’s signature recipes, a pulled pork sandwich, tangy tailgate sauce and a ‘red’ slaw all pay homage to her home state of North Carolina. Combining the two distinct styles of the state, she blends east vs. west seamlessly into a delicious dish and side.
The menu, created as part of Four Point’s fall tailgating experience, includes four signature lip-smacking dishes including Chef Karmel’s savory North Carolina-pulled pork sandwich called ‘The Piglet’. A North Carolina native, Chef Karmel is an award-winning chef and authority on all things grilling, barbecue and southern food.

 

 

Recipes are as follows:

 

NORTH CAROLINA-STYLE PULLED PORK SANDWICH

• Hickory or Apple wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes
• Bone-in Pork (Shoulder) Butt, Boston Butt, 7 to 9 pounds
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• Olive oil
• Tangy Tailgate Sauce (see below)
• North Carolina “Red Slaw” (see below)
• package plain white hamburger buns (Martin’s Potato Rolls)
• (no sesame seeds)

 

Prepare either a charcoal or gas grill for indirect cooking. Remove pork from wrapper. Do not trim any excess fat off the meat, this fat will naturally baste the meat and keep it moist during the long cooking time. Brush pork with a thin coating of Olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside on a clean tray until ready to cook. Before placing the meat on the grill , add soaked wood chips. Place chips directly on white-gray ash charcoal briquettes or in the smoking box of your gas grill. If using a charcoal grill, you will need to add charcoal every hour to maintain the heat. Place pork in the center of the cooking grate fat-side up. Cook slowly for 4 to 5 hours at 325°F, or until an instant-read meat thermometer inserted into the middle of the pork registers 190°F-200°F. The meat should be very tender and falling apart. It there is a bone in the meat, it should come out smooth and clean with no meat clinging to it. (This is the real test for doneness on the barbecue circuit.) Remember, there is no need to turn the meat during the entire cooking time. Let meat rest for 20 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Using rubber food-service gloves, pull meat from the skin, bones and fat. Set aside any crispy bits (fat) that has been completely rendered and looks almost burned . Working quickly, shred the chunks of meat with two forks by crossing the forks and “pulling” the meat into small pieces from the roast. Alternately, you can chop the meat with a cleaver if you prefer- but then you have “chopped” pork bbq, not pulled pork. Chop the reserved crispy bits and mix into the pulled pork. While the meat is still warm, mix with enough Tangy Tailgate Sauce to moisten and season the meat, about 3/4 cup. The recipe can be made in advance up to this point and reheated with about ¼ cup additional sauce in a double boiler.

 

Serve sandwich style on a white hamburger bun and top with North Caro lina “red slaw. ‘Serve additional sauce on the side, if desired.

 

TANGY TAILGATE SAUCE

 

Double the recipe if making this sauce to dress both the pulled pork and the slaw

 

• 2 cups Heinz apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup Coke Zero
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
• 1/2-1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• (the more flakes, the hotter the sauce*)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1h teaspoon coarse-ground black pepper
• 1 cup Heinz ketchup

 

Mix all ingredients together and let sit at least 10 minutes or almost indefinitely in the refrigerator. (*Note, the longer the sauce sits, the hotter it gets since the heat from the red pepper flakes is brought out by the vinegar. Start with 1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes and then add more to taste. )

 

NORTH CAROLINA “RED SLAW”

 

• Tangy Tailgate Sauce
• 1 medium head green cabbage, chopped not shredded

 

Mix enough sauce and cabbage together until it is well mixed but not quite wet. Refrigerate. As the slaw sits, the cabbage will release liquid. Stir occasionally and add more sauce if needed. Let sit 2 hours or overnight.

 

GRILLED HOT WINGS

 

• 2 6 oz. bottles Louisiana brand hot sauce or Trappey’s brand hot sauce*
• 4 pounds chicken wings and/or drummettes
• Fine-grain sea salt
• Olive oil, optional

 

Empty one bottle of hot sauce into one of two re-closeable plastic bags and repeat with the other bag. Divide chicken equally between the two bags. Sea l bag. Turn chicken occasionally to make sure all surface areas are wet and covered with hot sauce. Marinate for 2 hours covered in the refrigerator or as long as overnight. When ready to cook, remove from bag and place wings in the center of the cooking grate over indirect heat. Discard marinade. Close the lid to the grill and let grill for 20-25 minutes or until beginning to brown. Turn over and continue cooking for another 20 minutes or until the wings are crispy and completely cooked through. Remove from grill, place on a clean platter and sprinkle with sea salt. You may want to brush them lightly with olive oil to give them a glossy sheen, but this is optional as wings have enough natural fat in them to keep them moist.

 

Serve alone with cold beer, Coke Zero™ or with the traditional sides of celery and blue cheese dip.

* Louisiana brand hot sauce, (much milder than Tabasco) is distributed nationally but if you can’t find it, use 1 small bottle of Tabasco, 1/2 cup white vinegar and 3 cups of water or more to taste.

 

 

HOMEMADE BLUE CHEESE DIP

 

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 ounces quality blue cheese or more to taste, crumbled
• 1-2 tablespoons grated shallot, depending on the sharpness of the shallot
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• Fine-grain sea salt
• Freshly ground pepper

 

Combine all the ingredients except the salt and pepper in a large bowl, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours to let the flavors develop. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. You probably won’t need any salt as all of the ingredients are naturally salty.

 

Refrigerate and serve chilled.

 

Football fans who want a little less cooking, and a bit more partying on game day, Four Points and Elizabeth Karmel have collaborated to create the “Four Piggies” – a mouth-watering package of Carolina BBQ goodness by Karmel’s very own Online Barbecue Shack, CarolinaCueToGo.com.

 

Additionally, Four Points has hidden “golden pig” tickets inside four of these limited time only boxes – find one and win a free weekend stay at any Four Points hotel in the USA.