7 Blackstone Griddle Hacks You Need to Know | Allrecipes

Did you know your Blackstone can do a whole lot more than smash burgers and stir fry? I've got seven unexpected recipes that will put every inch of this griddle to work. I'm gonna ease you into the Blackstone with the number one thing I make on our Blackstone, smash tacos. These are jalapeno popper chicken smash tacos. Not a smash burger. So I'm gonna start by cooking my bacon on the Blackstone, obviously. And I'm gonna cook this till it's extra crispy. While the bacon cooks, I can prep everything else. So I've got the ground chicken in here and I'm going to add the jalapenos. I've taken the ribs and the seeds out of the jalapenos, so it's really, you're just getting that great flavor. You're not getting a ton of heat. To this, I'm also going in with some garlic powder, a little bit of salt, and some cheddar cheese. I'm gonna give that a good mix. And once the bacon's done, I'll just stir that right in. For the sauce, gonna go in, kinda like when you think of jalapeno popper dip. You've got these elements, a little cream cheese. I'm gonna add in some sour cream. Listen, the Blackstone, it's not like the grill. When you think of grilling, you think of just like summertime. Blackstone is year-round, especially with the fall months coming up. We love, we are outside all the time. And some fresh lime juice. A little more salt and mix it up. Get my bacon. I feel like it cooks faster on this too. You want it crispy because you're going to chop it up and put it into the taco. Nobody wants chewy bacon, except my son. Just let that cool a little bit and chop it up. A lot of times, we'll do the whole prep inside. We'll go ahead and assemble our tacos, and then once we come outside, just throw them straight on the Blackstone. But we're just making an event of it today and doing it all out here. Can you taste it? You can already see how good this is gonna be. Yes, yes, Nicole, it's gonna be so good. All right, so now you just assemble your tacos. I like using the smallest street taco size. You can have two, three, four, whatever you're feeling. We'll just start with six. So you're gonna take your mixture. I mean, you've seen me make smash tacos before. And spread it all the way to the edges in a really thin layer. The chicken is lean. There's cheese in here. You wanna make sure your griddle is well seasoned, like a cast iron skillet. Or you're gonna need to use some extra fat in there, just so these don't stick and they get a nice crispy crust. I'm going to use some of the bacon fat that we have from cooking the bacon. And that is going to deliver flavor and crutch. I'll add on a little more oil just for insurance. Once you put this down, it does not take long, okay? Your dinner will be ready in five minutes. And I feel like I have to give you this disclaimer every time, this will cook all the way through. There's no raw chicken in the tortilla. It's all cooking and it's just giving flavor into the tortilla. So you can cook, I mean, at least 12 tacos at a time. Look at that cheesy crust. Three to four minutes on the first side, about another minute or so on the second side. Now, here's how we turn it into the perfect bite. Like a little more cheese, some of our lime sauce, lettuce, the good kind. We're not scared of lettuce anymore. And some cilantro. This might be the best thing you eat all week, until I make the next thing. Mm, mm, mm, this perfection. Not spicy. I mean, I could even put more jalapenos on there. But you taste everything we put in. You taste that smoky bacon. It's salty with the cheese, but then you get that cool crunch, that creamy sauce. You might have done smashed burgers or smashed tacos already on your Blackstone, but I bet you haven't had this one. It's, I mean, we are starting off strong with a 13 out of 10. Okay, I'm making creamy Cajun tortellini pasta with sausage and shrimp. This is a first for you and me together. But I have watched many videos and they all use a tortellini, refrigerated tortellini, so it's mostly cooked. Only takes a couple minutes. And this is an ideal thing to do out here. Let's start over here and brown my sausage and just kind of render that fat. Just like in all my one pan meals, you're creating those layers of flavor. And that's what we're doing by starting with the fatty item. Just like in the tacos, we started with the bacon and that flavored the rest of our dish. So we're doing that right here with the sausage. This is an andouille sausage, so it's that Cajun sausage. It's got those Cajun spices in it. It's not overly spicy, but it does have a little kick and it's also developing those flavors throughout the whole dish. To that, I'm going to add in the trinity, which we love in all our Cajun cooking. So we've got celery, onion, and peppers. All those veggies to get good and tender. Okay, then on the other side, I'm gonna add in a little more oil. Hopefully that's gonna keep our pasta from sticking. And I'm going down with the pasta. So we're not boiling this pasta, but we do need to steam it. These griddles, this is one of the accessories for it that you can buy. It's less than 20 bucks, Amazon it. You can do this. Or if you've got something like an old fashioned cake plate or the lid to a roasting pan, you can use that. You just want something with a handle, you know, to trap the steam and moisture. So I'm going down with the pasta, coat it with oil and get it into a pile where the lid fits on top of it. And we gotta sneak some water in there to create that moist environment. Shrimp obviously takes seconds to cook. So you're gonna add that on last. I'm gonna hit it with a little Cajun seasoning. Now time to bring it all together. This really does cook the pasta. One big, one pot family meal. Nothing to be intimidated by the Blackstone. It's really just one big skillet. Only negative about this situation right here is that it is literally 100 degrees today. I'm just gonna bring those together and create our cream sauce. I'm just going straight on with some heavy cream. See how it's bubbling up? It's already reducing. If you had this in a skillet, it might take a little longer for that to happen, but because it's such a wide surface area, doesn't take that long. And with some Parmesan cheese, this is gonna help create the cream sauce also. Ooh, that's looking good. See, it's already thickening and coating all of those tortellinis. Just gonna let it hang out for about a minute and really let that cream thicken. And that's it. This one is easy. One finishing touch. Squeeze of lemon just to kind of brighten up some of that richness and kick. Ooh, I love some of those tortellini taking on some color. I love that they got a little crust on them. Put that cheese. Woo! A little fresh touch at the end. Maybe a little more parm and dig in. Bring my Cajun friend in to taste this one. She gonna be impressed. This is an A plus plus. This is what you're gonna make instead of the fried rice. Get your veggies, get your shrimp, get your chicken or sausage. Same way, but different. Natalie, come here. You gotta taste this. Girl, my Cajun friend. You won't believe this came off the black stone, sister. What is this? This looks like a little Cajun hibachi. Cheers. Mm. Mm-hmm. Would that pass the Cajun test? A plus plus. Plus. You wanna take this? Are you getting pumped about using your black stone yet? Have you ever made crispy parmesan chicken on the black stone? Neither have I, but we are gonna do it and I'm gonna show you two ways to serve it. Get two shallow dishes. One for egg, a little salt and pepper. Splash of water. Okay, so I have some beaten egg in one shallow dish. In a second, I'm going to do a combo of breadcrumbs and, of course, parmesan cheese. Same people do it with just the grated parmesan or the shredded. I'm gonna add in a little bit of Italian seasoning and garlic powder. Then take chicken cutlets. I'm going to season them first with a little salt and pepper. They're really thin, so you can just season one side. And the egg, just a light coating. Same people do flour, egg, and then this, but whenever my grandmother did Italian cutlets of any kind, she just did egg and the coating. Okay, so just get these all breaded and then we'll let the black stone work its magic. Now we just get it hot. I think you need it pretty hot for this. They're cutlets, they're not gonna take long to cook. You really wanna get that crispiness on the outside. We are going to do a coating of olive oil. Two ways I'm gonna serve this is classic chicken parm style. We're gonna top it with some marinara and mozzarella cheese and also a crispy chicken Caesar sandwich. When you go to lift this up, you're gonna wanna get a thin spatula so that you can really scrape under it because there's a good chance the cheese might stick a little bit. Woo, just like chicken cutlets in the skillet, they only take about three minutes per side. Ones for the sandwich are going to be ready to go. We're just gonna take those off, but we're gonna finish the chicken parm right here. On with the marinara, straight from the jar, sliced mozz. I'm gonna turn the heat all the way down, just a splash of water to help create some steam. Not really putting it on the chicken because I don't wanna mess with the crispiness, just kind of around it, just a couple minutes, and it will be all melted. For my Caesar sandwiches, I'm gonna go ahead and toast the buns on here too. Look at this, voila! Pretty easy way to make chicken parm. Let's serve up the masterpieces. Chicken Caesar sandwich, definitely a fun one for an easy, quick dinner to do outside. Get you some bagged Caesar salad. Look at this thing, number one and number two. A little fresh basil. I mean, I'm impressed by this chicken. That is delicious. The chicken definitely has a lot of flavor. You can taste the Parmesan crust coming through, even with the Caesar and sandwich. It's cooked perfectly. The chicken is so tender and juicy, A plus. Let's try it in the chicken parm version. Oh my gosh, that's a cheese pull. The Parmesan flavor just comes through so hard in the best way possible. Bet you've never made chicken parm like that before. I have made pizza on a grill before. This might be even easier. So I'm using, of course, store-bought pizza dough. Get your Blackstone hot. This happens really fast, but what we are gonna do is toast, cook one side of the dough, flip it, and then top it. Obviously, this is gonna be a little more rustic vibes for trying to get it in as round of a shape as you can. So you can move it around pretty quickly. You can see it's already cooking under there. I love a crispy pizza crust, so I just like to go a little bit longer than what most people would. Beautiful. I always like to just go a little cheese down first. Pizza sauce. Obviously, this is more of a concept than a recipe. You do whatever you like. Okay, I'm going sausage. I'm doing the classic supreme pizza. This is fun for a party also because you can get smaller balls of dough and let everyone create their own pizza because obviously you can cook several at one time. Pepperoni, red onion, black olives, and more cheese. Basically, it's done. You just want the cheese to melt. So this is a time to lower the heat and just put the lid on it. Create that steamy environment. Oh yeah. Crispy crust bottom. That's what I like. A little finishing touch. Some crushed red pepper and some fresh basil leaves. It's a fast one. Way faster than delivery. Pizza on the Blackstone. Ta-da. That's the look like it came out of the wood-burning oven. Mm. I feel like this would even make Dave Portnoy proud. The crispness on the bottom. Excellent. You know how sometimes he takes a bite from this part? That crunch. Mm-hmm. Pizza from start to finish in 10 minutes. It's a no-brainer. You're gonna wanna do this one. Breakfast on the griddle is a thing because you can make your pancake, sausage, bacon, and eggs all on there at the same time. That's the beauty of the Blackstone on a weekend morning. We are making breakfast crunch wraps. Now, I've done a breakfast crunch wrap casserole before but never just the little individual cuties. So I'm gonna cook my components individually on the Blackstone, bring them all together, wrap them up, and put them back on it. Start by crisping the bacon. I'm also going to cook my little hash brown patties. This is going to act as the tostada that is normally in the middle of a crunch wrap, regular crunch wrap. So we're gonna get these good and crispy and then we just let it work. I want both of those to get crispy. That's what's gonna take the longest. So you want that to happen and then we'll scramble our eggs. All right, bacon's crispy. This is also gonna be part of the crunch layer for the crunch wrap. I'm gonna slide my hash browns over into some of this bacon grease because you know, when you get hash browns at McDonald's or whatever, they are deep fried. So we're gonna add a little flavor. While those finish, just whisk up the egg. And you know when you make breakfast like this, you are dirtying like at least three or four pans. Season. Okay, I'm just gonna go straight down. Gotta be fast with this. Bringing me back to my Waffle House days. Yes, I did work there, but just for a day. Bacon, eggs, and hash browns. Oh yeah, now they're getting crispy. All right, now we build. Little cheese on the bottom. Some of our eggs. First layer of crunch, some crispy bacon. Next layer of crunch. Then, you know how the crunch wrap, it has like some lettuce? I feel like I gotta have something green. I think some fresh little crunchy jalapeno in there sounds amazing. And then some more cheese. You can get one of the baby tortillas at this point, or you can just tear off a piece of a bigger one and set it right there so that it covers the filling, and then you fold over the sides of the tortilla. Okay, so you have your little package, and then it's going to go seam side down onto our flat top. Get out of there, get out of there. Go on, I'm gonna give you a jalapeno. Stop it. So to cook these in, we can still use some of that bacon fat. I'm going to add some butter to it also. Seam side down. Cute little breakfast package. Better than a bacon, egg, and cheese. I can tell you that right now. Look at those layers in there. Creamy, crunchy, little bit of freshness. If you know me, you know what comes next. That, my friends, is the breakfast of champions. We have not had a bad bite of anything yet, and we're not gonna start now. I feel like we've just gone through the week's worth of meals, and we have hit Saturday. This is just the day to have fun, be indulgent, and we are making grilled cheese sloppy joes. Not a smash burger, just an alternative. Just going to cook up our ground beef and onion, and then sauce it up. Now we're gonna make our own sloppy joe sauce. At this point, you could also just throw a can of it on here. I'm gonna start with chili sauce. This is basically just like kicked up ketchup, and I like to add some Worcestershire, little yellow mustard, some brown sugar, and salt and pepper. Immediately smells like sloppy toes. I'm also gonna add in a little bit of water just to make it extra saucy, and just sort of let that simmer for a little bit. We are going to use hamburger buns because sloppy joe. We're going to turn them inside out so that it looks more like a grilled cheese. So the inside of the bun is going to be the outside. I'm gonna place it outside down first. Now you're gonna have to act a little bit fast. We're gonna get it on its buttered side down, just like you're making a grilled cheese. Smash that down a little bit. Down with a piece of cheese, down with some sloppy joe. My husband loved this because he always has put cheese on his sloppy joe. Does this not look divine? Okay, so once you have them built, then you're gonna flip like a grilled cheese. This might be the sloppiest joe I've ever had. I feel like you know this by now. I cannot have a sloppy joe without a potato chip. Napkins on the ready this time. Take a moment to appreciate it, though, have you? It's like a patty mill meets a sloppy joe. The only word I can think of. Ridiculous. That is insane. It is so good. Doing the bun like that, it is buttery and it just kind of absorbs everything. Makes for the perfect meat to bread ratio. This is a meal that lives up to its name. For sure, skip the smash burger and make this next time you have the gravy. For my final trick, I'm giving you a fancy dinner. Garlic butter steak bites with smashed Parmesan potatoes and roasted asparagus. So you start with the amount of steak that you need for your family and cut it into cubes for the bites. Before I get my steak going, I'm gonna get my potatoes going. So I have parboiled, or you can just do this in the microwave. Just put some potatoes in a little bowl of water and pop them in the microwave. You want them to be pretty soft to where they are smashable. I'm just gonna add some oil and my potatoes on. Just give them a little coat in the oil. That's what I'm saying, when the weather is so good in the fall and you just wanna sit outside instead of going out for your date night, this is the meal. Then you're gonna smash them. A lot of people, if you've got this, you've got this to smash your burgers. We're gonna smash our potatoes. Smash and then leave them alone. Just like we're making roasted potatoes, gonna add on just a little more oil, some salt and pepper, and then I'm just gonna let them go like that. Then we'll get our steak going also. For the steak, salt, pepper, a little garlic powder, and smoked paprika. And you're gonna wanna crank the heat up for this so that they get browned on the outside. These are little bites, so you don't wanna overcook them. Nobody wants a well-done steak except my mother. Just make sure it's all got seasoning on it. And then I'm just gonna get the other side kinda like screaming hot. Just gonna flip my potatoes. Look at that. Ooh! Down with a little more oil. And then I like to sprinkle on a little Parmesan cheese to kinda get a little more crust. And these are basically done. I'm just gonna turn the heat down and let them ride while I fix everything else. Now down with our steak. These are not gonna take long, just about a minute or so, and then I'm gonna go down with my garlic and butter. Ooh, look at that good crust. It's a good black stone right here. Now the butter and the garlic. Just let that butter melt, and as it melts, it's gonna infuse with the garlic and all the flavors from the steak. Beautiful. And you know what goes in the middle? Our asparagus. They take almost seconds. There's so much flavor in the potatoes and in the steak that I'm keeping the asparagus super simple with just salt and pepper. Look at those steak bites swimming in that garlic butter. Gonna be eating like kings and queens. The asparagus do not take long at all. I like them to be still a little crisp, get a little char on them. Let's plate this fancy dinner, shall we? Some asparagus, those Parmesan crusted smashed potatoes, our delicious garlic butter steak bites. A little more of that garlic butter, and then some fresh parsley. There is your special dinner straight from your griddle. Full of flavor. You taste the garlic, but surprisingly, it is not overpowering. Look how juicy, browned, it's a bite of flavor. Crispy bite of potato. I don't know what it is. Well, I do know what it is. This is a giant cast iron skillet, and that gives you the best crust. So these potatoes that we've made before, but I don't know if they've had this good of a crust on them. I mean, both sides, and then the inside stays nice and fluffy. It's a perfect bite. This meal is a 10 out of 10. I don't think I gave one score other than perfect scores all day long. Promise me you'll make these, and let me know if you need more of a guide to your griddle. We have just got dinners since today.