Hearts of Palm Salad

It was a great day here in Indy. The weather was perfect, mid 70s. Unusual for mid-July.

I fired up the smoker this morning. I put on 4 racks of spare ribs I trimmed to St. Louis style last night. I rubbed half of them down with some Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust and the other half with Dizzy Pig Red Eye Express. The first two racks were for our neighbors.

The rest of the space on the smoker went to 16 split chicken breasts I picked up on sale this morning. I rubbed them with some Dizzy Pig Jamaican Firewalk.

After about 2 hours (when they hit 165°) I took the chicken off the smoker to rest. We pulled the chicken meat and ground it slightly for smoked chicken salad sandwiches later this week. In the place of the chicken I put 3 Old Folks sausages. We ate a little sausage with dinner and froze the rest for use on nachos or omelets.

At the six hour mark I sauced the ribs. The neighbor's ribs were sauced with Stubb's Original and Texas Rib Rangers Spicy Sauce. Our ribs got slathered with Russ & Frank's Fiery and some Russ & Frank's Sassy sauce. I also put 2 cobs of My Dad's Sweet Corn on the Weber grill, in the husk.

The neighbor's girls came over and picked up their ribs. I then put together a simple side salad to have with our ribs and corn.



Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 14 oz can (or better, fresh) of hearts of palm, thinly sliced
• 1 tomato, thinly sliced
• 1 Haas avocado, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 T fresh orange juice
• 1 T fresh lime juice
• S & P

Note: Cut the hearts of palm on a bias for a little better presentation.

1. Arrange the hearts of palm, tomato and avocado on a platter.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, orange juice and lime juice; season with salt and pepper.

3. Drizzle the dressing over the salad.

Dinner was great. The ribs were so juicy and tender, they melted in our mouths. The corn was so good, so sweet, and the salad was cold and refreshing.