The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Time to tailgate
Game day snacks and dessert that can go on the grill.
With the NFL preseason underway, and what’s arguably the best first week of college football in history set to kick off next week, it’s time to start thinking about tailgating.
In the South, that mostly means barbecue and sides. But what about snacks and dessert that can go on the grill, too?
With that in mind, we asked Jonathan and Justin Fox of Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q to help us come up with a game-day plan.
We thought that was fitting because the Texas-raised identical twin brothers not only co-own and operate one of Atlanta’s most popular restaurants and catering businesses, but Fox Bros. is the “Official Bar-B-Q of the Atlanta Falcons” with a location in the Georgia Dome.
And though they’ve been known to bring some barbecue to the James Beard House, they started out as home cooks, hosting backyard parties and tailgating to test out their recipes.
“Tailgating means you’re getting there before the game starts,” Justin said. “But you don’t want to be cooking the whole time. You want to relax and have fun, too. You need to keep it simple, prep things ahead, and be ready to Rise Up.”
“You want it to be easy, but you also want it to be good,” Jonathan said. “Keep it innovative and rotate your menus. A lot of our original recipes started at our house during football season. Our smoked wings and wing sauce were created that way.
“Barbecue just goes with football. But we like to play with it and use it in other ways. You can use pork or brisket that you have left over to make some fun, imaginative finger food. And, of course, we’re from Texas, so we like to play with Tex-Mex stuff.”
One of those things is queso fundido, made on the grill with Mexican cheese and charred green onions, then loaded onto grilled flour tortillas and folded together with salsa.
“Everybody thinks of queso or cheese dip, but this is different and better,” Jonathan said. “It’s a different kind of cheese that’s nice and stringy and buttery, it’s easy to make, and people love it.”
Another new favorite is a TexMex variation on the Fox Bros. famous Frito Pie, made with saucy pork green chili instead of brisket.
“Frito Pie has become our No. 1 seller,” Jonathan said. “Going into the fall, it’s green chili season, and Hatch chilies have become pretty readily available, so doing a pork green chili is a nice little twist on the recipe. And you can top it with all kinds of good stuff.”
The surprise recipe came from Justin in the form of an upsidedown cake that’s cooked on the grill in ramekins. Dubbed the Dirty Bird, it’s layered with fresh raspberries and blackberries to emulate the Falcons colors.
“That one was a punt, but it worked out pretty well,” Justin said. “It’s a recipe that I tried before using a Big Green Egg, but I kind of gave it a Falcons theme. If you’re already grilling on a Big Green Egg, you can hold the temperature and it’s like an oven. So you can make a sweet little Dirty Bird ending to a day of tailgating.”