Walt Disney World 50 for 50: Saucy Views

When EPCOT Center opened it brought a whole world of flavors Walt Disney World and began changing the landscape of what theme park dining could be. When Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Animal Kingdom Lodge opened, in 1998 and 2001 respectively, that food revolution continued with flavors and spices that hadn’t been previously been featured in the parks and resorts. Some of these are complex recipes and preparations, others are simple and are easy to bring home with you. Especially if you like using fire and smoke to prepare your meats, otherwise known as barbecue.

 

The recipes we’re featuring today have been featured on the Gazette before, but not for at least a decade, and we’ve never actually shown the final product to you. While I’m giving you the full recipe size here, we definitely halved both of these recipes. Let’s start at Boma, with their Coca-Cola Barbecue Sauce.

 

COCA-COLA BBQ SAUCE

Ingredients:

4 Cups Ketchup

2 – 12 Ounce Cans Coca-Cola

4 Ounces Brown Sugar (packed)

2 Ounces White Vinegar

1 Ounce Olive Oil

2 Jalapeno Peppers (minced and seeded)

1 Spanish Onion (diced)

1 Ounce Garlic (minced)

Directions:

In a heavy-bottom saucepot over medium high heat, combine the olive oil and onions.

Cook for three minutes, or until onions are brown.

Add the garlic, jalapeno peppers, brown sugar; cook for an additional minute.

Deglaze with the Coca-Cola, cooking until mixture reaches a syrup consistency.

Add the ketchup and white vinegar.

Lower the heat and simmer for twenty minutes.

 

This is a tomato, or ketchup, heavy sauce with a nice kick in the background. The Coca-Cola adds some sweetness and acidity to the party, but not enough to bury the spices from the Coke and the heat from the peppers. Notice that it doesn’t call for you blend the sauce at any point, so it will have pieces of onion, garlic, and jalapeno in it. If we were to make this again, and we did enjoy it, we would definitely consider blending it all for a couple of seconds once it was cooked. Also, we would likely start playing with the ratios of ketchup to vinegar, but we also live in western North Carolina so vinegar sauce is in our blood.

 

 

Next up, we venture into the park and the original barbecue haven in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Flame Tree Barbecue. The rub they use for their meats, particularly on their chicken, has always been a favorite of ours and we typically mix up a batch at the beginning of each barbecue season.

 

FLAME TREE BARBEQUE RUB

Ingredients:

2 Pounds Sugar

8 Ounces Season Salt

2 Ounces Chili Powder

2 Ounces Ground Black Pepper

2 Ounces Paprika

1 Ounce Cumin

1/2 Ounce Garlic Salt

1/2 Ounce Onion Powder

 

Directions:

 

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Apply to meat at least 1 hour before cooking.

 

A couple of tips, I typically make the half batches by combining all of the ingredients in a mason jar, seal the lid tight, and shake it like a Polaroid picture. No, actually, I shake it a lot harder than that and with both hands, but you get the idea. Secondly, I try to add the rub to the meat the night before I’m going to cook with it. This will create a liquid in the bottom of the marinade container. Don’t throw it away. I use that syrup to coat the meat while it is cooking.

 

This is a wonderful rub, that gives you sweat, spicy, and savory in every bite you take. We love it, and I think you will too. It also includes a lot of ingredients most people already have on their spice rack, meaning there is very little that you’ll have to buy before whipping up a batch.