The Smoking Musket Tailgate Menu: Morning tailgate in Morgantown

As you are aware, Texas is known for its beef, and Fort Worth—where TCU is located—is home to possibly the most famous stockyards in the world. In fact, they’re actually a national historic site. So to honor that, we’re cooking steak for breakfast.

The first thought I had when planning a breakfast menu around steak was, of course, steak and eggs. Something about that just screams “manly,” and that’s what the Mountaineers needs to be on Saturday.

Grilled Steak and Eggs Breakfast Bowls

This will be a quick-and-easy DIY meal for your tailgate guests arriving early to prepare for the game. Unfortunately, I could not find one individual recipe that I liked for this, so I have three individual recipes to help you make these steak and eggs breakfast bowls both delicious and custom.

Grilled Texas-Style Flank Steak

The most important part of this dish is the steak. We’re using flank steak is because it’s one of the best steaks to cook over direct heat and is meant to be served sliced. Another plus, it’s so much better when marinated, which will give the meat more flavor and make it more tender.

The first thing you need to do is rub the steak with the mix of beef soup base, spices, Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke (or water, if you don’t have that ingredient). Put that in the bag. Now, whisk together ¼ cup beer (Shiner Bock preferred) and chili paste of your choosing—you may have some of that Gochujang leftover. Pour that into the bag and turn it over a few times to make sure it’s all coated. Marinate the beef overnight.

The recipe calls for a container, which is fine, but I find that the zip-top bags work best in a cooler. It also calls for sliced onions, which is totally fine to use as well. I highly suggest you pack your cooler the night before since this is a noon game and you’ll want to make sure you’re in the lots early. Throw the bag in the bottom of the cooler so it stays cold.

At the tailgate, remove the bag of steak from the cooler and start heating your grill on high. You want the grill as hot as possible to sear the steak well. Cook for two minutes, flip, cook for two more minutes, then cut the heat immediately and let it sit for another two minutes. Then, remove from the grill and let it rest for about five minutes before slicing thinly against the grain of the meat.

Scrambled Eggs

There isn’t a recipe for this, sorry, but if you don’t know how to make scrambled eggs, you’re probably insulted by “Horns Down” signs. Three keys to making good scrambled eggs: fat, dairy, seasoning. Scramble six eggs with black pepper, dried cilantro and about a ¼ cup of milk. Fry some bacon in a cast-iron skillet on the grill. Reserve enough of the grease to cover the entire surface and pour the eggs into the skillet, heat still on. The eggs will begin to cook immediately, so start stirring the eggs about five seconds after they hit the pan. Do not overcook the eggs. Remove them while they still have a little shine and pour into a bowl or pan for serving, then fluff with a fork.

Homemade Hot Sauce

One of the best pro-moves of a tailgate master is making your own hot sauces. For starters, you can make a really large batch, but you can also create better flavors than just store-bought.

My trick to my hot sauce is to use a stemmed and seeded red bell pepper with a handful of seeded hot red chili peppers. Boil them in the vinegar with a few cloves of garlic and a sliced onion. Bring the whole pot to a boil with some salt and pepper, then simmer for about 20 minutes. Let cool and add to a blender and blend until as smooth as possible. Next, strain the blended juice back into the pot and bring back to a boil. You can add ingredients such as sugar, honey, fruit juice or spices and let everything reduce for another 10 minutes or so.

Let the sauce cool and add to a squeeze bottle for ideal serving. Hot sauce is a natural pair for scrambled eggs and will also bring out the flavor of the steak.

To assemble to breakfast bowls, scoop eggs into the bowl, add the steak on top and set up a bunch of other toppings for your guests. Suggested toppings include shredded cheese, sliced avocado, diced tomatoes, pico de gallo, diced bell peppers, fruit salsa and more.

By-Godders, just because this game starts at noon does not mean we can take a tailgate off! Mountaineers don’t lose tailgates!