Friday, April 10, 2015

Easy Barbecue Cups


This is one of those easy things that goes back to my own adolescent days of first learning to cook - I think it may have started out as either a Bake-Off recipe or something on the back of a product, but I've long since forgotten for sure.

I continued to make these occasionally for my own kids when they were growing up - they hit all the right buttons for a busy parent. They're fast to put together, easy to get the kids involved with preparation, are highly modifiable according to tastes, you can pick them up to eat them and they taste great!

It's been a long time though - but this past week, we had some child-sized houseguests and one was having a birthday, so I pulled out this old standby.

Mind you, this version uses commercial products on purpose, because it's meant to be fast and easy - but of course, you can make your own sauce, season the meat with something other than barbecue and make it as homemade as you like.

Easy Barbecue Cups

2 cans Grands! Refrigerated Biscuits
1 bottle barbecue sauce
2 lb ground meat (I used 1 lb ground beef and 1 lb pork sausage meat)
1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded or thin sliced

Brown the meat until it is thoroughly cooked.  If you like, toss some veggies in there too - onions, mushrooms, minced carrots and celery are good choices.

Once the meat mixture is cooked and any veggies are softened, add the sauce and mix well to blend.  If need be, let it simmer a bit until it is thickened and not too 'saucy', like Sloppy Joes.

While the meat is cooking, prepare the biscuits:  One biscuit at a time, gently pat a biscuit until it is large enough to press into an ungreased muffin pan to create a shell.

That's the part the kids can help with!

Fill each shell with the meat mixture up to the top, and then top it off with the cheese.

Cook at 350F for 15-17 minutes, or until the biscuits are browned and the cheese has melted.  Let cool on a rack for a few minutes, and then remove to serve.

That's it! Easy peasy!

Variation:  Easy Tuna Melt Cups

A slightly more adult-friendly version is also good:

Instead of barbecued meat, make your favorite recipe for tuna salad, not too wet (I like mine with bits of crunchy celery).  Switch the Cheddar for Swiss cheese.  Yum!





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16 comments:

  1. What a great idea these sound tasty!

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  2. Always on the lookout for great easy kid friendly recipes and this looks perfect!

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  3. You had me at fast and easy! Now that's my kind of recipe! Thanks for sharing at Waiting on...Wednesday! Hope to see you back next week!

    Holly
    iwillservewhileiwait.blogspot.com

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  4. I am coming over from the link up and I am so happy to find this! I will be making it soon. Thank you for sharing!

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  5. Those look pretty good! I remember making a lot of recipes from biscuits in my high school cooking class. You are right, they are great for busy nights.

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  6. Your Barbecue Cups look great, perfect for a crowd. Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and have a great weekend.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

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  7. I'll have to try these! Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Those look delicious! I'm sure my kids would love to help make these too. Thanks for linking up with us at the Best of the Blogosphere!

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  9. Delicious, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop, pinning. tweeting and sharing in google plus.

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  10. I know a BBQ lover who would love this less messy BBQ recipe!


    Thanks for linking up with us at Talented Tuesday, hope to see you again this week!!

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  11. These look super yummy! Pinning. Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  12. Oh my goodness, these look ah-mazing!!! Super easy too!

    Thanks for sharing and for linking up to the #SHINEbloghop. I hope you can stop by and link up again tomorrow.

    Wishing you a lovely evening.
    xoxo

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  13. Yeah, these were amazing. The couple of leftovers kept amazingly well and were just as tasty!

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  14. These look delicious and totally something my picky two year ok'd would gobble down!

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  15. You probably already know that this was featured at Diana Rambles a few weeks ago. I'm just getting around to letting you know now. It looks yummy!

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