Three ingredients. One glass. Approximately two minutes of work. This is the kind of complicated tailgate bartending we can handle. A Root Beer Float Without the Ice Cream Traditional root beer floats rely on vanilla ice cream for that rich, creamy flavor. We're taking a shortcut. Instead of hauling a container of ice cream to the tailgate and desperately trying to keep it frozen while everything else is happening, this cocktail uses half-and-half. You still get that creamy root beer float experience, but there's no scooping involved. And more importantly, there's no sad tub of melted vanilla soup sitting in the cooler by halftime. The spiced rum adds another dimension, bringing warm spice notes that naturally complement the familiar flavors of root beer. It's almost suspicious how well these three ingredients get along. Tailgate Root Beer Float Cocktail Ingredients For one cocktail:
Directions
That's it. No cocktail shaker. No muddler. No obscure bottle of something you bought six years ago for one cocktail and haven't touched since. Root beer. Rum. Cream. Done.
Why Spiced Rum Works With Root Beer Root beer already has a complex flavor profile. Depending on the recipe, you might notice hints of vanilla, caramel, wintergreen, spice, and other botanicals. Spiced rum slides right into those flavors without overwhelming them. Instead of making the drink simply taste boozy, the rum adds warm notes that complement the sweetness of the Twigs Root Beer. Then half-and-half smooths everything out and creates the creamy finish that makes this taste like a grown-up root beer float. It's dessert. It's a cocktail. It's efficient. Keep Everything Cold This cocktail is best served very cold. Chill your Twigs Root Beer ahead of time and keep the half-and-half refrigerated or properly chilled until you're ready to mix the drinks. If you're serving these at a tailgate, keep both ingredients in a well-packed cooler. You can serve the cocktail over ice if you want it extra cold, although ice will eventually dilute the drink. The better solution? Cold ingredients and immediate consumption. We suspect the second part won't be particularly difficult. Pour Slowly Root beer has opinions about being poured. Specifically, it likes to foam. Adding cream to a carbonated drink can create even more excitement in the glass, so this is not the time to dramatically dump everything together like you're starring in a beverage commercial. Pour slowly. Leave some room at the top of the glass. Add the half-and-half gently. Then give everything a careful stir. Unless your tailgate desperately needs a sticky root beer volcano. In that case, carry on.
Make a Non-Alcoholic Root Beer Float Drink It's ridiculously easy to make an alcohol-free version alongside the cocktail. Simply skip the spiced rum. Pour chilled Twigs Root Beer into a glass, add the half-and-half, stir gently, and serve. You've got the same creamy float-inspired drink without the alcohol. This makes it easy to have both versions available at your tailgate without bringing an entirely different set of ingredients. Just make sure everyone knows which glass is which. That's one area where tailgate surprises aren't particularly funny. Want the Full Float Experience? If you're serving these at home instead of hauling everything to a tailgate, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from going all the way. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Pour the Twigs Root Beer over it. Add the spiced rum. And now you've got a full-blown boozy root beer float. It's richer, messier, and considerably more dessert-like. Which means we're obviously fans. Perfect With Sweet and Spicy Tailgate Food This creamy cocktail works especially well alongside foods with a little heat. Try serving it with:
If you've already got Twigs Root Beer involved in your game-day recipes, this cocktail also gives you another way to carry that root beer theme across the entire tailgate. Root beer-marinated wings. Root beer BBQ sauce. Root beer cocktails. At this point, we're committed. Three Ingredients. One Very Good Tailgate Decision. Tailgating doesn't need a complicated cocktail menu. Sometimes the best drinks are the ones you can remember without pulling the recipe up on your phone. Twigs Root Beer. One ounce of spiced rum. Two ounces of half-and-half. Pour it. Stir it. Drink it. The Twigs Root Beer brings the familiar sweetness and fizz, spiced rum adds a warm kick, and half-and-half transforms everything into a creamy float-style cocktail that feels just as much like dessert as it does a drink. Just remember: this one's for the adults.
And whoever is driving? They get the rum-free version. Because the best tailgate is the one everybody gets home from safely.
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There comes a point in every tailgate when you've eaten enough brats. Okay, that's probably not true. But there does come a point when you might want to put something on the Pit Boss griddle that isn't another burger, brat, or hot dog.
Shrimp Belongs at the Tailgate Shrimp might not be the first thing people picture when they think about tailgate food, but that's exactly why it's such a great addition. It cooks incredibly quickly. It loves high heat. It pairs with just about any sauce you throw at it. And on a big flat-top griddle, you can cook enough shrimp for a hungry group without messing around with skewers or worrying about smaller pieces falling through grill grates. For this recipe, we're using Awesome Shrimp and giving it a sweet-and-spicy treatment that works beautifully with the smoky, citrusy vegetables. It's a nice little break between brat number two and the inevitable plate of wings. Start With Green & Gold Griddled Vegetables This recipe is designed to work with our Green & Gold Griddled Vegetables, made with green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, zucchini, fresh lemon and lime, and Gramma Hazel's Premium Seasoning. You can make the vegetables immediately before the shrimp and simply push them over to a cooler section of the griddle. Or make them ahead and add them back onto the griddle once your shrimp begins cooking. Either way, we're turning one recipe into two. Efficiency. We occasionally stumble into it.
Awesome Shrimp Tailgate Stir Fry Ingredients
Directions
The Sweet Heat Sauce This is where things get interesting. Orange sauce brings sweetness and bright citrus flavor, while habanero barbecue sauce brings the heat. Put them together and you've got a quick sweet-heat sauce that works beautifully with shrimp. The starting ratio is simple: ¼ cup orange sauce + 1 tablespoon habanero barbecue sauce. If you're cooking for people who think ketchup is spicy, you might want to ease into that habanero. If your tailgate crew enjoys some heat, add a little more. You are the captain of this spicy little shrimp ship. Proceed accordingly. Don't Overcook the Shrimp
balance the cooking times of several different ingredients. Instead, the shrimp gets the attention it deserves, and the vegetables join the party near the end. Garlic Goes In Later You may notice that we're not throwing the garlic onto the hot griddle at the beginning. There's a reason. Garlic can burn quickly on a medium-high griddle, and burnt garlic brings a bitter flavor that nobody invited to the tailgate. Let the shrimp start cooking first. Then add your minced garlic and give it a quick stir-fry before adding the vegetables and sauce. You'll get that fresh garlic flavor without leaving little charcoal garlic bits scattered across the Pit Boss. Turn It Into a Complete Meal You can absolutely serve this stir fry straight off the griddle with a fork and call it dinner. We support this decision.
You can also tuck the shrimp and vegetables into warm tortillas for an entirely different game-day situation. Shrimp stir-fry tacos? We have absolutely wandered off the original recipe. And we're completely comfortable with it. Perfect for Cooking on the Pit Boss Griddle This recipe shows exactly why a griddle is such a handy tool for tailgating. Everything happens on one cooking surface. The shrimp cooks quickly. The vegetables warm back up. The sauce gets tossed directly into everything. And when you're done, you've got a full sweet-and-spicy stir fry without carrying a wok into the parking lot. Because while we admire commitment to the culinary arts, there are limits. A Different Kind of Tailgate Food
Cook the shrimp. Add the garlic. Toss in those vegetables. Hit everything with the sauce. And get it off the griddle while the shrimp are still tender. That's it. Your tailgate officially has stir fry. Look at us getting fancy.
Around here, green and gold aren't just colors. They're practically a food group.
Mad Dog & Merrill® Gramma Hazel's Premium Seasoning turn a few simple vegetables into a side dish worthy of game day. It's colorful. It's easy. It's fresh. And technically, you're eating vegetables at a tailgate. Your mother would be so proud. A Green & Gold Side Dish Made for Game Day Tailgate food has one very important requirement: it shouldn't be complicated. Nobody wants to measure 17 ingredients while trying to watch the pregame show, keep track of the cooler, and explain to someone why they're standing directly in front of the television. That's why this recipe works. You've got:
A few minutes of slicing, a hot Pit Boss griddle, and you're cooking. Better yet, the colors naturally fit a green-and-gold football theme without needing food coloring, elaborate garnishes, or anything else that makes people suspicious of the vegetables.
Why the Pit Boss Griddle Works So Well A griddle is perfect for vegetables because you get direct contact between the food and the hot cooking surface. Instead of worrying about zucchini slices making a dramatic escape through your grill grates, everything stays right where you put it. The wide cooking surface also gives the vegetables room to spread out. That's important. If you pile everything into one giant vegetable mountain, the moisture released during cooking gets trapped and the vegetables start steaming instead of developing that beautiful griddled exterior. Give them some breathing room. Vegetables need personal space too. Green & Gold Griddled Vegetables Ingredients
Directions
Don't Cook the Life Out of Your Vegetables There is a fine line between a beautifully cooked zucchini and a zucchini that has completely surrendered. We're looking for tender-crisp vegetables here. You want the peppers to soften while retaining some bite. The zucchini should be tender and lightly browned without becoming mushy. Medium-high heat helps. The hot griddle quickly cooks the exterior and develops some caramelization while allowing the vegetables to retain their texture. Keep everything moving periodically, but don't continuously stir. Let the vegetables sit against the hot griddle long enough to develop some color before flipping or tossing them. Those browned edges? That's flavor. Fresh Lemon and Lime Make the Difference The citrus might seem like a small addition, but don't skip it. Fresh lemon and lime juice cut through the richness of everything else you're probably serving at a tailgate. Think about the usual suspects: Brats. Burgers. Wings. Cheese. More cheese. Something wrapped in bacon because somebody had an idea. A bright, citrusy vegetable side is exactly what that table needs. The lemon adds familiar acidity while the lime brings a slightly sharper citrus note. Together with Gramma Hazel's seasoning, they give these vegetables plenty of flavor without burying them under a heavy sauce. Prep Them Before the Tailgate
No knife disappearing underneath the folding table. No trying to slice zucchini while somebody next to you is celebrating a touchdown from a game that hasn't actually started yet. Preparation is your friend. Make It a Full Green & Gold Tailgate These vegetables are designed to play nicely with just about everything else coming off the grill. Serve them alongside:
Now they're not a side dish. They're a topping. We've expanded their job description. Easy Variations Once you've got the basic Green & Gold combination down, there are plenty of ways to play around with it. Add sliced yellow squash for even more gold. Throw in green onions toward the end of cooking. Add sliced jalapeños if your tailgate crowd likes a little heat. Toss in asparagus for another green vegetable that handles the griddle beautifully. You can even add cooked potatoes if you want to turn this into a more substantial griddled vegetable hash. Just remember the assignment. Green. Gold. Delicious. Anything beyond that is bonus yardage. Green, Gold & Griddle-Ready Game-day food doesn't have to be complicated to be good. A handful of fresh vegetables, some citrus, Gramma Hazel's Premium Seasoning, and a hot Pit Boss griddle are all you need to put a colorful Wisconsin-inspired side dish on the tailgate table. The peppers bring the color.
The zucchini brings the green. The citrus keeps everything bright. And the Pit Boss brings the heat. Serve these Green & Gold Griddled Vegetables next to your favorite tailgate main dish and enjoy the rare game-day accomplishment of eating something green that isn't a pickle. There are plenty of ways to make chicken wings, but we're going to go ahead and argue that soaking them in root beer, covering them with a sweet-and-spicy dry rub, smoking them low and slow, and finishing them with root beer barbecue sauce is considerably more interesting than throwing a frozen bag into the oven.
wings during cooking for another touch of sweetness before they're finally tossed or brushed with root beer barbecue sauce. Sweet. Smoky. Savory. A little spicy. And extremely dangerous to leave unattended around hungry people. The real flavor starts before these wings ever hit the Pit Boss. For the best results, begin with chicken wings that have been marinated for several hours in root beer. Our Twigs Root Beer Chicken Wing Marinade combines Twigs Root Beer, fresh thyme, ginger, and Up Nort Peppery Seasoning to create a sweet and aromatic foundation. Once the wings have finished marinating, remove them from the liquid and let the excess marinade drip away. Don't rinse them. We're trying to make delicious wings, not undo all the work we just did. From here, they're ready for the dry rub. The Secret Ingredient for Better Smoked Wings Smoking chicken wings can create incredible flavor, but low-and-slow cooking doesn't always produce the crispy skin people expect from a great wing. Enter baking powder. Adding a small amount of baking powder to the dry seasoning mixture helps dry the surface of the chicken and encourages browning and crisping as the wings cook. You don't need much. For 3–4 pounds of wings, 1–2 teaspoons is plenty. And make sure you're using baking powder, not baking soda. Those are two very different containers. One helps make crispy chicken wings. The other helps create chicken wings you'll remember for all the wrong reasons.
Smoked Root Beer BBQ Chicken Wings Ingredients
Directions
Why Take Chicken Wings to 175°F? The USDA minimum safe internal temperature for chicken is 165°F, so why are we taking these wings to approximately 175°F? Texture. Chicken wings contain connective tissue that benefits from a little extra cooking. Taking them beyond the minimum safe temperature helps that tissue break down and can create a more tender bite. Because wings are dark meat with plenty of fat and connective tissue, they're much more forgiving than something lean like a boneless chicken breast. Just don't measure the temperature against the bone. Insert your thermometer into the thickest meaty portion of the wing for the most accurate reading.
Don't Drown the Wings While They're Smoking Misting the wings with Twigs Root Beer is optional, but it's a fun way to reinforce the root beer flavor. The important word here is mist. We're not watering the lawn. A light spray is enough. Too much liquid can interfere with the crispy exterior we're trying to develop, especially after going through the trouble of adding baking powder to the dry rub. Give them a quick mist and close the lid. Every time that Pit Boss lid opens, you're releasing heat and smoke. We know they're pretty. Stop staring at them. Then Comes the Root Beer BBQ Sauce Once the wings have finished smoking, it's time for the grand finale. Root beer barbecue sauce. Brush it onto the wings or put the wings into a large bowl, pour the sauce over the top, and toss until everything is coated. For an even stickier finish, brush the wings with sauce during the final few minutes of cooking and let the sauce tighten slightly on the Pit Boss. Keep an eye on them if you do this. Root beer barbecue sauce contains sugars, and sugar can move from beautifully caramelized to crispy little charcoal nuggets faster than we'd prefer. Want Them Even Crispier? If you're a member of Team Crispy Wing, you can increase the temperature of your Pit Boss during the final portion of cooking. Once the wings are nearly finished, raise the grill temperature and let them cook over higher heat for several minutes, watching closely and turning as necessary. Then sauce them right before serving. This gives you the best of both worlds: plenty of time in the smoke at 250°F followed by a hotter finish to help tighten and crisp the exterior. What to Serve With Smoked Root Beer Wings These wings can handle the starring role at just about any backyard gathering, game-day spread, cookout, or Friday-night excuse to fire up the Pit Boss. Pile them onto a platter and surround them with:
Vegetables can try again tomorrow. Sweet Meets Smoke The magic of these wings comes from building flavor in stages. First, there's the root beer marinade. Then comes the raw sugar, thyme, ginger, Cajun seasoning, and baking powder dry rub. Next, the wings spend up to two hours picking up smoky flavor on the Pit Boss pellet grill. A little mist of Twigs Root Beer adds another layer along the way. And finally, everything gets finished with sticky root beer barbecue sauce. That's how you take a basic chicken wing and turn it into something worthy of standing around the grill eating directly off the platter. Grab the napkins. Actually, grab more napkins than that. These are Smoked Root Beer BBQ Chicken Wings. Things are about to get sticky.
There are chicken wings. There are smoked chicken wings. And then there are chicken wings that spend several glorious hours soaking in Twigs Root Beer before they ever see the grill. That’s where things get interesting.
The root beer adds sweetness, the ginger brings a little bite, the thyme adds an earthy note, and the seasoning ties everything together. And yes, you could make fewer than three pounds of wings. But why would you intentionally create a wing shortage? Why Root Beer Makes a Great Chicken Wing Marinade Root beer probably isn't the first ingredient you reach for when marinating chicken, but that's exactly why this recipe is fun. Twigs Root Beer brings sweetness and a combination of aromatic flavors that pair beautifully with smoke. Instead of relying entirely on a heavy finishing sauce, we're building flavor into the chicken before it ever reaches the grill. The fresh ginger helps balance the sweetness with a little warmth and zing, while thyme gives the marinade a savory herbal backbone. Then Up Nort Peppery Seasoning brings in the peppery goodness that keeps everything firmly planted in savory territory. Give the wings 5–8 hours in that mixture and they've got a serious head start before the Pit Boss even gets involved. Twigs Root Beer Chicken Wing Marinade Ingredients
Directions
Now It's Time for the Pit Boss
Chicken should always be cooked to a safe internal temperature of at least 165°F, measured in the thickest portion without touching the bone. For wings, however, don't be afraid to let them travel a little beyond 165°F. Dark meat is forgiving, and a slightly higher finishing temperature can give you a better texture while helping the skin crisp. Keep an eye on them during that final blast of heat because the sugars left behind from the root beer marinade can brown quickly. Brown and delicious? Excellent. Blackened into tiny poultry meteorites? We have gone too far. Want Even More Flavor? Once the wings come off the Pit Boss, you've got options. Serve them exactly as they are and let that sweet, smoky root beer flavor shine, or toss them with your favorite Mad Dog & Merrill® BBQ sauce for another layer of flavor. You can also give them a final sprinkle of Up Nort Peppery Seasoning immediately after they come off the grill. The warm wings will grab onto that seasoning and give every bite an extra little peppery kick. If you're serving a crowd, try dividing the finished wings into a few batches and finishing each one differently. Leave one batch naked, sauce another, and season the third. Suddenly you've got a wing flight. Very sophisticated. Still eaten with your fingers. The Secret Is Giving the Marinade Time This isn't a dump-it-on-and-immediately-start-grilling situation. Give these wings their full 5–8 hours in the Twigs Root Beer marinade.
What to Serve With Root Beer Wings These wings can easily become the centerpiece of a full backyard spread. Try serving them with:
No complicated plating required. We're grilling wings, not auditioning for a cooking competition. Twigs + Pit Boss + Wings = A Pretty Good Day One of the best parts of grilling is finding unexpected ingredients that completely change something familiar.
All that's left is a pile of napkins and the important question:
Did we make enough wings? With 3–4 pounds, hopefully. But we've seen people around chicken wings before. No promises. |
RecipesInternationally recognized and self-proclaimed "Grillologists," Mad Dog & Merrill®, entertain and educate thousands of backyard enthusiasts every year with the finer points of grilling on America’s Favorite Grill’n Show. They want nothing more than to make everyone a better griller and have a ton of fun doing it! 
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