Cowboys cuisine: Here are the international flavors coming to AT&T Stadium on game days

On Friday, AT&T Stadium and concessions provider Legends previewed new menu items for the Dallas Cowboy 2018 season, and many of the new items have a bit of international inspiration.

It’s not anything too out there for game-day food — an African-spiced SuperGrain Bowls is about as exotic as it gets — but even some things that seem relatively provincial on the surface, such as a pork-belly burger, have little twists such as a kimchi topping and hoisin sauce.

And because AT&T Stadium has a partnership with Frito-Lay, there are also items made with Cheetos and Doritos — one of which was among our favorites at the preview.

Here’s a quick rundown:

African-spiced SuperGrain Bowl

Honestly, we didn’t get all that much spice from a sample size of this mix of brown rice, barley and farro topped with dukkah chicken and mango cucumber salsa. But the chicken was good, and the mix of grains worked well. If you want it vegetarian or vegan, just ask for it without the meat. The regular-size bowl is pretty substantial. Available at the Hall of Fame level concession stands.

Pork-belly burger

That’s an Angus beef patty topped with pork belly, thank you very much, along with jalapeño cheese, kimchi, aioli and hoisin sauce. Picked up more on the beef and the pork belly than anything else, and it could be messy eating, but overall, pretty good. Available at Main Concourse Club level concession stands at sections 208, 212, 232, and 237, as well as Main Concourse Sections 219 and 245, and Upper Concourse Sections 411 and 450.

Salsa chicken tacos

Chicken breast marinated and cooked in fresh charred red salsas, topped with sour cream and then with spicy tomatillo avocado salsa (they don’t call these salsa tacos for nothing), cilantro and pico de gallo. The salsas and pico had enough heat and bite for spicy-food fans without being palate-blowing. Barbacoa tacos are also among the new items. Available at the Vaqueros concession stands on both the Main Concourse section 204 and 229, and Upper Concourse section 416 and 446

DCQ (aka Dallas Cowboys “Q,” or barbecue done the Cowboys way)

Our favorite among the new items, these featured a Hoagie bun stuffed — maybe overstuffed is a better word — with jalapeño cheese sausage, mac-n-cheese, chopped brisket and barbecue sauce, and topped with jalapeños. The brisket and the sauce got a little lost, but the combo of the sausage and mac-and-cheese was so good that we found it hard to complain about underperforming components. Bun was good, too. Available at: the Bent Buckle carts located in the Main Concourse clubs, Silver Level clubs, and Upper Concourse at Sections 412 and 442.

Doritos chicken wrap

Another one of our favorites: chicken tenders drizzled with jalapeño avocado ranch and sprinkled with crushed Nacho Cheese Doritos, along with romaine lettuce and tomatoes in a garlic-tortilla wrap. We liked the Doritos touch, but we really liked the chicken, which was so perfectly breaded and fried that it had a good crunch all its own without the chips. Available at: all CRISP stands on the Main Concourse Sections 218 and 243 and Upper Concourse Sections 409 and 439

Thai veggie wrap with spicy peanut sauce

Broccoli slaw, sweet peppers, and spicy Thai peanut sauce piled on a bed of baby spinach and rolled in a whole wheat tortilla. Relatively virtuous, although it’s a pretty thick wrap, and lots of pleasantly crunchy textures from all the veg, with a hint of the peanut sauce. Now, where’s that chicken wrap again? Available at: all the Healthy Choice carts on the Main Concourse clubs and sections 222 and 245.

Elote cone and mac-n-cheese brisket cone

Clever touches for hand-held foods: Bread cones filled, in the first case, with sweet corn, poblano mayo, hot sauce and cotija cheese; in the second, with chopped brisket, mac-n-cheese, barbecue sauce and jalapeños. We liked both, although a lot of the corn spilled out with the first bite of the elote. Elote available at the Vaqueros concession stands on both the Main Concourse section 204 and 229, and Upper Concourse section 416 and 446; Mac-n-cheese brisket cone available at: the Bent Buckle carts located in the Main Concourse clubs, Silver Level clubs.

Buffalo chicken sandwich

Seeded bun filled with layers of fried chicken breast coated in buffalo sauce, with garlic aioli, crushed cool ranch Doritos, fresh, juicy sliced tomatoes, and crisp ranch slaw. Tasted pretty much the way you’d think that combo would taste — which, if you’re a fan of Buffalo chicken (as we are), is a good thing. Available at: all CRISP stands on the Main Concourse Sections 218 and 243 and Upper Concourse Sections 409 and 439.

Sopaipillas

The dessert familiar from dozens of Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants, served with honey (of course) and jalapeño butter, which provided a nice savory contrast to the sweetness of the honey. Available at: the Vaqueros concession stands on both the Main Concourse section 204 and 229, and Upper Concourse section 416 and 446.

A couple of new items weren’t available for preview: Cheetos Mac N Cheese Balls (Cheetos mac n cheese topped with fried mac-and-cheese “gems “with a crushed Jalapeño Cheddar Cheetos crust, drizzled with house-made jalapeño ranch and dusted with crushed Flamin’ Hot Cheetos; that one should satisfy any Cheetos craving) and an ice-cream sundae (chocolate and/or vanilla soft serve layered with whipped cream, crushed Oreos, caramel, and chocolate sauce topped with rainbow sprinkles and a stemmed maraschino cherry). There is also a stadium collectible popcorn bucket — that’s right, a popcorn bucket in the shape of AT&T Stadium. It even kinda-sorta has a retractable roof.

New suite-and-club dining options, also not available for preview in most cases, include avocado crab dip, sriracha chicken rolls, bacon-wrapped jalapeño chicken bits and more, including “Texas-inspired” chocolate truffles (too bad we missed the dark-chocolate jalapeño ones), chess pie and French macarons. Have we mentioned that AT&T Stadium has a really good dessert program?

All this is in addition to many returning items, including the Texas Chicken & Waffle, a large sandwich featuring two doughy Texas-shaped waffles as the “bread,” with chicken, crispy onion rings, pepper jack cheese, bacon and pecan-maple mayonnaise (it works better than you might think) between the waffles.

All items will debut at the Dallas Cowboys’ Sept. 16 home opener against the New York Giants.

This story was originally published September 7, 2018 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Cowboys cuisine: Here are the international flavors coming to AT&T Stadium on game days."