This past weekend was the 4th Annual Beaumont Masonic Lodge Scholarship Benefit Cook Off sanctioned by the IBCA and held at the Elks Lodge in Beaumont, Texas. The lodge is a great place to hold a cook off with plenty of electricity and water available to all the cookers and first class facilities to have all the functions that go along with a cook off.
After winning the rib category at my last comp, my expectations and goals heading into this one were obviously a bit higher. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/140269/2013-texas-bbq-festival-results
I have my timing and method down on my ribs and brisket, but I am still playing with the chicken thing. I couldn't miss last year, this year it just hasn't been hitting, so I changed it up a bit just to try another way.
Friday night we had 3 auxillary categories (Open, Dessert and Daiquiris) that we could enter if you chose to with a $10 entry fee for each, paying back 50% of the pot, with the other 50% going to the benefit. I chose to only do the Open category, which is just that, open. For the Open competition I chose to do some bacon wrapped boudin stuffed chicken breasts. First you butterfly some bonelss, skinless breasts in half, using a tenderizing mallet, I flattened them out to make them easier to roll. Season both sides of the chicken real good, lay a piece of pepper jack cheese over the chicken, then crumble a link of boudin in the center of the breast, roll up both sides of the chicken to meet in the middle, wrap it in bacon or a bacon weave, then toothpick it to hold it together. Here they are just on to my mini UDS to cook for about 2 hours at 300 degrees or so until the IT reaches above 165 and / or the bacon cooks up nice...
Here they are being sliced up...
Here they are in the turn in box, 9 pieces required...
They turned out just as I wanted them to. Good spice from the rub, nice ly done bacon on the outside, juicy and some great flavored boudin in the middle. I ended up taking 5th with this entry, losing to 4 seafood dishes ahead of me, I guess I try some bacon wrapped shrimp next time.
Here are a few other pics from Friday night...
Friday night is the fun, party night. You have plenty of down time if you prepped your meats during the week and don't have much to do that night. You get to roam around and chat with the other cooks, meet some new faces, see some old ones. Have a few beers, listen to some loud music and enjoy the fun before the storm. We had our cooks meeting at 6:00, Open turn in was at 7:00, desserts at 8:00 and daiquiris at 9:00. After the judging was over for the night, we had a calcutta in the main hall of the Elks lodge where you or someone else could bid on and buy your team in the brisket category. Winner gets half of the calcutta pot, the other half goes to the benefit. I think the pot ended up being $1400, with my team going for $120 and the highest team being bought at $300 (they did not win, but neither did I).
After winning the rib category at my last comp, my expectations and goals heading into this one were obviously a bit higher. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/140269/2013-texas-bbq-festival-results
I have my timing and method down on my ribs and brisket, but I am still playing with the chicken thing. I couldn't miss last year, this year it just hasn't been hitting, so I changed it up a bit just to try another way.
Friday night we had 3 auxillary categories (Open, Dessert and Daiquiris) that we could enter if you chose to with a $10 entry fee for each, paying back 50% of the pot, with the other 50% going to the benefit. I chose to only do the Open category, which is just that, open. For the Open competition I chose to do some bacon wrapped boudin stuffed chicken breasts. First you butterfly some bonelss, skinless breasts in half, using a tenderizing mallet, I flattened them out to make them easier to roll. Season both sides of the chicken real good, lay a piece of pepper jack cheese over the chicken, then crumble a link of boudin in the center of the breast, roll up both sides of the chicken to meet in the middle, wrap it in bacon or a bacon weave, then toothpick it to hold it together. Here they are just on to my mini UDS to cook for about 2 hours at 300 degrees or so until the IT reaches above 165 and / or the bacon cooks up nice...
Here they are being sliced up...
Here they are in the turn in box, 9 pieces required...
They turned out just as I wanted them to. Good spice from the rub, nice ly done bacon on the outside, juicy and some great flavored boudin in the middle. I ended up taking 5th with this entry, losing to 4 seafood dishes ahead of me, I guess I try some bacon wrapped shrimp next time.
Here are a few other pics from Friday night...
Friday night is the fun, party night. You have plenty of down time if you prepped your meats during the week and don't have much to do that night. You get to roam around and chat with the other cooks, meet some new faces, see some old ones. Have a few beers, listen to some loud music and enjoy the fun before the storm. We had our cooks meeting at 6:00, Open turn in was at 7:00, desserts at 8:00 and daiquiris at 9:00. After the judging was over for the night, we had a calcutta in the main hall of the Elks lodge where you or someone else could bid on and buy your team in the brisket category. Winner gets half of the calcutta pot, the other half goes to the benefit. I think the pot ended up being $1400, with my team going for $120 and the highest team being bought at $300 (they did not win, but neither did I).
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