Some friends and have entered our first BBQ competition this weekend. It's being held in the small town where we all live, and it's literally right in our back yard!
We entered the 'backyard' competition which just consists of pork and chicken. We figured this would allow us to be a little more relaxed since it's not as much work as the full competition with brisket and such. Like I said, it's our first time, so we're more in it for fun and learning than anything.
The competition begins with a wing competition benefitting St. Jude's. KCBS supplies the meat and presentation trays for this one. We practiced this several times over the past few weeks. We smoke over apple wood at 275 for 1.5 hours, then quickly flask fry in a Dutch oven heated over charcoal before saucing. We're using John Boy & Billy sauce. It has a nice sweet flavor on the front and a good little kick on the back end. We turned in around 7:15. It was judged by the community, and we didn't place in the top 10, but thats okay!
We sat around and enjoyed some beverages for a few hours before the work began. At about 11pm, we injected our 4 boston butts and applied our rub. Put them on the smoker running at 250 at midnight. We cut the money muscle out of 2 of them so we'd have a variety to choose from at the finish. After 5 hours, we wrapped the two butts we were using for pulled pork. At the 7 hour mark, we trimmed the money muscle off the 2 butts that were still uncovered and wrapped them tightly, and put in the cooler to rest. All the pork was done and resting by 10:30am.
At around 9:30am we put our chicken on. We used thighs rubbed with some delicious rub I picked up at a BBQ festival last month. We scraped the fat off the skins prior to cooking to help get that "bite thru" skin everybody loves. The thighs had reached 165 by about 11:30, but we left them on there a little while longer since turn in wasn't until noon.
We got everything plated right on time. Chicken turn in was at 12 noon, followed by pork at 12:30. Below are some pictures of our plates just before turn in.
Our chicken took 6th place in the backyard division, and pork took 3rd! We were very satisfied that we placed in anything, being that it was our first attempt. It was so much fun for us all, and we'll be doing it more often in the future.
A photo of us, the MP Que & Brew Crew with our 3rd place pork trophy.
We entered the 'backyard' competition which just consists of pork and chicken. We figured this would allow us to be a little more relaxed since it's not as much work as the full competition with brisket and such. Like I said, it's our first time, so we're more in it for fun and learning than anything.
The competition begins with a wing competition benefitting St. Jude's. KCBS supplies the meat and presentation trays for this one. We practiced this several times over the past few weeks. We smoke over apple wood at 275 for 1.5 hours, then quickly flask fry in a Dutch oven heated over charcoal before saucing. We're using John Boy & Billy sauce. It has a nice sweet flavor on the front and a good little kick on the back end. We turned in around 7:15. It was judged by the community, and we didn't place in the top 10, but thats okay!
We sat around and enjoyed some beverages for a few hours before the work began. At about 11pm, we injected our 4 boston butts and applied our rub. Put them on the smoker running at 250 at midnight. We cut the money muscle out of 2 of them so we'd have a variety to choose from at the finish. After 5 hours, we wrapped the two butts we were using for pulled pork. At the 7 hour mark, we trimmed the money muscle off the 2 butts that were still uncovered and wrapped them tightly, and put in the cooler to rest. All the pork was done and resting by 10:30am.
At around 9:30am we put our chicken on. We used thighs rubbed with some delicious rub I picked up at a BBQ festival last month. We scraped the fat off the skins prior to cooking to help get that "bite thru" skin everybody loves. The thighs had reached 165 by about 11:30, but we left them on there a little while longer since turn in wasn't until noon.
We got everything plated right on time. Chicken turn in was at 12 noon, followed by pork at 12:30. Below are some pictures of our plates just before turn in.
Our chicken took 6th place in the backyard division, and pork took 3rd! We were very satisfied that we placed in anything, being that it was our first attempt. It was so much fun for us all, and we'll be doing it more often in the future.
A photo of us, the MP Que & Brew Crew with our 3rd place pork trophy.