Our “In the Hut” podcast co-panelist Big Mista recently started a web video series to answer BBQ questions from the BBQ community.  Check the video after the jump!!

BBQ Radio is alive and doing well in the world of BBQ, and “radio” is becoming a good source for the latest BBQ information. Most shows are not going to be dialed up on your old AM/FM radio, they stream the shows, live via the internet. Very easy to pick up the show no matter where you are, and if you happen to miss your favorite show, you can listen, at your convenience in the archived shows.

www.OutdoorCookingChannel.com has really been taking off with the on-line talk show shows. Outdoor Cooking Channel has been started by Kevin Bevington of www.HomeBBQ.com. Great shows offered on this site, always some great BBQ information available. One of the most popular shows offered on the Outdoor Cooking Channel is Greg Rempe’s BBQ Central Radio Show.

Greg always has good BBQ information going out on his show, and he always gets the top names in BBQ and grilling as guests on the show. Tune in live every Tuesday at 9:00pm EST.

Another very popular show on the Outdoor Cooking Channel is “In The Hut” with Huck Jr. If you are reading this post, you are probably familiar with this show, yes it is the same Huck’s Hut………

Bruce McCall, aka, Huck Jr., has been diligently working on his site, and show. I use to download his shows onto my i-pod through i-Tunes, which you can still so, but now I prefer to listen to the live stream on the Outdoor Cooking Channel. Bruce is a true BBQ die-hard, and also gets great BBQ information out to his listeners. As of late, Bruce has had a regular panel of BBQ experts on his show, consisting of :

George Hensler from, Who Are Those Guys? A GREAT KCBS BBQ Competition team. Author of Startin’ the Fire. George always has good information, and can explain things where even the novelist cooks can benefit from his segments.

Another regular guest on Huck’s by-weekly board is Chad Ward from Whiskey Bent BBQ. If you want BBQ passion, Chad has it! More about Chad in a bit.

Huck Sr. is also a regular on In The Hut, talk about BBQ knowledge, Sr. has it. There is always a wide variety of BBQ topics discussed on Huck’s show, and Sr. has had experience with most of the topics. He is a walking BBQ encyclopedia, he just needs some help with his hats. Part of the entertainment is to check in every show to see what hat Sr. is sporting. I do have a suggestion for an upcoming show…….……..some how, I don’t think he will be taking my suggestion! lol

I really enjoy “In The Hut”, please join in by-weekly on Tuesdays at 9:00pm EST.

Darryl Mast has been doing a lot of shows on his BBQ Super Stars.

Darryl has numerous BBQ videos on you-tube, some great interviews, and how to BBQ videos.  I saw Darryl working at the FBA Smoke on the Water event, this past February, in Winter Haven, FL. Darryl is very dedicated  to BBQ, and he shows his passion through his shows. Please check out Darryl’s web-site for times & days of his show.

The latest BBQ radio show on BBQSuperStars.com is Chad Ward from Whiskey Bent BBQ hosting “In The Pit, with Whiskey Bent”. Chad has been doing this show now for, I believe 4 weeks, and I have thoroughly enjoyed his show!!! I have had the pleasure to met Chad and the Whiskey Bent BBQ team, and I know their passion for putting out top notch BBQ. These guys are professionals through and through, and are always willing to extend a helping hand to their BBQ brethren.

Chad started his show doing only a one hour show every Tuesday at 7:00pm EST, but quickly has realized that there is just so much content that they are trying to get into each show, they have been extending his show by a half hour each week, I do not know if this will be a regular schedule for “In The Pit”, I, for one, hope it will be.

One theme that Chad focuses on is helping folks that are interested in BBQ, take that next step and throwing their hat into the competition BBQ arena. There is a lot of interest in competition BBQ out there, but most folks do not know how to, or are unsure of taking that next step into competition BBQ. Chad has been more then happy to answer any questions to help teams reach their competition goals, and at the same time help the growth of BBQ as a sport.

One thing about all these shows, when watching the live stream, that I really enjoy, is the live chat during the show. This is a good way to not only listen and enjoy the show, but to have an active part in the show. Many of the host will answer some questions directly from the chat, and it is a good way to met other BBQ folks that are passionate about this sport. I know that many times, for Chad’s show, the chat has started before the show is on the air, and continues after the show ends, great way to catch up with what’s new in the world of BBQ.

If you are into the BBQ scene, or just curious and want to find out what the BBQ family is about, check out one, or all of these great shows, and make sure to participate in the chat, it is a great way to met some new friends.

Keep your fire stoked…

Doug

Here in FBA country, summer time is a good time, for some of us, to practice competition BBQ. Competitions are spread a bit thin, and unless you have a good way to stay cool during the summer heat, we all having to wait for cooler weather. Cooking so much BBQ, sometimes you have to be inventive on how to get rid of it. My family can only eat so much BBQ, friends see me coming, and quickly turn the other way, because they know that the conversation will end up being about BBQ.

This past January we competed in the KCBS, Lakeland, FL Pigfest. We sold our BBQ at this event. Funny thing vending, your cooking for 1000′s of folks, but, if your like me, you don’t even get a bite. That is what happened for my family at PigFest. We served our BBQ Nachos, and they were a BIG hit. We sold out, Friday and had to go get more supplies from the store early Saturday, and sold all of it that day. Folks told us, they came all the way across the park, just for our Nachos. This week my family and I were discussing the PigFest, and realized none of us had even tried the Nachos, friends had all tried them, and told us they were good, I just went on their word, and man were they right! Of course, with all this practicing, we had pulled pork in the freezer, so it was an easy fix.

This is  a very simple recipe, but I was very pleased with the flavor. With football starting, this is a great snack for game day.

First I start with some Hogs Gone Wild BBQ Pulled Pork.

HGW Pulled Pork

After that the ingredients are very simple, Corn Chips, Nacho Cheese & BBQ Sauce. We used our house sauce, HGW “Sweet with some Heat”, we found the sweet and a hint of spice, is a nice contrast to the cheese and corn chips.

Simply construct you nachos, we started with the chips, added the cheese, then the pork and finally the BBQ sauce.

BBQ Nachos, very tasty!!!

Nothing better then sharing Nachos with great friends and family, and the beverage of choice of accompany this tasty treat is…..Ice Cold Beer……..surprise!!!

Enjoy!!!

Please visit us at www.hogsgonewildbbq.com

One thing that a competition BBQ team needs each time out, is to have a consistent cook.  Getting your name called in a category is fun, but everyone there wants to hear their name called last. You don’t have to win all four categories, but just have a strong cook in all. I was doing well in the pork & rib categories, but struggled in the chicken & brisket categories, I think it is these cuts of meats that most home cooks do not have experience with. Coming from the backyard into cooking competition BBQ, I had never cooked a brisket till I was in my first competition…we did not come in DAL, but…enough said. Chicken on the other hand, everyone has cooked chicken at some point in their lives, but cooking to competition standard…now that’s a different story. To many, chicken is the arched enemy of BBQ teams, there are many steps that need to be followed to achieve results that will please the judges. The procedure to get your chicken to that point, can be quite time consuming, some folks take longer then others, I have spent 5 hours prepping chicken for a competition, but of course, as time went on the more beer I drank, the more socializing I was doing, well you get the picture.

I try to do a chicken practice cook, when ever I can, and chicken is one meat that my family still enjoy, with practice comes results, I am probably most proud of our first place chicken award at our last competition. This was our first call EVER for chicken, backyard or pro, we got RGC at the event, but I keep telling everyone about our first place chicken!!!

Work paid off

Our take for the day in St Cloud, FL.

Sweet!!!

I was happy with where we were going with our chicken, but I still had to try it again, just to make sure it was not by accident that we did so well in chicken, you can do the exact same procedures each time your out at a competition, and come home with different results each time. I want to do everything I can on my end to give the judges something to work with, if they score me down from what I turn in, at least I know that I have done everything I could have done. A couple of weeks ago I was taking, online, with a friend of ours here at Hogs Gone Wild BBQ, C-Dub’s BBQ Rub.

Great folks, check them out!!!

I have not had the opportunity to check out their great rubs, but I plan on doing it very soon, but I hear it is GREAT on chicken. Anyway, C-Dub’s and I were taking about chicken prep, online, and it got the urge to do a practice cook going again for me. C-Dubs and I exchanged a couple of ideas, then it was off to the drawing board. Thanks C-Dub’s!!!

I will be happy to share how I prepare my competition chicken with everyone, most things here can be found, more in depth trough out the internet, this is just a basic guide to do a couple of things that I feel are necessary to create competition style chicken. I will not be able to share certain, “proprietary” secrets, and flavoring will need to be something that everyone should do to their liking, but I did give you a good hint above!!! (Another hint…I do not use muffin pans!!!)

Let’s begin, I always cook thighs, white meat is fun to try out and experiment with, I have even thought about wings, but I always come back to thighs. There are many teams that have used wing, with good results, I’m just happy to get the thighs where I like them. Thighs stay juicy and have a good flavor, I do not take the bone out. I started off by cutting the “knuckle” joint off, but I have decided to stop doing that, I do not like the way the bone is exposed on the end piece.

Chicken straight from the package.

I look for the package of chicken, that has the most uniformed pieces, the skin looks good & does not have any discolorations. Some chicken skin will appear to be yellow, I try to stay away from those brands, I want the skin to be as white as possible.

I take special measures with chicken, I store it sepetate from all other meats, I use different cutting boards & work ares designated just for my chicken. The first thing I do is wash the chicken, then I take the skin completely off the piece of chicken. I just pull it off, some folks say it is better to cut it off, but I like to preserve as much skin as possible. I trim the fat from each side of the chicken, and make the piece nice and uniformed shape.

Keep all the skin for use later.

From the under side of the thigh, there is a small loose piece of meat, commonly referred to as the “oyster”, I always remove this piece. When a judge bites into the piece of chicken, this could put the flavor off, and has a strange texture after cooking, best to just remove it.

I

The "Oyster" take it off.

After I cut off the oyster, I want to take care of a problem that gets many teams disqualified at the competitions, taking out the blood vein, (that’s what I call it, i don’t know the official name for it). This vein can be full of blood, even after washing the chicken thoroughly. The chicken can cook to temperature, but this vein can hold the blood, when bitten into, it will flow out, as if the chicken is under cooked, and we all know what comes from bloody chicken…disqualification!!!  I norally find this vein near the bone, I will go in with my knife and work it along the bone, using the backside of the knife, if you use the sharp side of the knife, you’ll just cut through the vein. Use the backside of the knife, and pull the vein out as far as you can then cut it at each end. There is  some extra work doing this, but it is better then having your box returned to you at the competition with a DQ.

This vein is normally near the bone.

This could mean the diffence between D.Q. and 1st place.

I want my piece to be a nice uniformed piece of chicken, I take off as much fat as I can. Normally end up with a heart shaped thigh.

I will place the thighs only, keep the skins off to the side and cold, into a zip-lock bag for marinating. There are many commercial marinates and chicken soaks on the market, if you have a favorite, please continue to use them, I use Italian salad dressing. Yes it is true, Italian dressing makes a good marinate for chicken, the oils and vinegar works well on the chicken, and gives good flavor. I will try to have my chicken in the marinate over night. Please be sure to rinse all the marinate off your chicken before cooking.

Now I turn my attention to the skin. Skin on the chicken is another BIG issue. even before the judge is able to taste the bite he/she had just taken, they evaluate if there is, what is known as “bite through skin”. The last thing you, as a competition BBQ cook wants, is for the judge to take that bite of chicken, and the entire skin comes off in that one bite. The judge was not able to bite through the skin cleanly. Smoking/grilling chicken, can lead to tough and rubbery skin, not a good thing to have on any chicken, mostly your turn-in chicken, one of the best ways to insure that does not happen, you need the skin to be a thin as possible. All the fat from the underside of the skin MUST come off.  This does take some doing, and I would suggest doing some practice, before going to a competition. This will be something you will need to master, and not many folks will get it right on the first try. There are a couple of ways to achieve this, some like to scrape the skin, I like to use a thin filet knife, and cut the fat off.

Cutting the fat off the underside of the skin.

Skin has to be so thin, there' only one side!!! lol

Now I wrap the skin back onto the thigh, keeping everything as tight as possible, and place the thigh on your rack for cooking. As far as seasoning, and some special cooking techniques, there are so many out there, I will leave this up to you to decide which is best suited for you and your team.

All lined up and ready to cook.

I cook thighs at 275 degrees for at least 1 hour & 45 mins. For chicken you are looking for an internal temperature of 178-182 degrees. DO NOT UNDER COOK YOUR CHICKEN!!! When the chicken is at the point where I am satisfied that it is done, temp is good, and only clear juices coming out of thigh, I will then dip the entire piece into my sauce and place back on the grill for another 15 mins at 300 degrees.

No secret about my sauce of choice, I use Draper's, period!!!

Pull the chicken off the grill and let rest.

I think we have a couple of useable pieces here.

Test your product!!!

Now that's what I mean by "Bite Through Skin"

We made a mock box for your practice cook, it is not an official box, actually is the top of a serving plate. The competitions we enter are Florida Barbecue Association events, and they do not allow garnish of any kind.

Not bad!!!

I hope this has helped answer a couple questions about chicken, trust me, you never stop learning. Fell free to add comments, or to contact me at www.hogsgonewild.com Thanks for your interest.

The panel discuss, Tuffy in Lakeland, the sam’s club championship, what smokers we user or may get soon and more.  Enjoy!!!

For those who have followed my journey into the world of BBQ and BBQ competitions, know that it has been one year since I have started planning my BBQ team. I am not one to jump right into something without doing some research on the subject at hand. BBQ, how much research is needed? A lot!!! One thing I had to try and accomplish was to get started with as little out of pocket expense possible, and for many teams the greatest expense is the smoker. Depending on what you are looking to get out of your smoker, the prices vary greatly, as do the quality.

Like most folks starting there teams now a days, most of my research was done on-line. There are hundreds of websites out there focused on BBQ, and BBQ equipment. I was day and night studying as much as I could about smokers, trying to learn the pros and cons for, offset smokers, versus smokers with water trays, or pellet smokers, compared to gravity feed charcoal smokers. All these types of smokers have lists of manufactures and each have their own style. Did I want one mounted on a trailer, or did I want one that I wanted to roll on and off a separate trailer? Did I need one that was insulated or, by living in Florida could I get away with one that is not insulated?

Cooking up a Christmas butt Dec. 2009

I had been cooking on my old Char-broiler offset cooker for a couple of years, with varying success, but I did like cooking with fire. It does add another layer of tradition when cooking with fire, granted there is much more work involved, especially when doing a competition, but I figured and offset style smoker was what I was use to, so I felt comfortable staying within that realm, for the time being.

So I began searching for a trailer mounted offset smoker, I knew on my budget, which was non-existent, I would be looking for a used smoker, did anyone say E-Bay? I have used E-Bay a lot in the past, but soon found out that shipping, or just picking up my smoker would be about equal to the actual cost of the smoker itself, so E-Bay was not the way to go.

That’s when I started going to the BBQ competitions and I started talking to the teams out there. Many were very willing to talk about their smokers, and of course everyone had their favorite. Many teams are looking to upgrade their equipment, and may have some good deals on the used smokers they would like to replace.

My new smoker, after first cleaning.

I did get lucky and find exactly what I was looking for, and more. It was all by word of mouth, that I found this custom made smoker, it is an old 250 gallon propane tank, mounted to a trailer.

I knew I wanted something with the ability to cook large cuts of meats, but also be able to handle cooking a large amount of ribs at one time. I really enjoy cooking ribs, and have times where I need to cook up to 24, full racks of spare ribs at one time, and this smoker has that capacity. I knew I wanted more then just one shelf, this smoker has three, all pull-out shelves, table space is always a plus. If you can see I have a built on table on each end of my cooker, and a shelf that runs the length of the cooker just under the cooking chamber doors. The smoker has a fire box at each end of the cooker, so I get great temperature control. I have found that this cooker works almost as a convection, the heat travels up and across the top shelf, then down through out the cooker, the warmest spot on my cooker is the middle of the top shelf.

I have enough room on top self for pans, ribs on bottom

Fire box at each end of cooker.

Loaded with ribs!!!

These are all things to think about when looking at a cooker, one thing I have learned since then is, at a competition, having a cooker that is configured as set it and forget it, is always nice to have. Yes, I have moved into pellets along with my stick burner. That will be left for a future post.

I can remember telling my Wife about another cooker, about every other day, I would say to her, “Yep, this is the cooker I want”. Then I would find something else on-line that I liked better, or that someone had said about the cooker I was looking at that they did not like, and on, and on , and on…. My point is, find something that make you comfortable on a reasonable scale and go with it. If you are deciding to get into BBQ, then you are someone who has good taste already…:)… and you know what you want!!!

Till next time keep ‘em smokin’

Doug

Now we just know all of you are impatiently waiting for the Black Friday deals in your wednesday or thursday paper.  Well we’d like to help our BBQ brethren with things they might be interested in on black friday.  Hit the jump to check out the items on sale!!

At Bass Pro Shops, you’re likely to be able to pick up the below item between 6 and 11AM

At Cabela’s, you’ll be running into the below items starting at 5AM on Black Friday

For you competition BBQers, you can find the following at Gander Mountain as a Early Bird special on saturday starting at 8AM

Lowes has this Chargriller starting Friday at 6AM

Sears has these 2 grills for sale on both Friday and Saturday

Tractor Supply Company has the below chargriller for $70 off on friday only starting at 6AM

We hope that helps you guys get through this Black Friday’s deals for the outdoor cook!!!

Carrie and I have been testing various BBQ Turkey recipes for the better part of two weeks.  At last count, we experimented with eight different  iterations of classic BBQ turkey in an effort to determine which might work best with the most common side dishes that find their way onto the Holiday table.

Through this quest, we’ve discovered one solid truth.  We shouldn’t make the bird taste like our competition chicken. Our initial thought, and first trial, was to impart the intense flavor that only competition grade rubs and brine could accomplish. We certainly got amazing turkey…that paired with absolutely nothing on the table.  In fact, the super charged contest quality turkey almost made the usually flavorful gravy, mashed potatoes, veggies and stuffing taste at best…bland.

The tests afterward soon had us searching for the most important aspect of any good turkey – moist and juicy white meat. Soon enough we had a winner. A BBQ Turkey that would go with nearly any side dish one could imagine. We took what we learned and taught a class on it at our Green Leaf BBQ Shop last Saturday.  This recipe is dead basic, but it absolutely works and will deliver time after time. Give it a try!

Brine Recipe:

1 Gallon of Water

12-14 lb. Turkey (Select a Natural bird with no existing brine or enhancements)

8 oz.  Santa Maria Style BBQ Rub (Garlic, Salt, Pepper base) our favorites became Blue Star Seasonings and The Rub Co.

8 oz. Light Brown Sugar

Mix these together until the solids dissolve. Submerge the cleaned and prepared Turkey in a 5 gallon bucket or a stainless stock pot. Add water to the container to cover the turkey completely. Orient the Turkey with its breast side down.  Refrigerate for 12 hours. Agitate the brine at least once during this process. After 12 hours – remove and dry the Turkey. Set the bird on a large cookie sheet or similar for seasoning.

Seasoning Blends:

Cavity: Use your brine base again – Blue Star or The Rub Co. “Santa Maria Style”.  Take special care to season the underside of the breast and thigh areas inside the cavity.

Skin: We coated the now dry turkey skin with a light olive oil. This helped the seasoning stick.  We used a Honey Based BBQ Rub like Butcher’s or a Pecan Rub like John Henry’s. This not only gave a very nice traditional flavor, but wonderful color.

Time: 13-15 minutes a pound – unstuffed.

Temperature: 325F

Done Temp: Breast 160F – 165F. Any higher and you risk dryness.

Fuel: Oak lump charcoal & Wine Infused Oak smoke wood.

Special Tools: Roasting Throne

Cooker: Big Green Egg

Notes: The turkeys that we cooked on a vertical throne were cooked both more evenly and somewhat quicker than a traditional roasting rack or “back down” arrangement. Please add a few minutes of cooking time if you aren’t using a throne.  Temps higher than 350F will sometimes render the skin too completely and splits will form in the skin late in the cook.

Best of Luck this Thanksgiving!

-Tim Bryan, Green Leaf BBQ

www.greenleafbbq.com

This past weekend my team, Hogs Gone Wild BBQ, did the backyard competition in Bartow, Fl. We had a great time, and had some success. This was only our second competition, and I can foresee many more in our future. I am still getting myself and my team acclimated to life on the competition trail, there are many things that come up that I would not have thought of before. One thing for sure is that folks like to come up and discuss all things BBQ, well that is my favorite subject, and I am always happy to talk to anyone about BBQ. One subject kept coming up throughout the weekend, I heard from many people that they were interested about starting their own BBQ team, and wanted to talk to me about how to get started. I know where these folks are coming from, I was right there less than one year ago. I knew what I wanted to do, just not sure how to get there. I also hit the competition BBQ scene, asking question, and gathering information, but that will only take you so far. Everyone’s situation is different, something that worked for one person may not work for the next. It seemed like everyone was looking for the “silver bullet” to getting on the competition tracks. One issue keep coming up, which is a very important issue, money. Putting together a BBQ competition team takes dedication and money, and now a days, no one have time or money to throw out. A couple suggestions I have for curious BBQ “watabes” is, 1) Look into taking a BBQ judging class. Becoming a judge is one of the best ways to get into the BBQ scene with making minimal out of pocket expense. What better way to get in site into what the judges are truly looking for? The classes are full of information on how the judges are trained on judging, but actually judging a contest is where you will gather the most information. You get to sit at the judges table while they critique other’s teams turn-in’s. You get to experience different flavor profiles, and box set-ups, and in the process you get to eat some good BBQ…for free!!!
2) Look in to taking a BBQ class, I’m not suggesting for folks to take some classes that are offered for hundreds of dollars by some of the BBQ greats. Those classes are for the teams that have been involved for some time, and are looking to up their game, a great investment for a team. If you are still on the fence and just thinking about starting a team, I would suggest a class that would be something that you could use, even if you do not start a team. There are many terrific BBQ classes out there that are focused more toward the “backyard” BBQ folks, something that would give you a taste of barbecuing, without putting out big bucks. I know of such a class coming up here in my area from Chad Ward, he is the head cook for Whiskey Bent BBQ.

Whiskey Bent BBQ is a championship BBQ team, they have many Grand Champion Trophy’s and this year did very well at the American Royal competition. Chad is going to have a series of classes, a few hours each Saturday, covering a specific meat on each day. I think the cost of his classes are going to be minimal, at $25 per day, and that the class sizes will be kept to a comfortable level. This will give you some hands on experience, and can give anyone a bit of in site into whether or not they are interested on pursuing BBQ to the next level. If you are not looking to start a team, but just want to learn how to knock your family and friends sock’s off with your BBQ skills, this is definitely the class for you. Check in your local area for a class near you, or if you are interested in Chad’s class take a look at their web site at www.WhiskeyBentBBQ.net or drop Chad a note at whiskeybentbbq@gmail.com Chad is always interested in helping out and would be more then happy to give you information for his up coming classes.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. I can be contacted at www.HogsGoneWildBBQ.com or write me directly at hogsgonewildbbq@aol.com.