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You also have this here, which is kind of just a hanging piece of meat. I’m just going to kind of square this up here, make sure we get a nice, even cook. I also like to trim the very far edge, just to get rid of this piece that’s been exposed to some oxygen, and it’s oxidized. Sometimes it will have an off color to it, just like to get rid of that. Again, don’t throw any of this away, you can use it, you can make hamburger meat out of it, it’s a really good thing to keep.

And then over here, we’re also going to trim off this side of fat and square it up. So then, again, here’s the point, here’s the flat. There is a really tough piece of fat, it’s kind of a V or a triangle in there, we want to get most of that out of there, so just kind of take your knife, and don’t be shy, you’re not going to hurt the piece of meat. Really get in there and kind of expose this V, because this is where the point annex to the flap. Now you don’t have to do all this trimming if you don’t want to, you know, it’s perfectly fine to put it on the smoker the way it comes out, but I like to do a little bit of this to expose more meat, so that more of my seasoning is going to be actually producing some flavor for me when it’s cooking, and also so that the smoke; the oak, the hickory, the cherry, whatever you might be using, is really able to permeate into the meat.

Now I’m just going to come over here, I like to kind of separate the point just a little bit from the flat, because it will give you also a really good guide when you want to cut this point off of the flat, after the cooking process is done for the flat part, where you want to put this back on for burnt hands. So that’s pretty good for right here, for backyard briskets. Again let me just say, don’t let the size of this meat intimidate you, it is a big piece of meat, but there’s really little difference in cooking this than cooking a steak, or a chicken other than time. This is almost a thing where you sit it on your smoker, you make sure that your smoker has enough fuel and is set at the right temperature, and there’s not a lot you have to do with it other than making sure you don’t run out of fuel.

So give this a try, I guarantee you’re going to be really thrilled with the results. You’re going to have a succulent, juicy, tender piece of meat, it’s affordable, it feeds a lot of people, and I guarantee you it’s going to be impressive to your friends and family when they come to see a giant 10, 15 pound piece of meat sitting on the table at your next barbecue.

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Today I’m going to show you how to do a rosemary lemon chicken. Chicken is a really versatile piece of meat that you can impart all kinds of flavors into. When you’re thinking barbeque, you don’t always have to think the traditional tomato based barbecue. You can also think of things like this, which are going to give it a nice and really fresh taste.

It’s a real simple wet rub marinade that we’re going to make. I’m going to take a little but of extra virgin olive oil, some lemon juice, garlic, chopped fresh rosemary and some lemon zest. We’re going to take our finger, mix it up, don’t be afraid because we’re going to be using our fingers here on the chicken.

So we move these over and we’re going to bring our chicken up here. What I like to do is get the skin like this, so you have a nice cavity, bring this marinade up here and stuff it in there. It’s going to give it a real nice flavor. It’s going to really penetrate the meat when you let this sit. You can let this sit overnight, but I would do it for at least 10 minutes to an hour. But the longer you do it, up to overnight, is definitely going to only make it that much more intense in flavor.

Then what I like to do is take a little bit more extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle it over the top of these and work that into the skin. Then, we’re going to take some of our all-purpose all american spice rub. You can use any over the counter spice rub, you can use salt and pepper, or you can use a spice rub that you make your own. This is a pork barrel spice rub.

I’m going to lightly coat the top. You just want this to kind of meld with that garlic, rosemary, that you’ve got in here, and lemon juice. Then I’m going to poor the remainder over the top and set this in the refrigerator for somewhere over 30 minutes to overnight. The longer you let that set, the more it’s going to penetrate and give you a really great rosemary, garlic, lemony flavor. But if you’re in a rush, give at least 10 minutes to 60 minutes. So, while you’re letting that sit, go out and get your grill started and you’ll still have a really nice meal.

So, let’s put these in the refrigerator, head out to the grill and get that started, and we’ll get these on here shortly.

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Today I’m gonna show you how to make steak rub. There’s lots of occasions for an all purpose rub like our all American spice rub. There’s also occasions for something unique and special that really goes well with particular kind of meat. And today we’re talking steak.

Who doesn’t love a nice steak out on the grill? This is a very simple rub. It’s black pepper coarse ground, butcher ground, some kosher salt, granulated garlic, crushed ground mustard seed, oregano, basil, cumin, some coriander, some crushed red pepper flakes, finally get a nice little fresh flavor a little lemon peel.

I like to mix this in a mason jar. Just put the lid on it. And it give you a vessel that you can store it in, but you can also shake it up, mix it up really well to get all those spices and flavors, incorporated. And then you’re ready to stick this on your shelf. Or if you’re gonna be making steaks for dinner tonight you’re ready to go.

Simple, easy, adds a really delicious flavor to any steak from a t-bone, to a rib eye, to a porter house, to a filet mignon. Give it a try. I guarantee you you’re gonna like the way it tastes. I guarantee you so will your friends and family.

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Today I’m going to show you how to trim a brisket. Brisket is probably the king of meat when it comes to barbecue. If you’ve been to Texas, you’ve probably had brisket, and it’s probably one of the more intimidating pieces of meat, but don’t let it be. It’s really a fun piece of meat to cook and in the end, there’s no more flavorful meat than a good, well cooked brisket.

What we have here is called a packer brisket. Now, in your grocery store, you may not find this immediately, you may find what is called a flat. And this is the flat of the brisket. This here is the point, so this is a full brisket or a packer brisket. I encourage you to ask your butcher if they have a packer brisket or if they can get one for you, because I think it’s a nicer meat to cook. You’re going to have more control over it, because you’re going to have the ability to take off whatever fat that you want or whatever fat that you want to keep.

Plus, you’re going to be able to cook the point which is where, I think, the jewel of all barbecue resides, and that’s the burnt end. That’s after you’ve cooked the brisket, you cut the point off and you recook it again with more seasoning. It’s very fatty and it’s very flavorful meat, but it needs a little bit more cooking time, and man, will it give you the candy of all barbecue. Really sweet, juicy, succulent, burnt end.

So let’s first show you how we trim the fat cap side. So I’m going to flip this over, and this is the fat cap. That’s this big sheet of fat on the one side of the brisket. I like to come in here, and I like to come just straight across, and I like to trim off the top layer of fat that’s on that point, because I want to expose that meat so that my seasonings can really get down and deep in there. Now, don’t throw this away. You know, this is good stuff to put in beans, if your making barbecued beans. So all this stuff is really good to use in one way or the other.

So we’re just kind of lightly trimming. We want to avoid cutting off as much of the meat as we can, and just kind of keep to cutting and trimming the fat. So this looks pretty good on this side for the point. I also like to look and see if there’s any real thick layers of fat here. You want about a quarter of an inch of fat. Some of these will come in with an half of inch or more, and if that’s the case, just take a sharp knife and kind of trim a layer off. And if you just get a little bit exposed and then just start pulling, it will really be pretty easy. But this one, there’s not much to trim off, so I’m not going to do much with that.

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Barbecuing a brisket is probably the most intimidating thing in the backyard barbecuer’s realm. Don’t let it intimidate you. Not only is it not that difficult to cook, it is delicious. In my opinion it’s the most delicious thing you can take off of a grill or a smoker.

Now what you need to know about a brisket is how it comes. You can get a full brisket, which is called a packer brisket. It’s going to contain both parts of the brisket – the flat and the point. This is a great option if you’re feeding a large crowd not only wanting to do sliced brisket but also wanting to make burnt ends, which we’ll talk about here in a second. If you’re just looking to do sliced brisket for a smaller group you might just choose the flat. The flat is what’s most commonly found in the grocery store today. However, if you ask a butcher nicely you can most likely get the packer brisket as well.

So, how do you prepare this 15 to 20 pound piece of meat? It’s pretty simple. Get it out the night before you plan to smoke it and rub it with your favorite all-purpose rub. We like to put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on the meat and rub it in really good with a heavy coat of our favorite rub. In our case that’s our Pork Barrel All American Spice Rub. Then we let it set overnight in the refrigerator.

The next morning we come out and we get our smoker all set up. We want it to cook at about 225 to 250 degrees for somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 14 hours depending on the size of the brisket. If you’re cooking an entire packer brisket it’s going to be a lengthier cooking process than if you’re cooking just the flat. A good rule of thumb is about one hour per pound of meat. So, if you have a 15 pound brisket you might be looking at a 15 hour cook. If you’ve got an eight pound brisket you may be looking at about an eight hour cook.

Now, how do you take the brisket that you’ve prepared and slice it? The most important thing is to slice it against the grain. If you slice it with the grain you’re going to get a really chewy, rubbery piece of meat. It may be the most succulent, well-prepared brisket you’ve ever had, but if you don’t do this one simple step you may ruin it. So, make sure that you’re slicing it against the grain.

Back to those burnt ends. If this is something you want to try then you want to get that packer brisket. Once you’ve cooked that process the first time through, cut off the point, remove it, season it up again with your spice rub, and place it back on the smoker. Cook it for another two, three, four hours and really let all that fat in the point render down and provide a really, really juicy piece of meat. Cut it into cubes. Put it in a sandwich and you’re going to have heaven on a bun – a burnt end sandwich.

So, the brisket, it’s a big cut of meat, it’s intimidating, but don’t let it be intimidating. Because it’s really not that difficult to cook. The most difficult time is just setting aside the 10, 12, or 15 hours needed to cook it.

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Today I’m going to show you how to trim a pork butt. The pork butt does not come from the butt of the pig. It comes from the shoulder, the top part of the shoulder. You’ve got the Boston butt. And then you have the picnic, which is probably another piece that you’ve seen at your grocery store.

If you were a competition barbeque team, you’d be prizing this piece here. This is the front muscle, also known as the money muscle. Why is it known as the money muscle? If you cook it right, supposedly the money will be coming your way at a contest. It’s also some of the best tasting meat. You definitely want to take good care of that.

You’ll see a bone in here. If you cook this right, whenever you take it off of the smoker, you’re going to be able to just pull that bone right off and no meat or anything except bone is going to come out. It’s a really simple piece to trim. There’s not a lot to do. You want to look for any kind of loose hanging pieces of fat. There’s a little piece here. Nothing real big.

Flip it over. One thing you want to look for in some of these you’re going to see the veins and some blood. If you see that, you definitely want to get that cut out of there because you don’t want that in your finished product.

I’m going to trim off a little bit of this fat here on the underside of the front muscle. I like to expose the meat as much as I can so that the spice rub you put on is really going to penetrate into it and in the smoke as well.

One other trick, if you want to get some more exposure in through the meat is to take a sharp knife, and this is the fat cap, come right underneath the fat cap. Go in about to here. You’re going about almost about 85-90 percent of the way. Just cut straight over. That’s going to leave you a nice pocket in here. You can take your spice rub and a little bit of oil and put in there. That spice rub then will be able to penetrate down.

You want to keep the fat cap on. When you’re cooking that fat will continue to render into the meat and really provide a rich, deep flavor. That’s really all there is to trimming a pork butt. It’s a real simple piece. It takes probably about eight to ten hours on your smoker at about 225-250 degrees. It’s an affordable piece of meat that’s going to feed a lot of people. There’s really not much better than a good pulled pork sandwich.

Next time you’re at the store and see one, I’d encourage you to pick it up and give it a try. Don’t let the size of it discourage you. It’s really not that difficult of a cut to cook once you get the hang of it. Give it a try. Give the pork butt a try.

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They say everything’s bigger in Texas. And when it comes to barbecue, that’s the truth. Today we’re going to be talking about Texas style barbecue. Ask any Texan what the best barbecue is in the world, they’re probably going to tell you it’s Texas barbecue. There’s lots of great things about Texas barbecue. The succulent brisket, the beefy, juicy beef ribs and those really terrific brisket sausages you find all across the state. Some stuff with jalapeno and cheddar. Those are my favorite. You’re also going to get a nice rich tomato-based sauce with just the right amount of kick and spice to it. On the side you’re probably going to have a couple pieces of white bread, some crackers, some pickles, some jalapenos, maybe some onion and cheese. The once certainty is you’re going to get a satisfying meal when it comes to Texas barbecue. Texas barbecue’s not the only style of barbecue but it certainly is great.

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There are lots of great barbecue sauces out there, but one of our favorites is a Kansas City styled barbecue sauce. Kansas City being one the Mecca’s of barbecue in the United States, known for a sweet, spicy, rich tomato based sauce that really goes great on pork, on chicken, and on beef.

So, this is a real basic sauce. Feel free to up or lower the ingredients. You want it a little spicy, you may add a little more of the red ground pepper or the chipotle chili. You want to go a little sweeter, you could add some addition brown sugar. It’s really up to you. The only thing I caution you, you want to keep it a nice, balanced sauce. A little bit of sweet. A little bit of heat. A little bit of acidity.

So, we’re going to start with two cups of simple ketchup. Just whatever you’ve got in your refrigerator that you use on hamburgers will do just fine. Next, we’ll have some kosher salt. Some celery seed, which is a very quintessential Kansas City flavor. Some cumin, some ground red pepper, some granulated garlic, some coarse ground black pepper, a little chipotle chili powder for some heat. Apple cider vinegar, give it a nice little acidity. A little bit, just a little bit of hickory flavored liquid smoke. And then some light brown sugar.

You just want to incorporate all that together. Give it a nice stir and then we’re going to stick it over here on the stove. You want to cook it for about ten minutes. Bring it to a nice simmer and let that simmer for a couple of minutes. And then what you got is a really versatile Kansas City styled barbecue sauce. So, lets bring it back here to the stove. Get the stove turned on.

Now, if you’ve never been the Kansas City, there are really very few places in the barbecue world that I recommend going to quicker than Kansas City. Not only is like one of the four kind of Mecca’s of barbecue in the United States, but it is also home to the world’s largest barbecue contest, The American Royal, which is held every fall. It attracts around 500 to 550 teams from all over the world. Now, I would be reminisce, if I didn’t talk about our pork grill original sauce, which is a Kansas City style.

I lived in Kansas City for a number of years and I grew up loving the Kansas City styled sauce. That was really the inspiration for our first sauce. So, give this a try. Simply, let it come to a simmer, you can see we’re already getting there on this stove. Take a whisk after you have really incorporated. This will make sure you get all the lumps out. Let this cook, like I say, for about ten minutes.

And then pour it into a mason jar or some kind of sealable jar. Put it in your refrigerator, and it will easily last for three to four weeks. So, you make a larger batch of it and use it over the course of several barbecue’s. So, this is simple, basic Kansas City style barbecue sauce. You can’t go wrong with it. It’s great on poultry, beef, on pork. So, give it a try.

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Today I’m going to show you how to break down a chicken. It’s a really great skill to have. It’s going to save you a lot of money when you go to the store and you get a whole chicken verses buying a pre-broken down chicken with the legs, thighs, breasts, wings already broken down. So, what you want to do is you want to get a whole roasting chicken and there are several ways to break it down.

What I like to do is start by breaking down the backbone and then cut into two halves. So, take a really sharp knife. You really need a sharp knife and find the sides of the back bone, and then just cut right down the edge of that. Then come over to the other side, and again this is going to be a pretty tough cut. You want a really good sharp knife. When you get to the edge you can kind of trim it off. Now, you want to have a waste bucket there, so you can put in all the waste that you are going to have.

Now, take your chicken and kind of snap it back. You are going to follow the breast bone here, and just cut right down the middle. This is going to leave you with two halves, so we will sit this half over here and we will work with this half. Now, there is some fat here on the back that I like to get rid of. Just take your knife and trim that off.

There is a natural gap here between the breast, and the leg, and the thigh that you are just going to follow. Turn it around. So, now you’ve got two chicken quarters. This is great for barbeque chicken. This is what we like to cook with a lot of times with the chicken quarters. If you want to break this down even further, you can pop out that leg from the thigh, and again there is a natural curve in there.

I’m going to bring out a little bit bigger knife, so I can kind of make this cut. So there is your first leg, and there is your first thigh. Now, you can trim this thigh up a little bit more, if you want to. There are some pieces on here that you really probably don’t need to cook with that will make it a little bit easier when it gets to the dinner table. You want to get any of these organs out of there. There is a little bit more skin and fat here. There is the first thigh, and then the wing. We are going to take our bigger knife and we are going to cut straight down. We’ve got our wing and we’ve got our breast.

Now, we can do a couple of things here. We can either take out all of this bone, and have a boneless breast, which we’ll do with this guy. And we also have the tenderloin. This makes really nice nugget type things, you can bread that, and fry that. Then, we’ve got our boneless breast. So there you go. That’s simply how to break down a chicken into a breast, the tenderloin, the leg, the thigh, and the wing, and you can repeat that on the second side and you’ll have yourself a broken down chicken.

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A: Today we’re going to share with you fives essential pieces of BBQ equipment. There are literally thousands and thousands of BBQ gadgets out there, but if you have these five pieces of equipment, you’re going to be able to impress the neighborhood with some of the greatest BBQ they’ve ever had.

First, and probably most important, is a really good smoker or grill. You can spend a 100 dollars. You can spend thousands of dollars. We recommend these really, really, good intro grills, that we even use to this day, the Weber Kettle as a grill and the Weber Smokey Mountain. Each each can be had for 100 to 300 dollars.

B: Of course, you need to be able to light those smoker and grills, so the next important tool is a good charcoal chimney. Great thing about these is it doesn’t take gas or lighter fluid to get them started, and your coals are ready in about 15 minutes.

Now, you can’t tell if your food is really done unless you have a good thermometer for meat and for pork. It’s important to have a good thermometer. Our favorite is a Thermapen. It’s the best that’s out there.

A: And you’ve got to have something to cut that great meat that you’ve just cooked. We recommend two knives. One, a boning knife, which is really important in the early stages of the process. You can trim the meat, get all of the fat and the bones and the cartilage and gristle off, that you don’t want to cook. Two, a really nice slicing knife. A knife that’s going to allow you to trim those pieces of brisket and the ribs and really show a nice presentation.

Like we said, there are thousands of gadgets out there in the world of BBQ. Bret and I have two or three garage-fulls of them right now, but these are the five that we’re always using. If you’ve got these in your arsenal, you’re going to be able to produce some awesome, awesome BBQ. Go out there. Get the fire started, and get smoking.

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Today I’m going to show you how to make barbeque chicken. It’s the classic barbeque dish. It’s the dish that’s going to take you to new heights in the backyard when it comes to grilling, and it’s going to have friends and family wanting to come over all the time. If you know how to do barbeque chicken, then you know how to do barbeque.

So we’re going to first start out with a half chicken and we’re going to also use another half and make a quarter chicken. You can really decide what you want to do when you’re putting it on the grill, so we’re going to do a little bit of both. I like to at least make it into two halves because it’s going to cook a little bit faster than if you’re cooking a whole chicken, so it’s going to give you more surface area. We’re going to take these two quarters and this half. You want to take a paper towel and just dry it off, make sure that there’s no moisture. And then we’re going to stick it onto a cookie sheet which we’ve lined with aluminum foil. What we want to do, is we want to take some vegetable oil or some olive oil, put a tablespoon or two on each half, and rub that in on both the front and the back underneath. Just get all the surface areas.

Now we want to take a spice rub. Today we’re going to be using an all-purpose spice rub that’s great on poultry. It’s got some sweet, it’s got some heat. It can really be whatever you want it to be if you’re making it at home. You can have it hotter or sweeter by just altering how much sugar or spice you put in it. You can also get store-bought brands, like our All-American Spice Rub and use if you don’t have the time or just don’t want to make one of your own. So what we want to make sure we do is we cover all the surface really well. So we’re going to get underneath here on the bottom of the chicken, so we want to really get a nice layer and then just kind of pat that in, or rub it in. Then flip that over, and we’re going to do the skin side. And this is about six tablespoons for an entire chicken. And you can go heavier or lighter depending on what kind of level of spiciness you want. You’re also going to get a lot of the nice flavor out of the smoke from the charcoal or the wood that you’re using. And we’ll be using a combination of charcoal, some oak and some hickory today to cook these.

So now that you’ve got it all rubbed in, let this set for about 15 minutes. Go out and get your grill started, get your charcoal or wood going, and then we’ll take this out in 15 minutes and get it on the grill and start cooking.

OK. We’re out here at the grill, we’ve got our chicken all seasoned up and it’s been setting for about 15 minutes to let that spice and oil incorporate and kind of marinate the meat, and we’ve got our fire up to about 350 degrees, which is just exactly where we want it. Now I’m going to take the chicken, and for the first few minutes I’m going to set it directly over the fire to get a little bit of caramelization on the skin, crisp it up a little bit. So we’re doing skin side down. So we’re going to let this cook like this for about five minutes, and then we’re going to come and we’re going to flip it, and we’re going to put it in an indirect cooking method, on opposite side of the coals, and we’re going to let that cook for about 45 minutes. Then in about 45 minutes we’re going to start basting it every five or seven minutes with some barbeque sauce for another 15 to 20 minutes, and it should be done. So in about an hour and 15 minutes, we’ll have a chicken ready for the table.

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Today I’m going to show you how to do barbequed chicken wings. Whether it’s game time, snack time, or mealtime, these are a great weapon to have at your ready. It’s a very simple recipe, and it’s sure to leave all your guests and all your diners with a full and happy stomach.

So we take some full wings, and first we just want to trim these up into the drumettes and the wingettes. Get a nice sharp knife. Cut there, you get the drumette, and then come back here, cut the tips off of the wing, and you get the wingette.

So we’re going to take one final wing here and show you how to trim that up. I’m going to spread that apart. Take one straight cut down here onto the drumette, flip the wing over, and then come in and cut off the wingtip, and we’re ready to go.

You get a nice size bowl, pour in all of your wings. We’re going to take about two tablespoons of vegetable oil. This is going to give it a nice coverage to adhere the rub. And today we’re using an all-purpose spice rub. You can buy these in your store, very similar to a all-American spice rub, which is a store bought rub, or you can make your own at home.

Today we’re using a rub that has some sugar, some heat with some chipotle and some ancho chilies in it. It’s got a little bit of sugar. Really, when you’re making a rub on your own, you can do it to whatever style you want, if you want it hotter or sweeter, or herb-y. Do what you like.

So we’re going to put all six tablespoons in here. And then we’re just going to use our hands to get good coverage on all of these wings. We want to have seasoning on every piece of wing here. And what we’re going to do is, we’re going to take these out to the grill, and these don’t take too long, so they’re really a quick and great snack, or even an evening meal. So we’re all set and ready to go out to the grill and put them on.

All right. We’ve got our wings all seasoned up and we’re ready to put them on the grill. We’re going to be putting them on our kettle grill. It’s real simple. I’m just going to walk right over here. We want to put them away from the fire, so it’s going to be an indirect cooking. Just put them all nice and spaced out so they’re not touching each other. I’m going to give them some room to cook.

Now what we also want to do while we’re doing this is we want to get some barbeque sauce. So you can either use your favorite store-bought barbeque sauce, or if you have a recipe that you like to use at home. And what we want to do is get a disposable half loaf pan and put our bottled sauce in there, and at the very end we’re going to come back and baste these with that sauce at the very end. So we don’t want to cook with the barbeque sauce at the beginning because there’s a lot of sugar in barbeque sauce and that will cause it to burn, and you’ll come out with some very charred wings.

So we’ve got our sauce here in a disposable loaf pan, and we’re just going to set that over the fire so that it can start warming up. And we’re going to come back and check these in about seven or so minutes and flip them over, and let them cook for another five to seven minutes, and then we’ll come and put the sauce on them.

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There are lots of ways to cook a meal. An oven, a stove, inside. Those are all great. But let’s talk about something that’s a lot more fun: Moving outside and doing a barbecue meal. How do you plan a menu for a summer barbecue? There are two types of barbecues that I want to talk about. Something quick and fast for your family. This could be something like doing some chicken breast, doing some shish kebabs, a couple sides, nothing better in the summer then grilled corn, maybe some coleslaw, maybe a baked potato. Really fabulous way to come home from work and in less than an hour put a really great meal on the table. Not have to heat the house up with the stove. Not have to get the oven going. But a really quick delicious meal.

Now how you plan a barbecue menu for a larger group? You know, if you’re talking 15, 20 25, even a hundred people, there’s two pieces of meat that we recommend. The first is a pork butt. The second is a brisket. It’s a really affordable way to cut cook for a lot of people. You can take a brisket and probably cook for 20 people with one brisket. A pork butt probably 15 people. Some great sides, coleslaw, beans, again corn is also really great in the summer. It’s very quick. There’s not really a lot of prep. You just soak in some water, thrown on the grill, 20 minutes later, you’ve got some great corn. The most important thing is to be creative. Have some fun. One of the things that we suggest when doing a barbecue is for you to do than meat but invite the people that are coming to bring their favorite side. This is going to allow you to focus on the star of the meal and allow your friends to bring the supporting cast which is going to save you a lot of time in the kitchen and at the grill. Have fun with it. There’s lots of stuff you can do in planning a barbecue meal. It’s really just up to your own imagination.

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Brett: One of the best ways to impress family and friends is to cook pork spare
ribs. Today we’re going to go through the process of how to cook these
so that you can be a barbecue God.

Heath: The first step in doing a spare rib is to trim the ribs, we’ve already
trimmed these down as a St. Louis cut. The next step is going to be one
of the most important and that’s seasoning. You first want to season the
backside, so the bone side of the ribs. What we do is take a little bit
of vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil, squirt it on the back. This
will help give it a little bit of an adhesive nature of the rub, this is
all purpose spice rub, which we’ve made. Generously put spice rub on the
back side, which is the bone side of the ribs, this will help give the
ribs a really nice flavor, let that flavor penetrate all through the
meat.

Brett: So you do a pretty heavy coat?

Heath: Yeah, you want a nice heavy coat because you really want to get that
flavor. There’s really two flavors, you’re going to get flavoring from
the smoke and you’re going to get flavoring from the spice rub in
addition to the fats and flavorings and the natural flavor of the meat.

You want to let this rest for 15 minutes with the spice rub on the bone
side and then you want to flip it over. This slab we’ve already seasoned
15 minutes ago, the bone side, and then we’ve flipped it over. So we
want to, again, take some vegetable oil on top, you can also use olive
oil, and then that’s going to help the spice rub just stick on there.
Again, another heavy coating of spice rub. You can get good spice rubs
at the grocery store premade, or you can make your own, which allows you
to put some of the flavors that you want in there. If you want it to be
spicier you can put more chilies in there, if you want it to be sweeter
you can put more sugar in there.

What we’re going to do now is let this rest for another 15 minutes, then
we’re going to take these out to the smoker and get them on and get them
cooking.

Brett: So we’re out at the smoker, we’ve got the ribs rubbed down. So this
is a mulit-part process, but we promise it’s going to be fantastic.
You’ve got the spareribs, we are going to be cooking them total 4 hours
at 275. The big thing to do is you put them on the smoker, you want to
put bone side down on the smoker. Now these are going to go 2 hours
unwrapped, at 2 hours we’re going to wrap them in foil, we’ll tell you
those secrets in a second.

One of the big things is every 30 minutes you want to take apple juice,
and make sure that you spray the ribs, it keeps them really moist, it
caramelizes over the top, it just makes for a great moist rib. So we’re
going to go ahead and spray them now, just a light coat every 30 minutes
until we foil them. So we’ll be back in 2 hours and we’ll have some
great ribs.

All right, so the ribs have been cooking for two hours unwrapped. Now
comes the magic time. It’s looking really great. We’re going to pull
them out and we’re going to do what is called foiling them. The way you
do it is you take a layer of foil, some brown sugar, we use a granulated
brown sugar. You lay down a bed for where the ribs are going to go, and
then you use just standard honey. You lay down three layers, three
lines; it’s going to fit perfectly for the rib.

Take the ribs out and you can see two hours in, they’re looking really
good. They’ve got a beautiful color to them, they look really juicy.
We’re going to put them face down and then do exactly what we’ve just
done, another layer of brown sugar on top and then three lines of honey,
they are going to add that perfect sweetness.

Now you got to wrap the ribs, one of the big keys is you got to wrap
them really tightly because for the next next hours, they are going to get
all the juices from the ribs and they are going to stay and be really
baste themselves. So we fold it over really, really tight. So you just
flip it over, the bone side down, back on the smoker, hour and a half to
two hours, we’re going to test it, we’re going to come back and show you
how to know when ribs are done.

Transcript

Heath: Today we’re going to talk about barbeque grills and smokers. They’re similar, but they’re different. Grills are great for doing steaks and burgers and hotdogs. They’re also great for doing things like a traditional smoker, just a little bit more unorthodox than a smoker. So, Brett and I are going to show you a whole array of different kinds of grills and smokers that might interest you if you’re looking to add one to your backyard.

Brett: Well, there’s one kind of grill that every American knows, it’s the Weber Kettle. Now, the great thing about the Weber Kettle is you can grill on it, you can smoke on it, you can use charcoal, you can use wood. You take a look at it, if you wanted to grill on it, of course, you could use the whole surface, there’s all kinds of different sizes, you can get them for under $100. So, they’re really fantastic. If you wanted to smoke on it, you just put some charcoal on one side, put the food on the other, and let it smoke all day.

Heath: If you want to go a little bit more traditional on a smoker but you don’t want to spend a lot of money, the bullet smoker is a great option. These are about $300, $400, they’re also from the Weber company. What you do is you have a water pan down here, right here, you put liquid, it doesn’t have to be water, it could be apple juice, it could be beer, it could be some vegetables in there to help give it a flavor, and then you have a couple of racks. So, you can actually cook on this about 8 slabs of ribs, 4 briskets, you could do 4 or 5 pork butts on here, and it also uses charcoal, and wood, as a flavor enhancer. And, this thing, really, if you put a bag of charcoal in here, it’s going to last for just about the entire cooking process of most meats. So, it’s not quite set it and forget it, but it’s about as close as you can get for the money. It’s really a great smoker, and it’s what we use a lot when we’re competing and cooking in our backyards.

Brett: So if you want to step it up, we’ve got the Barrel smoker. Now, these can get into the thousands of dollars, or you can pick one up for a couple hundred bucks at your local hardware store. This is a backyard jambo. Man, if you want some great barbeque, this is it. This is a stick burner. The great thing about it is you can load it full of racks of ribs. You put it in the fire back here, this thing burns so smooth, but it’s a really great thing. If you’re getting serious about cooking competition barbeque, or just want your friends and family to have great barbeque, take a look at a Barrel smoker like a jambo.

Heath: We just encourage you to go check them out, go down to wherever grills are sold near you, and just see what fits your needs, your size of meal that you’re wanting to make, and what fits your lifestyle. There’s a lot of great grills, but really, you’ve got to have more than one, so maybe don’t settle on just one.

Brett: You can never have too many grills or smokers, just remember that.

Transcript

Today we’re going to talk about the process of wet aging. Most people have heard of the idea of dry aging. In fact, you probably have had a dry-aged steak, which adds a nice, nutty flavor to the meat, and really helps bring flavor and tenderize it. The process of wet aging is something that has really only come in more modern times. Wet aging actually occurs in a vacuum-sealed environment. Typically right after slaughter of the animal, it is vacuum sealed and for a period of four to ten days is wet aged. This really helps to break down the meat and adds a tremendous amount of flavor when you’re cooking it. I think that you’ll find some people are actually doing this at home with pork, with beef, with their own vacuum sealers. Look on the Internet. There’s a lot of great recipes. Wet aging is a fun technique that, done properly, can really add a lot of flavor and a lot of tender nature to what you’re cooking at home. Give it a try.

Transcript

Today we’re going to talk about how to light the charcoal grill, one of the most fundamental aspects of barbecue. We’ve got an easy way to do it that ensures that you’re able to cook in 15 minutes, ready to go, which is really important when you’re hungry for barbecue. So, the most important tool of how to light a charcoal grill is a charcoal chimney. Now, the chimney is great because you don’t have to use any kind of lighter fluid. The way it works is you take a little bit of leftover newspaper, you put it in the bottom, put your charcoal on top, and in about 15 minutes you have food to go. So, we’re going to go ahead and do that now: paper underneath, take your favorite charcoal; dump it in. Now, I like to fill it all the way to the top. You can just put it into your Weber kettle and then you just go ahead and light the paper underneath. In about 15 minutes, you’ll have perfectly lit charcoal. That’s all it is. That’s all it takes for great barbecue.

Transcript

Today we’re going to talk about the basics of marinades. Now traditionally
marinades were used as a method to help preserve meat. In modern times
they’re used to add tenderness and flavor to meats. Now a simple breakdown of
a marinade needs to have acid, oil and seasonings.

At home, one of the simplest forms of marinade that we like to use is basic Italian
dressing. You get home from work, you’ve had a long day, and you’re not sure what you
want to eat. A simple Italian dressing poured over your pork or beef can
really add a tremendous amount of flavor. It’s even especially good on
seafood.

Now, in the competition world when we’re out there cooking you can
really marinade these meats overnight, you can even use marinades and
inject it. But the importance of it is the acidity in particular helps break
down the cells inside the meat which lead to tenderness, flavor and a
great cut of meat both at home and for competitions.

So I would just encourage you to research, try your favorite marinade. Again,
it’s nothing fancy, it’s acid, oil and seasoning, you can make your own at home easy
recipes, try it out, you’re going to love marinating.

Transcript

When you think of a traditional American barbeque, I’m guessing you’re
thinking chicken. Barbeque chicken is about as American as it gets. And today, we’re going to talk about barbeque chicken fundamentals.

Now, chicken is one of the more commonly used meats when it comes to barbequing, which is a great thing because it’s such a versatile and diverse piece of
meat that offers so many options to the griller and smoker.

The first thing to think about is the piece of meat you’re actually going
to be cooking. Now, you can use a whole chicken. You can use a half
chicken. You can use quarter chickens or you can use pieces of chicken.
We recommend you buy a whole chicken and butcher it down yourself to either
half chickens or quarter chickens. This is going to save you a lot of
money and it’s going to save you time when it comes to cooking. By cutting
that chicken in half, you’re going to increase the surface area which lowers the cooking time for a chicken by, maybe, a third.

Now, there is one whole chicken recipe I wanted to talk about. That’s
the beer can chicken. If you haven’t tried this, it is a delicious, quick,
and easy recipe that really provides a moist, succulent chicken. Simply
take a can of beer or soda, cut open the top, and set your chicken right on
top of it. Put it on the smoker or the grill. Cook it for 45 minutes to
an hour. And you’re going to have a delicious, delicious chicken.

Now, let’s get back to the traditional barbeque chicken. Now, the way we
like to do it, as I mentioned, is take two halves of chicken, rub them down
with a really, well balanced rub that has some sweetness, some heat, and
some earthy undertones. Let that set for about 30 minutes. This will give
you time to get your grill started. You want to get that grill up to about 350 to 400 degrees. So we’re cooking over a pretty hot fire. Once we reach that 400 degree range, bring the chicken out and take it skin side down and set it directly over the
coals. This is known as the direct cooking method. You want that skin to
really get a nice crisp up on it.

Once you’ve crisped up that skin, it’s going to take five or seven minutes, flip
it over on the bone side in an indirect cooking zone. This is going to be
over an area that has no coals. You want to set that lid back on your
smoker or grill and let it cook for another 45 minutes to an hour. At about the 45 minute time, you want to come back out with our favorite barbeque sauce, whether it’s a sweet or a spicy or a mustard sauce, that’s up to you. This is when we begin to baste the chicken in sauce. So there’s a key point to remember. Don’t put the sauce on too early. There’s lots of sugar in barbeque sauces and if you put it on too early, you run the risk of burning the chicken.

So at 15 minutes until we’re going to pull the chicken off, put your first
layer of sauce on. Put the lid back on the grill or smoker. Let it set
for another five or seven minutes. Take the grill lid back off, baste a second
time. Cook it for another five or seven minutes. Remove the chicken. Let it set
for about five to ten minutes, so those juices can reinstall themselves into the
meat. And then you’re ready to have chicken.

The American classic doesn’t get any more barbeque than barbeque chicken.

Transcript

Barbecue ribs. Does it get more classic than a juicy spare rib or baby back rib? Today we’re going to talk about the fundamentals of barbecue ribs.

Now, there are two types of ribs that you might find in the store. That’s the baby back rib and the spare rib. The spare rib may be cut into what’s called a St. Louis style cut. So if you see that it’s not a baby back rib, that’s a spare rib. Spare ribs tend to be more meaty, more fatty. They tend to take a little bit longer to cook. I think they’re a little bit juicier when cooked properly than a spare rib.

Spare rib is going to be a little more lean. It’s going to be a little bit quicker to cook. Both of them are delicious when done properly. It takes about four to six hours to properly cook a rib. Prep time on that? We like to season our ribs about 30 minutes prior to putting them on the smoker so that the rub can really start to work into the meat and really penetrate and give that juicy meat a really delicious, spicy, seasony, sweet flavor.

Now, the cooking process is pretty simple. You’re going to put them on your grill or smoker for about two hours. Occasionally come out, maybe every 30 minutes and spray some apple juice on them to keep some moisture on them. At the two hour point we’re going to foil them. Now, before we foil them we’re going to put some honey and brown sugar on them to just add another layer of flavor. We’re going to wrap them back in foil, put them back on the smoker for another two or so hours and then we’re going to pull them off the smoker, take them out of the foil, put them back on the smoker, and then start putting on some of our barbecue sauce.

And you can use whatever kind of sauce you like. An original, a spicy, a sweet. Really whatever’s your favorite sauce. Do this for about 30 minutes. 15 minutes into this process do a second layer of sauce. Put them back in. This will let the sauce set. Then you’re ready to go. It’s really that simple. Four or five hours after you start the process you’re going to be dining on some really succulent, juicy ribs.

Transcript

The pulled pork sandwich, one of America’s favorite barbecue meals. It seems intimidating but should it be? No!

Now, the cut of meat that you’re going to need to make a pulled pork sandwich is something called a shoulder. Now, what you want to do is think about how many people you’re going to serve. If you’re going to serve a lot of people you might consider a whole shoulder. It’s going to be an 18, 20, or 22 pound piece of meat. So it’s going to feed several dozen people.

If you’re looking for a smaller and more intimate occasion you probably want to look at one of the cuts from the shoulder. This could be either the picnic cut or the pork butt cut. Now, the pork butt is probably the most common and readily available piece of meat to make a pulled pork sandwich. It’s what we recommend for folks who are doing it in their back yard. A pork butt is also a very, very affordable cut of meat that’s going to cook for a dozen, or maybe 15 or 20 people. It comes in weights between eight and 12 pounds, most often.

Now, to prepare the pulled pork sandwich you want to rub the pork butt with your favorite all-purpose rub the night before smoking. We like to let ours rest for six, eight, or maybe ten hours and then wake up in the morning, get our fire started, and put that pork butt on to the smoker. Now, it is going to be a time intensive process. A ten pound pork butt is probably going to take you eight to ten hours to smoke over a low and slow fire between 225 and 250 degrees. It does take some time but the end result is going to be a succulent, juicy piece of meat that is going to produce amazing pulled pork sandwiches.

So if you’re looking for a really great meal at an affordable price for a large group of people why not give the pork butt a try and make some pulled pork sandwiches at your house next time you’re barbecuing?

Transcript

There are a number of ways to impart flavor in your next bar-b-que meal. One of the simplest is through a dry-rub. Today we’re going to talk about dry-rub fundamentals. The most important thing is a well balanced rub that has sweetness, has heat, and has an earthy undertone.

Some of the seasonings and spices you may chose to use include sugars, like turbinado sugar, brown sugar, even white sugar. Also salt. We prefer kosher salt to regular table salt. Chilies. This really depends on the heat level that you’re looking for. Are you looking for something really spicy, moderately spicy, or lightly spicy? You could use chipotle or crushed red pepper flakes, like ground cayenne, ancho chili, jalapeno chilies. There’s just a lot of chilies out there. Really depends on your preference and heat level you’re going for.

In the earthy level, look for garlic. We like granulated garlic, onion, cumin, coriander. Also in the herbs, it’s nice to incorporate some herbs into a real balanced rub. You might choose some oregano or some cilantro or some basil.

The real important thing to stress with a rub is that you’re making it for your flavor profile. What do you like, and what do you want? You want it sweet, and you want it hot. You want it to be really earthy. What are you using it on? Are you using it on something that might call for a more Mediterranean flavor? Something that might call for a more Cajun flavor? Something that might call for a more traditional bar-b-que flavor? Think about all these things when you’re putting together a rub. Remember, the fundamentals are a well-balanced product that has both sweetness, heat, and earthy undertones.

Transcript

Kansas City, Cow Town USA as many people call it. It’s home to some of the greatest barbeque in America. Kansas City is known for all different types of barbeque. Thanks in large part to the stock yards that once dominated the area. Some of the largest stock yards in the world bring pigs, and cow, chickens. So you’re not gonna just find pork or beef in Kansas City. You’re gonna find succulent brisket. You’re gonna find juicy pork spare ribs. You’re gonna find chicken. It’s all in Kansas City.

One of the really, really wonderful specialties you’re gonna find in Kansas City is a thing called the burnt end. Doesn’t sound appetizing but once you’ve had it you may not want to have anything else. The burnt end is simply taking the point of the brisket after the brisket has been cooked. Put it back in the smoker and cook it a second time to really render that fat down and provide yourself with a real juicy piece of meat. Burnt end sandwiches are one of heaven’s delights. You will not regret trying it if you’ve never had it.

Kansas City is also know for hosting one of the world’s largest barbeque contests. Every fall the American Royal is hosted in Kansas City attracting the world’s best barbeque teams in a two day contest. It’s a great excuse to head to Kansas City to check out great barbeque and see some of the best teams in the world. If you haven’t had Kansas City barbeque you gotta give it a shot.

Transcript

Memphis, Tennessee. The home of the Delta Blues, and home to some of the greatest barbeque in the world. Elvis may have preferred peanut butter and banana sandwiches, but a true Memphis dining experience means pork barbeque.

Now one of the unique things about Memphis style barbeque is the way you order it. You either order it wet or you order it dry. What does this mean? If you order it wet you’re going to get your barbeque slathered in a nice rich Memphis style barbeque sauce. If you want it dry, it’s going to come without the sauce, and simply the dry rub on it. Both are terrific, both have fans that like one or the other, but most good Americans love both.

Memphis style barbeque is pork. You’re not going to find a lot of beef. You’re not going to find a lot of chicken. You’re going to find a lot of pork. The pulled pork sandwich is the mainstay of Memphis barbeque. In such a small area as Memphis, there are literally hundreds of great barbeque joints.

So, if you want to get the real Memphis barbeque experience, we recommend taking a trip down to Memphis in May. Why May? Because Memphis hosts the World Pork Championship, one of the largest barbeque contests in the world, Memphis in May. A couple hundred of the greatest teams in the world come and compete for honors of top whole hog, top pork shoulder, and top ribs.

Give it a shot, come on down. It’ll give you a great chance to see what some of the teams around the country are doing. Also it will give you an excuse to sample some great local Memphis barbeque.