Super Best BBQ

In my opinion bark should never be crispy. If you have crispy bark you have probably way overcooked your meat and you have some seriously dry outer layers.

That being said I see your pork shoulder has the skin on and can stand to be a bit crispy. Here is what I would do. Cook at low temp until the inside reaches whatever you consider done, then allow to rest for an hour. Then turn your oven up to max and blast it with heat to get it crispy. Direct heat on the grill should also work too. Kenji basically does this for his recipe for pernil.

One more thing, if I have a gathering with BBQ the guests know that we eat 'when it's done'. Usually this means they can expect to eat in a 2 hour window. I typically have other stuff prepared or there's a game on TV so it's not a huge deal. This isn't food you sit at a table and eat with a fork and knife. Plates should be paper and cups should be plastic.

 

@Jeb you should try smoking a chicken (or two) on that rotisserie if haven't already done that. Smoked chicken is one of the easiest and most delicious things you can make.

 

I remember seeing one reputable NY BBQ place that had brisket for $50/lb, which is insane. I thought they were using wagyu brisket or something similarly exotic. When I enquired they certainly use quality meat but the bulk of the price came from importing post oak from Texas. This sort of adhearance to authenticity is not something I care for. If you want authentic Texas BBQ then go to Texas. Keep the techniques but use what's available around you.

 

Whole chicken is definitely amazing. Never thought to smoke it though - Great idea!

 

Yesssss. I do this and can vouch for the mustard being undetectable later. I also keep a spray bottle of apple juice handy and with pork I'll give the meat a spray every 1/2 hour to hour to keep it moist.

 

I may just have to go get me some brisket this week. It's been a little while.

 

BTW, you can see a chicken in the background of one of my BBQ pics. It was a chicken my mother in law bought and didn't do anything with it so I just threw it on the smoke while I had space so it would be cooked. Didn't mention it because it wasn't for me, but it was a super epic cooking day.

 

I start bone in chicken in the oven, then finish it on the grill over indirect heat. This maybe only something a noob wouldn't know, but it made the difference for me in being able to add decent drumsticks to the family cookout menus.

 

Chicken doesn't really benefit from slow cooking, so so you can cook it faster at a higher temp than ribs, pork butts etc... Just needs enough time to smoke. I think 1.5 hours smoke and 15 minutes directly on a bbq grill to crisp the skin. Not too much longer than a regular roasted chicken. Make sure to use a rub with little to no sugar or it will burn. Works good with turkeys too. Duck would be nice, but it's expensive and hard to come by.

Keep in mind I use a Bradley smoker and I think the smoke is concentrated therefore shorter smoke times.

 

Not all smoking has to be low and slow. Hot and fast over a fire pit is also good. Jerk chicken and pork is the best example of this where they use pimento wood in those steel drum BBQ grills. In France I've heard of people using vine wood to cook steaks.

I also think tri-tip is cooked over wood but I could be wrong.

 

Talking about chicken, I kept waiting for someone to bring up beer-can chicken. Is this not a thing in other parts of the country/globe? There is an inexpensive stand you put a whole chicken on with space for a beer can that goes up the chickens backside. Chicken is cooked on medium heat (so technically not BBQ), the beer evaporates and cooks the chicken from inside out and keeps it moist. Coke or Dr Pepper work well also.

 

Beer can chicken is really good. I have one of those stands, but don't use it. It's kind of a foolproof way of getting perfect chicken (crispy skin and moist inside).

The definition of bbq varies a lot by region. In most of Canada I think it refers to outdoor grills and the summer time parties associated with them.

 

Prime brisket, seasoned and ready for the smoker.



I don’t know why but there is something very tranquil about staying up at 1am to tend a BBQ. I’ll let you know how it turns out in the morning

 

Growing up in central Alabama, BBQ places typically offered two options for pork: chopped or sliced. It wasn't until my teens that I heard of pulled, and even then it was mentioned as a strange style coming down from north AL. It kinda irks me when people up here in the North use "pulled pork" to mean all BBQ pork.

New England also refers to that sort of outdoor cookouts as barbecues. (Though foruntately we do have a few real BBQ restaurants, some even good enough to satisfy a picky Southerner.) It's always bothered me a bit, since to me something isn't BBQ unless there's a pit or a smoker involved.

 

Tip of the day:

When using a probe thermometer cut half a potato and stick the probe through to use as a holder on the grill.

aaaaaaand Wings:

 

I was a little too excited when it was time to cut that I didn’t take a picture first. Here’s what it looks like midway:



It taste far better then this picture looks

 

Living in Northern Alabama has made me partial to BBQ chicken with the white sauce they do round here.

 

Any words of wisdom for buying a smoker?

I was thinking Weber Smokey Mountain - the mid sized one (47cm). Mostly it'd be cooking for 2-4 people, but would be nice to be able to feed 6-8 if required. Will I regret not getting the large one? or another brand I should be looking at?

 

@Jeb - That’s EXACTLY what I use! You can easily cook enough for 20 people. I’ve cooked just about anything I wanted in there. Brisket will be a tight squeeze though but it’s definitely doable. Also keep in mind that there are two levels, so it’s really 47cm x 2. I think I’ve posted pics that shows how much you can fit. There’s guy that uses this same smoker at BBQ competitions and regularly beats people with $20,000 rigs. You just need to know what you are doing.

If you plan on smoking brisket all the time or similar large cuts, then I would go for the 55cm model. Otherwise the 47cm model is adequate, especially if you are worried about feeding 8 people. If you have a bit more to spend and want to smoke in colder weather, then I would consider ceramic smokers like the Big Green Egg. They also can get really hot, hot enough for neopolitan pizza.