Westmont Red White & BBQ Competition
I'm giving this one a special highlight because it was my first competition. It's Illinois's largest BBQ competition, and just happens to be minutes from my house, so couldn't be more convenient. It's KCBS sanctioned, and they have a pro contest and an amateur contest.
The amateur contest, which is what I did, consists of ribs and chicken. I did it with my friend Brian Hansen who is just as into BBQ as I am and we plan to continue being a competition team going forward (including doing this competition again in 2017). To separate our duties, I handled the ribs, and Brian handled the chicken.
There were 60 competitors and we looked like the absolute least experienced. But it was so much fun and we ended up place 12th out of 60, which I was happy about. Brian's chicken placed 12th and my ribs placed 19th (my bad, Brian!). I have a few ideas for what I'm going to do differently in 2017 to try to improve upon that. Anyway, it was a blast of a day and great experience.
Our setup, just like a tailgate (which we have plenty of experience with thankfully)
Preparing the chicken box. By the way, it's a lot harder doing this outside (with wind) instead of in my kitchen.
That's a 12th place chicken box
Proud chicken cook
Cooked 3 slabs to pick 7 rib bones to put in the box
Careful assessment of the "best" bones
Proud of my rib box as well
Our 19th place rib box... plenty of room for improvement in 2017!
Now, a few quick looks at some newer stuff I cooked in the last 1.5 years. There's plenty I don't have pictures of, so I won't mention. And of course, I had plenty of days cooking the standard ribs, pork shoulder, and brisket. Each of these deserved their own post with directions on how I cooked them, but you'll have to just settle for the few pictures and captions instead, sorry!
Beef ribs!
Silver skin on the back is a lot tougher than that of pork ribs. I had a hard time getting it off.
But, eventually did...
Used my brisket rub for them, but probably over did it a little because they were a little too salty in the end.
Looked really good on the smoker
Finished beef ribs..
They were good but a little too salty (too much rub, perhaps?) and they were heavy. Each one was like eating a bunch of brisket. I like pork ribs better, but these were still good. A nice occasional alternative to the norm.
Full chicken.. it was really juicy and smoky - a great combo. I just have to get better at carving it up.
Nothing new here, just another pork shoulder. But I did recently do a small bone-in pork butt (not pictured) that was only 3.5 pounds and it was quick and easy to cook and came out great. A great option when I don't have all day to cook an 8lb shoulder.
During one of our many trips to KC, I stopped by the original Oklahoma Joe's BBQ (now regretfully called "Joes Kansas City"). It is in a gas station, which just seems perfect for BBQ.
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