South Texas Barbecue

Big Sponsors at Barbecue Cookoff

2010-06-11T17:50:00.003-05:00

Save 30% on ALL orders at shopfijiwater.com with code LS30.

I recently went to a rodeo that had a barbecue cook off not too long ago. The cook off was not sanctioned, but there was around 50 teams competing. Barbecue teams could choose from up to 5 different categories to cook from. The categories were best beans, ribs, brisket, chicken, and seafood.

This year I noticed there was a lot more big corporations sponsoring teams competing . There was also an increase of big companies locally sponsoring barbecue teams. A lot of barbecue cookoffs I have been to in the past have never had this many corporate sponsors even when the barbecue cookoff was sanctioned.

Most of the time the teams were just hard core barbecuers or barbecue teams that compete full time that are retired. There were not too many weekend barbecue warriors at his competition I attended. Then again I heard a lot of the non-corporate sponsored teams complaining of how expensive the entry fee was for a non-sanctioned barbecue cook off. Even if it was for a good cause.

Maybe next year there will be less corporate teams and more mom and pop type teams. Hopefully the entry fees go down too! This competition is the most expensive I have ever seen. This is probably why team entries are on the decline in the past few years.

South Texas Barbecue Store

2010-04-30T05:37:00.000-05:00

I am currently making a lot of changes to the South Texas Barbecue Store. There is now sections for barbecue pits/grills, gas grills, barbecue books, sunglasses, and much more. Please feel free to browse and buy. Most of the products that are for sale in the STB Store are direct from Amazon.com. If you are not familiar with Amazon.com feel free to click on an item at the store and take a tour of Amazon.com. Amazon is a very secure place to make your purchases. If you are not satisified with your order for any reason Amazon.com has a very friendly customer service department. So, you can purchase your items with peace of mind.

The Best Beer Can Chicken Recipe

2010-03-04T05:35:00.002-06:00

Ingredients:

1 Whole Chicken (No Guts)

1- 12 oz or 16 oz Light Beer

1 Serrano Pepper (seeded or not)

½ Lemon

2 Garlic Cloves (halved)

½ Yellow Onion (halved and quartered)

Olive Oil

1 tspn - Fresh Ground Pepper

1 tblspn -Season All

1 tblspn -Garlic Powder

This is probably one of the best ways to barbecue a chicken. This probably will be one of the juiciest and most flavorful chickens you will ever eat. Beer can chicken or beer in the butt chicken is also known here in South Texas as "Pollo Borracho". Beer can chicken is a very popular way to barbecue a whole chicken. Beer can chicken is exactly what it sounds like. You get a whole chicken, take out the guts, and put the beer can in the open cavity. When you start your fire make sure you shift all of your coals to one side of the pit if you are using a smaller barbecue pit to avoid flare ups.

Some people say that barbecuing with an aluminum beer can may not be healthy for you because of the aluminum and the paint on the can. I have been barbecuing with a beer can for a long time and have never had problems with the way my bird came out when it was done. If you are not comfortable with using a beer can that is fine. There are manufactures that produce a beer can chicken rack that they say is safe to use. Follow all the directions. Instead of using the beer can substitute it with the beer can rack.

When I start my fire I usually try to keep my heat temperature between 300-350 degrees. At this temperature I barbecue on indirect heat. If you are barbecuing on direct heat try keeping the temperature between 200-250. Remember that all barbecue pits and grills cook different due to insulation and rack heights. The temperatures that work for me may not work for you. After about 10-20 minutes you will know if the heat you have is what you need.
Just adjust accordingly and you will be fine.

Directions:

First lay your whole chicken in a shallow tin foil dish and pat dry. take the insides out of the cavity and discard. In a small bowel combine the season all, fresh ground pepper, and garlic powder and mix. Next get your can of light beer (12 or 16 ounce). Safely cut the top off and empty about 1/4 of the beer. I usually use an electric can opener to cut the lid off.

Next, cut and seed the serrano pepper in half and put it in the beer. Get your lemon and cut it in half. Squeeze the lemon in the beer and put the half squeezed lemon in the beer. Cut both cloves of garlic in half and and put them in the beer. Get your yellow onion and cut it in half. Quarter the halved onion and put it in the beer. Last, add a few pinches of the dry rub mixture in the beer as well. It should start foaming up at this time. If you are not using a beer can and are using a rack, nothing changes.

Now you can get the olive oil and rub generously all over the chicken. Next, get the dry rub mixture and rub all over the chicken. If you need more rub just add more equal parts. Once your fire is at your desired temperature you are ready to barbecue the chicken.

On the tin foil dish grab your chicken and place the chicken over the beer can through the open cavity. Now set the chicken and the beer can on your grill. Prop the chicken legs forward and adjust the chicken on the grill so it will not fall. That is it! The chicken is ready to be barbecued. I usually leave my chicken in the barbecue pit for about 3 hours. Check
your bird about every 15-20 minutes if you are cooking over direct heat.

Once the chicken is done I usually put my chicken in a different tin foil dish and pour the beer over the bird. The chicken is now ready to eat!

Greasy Chopped Beef Sandwiches: A New Trend?

2010-02-18T19:43:00.006-06:00

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A few days ago I was driving out of town to see my family. I was hungry for a barbecue sandwich. I really wanted a good chopped beef brisket sandwich, which is usually hard to find. I stopped in a small town at a local Barbecue restaurant. The restaurant has been there for many years and always has a lot of vehicles in the parking lot.

I walked in the restaurant to the very back where the ordering counter was. It was a Sunday evening, so there were not much people inside. I asked the girl behind the counter if they had a chopped beef sandwich plate and she said yes. A man from the back came up and said hello and was very friendly. He must have been the owner.

I ordered a chopped beef sandwich, chips, and bottled water. The total came out to a little under $7. I thought that was a good price because the chopped beef sandwich was good size. When I unwrapped the sandwich I immediately noticed all the grease coming from the sandwich. I don’t mind a greasy sandwich, but this was ridiculous. I was hungry so I started to eat it. I almost immediately bit into a chunk of fat from the brisket. I actually bit into a few chunks of fat by the time I finished the sandwich. Yes, I finished it because I was starving.

The sandwich was so greasy that it ran down my hand and absorbed into my long sleeve shirt. The sandwich was not very consistent. Some bites tasted like brisket, other bites tasted like brisket fat, and other bites just tasted like barbecue sauce. The barbecue sauce did not have a great flavor to begin with. I did bite into a few pieces of brisket that had a great flavor to it. I then wished I had ordered a sliced beef brisket sandwich.

The trend I tend to see is that the chopped beef brisket sandwiches are always too greasy. Barbecue restaurant(s) tend to mask the sandwich with a lot of brisket fat and barbecue sauce instead of brisket. This restaurant was no exception. Needless to say the sandwich gave me a stomach ache from all the grease.

This barbecue restaurant must be somewhat good if it has been in business so long. Then again this is the only barbecue restaurant in this town. Maybe customers eat there because they want barbecue and this is the only place. The restaurant also caters, so business must be somewhat good. Maybe I ordered a dish they are not strong on. If I decide to go back I will try the sliced beef brisket sandwich instead of the chopped beef brisket sandwich.

If you want to try to make your own chopped beef sandwich, you should not have a problem. Chop your brisket in a food processor and then in a bowel mix barbecue sauce and the brisket. That's it! Serve on a hamburger bun with pickles and or onion slices.

Keep Barbecuing,

Gabe

Super Bowl Sunday and Barbecuing

2010-02-03T02:51:00.004-06:00

Super Bowl Sunday and barbecuing go together hand in hand. This is when you show off your favorite piece of barbecue. It can be anything from grilling steaks or burgers all the way to smoking ribs and brisket.

When you start griling and/or smoking your favorite cuts of meat, make sure to allow enough time so that you are not barbecuing or grilling during the game. You do not want to be running back and forth to the barbecue pit to the T.V. and miss most of the game. The other reason being that you are going to have a lot of hungry people watching the game and the last thing you want to do is upset them.

Just make sure that if the meat you are going to barbecue is frozen that you give enough time to properly thaw out before barbecuing. If you don't, you could have a cooked outside with a raw inside part of your meat. Also make sure you have enough wood so you don't have to run to different places to get more. If you are marinading your cuts of meat make sure you marinade them for the proper times. The last thing you want is to have your barbecue taste nothing like the marinade because you did not let it sit long enough.
Last, just make sure to have fun with your family and friends and enjoy the game.

Keep Barbecuing,

Gabe

How to start your barbecue pit fire

2010-01-11T09:29:00.002-06:00

Once you select the barbecue pit you want it’s time to break it in before you start to cook. I have seen a lot of people immediately start cooking on there pits once they get them home. In my opinion it is good to fire that pit up with some good wood and smoke it out for a few hours.

I always do this when I get a new pit to make sure that nothing will peel off from the inside. It is also a good idea to do this process to see how well your pit seals in the heat and smoke. Every pit cooks different, so this will also show you how fast your pit heats up.

Starting the fire in your barbecue pit is easy. There is not much equipment you need. Make sure you have a chimney starter, long handled barbeque lighter, newspaper, lump hardwood charcoal (mesquite, oak, pecan, etc.), wood chunks, and fatwood (optional). Please NEVER use charcoal starter fluid. Starter fluid is very dangerous and contains chemicals that give your food a bad taste. I personally never use charcoal briquettes and I never use charcoal starter fluid. If you ever go to a barbecue cookoff you will see most of the cooks never use starter fluid or charcoal. Some charcoal contain compressed wood fibers or sawdust. Some charcoals also contain petroleum based additives that are not good for your health.

When I start my fires I always put my chimney starter inside my barbecue pit with the grill taken out. I put crumbled up newspaper under the chimney starter. I then put fresh chunks of mesquite in the chimney starter and then put the hardwood lump charcoal on top of the mesquite chunks.

Now it’s time to start your fire! Get your barbecue lighter and start the newspaper on fire. The hardwood charcoal and wood chunks should catch fire within a few minutes. If there is not enough air flow through your chimney starter, you may need to add more newspaper and relight.

Once your wood catches fire let the flame reach to the top, but keep an eye on it. When the flame reaches this point I usually wait until the highest piece of wood catches fire. Then I carefully empty the hot wood into the pit to my desired location. The handle of the chimney starter usually is hot at this point. I use a hot dish holder to grab the hot handle and never have any problems.

Option # 2

If you do not want to use a chimney starter you can use “fatwood” to start your fire. Fatwood is a root that comes from pine trees that have a high concentration of resin. Fatwood is all natural and contains no chemicals. It is recommended that the fatwood burn totally out before you begin to cook your food. Fatwood will light whether it is dry or wet. Just put your fatwood under your wood in your barbecue pit and then light the fatwood. The fatwood will ignite immediately.

Keep Barbecuing,

Gabe

Charcoal Starter Fluid: Why do people still use it?

2010-01-08T05:07:00.007-06:00

When my family goes to the beach in the summer I always see people barbecuing. That is just awesome! The one thing that always makes me cringe is when I see someone squirting a whole bottle of charcoal starter fluid all over there charcoal or wood. Then they light it up and get that big “whoosh” full of fire coming towards them just to have the fire die out within a few minutes. Now what? They have no other source for starting the fire because they depended on the starter fluid. Now they have to take the time to go back to the store and buy more starter fluid. Meanwhile at the beach there are hungry friends and family members that are getting upset.

I see no point in using charcoal starter fluid. It takes forever for your wood and/or charcoal to ignite even when you do soak them. If you are lucky enough for the wood and/or charcoal to start, then you have to grill your food over it. The smell of charcoal starter fluid is awful. Then when your food is done you can actually taste the charcoal starter fluid in your food. This just ruins everything. The very thing you put time and money into just went down the drain.

Many people continue to use charcoal starter fluid just because that is what they have always used an do not know any better. That is fine. There are others who continue to use charcoal starter fluid because they are too lazy to buy a chimney starter. I am guilty myself of using charcoal starter fluid. I used to use it all the time until I found out about chimney starters. I have been using chimney starters now for many years. When you use the chimney starter you will see how fast your fire will start. Using a chimney starter is the way to go. Try it out, you won't regret it!

Keep Barbecuing,

Gabe

www.southtexasbarbecue.com

SouthTexasBarbecue.com

2010-01-05T22:52:00.000-06:00

I just published my new site www.SouthTexasBarbecue.com. I am adding new information and content every week. On SouthTexasBarbecue.com you will find everything you need to know about barbecuing and grilling. You will find recipes, barbecue tips, and other useful information. If you have any questions about anything that has to do with barbecuing please ask me.