Donkey Punch BBQ is gearing up for our 3rd year of competition BBQ. 2011 was a great learning experience where we saw some great success and some great failures. We are back and better than ever for 2012, looking for our first Grand Championship!
2012 Competition Schedule
9th Annual Smokin’ in the Creek – April 27th – 28th, 2012
Sugar Creek, MO
Our second contest of the year was in Lees Summit, Missouri at Smokin’ on the Summit. This contest was held in conjunction with the Lees Summit Downtown Days Festival, so we knew we were in for a fun filled weekend. We had a great time, enjoyed a lot of great company from all of our family and friends and were humbled a little bit by our results. Sometimes the judges just aren’t on your side and this contest proved that.
This was our first contest that we used all-natural meats for all of four categories. We purchased our brisket, ribs, pork shoulders and chicken thighs from A Cut Above Natural Meats. Stop by their store at K-7 and Johnson Dr in Shawnee, KS for the best selection of all-natural meats you can find in Kansas City!
Friday night was a blast, thank you to all of our family and friends who joined us for some BBQ nachos, BBQ Sundaes and Free T-shirts! We really enjoyed having everyone out and we are planning just as big of a party for the Blue Springs Blaze Off on September 9th, 2011, mark your calendars!
Ok, onto the results. Overall we felt as though our chicken, ribs and pork were better than we turned in at our last contest in Pleasant Hill, and our brisket was just as good as usual. We were very optimistic that we would hear our named called at the awards ceremony. Well, we didn’t hear our named called, but that’s ok, we still had a great time.
Chicken, we felt it was very good, moist and tender, but the judges didn’t agree with a 45th place finish. Ribs had a great flavor but were slightly under-done and the judges agreed with a 49th place finish. Pork, it was very good, had a great sauce and tasted great, was moist, tender and we received a fair score, 20th place. Brisket, it was really good, we thought it was top 10 again, but it finished just outside of the top 10, with a 13th place finish.
Overall we finished with 35th place out of 65 teams. Not the finish we were hoping for, but we are looking forward to washing out the bad tastes in our mouth after this contest with our next contest, the Sam’s Club BBQ Series, in Overland Park, KS on July 1st. If we do well, we will be traveling to Fort Worth, TX for a regional contest with a chance to go onto the Sams Club BBQ Series National Championship.
Our first contest of the year in Pleasant Hill Missouri at Smokin’ on Big Creek, and we turned in a respectable performance. This was a great event. Jeff, Stan, and all of the volunteers put on a great BBQ event.
For this contest we tried out several new BBQ Toys we purchased in the off-season. We purchased a new 10×20 carport style tent that served as our shelter and sleeping quarters. Last year we used a borrowed travel trailer and well, we decided it would be easier to setup and tear-down a tent than move a 30-foot trailer around all the time. Also, gas is expensive and it would cost us more money in gas to pull around the trailer. We also purchased new knifes, cutting boards, airbeds and a few other odds and ins that will make our BBQ experience better.
Since this was our first contest of the year and we hadn’t cooked as a team since September 2010, we weren’t really sure what to expect. We were hoping this contest would be a good warm up for the year and a good way to see how we stand with a lot of exceptional teams and cooks at this event.
Our chicken was good, and scored decent with a 33rd place finish. Our ribs tasted pretty good, but were over-done and the judges agreed with a 39th place finish. Our pork tasted great, was nice and tender and we received a fair score, 24th place. Brisket, oh sweet delicious brisket. Our brisket was really good, but we weren’t really sure how good. We knew it had a chance to be in the top 10 if we hit the right judges, but we didn’t expect to hear our named called for 1st place! We also entered the dessert category, a very tasty chocolate peanut butter cake, and finished 7th place out of 17th entries!
With the help of our brisket score and a consistent finish with all of the other categories, we finished a very respectable 9th place out of 76 teams. We were thrilled with the outcome and are looking forward to our next contest, Smokin’ on the Summit BBQ in downtown Lees Summit, MO on June 3rd.
There are a lot of good resources out there for championship quality ribs, but we wanted to share what we have learned over the last couple of years we have been competing on the BBQ circuit. We haven’t won many awards in Ribs yet, but hopefully our time is coming.
Buying Ribs:
I like to choose slabs with good meat coverage over the bones and no large areas of surface fat. Look for ribs that are a Reddish Pink to Purplish Red color, leaning more towards the Purplish Red color, which has good marbling throughout the meat. Avoid “shiners”—slabs where the meat has been cut too close to the bone.
For best quality, avoid buying ribs that are frozen or have been previously frozen, if you can. This is not always possible, and sometimes it’s impossible to know if ribs have been previously frozen. Cryovac packages containing 1-3 slabs of ribs have usually not been frozen, but there are exceptions and they do sometimes turn up frozen in grocery stores.
Ribs sold in loose slabs by the case (not in Cryovac) are commonly sold frozen.
In terms of size and weight of slabs, I usually purchase ribs that are 4.2 and down. Which means the entire slab weighs less than 4.2 lbs. I also like to look for ribs that have straight round bones. Wide bones on the slab of ribs could mean the ribs came from a big old hog and might not be as good. Sometimes you cannot see all of the bones in the Cryovac packaging, but do your best.
Prepping Ribs (Cutting into St. Louis style)
Trim to St. Louis style
To create a St. Louis Style spare rib, position the slab bone side up. Using a very sharp knife and starting at the sternum end of the slab, cut just above the ends of the bones down the length of the slab, cutting through the cartilage. The result will be a slab of fairly even width ribs.
You’ll also notice there’s a large chunk of meat attached at the end of the slab, usually doesn’t have any large rib bones in it. Square off the end by cutting off that piece of the rib meat.
With the bone side up you will notice a flap that’s attached diagonally across the slab. Cleanly cut the skirt meat off the slab flush with the bones.
Flip the slab over and inspect the meat for any large sections of fat. I like to remove as much thick sections of fat from the ribs. Also, on the sternum end of the slab there is sometimes a large chuck of meat that is somewhat loose. Cut this chuck off (and any fat underneath it) as it will curl up when cooking the ribs and produce a non-uniform looking rib.
Remove the membrane
Start by removing the membrane from the bone side of the slab. The membrane is a layer of stretchy material that becomes tough after cooking and prevents the penetration of rub and smoke into the meat.
To remove the membrane, use a knife to cut an edge of the membrane at the sternum. Once you get a small area pulled away from the bone, grasp it with a paper towel and pull it off toward the other end of the slab. If you’re careful, you can get the membrane off in a single piece, but sometimes it shreds as you pull it off.
Video from Virtual Weber Bullet on how to remove the membrane
If you’re not cooking the ribs right away, wrap them in plastic wrap to store in the fridge or cooler overnight. I also like to put the ribs in an oven bag (yes, the ones you cook a turkey in). The oven bags are large enough to hold 4 slabs of ribs and will keep them protected better than just the plastic wrap.
Cooking Ribs:
I usually plan on at least 5-6 hours to cook the ribs, give or take an hour based on the size of the slab. I like to start the cook at a higher heat (around 275 degrees) and finish the ribs at around 200-210 degrees (when I baste the ribs right before they are done), letting the smoker naturally decrease in heat over the length of the cook.
Getting Started
I have found I get better results when I rub the ribs about 30 minutes before they go into the smoker. Prepare your rub glue, I like to use a mixture of mustard (2 parts) and Worcestershire (1 part). Slather each slab with the rub glue and liberally sprinkle your favorite rub on each side of the slab. Lightly pat down the rub on each slab; don’t rub it into the meat. After getting all of your slabs covered in your rub, cover each slab loosely in plastic wrap and let them rest at room temperature for 20 or 30 minutes.
Smoke Time
Once your smoker is up to the ideal temperature (I like 275 when the meat first goes on), sprinkle an small amount of rub on your slabs and put your slabs on the smoker (bone side down) and add a few chunks of smoke wood. I like the combination of 2 or 3 small chucks of apple, 2 or 3 small chunks of peach, and 1-2 small chunks of hickory.
After 2 hours take a look at your ribs, they should be a nice brownish red color with some bark beginning to form. Rotate the slabs 180° on the grate (to account for any hot spots). Using a spray bottle, generously spray your ribs with a mixture of apple juice (2 parts) and apple cider vinegar (1 part). Cook an additional 1 hour or so then wrap each slab in foil. When wrapping the each slab in foil, put brown sugar, honey, and a few sprays of the apple juice mixture in the foil then lay the slab bone side up on the foil and wrap the slab as air tight as you can. Return the foil wrapped slab to the smoker (meat side down) and cook an additional hour or so.
After an hour or so with your foil wrapped ribs on the smoker, remove them from the foil and return them to the smoker for an additional 45 minutes or so. With 20 minutes remaining, baste the ribs with your finishing sauce and let the sauce set in for the last 20 minutes of the cook.
Are they done yet?
It’s a good idea to adjust the times above to how slow or fast the ribs are cooking. If they are cooking to fast, then you might need to store the done ribs wrapped in foil in a cooler for an hour or so. If they are cooking to slow, you might need to adjust your cooking temp or leaving them wrapped in foil a bit longer.
A good test to check for doneness is The Bend Test. This is the method I like best. I pick up the slab at one end and bounce them slightly. If they are ready, the slab will bow until the meat starts to crack on the surface. A small crack means you need a little more time. It should be close to breaking when you lift the slab.
Good Eats!
Pull the ribs from the smoker and let them rest 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. This will allow the juices in the meat to reconstitute in the meat and when you slice the ribs they will not dry out as much on the cut edge.
Donkey Punch BBQ is gearing up for our 2nd year of competition BBQ. We had some ups and downs in our rookie season, but ended with a bang at the Blue Springs Blaze Off with an 3rd Place overall finish and two calls in the top 10!
Donkey Punch BBQ will hope to continue our success this year starting on April 1st at Smokin’ on Big Creek in Pleasant Hill.
The Blue Springs Blaze Off is where it all started and it was where Donkey Punch BBQ ended their 2010 BBQ season. Everyone from Donkey Punch BBQ grew up in Blue Springs, MO so competing in the Blue Springs Blaze Off will be an annual event for Donkey Punch BBQ. Our first contest was in 2009 at the Blue Springs Blaze Off where we finished 12th place overall and received our first ever call in chicken, 9th place! We were hooked from then on.
3rd Overall Grand Champions
The weekend started great, but we knew we might be in for a long evening with the forecast calling for strong thunder storms friday night. Unfortunately the weatherman was right and the rain came pouring down. This thunderstorm canceled all the friday night high school football games all over the area and here we were trying to cook BBQ in the middle of a parking lot! We learned our lesson from Raytown and we were very prepared for the rain this time around.
Since this was our hometown contest we had lots of family and friends joined us at camp Donkey Punch. It was a great time and even some of them were lucky enough to ride out the thunderstorm with us.
We had a couple of guest members at this contest. Jackson Welch, younger brother of Bob and Nathan Welch competed in the Kids Q and won Overall Grand Champion for his inside out burger. Dena McLean, mother of Bob and Nathan also joined the team for the Dessert category, she took home 7th place dessert.
The weather cleared overnight and we had a beautiful morning for preparing our turn in boxes. Chicken turned out well and we thought we had a decent chance with it. We thought it was a bit dry, and the judges did too, 12th place for Chicken. Pork turned out good, but Pork at this contest was the toughest category. We received a good score, but finished 27th in Pork. Brisket is by far our best category and we were once again awarded with a call, 7th place. Ribs were the best we had ever turned in. They were full of flavor, juicy, and looked great. The judges thought so too, 5th place in ribs!
We had a good day and knew we had to be in the top 10 out of 76 teams, little did we know we were in 3rd place! We ended the day with 3rd place overall grand champion and the Blue Springs Hometown team winner!
The Raytown BBQ Cookoff is a contest we will remember for a very long time for a variety of reasons. We had several friends and family out to enjoy the festivities and we treated them to some “Smokey Joes”, drinks and good times.
Friday was a great day with good weather. We were able to get everything setup, prepped and ready to go. Everything was going according to plan and we were feeling good. Our friends and family came out friday evening and after they left we got to work. Brisket and Pork hit the smokers at 10 pm, Ribs went on at 6 am, and chicken was marinating and ready to go on at 9:30. The morning brought some dark clouds and with those clouds came a midwest thunderstorm that ruined our weekend.
It rained so hard we had to move our smokers under our tent to keep them from getting wet and putting out our fire. We had all of our smokers moved under our tents, but it didn’t matter. The rain came in sideways from all directions. We were standing over the smokers with umbrellas trying to keep our cooking temperature high enough to finish the ribs and cook the chicken.
We fought the rain for almost two hours while we finished our turn in boxes. We had to leave the chicken on for as long as we possibly could, but we were :05 seconds late turning in our chicken. I am sure this happens to all teams at some point, but it was fairly disappointing to have it happen to us.
After the chicken disappointment, the raining finally stopped and we were able to turned in on time. Pork was some of the best we have cooked, and the judges agreed with a 7th place finish. Ribs didn’t turn out as well as they could have, they took some of the wrath of the rain as well. Chicken, we know what happened to chicken. Brisket turned out great as usual, had great scores across the board, but one judge didn’t like to eat brisket, his scores were all over the place.
We have a nice break before our next contest in Blue Springs. Hopefully things turn out a bit better in Blue Springs!
Our second contest of the year was at the Great American BBQ (GAB) in Bonner Springs, KS. The GAB is a very large contest that had 192 teams competing from all over the country. Our results weren’t what we were hoping, but it was good to see how we stacked up against some of the best teams in the country. We found out we needed a bit more practice before trying to make the leap into the big leagues again!
We thought we might have luck on our side this time as the only time it rained was when we were setting up the night before the contest. Other than that, we had great weather.
We got everything cooked and turned in on time. Pork shoulder tasted good to all of use, the judges didn’t agree. Ribs were the best we had cooked, but didn’t bring home the big trophy. Chicken was delicious and it showed with our best score, but it was a tough field. Brisket that had the best smoke ring we had ever seen, we thought we were golden, but the judges were on our side this day. We felt good about our turn in boxes, but no doubt there will be adjustments for the next competition.
Well, our first contest of the year has come and gone. Memorial Park in Belton, MO was our host for this 33 team contest, and a fine host indeed. We had friends and family out to enjoy the festivities and made some new friends along the way. Our results were mixed, but we are proud to boast we took home 4th place in Brisket, making Donkey Punch BBQ 2 for 2 when it comes to getting calls.
We showed up on Friday with the hope the rain would subside sooner than later. After about 3 hours of waiting, the rain went away and stayed away for the rest of the weekend. This was our first contest utilizing a 28 foot camper trailer, and it was nice to be able to wait out the rain from the comfort of a fully furnished camper. Once the rain passed we set up our site, and got down to business.
After getting our meat inspected, always an arduous task of having a contest organizer come over and say “OK, you’re good” after a 12 second peak in our cooler, we got to work on the pork shoulders. By 4pm, our first shot of Southern Comfort was down the hatch, and a couple of pork shoulders were on the smoker.
Next, we went to work on prepping the brisket. At this point the sun was starting to come out and the beer was starting to taste particularly good. The brisket was rubbed, injected, wrapped up and thrown in a cooler for later.
We learned a lot from our first comp, but first and foremost we learned that Friday night’s at a BBQ competition are an opportunity to invite out your family and friends to enjoy the experience with you. We also learned that when people do take the time to show their support, you’d better have something ready for them to eat. This year we cooked up some pulled pork and invited everyone out for dinner. It was a nice little gathering of friends and family, and we appreciate them taking the time to come out and see us.
As darkness fell over Belton, it was time to get that brisket we prepped earlier on the smoker. By 9pm, another shot of Southern Comfort down the hatch and a couple of briskets on the smoker. Later that night, the Ribs were prepped and made ready for a 6 am cook-time.
We broke up the sleeping at 3am. Those who had stayed up, were headed to bed, those who were sleeping weren’t anymore. The chicken was placed in combination of Caribbean jerk and Hawaiian marinades at this point, and would be placed on the smoker at 930 am.
To make a long story short, we got everything cooked and turned in on time. Pork shoulder a little overdone, Ribs a little underdone, Chicken that was lacking flavor and a Brisket that was done as well as we could have hoped. We felt good about our turn in boxes, but no doubt there will be adjustments for the next competition.
On Friday, April 2nd the Donkey Punch BBQ stood 28 days from our first competition of the year, it was time to get some cooking done. Over the weekend, Donkey Punch BBQ did a practice run on chicken, ribs, and brisket in order to hone our skills for the upcoming competition.
First off, the chicken.
Chicken is believed by many to be the most challenging of the competition meats. Chicken can be presented in a variety of ways, but the vast majority of teams prepare chicken thighs for contest entries. All parts of the chicken are fair game when it comes to competition entries, but for now, Donkey Punch BBQ is sticking with the thigh.
The first step in competition quality smoked chicken thighs is to prep the meat. While most of the teams are going through similar processes on ribs, briskets and pork shoulders, the preparation of chicken can vary. Things such as skin v. no skin, bone v. boneless, brine v. marinade, high heat v. low heat are all factors our team has to decide on. Let us be up front and let you know that we feature a marinaded boneless chicken thigh with skin for our competition chicken.
Step One: Remove the Skin (only temporarily)
Removing the skin will give us a better look at the meat and allows us to use the skin to reshape the meat to create consistency in the size of our thighs. Typically the skin comes off easily and only has to be cut from one side.
Step Two: Remove the Bone-Trim the thigh
Next, we remove the bone from each chicken thigh. While this is a little trickier than removing the skin, it can still easily be accomplished. It will take a little time, as we typically cook anywhere between 25-35 thighs at a competition in search of the 6-9 best of the bunch. Some teams feel like you need to keep the bone to maintain moisture in the meat, so the removal of the bone is a Donkey Punch preference, and leaving it in doesn’t hurt one bit as many teams do leave it in. Whether or not you remove the bone, it is a good idea to trim the meat to remove excess fat and get a nice uniform thigh.
Step Three: Remove the Fat
This is the most non-glamorous part (as if any part of meat prep is glamorous) of the the chicken prep process, but it can possibly be the most rewarding in the end. When I say “removing the fat”, I don’t mean the fat from the chicken thigh itself, we did that in Step Two. I mean removing the fat from the skin. How you ask? A painstaking process of scraping the fat from the skin in order to prevent turning in chicken thighs with “rubbery” skin. To each their own on this process. We have yet to find a good way to do it, and if I ever did find a good way, I may not share it anyway. Good luck with Step Three, you’re gonna need it!
Step Four: Prepare for Smoke
Once you have scraped the fat from the skins, its time to rewrap your chicken in the skin in preparation to be placed on the smoker. Depending on how many thighs you are prepping, this entire process can take a couple of hours. In the end, we hope all the hard work pays off.
Step Five: Cook and Eat
Cook the thighs at normal smoking temperatures for 1-2 hours and then you should be good to go. Secrets of the pros may be excluded here for the finished product, but rest assured you are doing pretty well if you have followed along thus far. We did some wings just for fun this time.
