If you have never ventured into the realm of homemade BBQ sauce you really should, it is just as rewarding as a perfectly smoked brisket. Sauce is easy and fun to make.
First thing I would suggest is start small (small saucepan, small amount, etc) and TAKE NOTES!!! It never fails the one time you strike gold you forgot to write down ingredient measurements. So make sure and keep notes and write down what you do so when you create that prefect masterpiece you can re-create it again and again.
Now just like the foundation of my secret rub recipe is Salt, Pepper, Sugar, and a distribution agent (Wheat Flour), the foundation of BBQ sauce is pretty much just as simple Salt, Pepper, Sugar, distribution agent (Ketchup). Ketchup is your foundation that all the other flavors and spices attach to. Now when it comes to the core elements of heat and sweet the possibilities are endless. I have tried ALL different kinds of heat and sweet agents from plain old black pepper to grandma’s homemade peach preserves. So you can make your sauce as simple or complex as you want. My daughter and I have so much fun when we make sauce. She has the most important job of constantly stirring the sauce (she says that is the secret to good sauce). My suggestion is start simple and then tweak as you go, just remember all sauce really is when you get down to the core is ketchup, brown sugar, salt and pepper.
Use the following recipe as a baseline for your first attempt at homemade BBQ sauce. Simmer the following ingredients in a saucepan for 5 to 10min, then start to add your own elements for added spiciness or sweetness, sample as you go and tweak till you have a finished product you like. Remember to write down what you add, and add small amounts at a time. Have fun with it, this process is the exact process I used when I came up with my secret Original BBQ Sauce recipe and my Black Label BBQ Sauce.
As most of you know, if you can’t make ribs, you can’t make BBQ. So to seal up the title of pit master its time to start working on mastering those BBQ ribs. My outline is based around beef back ribs (more information about cuts), however just like my outline for brisket also works for pork shoulder my outline for beef ribs works just as well on pork spare ribs. When picking out a rack I typically I look for a rib that has good marbling or a nice even mix of fat and meat. Now for my cooking process it is pretty simple, low and slow just like traditional BBQ should be. I use a method that is commonly referred to as 3-2-1 (or as Shawn likes to say, 3-2-1-plate-stomach), three hours naked (not in foil) two hours dressed (wrapped in foil), and one last hour naked. I use this as a baseline, and adjust as needed. The two hours dressed is where the ribs really get tender, so if you like your ribs fall of the bone try two or maybe a little more, the last hour is used merely to firm the ribs and the dry rub back up so your not eating pot roast on a stick, if you like your ribs smothered in sauce you can add your sauce in the last 5 to 10 min so the sugar in the sauce will caramelize around the ribs.
You should know this by now and it should be habit, but just in case you forgot don’t waste time playing around start working on getting your temp up to heat. For this example you are going to be looking for a temp around 200 - 250.
Step 2: Prepping the ribs.
The first thing you must do is de-membrane the ribs. With your ribs turned over (bone side up) you will see a layer of membrane that covers the back side of your ribs. You want to take this membrane off so you won’t have to eat shoe leather. The best process I have found is to take a butter knife and get one corner started, once you have enough started that you can grab it, use a paper towel and pull the membrane off (otherwise you will be fighting the membrane longer than it take to cook ribs). Once you have removed all the membrane from the back of you ribs you can now precede with coving the ribs with my famous secret rub.
Step 3: Naked.
Now with the smoker up to heat and your ribs covered in rub you can put your ribs on the smoker. I typically place them bone side down, however I have not found that bone side up or down makes much difference. So this first trip naked is going to be three hours at the desired 200 – 250 degrees, this is when the ribs grab most of the smoke flavor so this is one of the most important times to watch your smoke level and make sure you are working with that thin blue line.
Step 4: Dressed
After the three hours naked its time to wrap your ribs in foil, this is when most of the cooking really happens. Now you can keep your ribs naked the entire process but just like the brisket I don’t find any value in doing so, it will only add to your cook time. Note since this is when the cooking really happens you can back off or add to as you see fit. If you like your ribs falling off the bone (pot roast on a stick) let them go longer, if you like your ribs to have some form to them try cutting the time down, either way just take a peek in the foil and see if they are cooked the way you like them, once they are then move on to the last step.
Step5: Dressed
As you probably noticed your ribs are very moist and your rub has turned almost soggy, this is where the last naked hour comes in. It gives the rub exposure to a dryer heat and lets the ribs and rub firm up just a bit, bringing them back to a state of palatability. Here again watch your fire and your smoke, with all that moisture if there is any kind of dragoon lurking in your smoker (creosote) it will gravitate to the moisture and ruin your ribs.
And there you have it, the simplest ribs you can make that yield the best results. I have tried ribs using just about every method from boiling to mustard covered and this is by far is the easiest way to make some of the best ribs you will ever eat. Enjoy!
One of the best dishes you can make when it comes to BBQ is traditional BBQ chicken. BBQ chicken is one of the staples of BBQ. Here again I make a very simple BBQ chicken that is guaranteed to please.
First you want to start off with the right kind of chicken. As we talked before if you are looking to make chicken breast you are basically going to bake them in a shallow pan of chicken broth or water, but today we are going to be making that finger licking traditional BBQ chicken, I am talking about thighs, quarters, halves however you cut it, chicken that is bone in and skin on (now for this example I will be cooking chicken quarters, but all these same steps apply to thighs, halves whatever you plan to cook).
Step 1: Get your fire started.
Just like anything else, don’t waste time playing around start working on getting your temp up to heat. For this example you are going to be baking your chicken not slow cooking it, so you will want your smoker at 375.
Step 2: Prepping the chicken.
Start by giving your chicken a good wash, and then pat dry as much as you can (you won’t be able to get the chicken completely dry, but get as close as you can). Now like the brisket COVER your chicken with my secret BBQ rub.
Step 3: Musical chairs.
I hope by now you know where your hot spots are on your smoker, this is one time you want to take advantage of that extra heat and get your chicken skin nice and crispy. Now I normally would advise not to open the smoking chamber while you are cooking, but in this case you have to keep those chickens moving (I normally do not flip the chicken I cook them skin side in the case of quarters), you want to rotate the chickens in the hotspot so each piece gets its fair share of face time with the hotspots I normally will move them all around about every 12 to 15 minutes.
Step 4: Sauce glaze
Typically you will cook the chicken to an internal temp of 180 – 185ish. Around 180 I normally put a nice glaze of BBQ sauce on the chicken and then put them back on the smoker for just a few minutes, just long enough that the sauce caramelizes around the chicken.
Once the sauce is nice and caramelized you are set to go, you don’t have to slice or chop chicken so you can just plate, serve, and enjoy! It’s really that simple.
Want some smoked salmon but don’t want to commit all the time it takes to correctly cold smoke it (the citrus cure, and extended curing process, etc). Well I have a pretty simple Smoked salmon that I really enjoy.
Back to one of the basic concepts take your favorite baked salmon recipe and convert it to smoked salmon. This is why I call it smoke kissed because typically you are going to cook salmon 30 minutes per half inch, so measure the thickest part of your filet typically you are looking at 45 minutes cook time. This short cook time gives the salmon just a light kiss of smoke. So fire up your smoker to bake some salmon!
1.Pre-heat your smoker to about 350 degrees (you will want to keep the heat between 300 and 375)
2.Take a piece of foil and fold the edges to create a shallow pan
3.Spray the foil with non-stick spray and place filets on the foil
4.Drizzle honey over the salmon filets
5.Sprinkle brown sugar over the filets
6.Lightly dust with cinnamon
7.Lightly salt and pepper
8.Smoke for 15 minutes per half inch of filet (lightly butter filets half way through if the edges are starting to get dry).
This is my personal version of baked salmon, I like the sweet from the honey and brown sugar and something about the sweet with the cinnamon just pops. Like I said take your existing recipe and try it on the smoker, there are literally HUNDREDS of baked salmon recipes online.
You have your smoker, your gauges are good, you have found any hotspots, you understand heat flow/control and you have successfully kept your smoker at 200 – 275 for longer than 10mins. You should now be ready to cook a larger cut of meat! Now I don’t eat pork but if you like pulled pork go get you a pork shoulder and make that your first attempt at a larger cut of meat. Pork shoulder CANNOT be messed up, there is just too much fat in them to get messed up. The following brisket steps will work fine on a shoulder. However if you are wiser beyond your years and don’t eat pork either I recommend cooking a brisket as your fist larger cut.
First things first, what kind of brisket should you get? This is easy, look for a packer style brisket, or untrimmed brisket. If you are walking through the store these are those MONSTER size briskets (as long as your arm, and they have a huge section of fat on them). A packer style brisket is basically an untrimmed brisket that has both the point and the flat together; these two sections of meat are separated by a layer of fat. The main thing I look for is flexibility. Take the package and shake it around see which one has more flexibility to it. The more flexible the more marbling and fat within the tissue which will in turn create an even juicer more tender BBQ brisket. These briskets can be scary because of their price, but don’t worry if you follow this guide you don’t have to worry about $40 worth of meat going up in smoke.
Step 1: Get your fire started.
I don’t know how many times I see people waste time getting food ready and then try and start a fire. As you know Charcoal and firewood takes a little while to get going, so why not kick the fire off first, it normally works prefect. You walk out to a smoker that is up to heat ready for food and your food is ready for the smoker.
Step 2: Prepping the brisket.
Here again my goal is SIMPLE BBQ that is amazing. I don’t do anything to my brisket except COVER the entire brisket with Nate’s BBQ rub. I don’t trim, I don’t score, and I don’t do ANYTHING outside of rub. All the techniques I hear don’t make any difference or if they do it’s not enough for me to justify the time and the work to use them. BBQ is simple and brisket is one of the simplest. The key here is the flour that is in the rub. If you did not have the flour your meat would turn out to salty, spicy or sweet. With the flour you can COVER every inch of your brisket with rub; this rub caramelizes with the fat creating a perfect bark that keeps all that moisture in the meat, right where we want it.
Step 3: Watch Duty.
Once the smoker is up the 200 – 275 degrees put the brisket in. At this point all you are concerned with is heat control you don’t want that smoker going above 275 and you really don’t want it going any lower than 200. Now obviously the lower the temperature the more tender the meat is going to be. I normally keep mine at 250ish that way if I miss a cycle or lose track I have more time to catch it and bring it back up to heat. If the heat gets too low you start exposing your meat to the danger zone of bacteria.
Step 4: Did you burn it?
At this point you should be roughly 6 – 8 hours into the smoking process. You have been a champ keeping your smoker at temp for this long. This is the point that I normally check the internal temp of the meat. Your brisket should look almost burnt (it might scare you at first, but don’t be worried). With all hopes your internal temp is somewhere around 165 – 175ish. This is the point that I will wrap the brisket in foil. Now to clear up any confusion keeping the brisket open (not wrapped in foil) will do NOTHING but give you bragging rights in the BBQ community. Your brisket will not get anymore smoke flavor. I challenge anyone to be able to tell the difference between a brisket that was smoked open for 7 or 8 hours and then wrapped in foil vs. one that was open the entire cooking process. Also if you are just exhausted and tired of tending to the fire pre-heat that oven to 225 and finish the brisket off in the oven, it’s not going to get any more smoke on the smoker wrapped in foil. The reason I like to wrap in foil is it just makes the cooking process easier; it helps keep the moisture in and expedites the cooking process in general.
Step 5: Monitor the internal temp.
Get yourself a good quality remote digital temperature, this way you can keep it probed in the meat while it is cooking. If you are planning to make just chopped brisket or pulled pork cook until the internal temperature reaches 200. If you plan to slice any of the brisket cook to an internal temperature of 190, the lower temperature will allow you to slice the brisket without it falling apart. Once the brisket has reached its finished temperature pull it out of the smoker and let it rest (still wrapped in foil) at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour. This will allow the meat to rest (another topic all together).
Step 6: Slice/Chop the brisket.
The way I start is cut the brisket in half at the thickest point (this is the place where the point and the flat meat). This way you can clearly see the point, the flat, fat cap, etc. You will see where the point and the flat are separated by a layer of fat. Separate the point from the flat. Once completed on both halves you should end up with two pieces of flat, and two pieces of point. Cut off all excess fat and fat cap (keep the larger sections of the fat cap we will use them later). Now once the flat is cleaned off you will be able to see the grain of the meat. At this point you want to slice the brisket against the grain. The flat will be the part that has a really tight grain and runs almost parallel with the length of the brisket (when you cut the brisket in half it’s the part that was cut against the grain or close to). Now that the flat is sliced you can chop the point.
Note: See video for details on slicing and chopping.
Step 7: Now that you have everything chopped and sliced if you have any leftover or are planning to heat this up for an upcoming party simply put the brisket in a cake pan and then cover with the slices of fat cap that you kept and cover pan with foil. To re-heat pre-heat oven to 350 and place pan in over for 15 – 20 minutes, the slices of fat cap will help keep the brisket moist while you re-heat as well as add flavor.
This is where the real secret is, in my opinion. My BBQ is all about the rub. I don’t marinade I don’t mop, I don’t let my meat sit for 12 hours with the rub on it, I just COVER the meat with my secret rub recipe and throw it on the smoker. Now I have tried mops marinades and letting my brisket or ribs sit with the rub on them for HOURS and HOURS before I smoked them and to be honest, I can’t tell a difference, the only difference I could MAYBE tell was leaving the rub on for 12 to 15 hours before putting it on the smoker, but it was soooo minuscule that its just not worth it to me. My thought has always been simplicity is king. I want my BBQ to be simple and amazing and quite honestly that is just what it is. I don’t waste time on techniques that don’t bring any value, and I hope to help those from falling for these worthless techniques. I am convinced that some of the books and articles I have read are people just trying to make BBQ sound more complicated than it really is. Good BBQ is so simple and so easy I was amazed that more people did not do it, but then I read all these techniques and theories that are utter Booshe that I now know why so many people get scared or get turned off by the amount of work. If you are on the fence let me just tell you, after reading this blog and following a few of my step-by-steps you will be surprised at how easy this stuff is. If you can keep your smoker at a set temp for extended periods of time you can cook BBQ.
Why a rub? Like I said in my opinion a rub is easier and it works, so why change it. I use the same rub for everything, Ribs, Brisket, Chicken, etc most of the time your precious rub that people spend years perfecting turns into nothing more than a burnt crust that acts as a shield to help keep moisture in. Ribs and Chicken is about the only thing you will cook that your rub’s taste will really come through on. So with that being said I keep my rub like my BBQ simple. You have three elements to a rub salty, spicy, and sweet. The secret is the ability to COMPLETELY cover your meat with a rub yet your BBQ turn out not too salty, spicy, or sweet. So you need something to cut your rub with. The idea for my secret ingredient came to me as I was walking through the store, I was looking at spices and trying to come up with something to cut my rub with, then it hit me. Just like we covered in tip #1, when you smoke something you are baking, and what is a dry rub…a shake, and what is the number one ingredient in shake and bake….FLOUR! Now I use a whole wheat flour that gives my rub kind of a heartier taste and texture, but you could use whatever you want. I have yet to find ANY recipe online that calls for flour in the dry rub so I am convinced this is the BBQ communities best kept secret so don’t tell anyone I told you.
Now I encourage you to use my rub as a baseline and tweak to your liking. If you like REALLY sweet BBQ add more brown sugar or if you like spicy cut some of the sugar out and add more heat, etc. As I stated before chicken and ribs is one of the few things the taste of your rub will REALLY come out in, so as you tweak the rub test it on chicken thighs or quarters or on ribs. Now keep in mind these items are some of the harder meats to cook so I would recommend if you are new to smoking just use the recipe as written and get a few smokes under your belt before you try tweaking the rub on chicken or ribs.
BBQ Rub
A BBQ Rub that works great on everything
Ingredients:
1cup
Brown sugar
1tbsp
Paprika
1tbsp
Black pepper
1tbsp
Seasoning salt
1tbsp
Garlic powder
1tbsp
Onion powder
1/4cup
3/4cup
White sugar
Whole wheat flour
Directions:
1.Mix all ingredients in large mixing box
2.Cover meat with rub before cooking or smoking; add during cooking process as desired.
We are just a few checks or steps away from firing up our first meal which will be covered step by step. So going do the check list (fire starting, temperature control, smoker, etc) one thing you need to make sure is accurate is your gauges and if your smoker does not have a gauge do yourself the favor and invest in a quality temperature gauge. So how do you make sure your gauge is not lying to you, first you need to calibrate it. You can do this by two methods; the ice method or the boil method. The ice method is when you put the gauge in a cup full of crushed ice and water and make sure it reads +/- 2 degrees of 32 degrees. The boiling method is just as simple you bring water to a rolling boil and make sure your gauge is reading =/- 2 degrees of 212 degrees. I prefer the boiling method because this is closer to the temperatures that you need accurate readings of.
So now you got your gauges on the up and up, next thing I like to do is give the smoker just a good old fashion break-in test run. So fire up the smoker and the goal here is to get the temp up to 225 degrees and then keep it between 200 and 250. This will give you an idea how often you are going to be checking the fire, adding wood, dialing the dampers, etc. This is also a good time to try and find any of those pesky hotspots. There are two easy ways to do this, one go out and get you some general oven temperature gauges (you know the ones that go inside the oven, they normally are made to hang off the oven racks) and place one or two in different spots. This will give you an idea if you have any spots in your cooking chamber that are extremely hotter than others. Another more enjoyable way is get you a few packages of beef brats and throw them throughout the smoker. You will quickly see which ones are getting the heat more than others thus giving you an idea where your warmer spots are. Now like I posted before you want to try and alleviate as many hotspots as you can but you will ALWAYS have a few spots that just cook hotter than others and it’s always good to know where they are.
You should now be on your way to your first real BBQ low and slow session. You want to make sure you are able to keep that temperature in the range you want for long periods of time. Depending on what you’re cooking you may be trying to hold that temperature for 18+ hours. You now also know the gauge on your smoker is telling you the correct temperature. Pretty sure I will start wrapping up all these tips and walk you through your first low and slow smoke.
NOTE: If you like to kick up your BBQ with a little spicy goodness and you are testing for hot spots with those beef brats here is a great quick and easy recipe that is always fun to do whenever your cooking anything on the smoker, they do well at high and low temperatures.
HOT Brats (easy)
An easy anytime the smokers cooking item to throw on. Enjoy these spicy treats while you are cooking other items.
Ingredients:
1 package
Beef Brats
1 Bottle
Favorite BBQ Sauce
1 Bottle
Bottle of sriracha hot chili sauce (rooster sauce, you know the hot Chinese sauce that comes in the clear bottle with the green twist cap)
Directions:
Cook beef brats on the smoker between 200 – 300 degrees (these things cook great at just about any temp so you can cook them easily while you are cooking other items). When they are just about fully cooked slice them open and put one line of sriracha sauce and then on top of that put a line of BBQ sauce. Let them cook 4 to 5 more minutes just long enough for the sauce to caramelize. Enjoy this spicy BBQ treat!
So as I was sitting here thinking what is one of the most important items to cover when someone first starts wanting to BBQ and it hit me. It was one of the first concepts that I learned that makes so much sense now I almost forgot all about it (keep in mind you BBQ masters that are reading this, this blog is for the noob walking them to master).
Smoked BBQ is completely different then cooking burgers on your grill, and here is how. Smoked meat (brisket, ribs, etc) is cooked using what is known as indirect heat, where grilling (burgers steaks, etc) is cooked with direct heat. Now I know all of you that have read this before are thinking “Tell me something new”. Well here it is, smoking is baking, and grilling is broiling. Why is this a revolutionary concept? Well once you figure that out, you have a HUGE library of recipes some of which are probably sitting in your wife’s baker’s rack. Any recipe that calls for you to bake, you can do it on your smoker. Once this clicked I was easily able to take existing recipes and do them on my smoker. Now keep in mind your aunt’s tuna tatter tot casserole may not be a family hit on the smoker…or could it ???
The idea with this tip is to think in terms of baking and broiling. This will save you the head ache of throwing things on the smoker that don’t belong or throwing them in wrong. For example have you ever read a recipe that calls for boneless skinless chicken breast to be baked at 350 degrees on the middle grate (not in a pan, covered or in broth)? NO! Everyone knows if you did that you would end up with DRY tasteless chicken, yet I know SOOOO many people that go out buy a smoker and do just that! They waste time and money and they get discouraged because their chicken is dry as a bone and taste like ash. Now take the same example and think baking, you look up baked chicken breast recipes, you want to find one that does not require the pan to be covered because you want the smoked flavor. Low and behold place breast in a shallow pan and lightly cover with chicken broth or water bake at 350, etc. Now you are thinking in the right terms.
This is a SIMPLE variation of this exact example and an easy first recipe. This won’t win any awards but makes a very tender chicken breast and will boost your confidence if this is your first attempt at baking anything on your smoker.
Nate’s BBQ Chicken Breast
1 - Package of boneless skinless chicken breast
1 – Disposable foil cake pan
1 – Bottle of your favorite bbq sauce
Directions – Take your package of thawed chicken breast and place them in the disposable cake pan. Fill pan with water so the chick is almost completely covered. Lightly drizzle BBQ sauce over the chicken place in smoker at 300 – 350 degrees. Cook until chicken can be broken apart with a fork (turning chicken occasionally).
