Back Row (L - R), Matty, Kyle, Bigger Daddy Black, Noe, Doug, Michelle, Big Daddy, Mike F, Front Row (L - R) Mike H (aka J-Lo), and Mike B.
There were more people helping out - Thanks to all!
This was a LONG event - we showed up on December 30 to prep for the NYE turn ins.
Aaron (aka Big Daddy Black) - showed J-Lo and Mike F how to scrape chicken skins. It's such a fun job that Big Daddy "allowed" the Mikes to get to work!
Noe and Aaron tried out some team dinner - spatch cocked chicken. Kyle weaving some bacon for some breakfast fatties! Hard work with bacon deserves a smile!
Kyle discussing the finer points of bacon weaving. Bigger Daddy Black taking a break.
Bigger Daddy Black still taking a break. J-Lo with his baby crumb snatcher - waiting for some BBQ to come off the grate!
Day 1 started off with a bang - Chicken turn in. We went with the breast and 6 pieces of thighs. It seemed like a good idea until we saw the scores.
654 798 887 767 898 989 16/45
We had higher hopes but what can you say?!?!
Ribs - We knew we would score low - they were underdone. Trying out a new technique at a bbq comp is a HORRIBLE idea. Don't do this..... ever..... never....!
736 877 966 966 765 765 44/45 Not a DAL but can't get any closer.
Pork - we thought we did pretty good. Good taste, tenderness and appearance. The judges didn't think as highly.
777 778 888 877 877 878 29/45
Brisket - I felt really good about the tenderness and the flavor. The smoke ring was nice too.
979 877 999 767 766 876 20/45.
Overall for the first day was a lower than expected 36/45. That rib score really dragged us down.
We also participated in an Iron Chef Challenge. The team really came together to create an incredible dish. The mystery ingredient - zucchini!
The team came up with this incredible dish: We halved and boated the zucchini and then smoked them with some EVOO while Michelle and Noe made some hand rolled pan seared meat balls. We also smoked some Roma Tomatoes with some minced garlic and EVOO. The meat balls were placed in the zucchini boats, topped with peeled tomatoes and then garnished with blue cheese and sour cream sauce with some smoked bacon sprinkles. The dish was awesome and tasted fantastic. We pulled in a solid third.
Michelle telling the judges about the dish we created. I never heard such creative adjectives!
Right after the award ceremony it was time for the extra comps! NYE dinner for the VIP's, Meat, Inc. delivered all four courses for the side comps: Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, and Dessert. We brought a chicken breast crustini topped with Swiss and dill weed - won FIRST PLACE!!!! Way to go Michelle! Main Course was Stuffed Pork Loin. Side Dish was Garlic Mac & Cheese. Dessert was stuffed smoked bananas,
People's Choice Award - keep reading!
Day two - New Year's Eve - prepping for New Year's Day Competition - the first comp of the New Year!
Bigger Daddy Black taking another break. Beautiful day - what a way to start the new year! The entire area was blocked off for the amazing turn out of teams.
Doesn't get any better than this - (L - R) Jerry "The King of BBQ" King, Aaron "Big Daddy" Black, "Monkey", Brian "Big Country" Zalewski, and Johnny Trigg.
A couple of Fatties for breakfast. This team knows how to eat!!!!
Side story - what kinda a$$ hole would buy a 25lb brisket? I sent Bigger Daddy Black out to get some more meats because Meat, Inc. ran out of meat during the vending portion / People's Choice on NYE. Bigger Daddy Black actually bought the largest brisket ever seen. 25lbs!! He was so proud of himself - "Look at the size of this one!" - Oh Boy! 25lbs! WTFO? We cooked it for 12 hours, cut it up and cooked it for 6 more hours until you could actually chew it. We're trying to show the scale of this monster. It is not an exaggeration that EVERY team within 50 yards came to see this monster. Side by side pic with a 15lb brisket kind of shows the size. Doug holding the monster kind of shows the size. Look at the full size hand over the cooked brisket should show the size but still doesn't.... it was HUGE!!!
Day 2 turn ins:
Chicken - I did not want to scrape skins again - particularly after Simply Rock'n turned in skinless thighs. Well, we did it again. Added the breast. Here's the kicker - in order to get a piece of skin that large, we cut a breast out of a whole chicken and used the skin from the whole chicken to create a piece of skin that large. What a pain in the a$$! All in the hopes of winning.
977 888 888 888 989 16/43
Still not the score we'd like to see.
Ribs - they were a little overcooked this time. I repeat - DO NOT try a new cooking method for the first - or second - time at a comp. Really BAD idea!
756 877 988 777 977 986 33/43
Pork - We felt good about this category again BUT the judges still didn't agree.
787 767 766 877 879 868 33/43
Brisket - after the NYE comp, we felt that we were really on with brisket. After the scores on NYE, we didn't really know what else we could have done so we gave it another run. Didn't work out.
866 988 766 776 988 867 32/43
We finished up average in the KCBS comps even though we felt we had some really strong turn ins. The good news is we finished up 1st in People's Choice for NYE! We finished up 2nd place in People's Choice on NYD - we lost by 4 votes! Overall, for the whole weekend, we had the most People's Choice by over than a 100 votes!
Thanks to our fans!
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