This BBQ event was held at Pala Casino in North County San Diego. The venue was nice (right outside the casino) and the event benefited the Boy Scouts of America. The weather was supposed to be good until Saturday afternoon. The weather held out until we almost sold out so a good day for People's Choice too.
The team this time was big. Aaron (Big Daddy), Doug, Mike V, Chris (Scuba Steve), Michelle, Richard, Wendy, and Jason. Mike H (J-Lo) arrived on Saturday morning just in time to wash dishes - until he cut his finger (on purpose?) and had to ride the pine.
Aaron and Scuba Steve prepping competition chicken.
Wendy doing the Meat, Inc. dance to show our appreciation for our dry rub sponsor - Oakridge BBQ.
Henry usually puts on a great competition with some surprises. This was no exception! This time Henry came up with a unique Iron Chef Challenge. Each team had to go to the convenience store on the casino property and purchase 3 items to combine with ingredients that you brought to make a savory dish for the three judges. Like most convenience stores in the rural areas, it was not packed with lots of great ideas so we had to get really creative.
Scuba Steve and Michelle came up with a great idea, prepped and plated the dishes while Aaron and Doug stayed properly hydrated and cooked the food.
The three ingredients? A can of chicken noodle soup, a bag of Fiery Hot Cheetos, and a extra large pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Whawhawha - what?!?!
Here's what we did - chicken satay skewers using the peanut butter cups reduced as the sauce the topped with crushed Fiery Hot Cheetos for a flavor and color accent while adding some texture. We also made hot and sour soup with the can of soup. We chopped in some fresh vegetables, the smoked the soup and then transferred to the ramekins and smoked again for another 20 minutes.
It was plated up on bok choy leaves and garnished with fresh vegetables - we weren't going to eat them so it wasn't a loss.
The judges were as impressed as our fellow competitors and we scored a 88 out of 90. Seemed like a winner!
Now that the fun was over, it was time to get back to work. ABT's stuffing time and competition meat prep. For this event we only had to stuff 80lbs of peppers so it was only a few hours with the amount of people we had.
Now time for breakfast prep. It isn't a Meat, Inc. Breakfast without a few fattys! We went with the fancy breakfast fatty - maple bacon weaved with a layer of breakfast sausage, then stuffed with cream cheese, apple pie filling, and pancake pieces - smoked for 4 hours. We cooked our fattys on Frogmats. These things are some of the best BBQ Tools EVER! If you don't have some - get some!
Along with carne asada chowder - Breakfast of Champions! - Not for Meat, Inc...... but lots of other teams that eat breakfast with us!
The pits of Meat, Inc. We ran two Traeger 075's for the competition meats and the COM 200 for People's Choice. We utilize two Stokers patched into our laptops to help monitor the competition meats cook. The weather held until mid afternoon so the crowd came early AND hungry! We had the ABT's and Chicken - along with all of our competition meats for the crowd to sample.
Firemen LOVE ABT's! At the end of the day we sold over 800 samples of BBQ! The next closest team sold just over 300. Unofficially - Meat, Inc. was the PC Champs - again!
Turn in chicken - 999 889 977 878 988 888 good for 9th place.
Turn in Ribs - 888 988 888 899 888 998 - good for a 5th place.
Turn in Pork - 678 877 777 866 877 889 - good for 27th.
Brisket - 866 876 766 876 777 655 - 35th place.
Overall for the entire competition we came in 21st out of 38 teams. We did win 1st place in the Iron Chef Challenge too!
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