Kenneth Brown
Captain
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2003
- Messages
- 3,481
Last week was a killer in trying to prepare for this contest. Everything and then some kept going wrong. As life goes on though I finally made it to Friday. I get to the park in my beat to heck, 5 tone, gotta short across the soliniod to start it, exhaust leaking, rattling to death farm truck with my ugly as sin gooseneck with my itty-bitty smoker, gas grill, and regular grill along with the picnic table behind it. Every where I look theres NICE custom smoker trailers being pulled by 1-2 yo trucks along with 28'+ RV's. Nothing really important about all that, just another day in the life of high class white trash. Around 730 or so the head judge comes around and tells me the schedule for turn in times, completely oppisite of what I thought it was gonna be. So much for any sleeping tonight as I'lll never be able to leave it for more than an hour or so. ANYWAY its sat at 11:00 am and we start turning in. Chickens first and a little disappointing. It never developed the nice pink color, took in enough smoke flavor, and the rub didn't absorb very well. It tasted pretty good but not good enough for me. Ribs turn in at 12:00. I had some BADA** ribs. These boys here could have won a world wide cookoff IMHO, absolutely nothing wrong with them and they were perfect in every sense. Brisket turns in at 1:00 and its damn good too. For me personally it could have been a litle more tender but I like it falling apart. Judges like it to have some firmness to it, just enough to hold on itself for slicing and it was just great that way. Great smoke ring, rub come out good and overall a nice piece of meat. Jackpot beans check in at 2:00. At 1:00 these were great. Set them to the side so as not to cook anymore and the "gravy" got pretty thick but they were still real good. We also chech in Cooks Choice at 2:00. I made a version of Jalapeno Chicken. Pound out/fillet chicken breasts, place a half jalapeno thats been de-viened on it, fill jalapeno with a mixture of cream cheese, season salt, and a touch of italian seasoning, sprinkle with Monterrey Jack, and roll up. Then ya wrap it it bacon and put some rub on the outside. After their cooked you slice it 1/2" thick and serve. These were excellant too. Finally I let freinds and family eat as I have turned in all my meats, everyone got way too much in them and loved it all. Finally at 3:30 the judges give results. Nothing on chicken as expected. Nothing on ribs which was a HUGE letdown for me. Nothing on brisket which was kinda suprising. Nothing on beans which was also expected. Cooks choice was the last entry and I was real upset I was going home with nothing. Head judge called out Cooks choice #8 and that was me. I got 3rd place and was just overjoyed about it too. You'd thought I won the lottery or something. So in the end I didn't do as well as I would have hoped and expected but I didn't go home empty handed either.
