Competition Chicken & Ribs...

Dear BBQ Friend:

In one of my BBQ competition, I tried some new stuff with chicken and ribs. I did a Frenched chicken leg quarter cooked on a Weber rotisserie grill. I also did some easy ribs with just a dry rub and no foiling which I call 303 ribs since you smoke them at 300 degrees for 3 hours.

In BBQ competitions, a sweet sauce will score better than no sauce most of the time. I sort of knew that going in but I hear judges say stuff like "It's a meat contest, not a sauce contest" and "I'm gettin' tired of candied ribs" all the time. So... I thought I would let them eat their words this time and see what happens.

I didn't do too well in chicken and ribs, but that does not mean these BBQ methods are not good or even great methods. If I thought they were good enough to enter in a contest, you can rest assured, they are top notch. A lot of people prefer BBQ with just a dry rub over a sweet sauce. Memphis style dry ribs are very popular. 

My thoughts: I had a judge comment that my chicken was way too salty. I know they were not, so I was thinking why did he say that? What I think may have happened is he was tasting all that "candied" barbecue before he tasted mine. He still had that sweet taste in his mouth and the CONTRAST with my unsweet (but not too salty) barbecue hit him like a ton of bricks. So, my advice is to keep this in mind. Everybody else will submit sweet barbecue, and if you turn in unsweet barbecue, it will come as a surprise (maybe even a shock) to their tastebuds. So... think before you act. Maybe taste test it yourself at home just as the judges would - test something sweet first, then test your unsweet stuff. Maybe you'll have to cut back on the salt a tad.

So, watch the video and try them for yourself...

Sincerely,

Bill Anderson