Tag Archive: BBQ Guru

  1. Not One, But Two Great Recipes From BBQ Bob of BBQ Guru!

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    Recipes By: BBQ Bob Trudnak with The BBQ Guru. www.bbqguru.com


    Easter Pizza/Easter Pie

    This recipe is very near and dear to my heart. It was passed down from my Grandmother to my mother and then down to my wife. I have been eating this on Easter Sunday since I was a little boy.  The tradition came from the fact that we did not eat meat on Fridays during lent and we did not eat meat from Good Friday until Easter morning after Sunday mass.

    We are now cooking these in our smoker and they are delicious!

    1 pizza dough (brought to room temp- let is rise)
    White flour
    6 hard boiled Easter Eggs sliced
    1 cup of sliced or chopped pepperoni
    1 cup of sliced or chopped Soppressata
    1 cup of sliced or chopped hard salami
    2 cups of sliced extra sharp provolone cheese
    Olive oil
    Set Smoker to 375°F

    Roll out the pizza dough and place it in a half size (12×14) aluminum full pan with has been dusted with flour.

    Layer the cheese, eggs and meats in the center of the dough and when you are finished, pull up the sides of the dough and pinch together tight so the dough does not separate. Brush with olive oil and place the pizza (in the pan) in the smoker. (We do not use smoke wood, just charcoal)

    Cook until the top browns and the cheese has melted. Approximately 25 minutes. Let cool slightly, cut and serve.

    Jalapeno Cilantro Pork Steak Bacon Burger

    1 Pork Butt roast (about 3 lbs)
    1 pack of onion buns
    3 stips of Jalepeno & Cilantro Bacon (www.bespokebacon.com)
    1 medium fresh jalapeno
    Fresh cilantro
    1 medium vidalia onion
    4 oz. sour cream
    Kosher salt
    Black pepper
    Garlic powder
    3 tsp. Olive oil
    Pre-set smoker to 275° F.

    Rub pork roast with olive oil and season it with kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder. Slow smoke Pork roast until it reaches 175°F internally.

    In a medium size skillet, fry up the jalapeno cilantro bacon until crispy then set aside on some paper towels. Using the grease from the bacon, carmelize thick sliced rings of the vidalia onion and set aside as well.

    Finely chop a small bunch of cilantro, 1 jalapeno pepper (seeded) and the sour cream into a bowl and mix lightly. Set aside.

    When the pork roast has reached 175° F internally, let it rest for 20 minutes then slice it into 1 1⁄2” thick slices.

    Assemble burgers by smearing jalapeno/cilantro sour cream on both sides of bun, place pork steak onto bun, top with carmelized onions, Jalapeno cilantro bacon and serve.

  2. MABA is Raffling Off Three Awesome Cookers!

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    The Mid-Atlantic Barbecue Association is pleased to be able to raffle off THREE cookers at the 2017 Annual Meeting.

    The first cooker is a Gateway Drum Smoker®, courtesy of Stone BBQ Supply.

    The second cooker is the demo model of the new Shotgun BBQ Smoker, courtesy of The BBQ Guru. This cooker is not even on the market yet and has been burned a handful of times for show.

    The third, is a portable wood-fire pizza oven called the UUNI, and comes courtesy of Mason Dixon BBQ Services

     

    Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20.

    Tickets will be sold on the web until Thursday, March 9, 2017 and in person at the Annual Meeting. You DO NOT need to be present to win.

    Your ticket numbers will be generated at random. Your tickets will be input into the drawing which will be held during the annual meeting on March 11, 2017 in Frederick, MD.

    The Gateway Drum Smoker® winner will receive a gift certificate to redeem at Stone BBQ Supply and the Shotgun BBQ Smoker winner will receive a gift certificate to redeem at The BBQ Guru. Winner will need to contact the manufacturer to order the cooker. Any costs for customization or upgrades to the standard model, taxes, shipping costs, and/or other crating costs are the sole responsibility of the winner.

    Again, you DO NOT need to be present to win this drawing.

    Venue: MABA Annual Meeting
    Starts: Saturday March 11 2017, 12:00pm EST

  3. Featured Recipe – Bacon Wrapped, Grilled, Stuffed Turkey Breast

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    This month we feature an incredible looking recipe submitted by Bob Trudnak, pitmaster of BBQ Guru out of Warminster, Pennsylvania.

    •    2 turkey breast portions
    •    12 slices of raw bacon
    •    2 cups of cornbread dressing
    •    BBQ Bob’s Alpha Rub

    Cornbread Dressing

    •    1 16 oz. box of cornbread mix
    •    1.2 C. chopped celery
    •    1 small yellow onion chopped
    •    2 tbs. butter
    •    2 eggs beaten
    •    2 cups of chicken stock
    •    2 tbs. dried sage
    •    2 jalapenos chopped fine
    •    Salt and pepper

    DIRECTIONS

    Turkey Breast

    Set smoker up indirect at 275°F
    Use Applewood smoke (approx. 2 medium chunks)
    Butterfly the turkey breasts carefully keeping the same thickness on both sides of the slice.
    Place about 1 to 1 ½ cups of cornbread dressing into each breast and fold the breast over.
    Wrap each turkey breast with approx.. 6 pieces of bacon to cover it completely then toothpick it to keep it secure. This will keep the cornbread dressing in as well.
    Cook for approximately 1 hour And 20 min. or until the internal breast temp reaches 165°F

    To make the cornbread:
    Cook cornbread to directions on box
    Sautee onions, jalapenos and celery in the butter and set aside.
    Once cornbread is finished and cooled, crumble the cornbread and mix it in with all other ingredients into a casserole dish.
    Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes

  4. Tip From the Pros – Garnishing Your Competition Box

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    by Brian Walrath, MABA Board Member and Pitmaster for Brown Liquor BBQ

    The old saying goes, there are more ways than one to skin a cat.  The same holds true for garnishing your KCBS competition box.  Now before I even get started, I want to remind all of our readers what the current KCBS rules state regarding garnish…ahh, ‘ole rule #12:

    12) Garnish is optional. If used it is limited to chopped, sliced, shredded or whole leaves of fresh green lettuce, curly parsley, flat leaf parsley, curly green kale and/or cilantro. PROHIBITED GARNISHES ARE lettuce cores and other vegetation, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TOendive, red tipped lettuce. “PROHIBITED” garnish shall receive a penalty score of one (1) on Appearance.

    Now, when our team first started doing competition barbecue, we did the standard curly parsley boxes you’ve probably seen many times.  The drawback to these types of boxes are that they are a bit time consuming and finding consistent parsley can be a challenge at different times of the year.  Also, we’ve heard feedback from the judge’s tent that sometimes the individual pieces of parsley stick to your barbecue and some will ding the taste if they get it in their bite.  However, even with that said, a well done parsley box makes a nice presentation if you have the patience and like that overall look.  Here’s a link to a great resource on making that pretty parsley box.screen-shot-2016-11-28-at-10-48-30-am

    Another way to garnish your box became popular last year with the use of cutting discs of tightly rolled curly leaf lettuce.  Pitmaster Jerry Stephenson of Redneck Scientific even created an awesome video on exactly how this technique is done.  We started doing our boxes this way last year and found that it cut our time making boxes drastically and we could do all four in about 20 minutes or so.  We liked that nice even, flat surface this method provides.  We also liked that we could cut our discs to different heights to boost up the garnish so the meat would sit up on it and be the star of the show or cut them a bit narrower so we had more depth for chicken or stacking ribs.  One word of caution if using this technique…make sure you remove all the Saran Wrap from the box or you could get disqualified for having a foreign object in your box.  One tip is to use colored wrap which can be readily found in green or red during the holidays or can also be found on Amazon.

    In 2016 kale became an approved garnish for KCBS boxes.  Building a kale box is a bit similar to the curly parsley, but it’s much more dense and easier to work with.  The bunches don’t seem to stick to meat entries, and building kale boxes is just as quick, if not quicker than building the lettuce disc boxes mentioned above.  Here’s a great new video produced by BBQ Guru featuring BBQ Bob Trudnak, pitmaster of the competition team by the same name!

    At the end of the day, there are dozens of ways and a handful of different greens you may use to garnish your competition boxes.  This article highlights just a few that we’ve used and have had some success with.  You’ve got to find what works for you and what you can do consistently to keep your appearance scores in that 8 to 9 range all the time.  Garnishing your boxes is probably the easiest element of competition barbecue that you can control week in and week out.  But, remember, it’s also the lowest weighted component of scoring, so don’t get too bogged down in turning in the perfect pretty box for the judges…first and foremost, cook the meat right!

     

     

  5. New Jersey State Barbecue Championship North Wildwood , NJ

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    By James “Tex” Laudenslager, Pitmaster of Smokin’ Tex BBQ

    2016 marks the 18th annual N.J. State BBQ Championship in North Wildwood, NJ. As each year approaches many teams put this contest on their calendar. It is a well run event hosted by the Angelsea Fire Department. The only notch is they pack you in like sardines, but for many teams it doesn’t matter. Sixty-five teams come to compete for the coveted title of Grand Champion and that’s the case for Brian & Meg Ferguson of Finn’s Finest BBQ who won the event back in 2012.

    This year was different for Finn’s Finest as this year they were moved to champions row which is right next to the sea wall by the inlet. They were surrounded by last year’s winner Uncle Pig’s BBQ and four time winner of the event Local Smoke BBQ.  Also next to them was The BBQ Guru and add in teams like Wilbur’s Revenge, GoneHoggin.com, and other accomplished teams and you know you’re in for a knife fight!

    As we all sat at the awards and listened to the top 10 teams get called in each category the crowd was becoming aware that this years GC was gonna either be Finn’s Finest BBQ or Wilbur’s Revenge. Finn’s took 2nd and Wilbur’s took 5th in chicken. Then they swapped spots as Wilbur’s was the top PIG in ribs and Finn’s took 3rd. While Pork did separate them a bit Finn’s finished 3rd while Wilbur’s finished 8th. The rumblings got a little louder when brisket was called and there Wilbur’s took the 2nd spot just edging out Finn’s who got 3rd. At this point the crowd was calling out both teams as to whom they thought who would win GC.  To me it didn’t matter who won, both teams are awesome people and great ambassadors to the sport.

    As they started the count down #10 to #3 the anticipation was exciting to see who would be GC and RGC. Wilbur’s Revenge was called for RGC and I looked over at Brian and he went straight over to Dave Marks and was the first to congratulate him. Then GC was called and Finn’s Finest BBQ was the last one standing…

    First place winners:
    Chicken – Piggin’ Whiskey
    Ribs –Wilbur’s Revenge
    Pork –Smokopolis BBQ
    Brisket –Beerbeque

    Grand Champion –Finn’s Finest BBQ
    Reserve Grand Champion –Wilbur’s Revenge

    Check out the full competition results here.

  6. Que for the Troops Levittown, PA

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    by Mark Gibbs, MABA Board member and Pitmaster of Checkered Flag 500 BBQ

    Que for the Troops #Q4TT2016 is an annual BBQ festival and competition held at Falls Township Park in Levittown, PA each year to support the Philadelphia USO organization.  This year’s contest featured 67 teams (a new record high for Q4TT) from all over the region.  The weather was ordered by the Chamber of Commerce!  It was a beautiful weekend for smoke, music and fun indeed.  Matt Markey of Falls Township does a great job of setting up the competitors with the best amenities for each of the BBQ teams.  There is always ample power, water and a great breakfast on Saturday morning for all of the teams.

    The social scene was alive and well on Friday night.  The skies were clear and teams were taking advantage of the opportunity to visit and catch up with friends and fellow competitors.  The weekend started off with an Anything Butt Category and a Dessert Category on Friday evening.  JURASSIC PORK – PA took home the honors in the Anything Butt with a fried shrimp offering.   MABA’s own BBQ Bob Trudnak finished second in the category with this great platter of Surf and Turf Guru Style (pictured below).  Those shrimp must have been amazing if this was second place!  Our Bark is Better Than Your Bite took home the honors in the dessert category.  Congrats to everyone in those two categories!  We love BBQ, but we have some chefs in our region that can make your head spin with some gourmet dishes!

    image of surf and turf
    BBQ Bob Trudnak of BBQ Guru finished in second place with his surf and turf offering!

    Saturday brought another beautiful day to the park and the competitors had the smoke rolling.  A passerby remarked that the smell coming from the BBQ rigs was amazing.  He was not lying!  The awards ceremony was at 4pm and right on time.  The Q4TT team does not waste any time when it comes to awards.  The teams were crowded in around the stage and the awards began.  Top honors in the Chicken Category went to MABA’s own Smokin’ Foolz of New Cumberland, PA.  The big Rib trophy went home with Dead On Q of Fairless Hills, PA.  First in Pork was Eastern Beast BBQ of Valley Stream, NY (one of three top 5 calls!).  The Brisket trophy went home with yours’ truly, Checkered Flag 500 BBQ of Fawn Grove, PA.

    The Top 5 Overall were Checkered Flag 500 BBQ, Hawg Nation BBQ of Phoenixville, PA, Eastern Beast BBQ Team, Dante’s Inferno out of Newportville, PA and Smokestack Redemption from Phoenixville, PA.  Four of the top five finishers are Mid-Atlantic Barbeque Association members!  Way to represent MABA!

    Image of Grand Champion team
    Grand Champions Mark and Sharon Gibbs of Checkered Flag 500 BBQ!

    Congrats to everyone who had their names called and huge congratulations to the folks at Que for the Troops for another great competition.  Rumor has it that they are already making plans for 2017 and beyond!

    image of Reserve Grand Champs Hawg Nation!
    Reserve Grand Champs Hawg Nation BBQ!

    First Place Winners:
    Chicken – Smokin Foolz BBQ
    Ribs – Dead on Q
    Pork – Eastern Beast BBQ Team
    Brisket – Checkered Flag 500 BBQ

    Grand Champion – Checkered Flag 500 BBQ
    Reserve Grand Champion – Hawg Nation BBQ

    Check out the full competition results here.