May BBQ Competition Results

Ahh....trying to recover from another long BBQ weekend.  You'd think that after doing one a month all year, then doing overnights the past couple months that I'd recover faster, but not quite yet LOL

So on Friday I left work and it was *pouring* rain; I was thinking 'oh great another cold and wet BBQ night'.  But by the time we got there it had stopped raining and didn't start up again until we were on our way home on Saturday afternoon....

After the cooks meeting, we started setting up.  We bought a new tent and once we started putting it up, I was essentially pushed out of the way because several of the other BBQ team guys came over to help and oooh and ahhh over the new tent:

Yes we got a double-wide tent LOL we didn't have to put up the sides/walls and left it open.  We had a TON of room which was nice.  We put the smoker, tables, and cooking stuff in the back half, and had a 'living area' in the front half, with tv trays tables and chairs galore.  I didn't think to take a picture (sorry) but will next time.

Anyway we had some friends hang out on Friday night; we smoked burgers, had some beer and had a great time visiting.  After they left we put on the brisket and let it cook all night:

YUM!!!!

I made the brisket marinade and the chicken sauce from scratch....still working on the brisket and chicken rubs, so this time around we used commerical ones.

Anyway, here are the pictures of both the chicken and the brisket:

After almost 3 hours of waiting, the results came in:

1st place - Chicken
10th place - Brisket

We are THRILLED with the first place finish (obviously!) but are *very* disappointed in the brisket finish.  Overall we came in 9th place.  I'm still waiting for the judges comments to see what they said about the brisket (and find out what they didn't like about it) so I can fix it for next time. 

After looking at these pictures again, I'm hungry LOL

Hope you had a great weekend!
Vanessa