Hi gang!
This was my second church smoking event, I guess the 1st went pretty well.
Had to feed a crowd of about 100 and once again decided to go with 6 butts averaging around 7lbs per.
We also did some bbq chicken and since it was a potluck, members of the church also brought some of their own side dishes and desserts (church ladies know desserts!). So this should be plenty of pork.
Pics of the smokin'
The twist this time was to do a South/Mex theme.
I was so tired of all of these hot dog and hamburger events that the need to change it up was there.
So for half the table we offered up more traditional pulled-pork with 3 homemade sauces of Cherry Chipotle bbq, Grapelicious bbq and North Carolina Vinegar sauce served on buns.
The other side went mexican.
We would serve the pork on corn tortillas with some cilantro/onion mix, fresh mexican cheese from the local market (queso fresco)and top it off with some warmed-up roasted tomatillos sauce to melt it all together.
The Prep:
Had to start serving at 1pm on Sunday. So target was to get the butts on around 9pm Saturday night, figuring around 14 hours to cook and cooler time would give me the float room.
Saturday afternoon got the butts rubbed with my rub mix with a mustard slather they stayed in the fridge about 4 hours.
With my friend's helped we made up 3 bbq sauces & our mexican sauce.
1. Traditional N.Carolina Vinegar sauce, tried and true for the southern folks.
2. Cherry Chipotle, my friends all love this one.
Nice sweetness from the cherries and a good kick at the end
3. Grapelicious BBQ- my friend had an idea to go with grapes.
So we've experimented and 3 versions later got a winner.
Sweet and smooth, the grape juice and jelly adds a nice light touch.
Pretty surprising and was well received.
4. Roasted Tomatillos Sauce.
We have a wonderful local mexican market.
I roasted about 5 lbs of super fresh tomatillos along with jalepenos & poblano peppers, halfed onion and garlic cloves.
Once roasted blended wiht some fresh cilantro and took the blend and slowly simmered with chicken stock for about 4 hours.
This stuff is killer!
Also mixed fresh cilantro with onions as a seperate topping and made a big batch of pico de gallo for a side add-on
The Cook
Took the butts out about 30 min before the cook as the smoker was getting there.
Did a minion of 35 briquettes with a full ring and got the butts on right at 9 pm (happpy about that).
Pulled the all-nighter to watch over,did minor adjustments but really let it run around 230-250 range and we all know how smooth these WSMs go. At 3 am, 6 hours in checked them and did a apple juice/cider mix spraying and let it run again. The top rack was done around 13 hours later and bottom rack about 30 min later.
The pork was almost falling apart and the bark was awesome!
I double foiled them and put them in my cooler wrapped in thick towels.
This would give the butts around 3-3.5 hours to sit which was actually really good time to keep melting away.
The Serving:
We had over 100 people show up which was very cool.
I had the 6 butts in the cooler, still really hot. The bbq chicken was also ready to go.
So 2 of us stayed in the back, passing up the chicken and pork as we would get low. I was staggering the pulling of the pork to keep it as fresh as possible and passing it to the front line.
Front line, broken into the South & Mex with 3 people working the table.
1. South style side, we had samples of sauce to try with tooth picks (helped them commit to sauce)and simply slapped on some pork unto buns, doesn't get easier than that.
2. Mexican style- 2 people helped with that one.
Steamed up about 80 fresh corn tortillas, added some pork.
They then had choices of the mexican cheese (queso fresco) which is so good or store bought mexican blend cheese for others if there weren't too sure.
Also had the fresh cilantro/onion mix and then the tomatillo sauce that was all warmed-up to melt it all together.
End result, thankfully was a hit, people loved the pork buns and bbq choice and the mexican flare was a hit with the mexican food lovers and will be a repeat.
Went home after the serving, got some sleep and very happy to feed a crowd of hungry folks!!
This was my second church smoking event, I guess the 1st went pretty well.
Had to feed a crowd of about 100 and once again decided to go with 6 butts averaging around 7lbs per.
We also did some bbq chicken and since it was a potluck, members of the church also brought some of their own side dishes and desserts (church ladies know desserts!). So this should be plenty of pork.
Pics of the smokin'
The twist this time was to do a South/Mex theme.
I was so tired of all of these hot dog and hamburger events that the need to change it up was there.
So for half the table we offered up more traditional pulled-pork with 3 homemade sauces of Cherry Chipotle bbq, Grapelicious bbq and North Carolina Vinegar sauce served on buns.
The other side went mexican.
We would serve the pork on corn tortillas with some cilantro/onion mix, fresh mexican cheese from the local market (queso fresco)and top it off with some warmed-up roasted tomatillos sauce to melt it all together.
The Prep:
Had to start serving at 1pm on Sunday. So target was to get the butts on around 9pm Saturday night, figuring around 14 hours to cook and cooler time would give me the float room.
Saturday afternoon got the butts rubbed with my rub mix with a mustard slather they stayed in the fridge about 4 hours.
With my friend's helped we made up 3 bbq sauces & our mexican sauce.
1. Traditional N.Carolina Vinegar sauce, tried and true for the southern folks.
2. Cherry Chipotle, my friends all love this one.
Nice sweetness from the cherries and a good kick at the end
3. Grapelicious BBQ- my friend had an idea to go with grapes.
So we've experimented and 3 versions later got a winner.
Sweet and smooth, the grape juice and jelly adds a nice light touch.
Pretty surprising and was well received.
4. Roasted Tomatillos Sauce.
We have a wonderful local mexican market.
I roasted about 5 lbs of super fresh tomatillos along with jalepenos & poblano peppers, halfed onion and garlic cloves.
Once roasted blended wiht some fresh cilantro and took the blend and slowly simmered with chicken stock for about 4 hours.
This stuff is killer!
Also mixed fresh cilantro with onions as a seperate topping and made a big batch of pico de gallo for a side add-on
The Cook
Took the butts out about 30 min before the cook as the smoker was getting there.
Did a minion of 35 briquettes with a full ring and got the butts on right at 9 pm (happpy about that).
Pulled the all-nighter to watch over,did minor adjustments but really let it run around 230-250 range and we all know how smooth these WSMs go. At 3 am, 6 hours in checked them and did a apple juice/cider mix spraying and let it run again. The top rack was done around 13 hours later and bottom rack about 30 min later.
The pork was almost falling apart and the bark was awesome!
I double foiled them and put them in my cooler wrapped in thick towels.
This would give the butts around 3-3.5 hours to sit which was actually really good time to keep melting away.
The Serving:
We had over 100 people show up which was very cool.
I had the 6 butts in the cooler, still really hot. The bbq chicken was also ready to go.
So 2 of us stayed in the back, passing up the chicken and pork as we would get low. I was staggering the pulling of the pork to keep it as fresh as possible and passing it to the front line.
Front line, broken into the South & Mex with 3 people working the table.
1. South style side, we had samples of sauce to try with tooth picks (helped them commit to sauce)and simply slapped on some pork unto buns, doesn't get easier than that.
2. Mexican style- 2 people helped with that one.
Steamed up about 80 fresh corn tortillas, added some pork.
They then had choices of the mexican cheese (queso fresco) which is so good or store bought mexican blend cheese for others if there weren't too sure.
Also had the fresh cilantro/onion mix and then the tomatillo sauce that was all warmed-up to melt it all together.
End result, thankfully was a hit, people loved the pork buns and bbq choice and the mexican flare was a hit with the mexican food lovers and will be a repeat.
Went home after the serving, got some sleep and very happy to feed a crowd of hungry folks!!
