How To Cook Your Best BBQ

Char-Griller Ambassador Steve Dotson shares tips for cooking your best barbecue.

Hey everyone, today we are going to talk about something I think about often, and that is how do you cook the absolute best BBQ you can?

I like to think about this, not only in terms of myself and how to get better in the land of competition BBQ, but here on the channel my whole mission is to help anyone get to the point where they also really really love honing the craft of cooking delicious BBQ. Cooking BBQ to those of us who love it is way more than just following a recipe, it's a constant measuring of our ability and trying to make it better to share something truly special with those around us at the end of a cook.

While I’m here to try and help you cut the learning curve down as much as I possibly can, at the end of the day there is really only one way that we can improve our skill and get better. We have to cook and be willing to fail! If we do, its ok, we will have learned for next time.

A classic example I love to give is everyone is afraid to over cook a rack of ribs or a brisket, when in actuality, if you do overcook those cuts a little, they may be a touch dry, but they will be incredibly tender, and once you have crossed that line, you now know where it is and can begin to walk back from there. At that point true learning and craft can begin.

You can now push whatever protein you are cooking to the limit and find the perfect marriage of tenderness and juiciness, but it can only be done if you’re willing to try and fail to find where those limits are.

I can say that personally, when I figured this out for myself and just began to cook to see what a piece of protein could do, I was amazed at how the quality of what I was cooking changed and how my skill as a pitmaster was able to improve.

If I can help you on your pitmaster journey I’m always happy to, but in the meantime, don’t fear failure, push those limits, and let me know how it works out for you as you do.