Top 4 Meats to Smoke for a BBQ
April 4, 2019
Top 4 Meats to Smoke for a BBQ
Burgers, sausages and chops are fine for a BBQ, but if you want to add food with that extra oomph then you really need to be smoking some meat for your feast. Be warned though, once word gets around that you offer guests delicious, melt in the mouth smoked meats at your tailgating parties you could end up with lots of gatecrashers!
The biggest dilemma people face when smoking meat or BBQ is which type to go with – so we’ve put together this handy guide on the top 4 meats that really work when cooked this way. What is great is that smoking is a fabulous way to cook cuts of meat that would be too tough if cooked a differ way, so you can experiment with cheaper cuts like brisket without a worry – however fattier cuts of meat are better, always .
Meat #1 – Pork
Mmmmmmm pork shoulder in the smoker
Look for pork butt (bone in if possible) for a tender meaty treat at a great price. It takes around 10 hours to smoke a good sized butt, over pecan or hickory, to a temperature of 205F. The other popular pork meat to smoke for a BBQ is ribs, particularly spare ribs which respond brilliantly to smoking. Allow between four and six hours for the smoking, over maple, apple or cherry wood.
Meat #2 – Beef
Perfectly Smoked Roast Beef… It’s What’s For Dinner!
Familiar to us all when shaped into a tasty hamburger, there are plenty more cuts of beef that you can BBQ with – and several lend themselves very well to smoking. Most people will know the good old sirloin steak – top class meat for sure, but the lower sirloin is actually better for smoking. Sometimes known as a Santa Maria steak, the tri tips cut smokes beautifully, and only takes an hour – with a flash finish over the coals.
Other great cuts of beef to smoke are chuck roast, brisket and beef ribs. A chuck roast only takes around 5-6 hours over hickory or pecan to be ready, while the equally tasty brisket needs 10-12 – so these can easily be interchanged depending on how much time you have to smoke the meat. Beef ribs are not as easy to find as some cuts are but it’s worth investing the time to find some from the ‘chuck plate’. They are so simple to smoke, needing only the lightest sprinkle of salt and pepper and a slow 5-6 hours in the smoker over oak, cherry, pecan or hickory.
Meat #3 – Poultry
Whole smoked chicken in the smoker
It’s not the most obvious meat for smoking but both chicken and turkey do well smoked, except for the skin – which will not generally be edible. In under two hours you can be enjoying smoked chicken quarters, while turkey breasts don’t take much longer.
Meat #4 – Lamb
This does usually cost more than the other options but lamb shoulder has the perfect fat content for smoking. Leg cuts are good too, though preferably boneless and halved for even smoking, as a leg with bone in is too awkwardly shaped to cook evenly in a smoker.
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Oh… and as long as you are here, you might also enjoy the following related topics:
Chicken & Turkey Recipes | Wings! | Smoker Recipes | More Tailgating Tips
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