Whew.........
Well, I'm done. Got the smoker back to JT (1 hour away), truck's unloaded, I finally got to pour a beer today and am finally eating something.
WHAT A DAY!!!
So since the little setback this morning, that put me a bit behind. I brined the chicken quarters for 1.5 hours in a simple brine which some SM Cherry rub, loaded the truck and the very last thing I did was yank the other 13 butts that had to finish. They were PERFECTLY probe tender when they had to be.:thumb:
We got to the party site a little later than I'd originally planned with a thunderstorm about 5 minutes behind us! Literally jumped out of the truck, loaded and fired a chimney starter, set up the EZup, unloaded the UDS, coolers and other gear and here came the rain and thunder!
By the time the drum was loaded and up to temp, the first batch of chicken was rubbed and ready to go on. We (myself and the customers) agreed that cooking the chicken in 2 batches of 30 quarters each would be best so the chicken would be nice and hot.
Here's the chicken as it hit the grates, rubbed with SM Pecan:
As soon as the chicken was on and rollin, we started pulling pork butt. I think we pulled 8 butts first to fill up a roaster.....
Happy to say that the bones all fell right out and the butts pulled REAL easy. After the meat was pulled, it all got a nice sprinkle of SM Cherry rub before going into the roaster. CHIT WAS GOOD!!!! (if I do say so myself:becky
About 1.5 hours, after swapping the top rack for the bottom and turning each piece once about 1/2 way through, the first catch of chicken was done.....
I was about 30 minutes later than planned getting the chicken to the serving table
tsk
which I was not that proud of, but noone seemed to complain since there was PLENTY of pulled pork to grub on. The first batch of chicken was VERY stubborn. I suppose I could have served it on time but it was not where I felt comfortable. The breasts were about 150-155 and the leg quarters were at 160. Since I knew people would be diving right in I just didn't want to take a chance.
The second batch of chicken got done a little quicker. The first batch had literally 3 pieces left in the roaster when I pulled the 2nd batch......perfect! Here was the second and last batch of quarters in the roaster:
All in all, it was a great event. Everyone loved the food, the 3 families who "bought" me in the auction were extremely pleased, the food was hot and plentiful! Here's how it was all laid out:
That's my daughter eyeballing the drink tubs.....
The food line:
The tent....
The aftermath in the coffin cooler that was once filled to the top with foiled butts.......
And finally, I got a chance to breathe and smile a bit (the apron was a gift for Father's Day last year---first time I wore it was today).....
We had 3 different thunderboomers blow through, one even gave up some hail!!! All 3 were relatively short with little to no wind (WHEW!). Straight down rain and were done in about 10 minutes each.
I got some really awesome compliments. I had a lot of folks stop by and say how much they ate, how much the enjoyed it, lots of questions about the UDS, lots of smiles. Always good to hear that stuff.
I had a few people want to know if I did this for a living. One guy even asked if I worked for a local BBQ business and didn't believe me at first when I told him no, I was just a hobbyist.:becky:
I had my wife and oldest son right there with me the whole time opening, handing me, and otherwise helping me out with stuff. We had to finally literally COMMAND our son (11 yo) to go and have fun with the other kids. He really loves this stuff. The wife was great in washing pans, tongs, whatever. They each worked the bear paws and I finished up each butt by hand with my brand new meat handling gloves (THANKS STEPH!!!) to make sure all the fat was gone.
Thanks to all the Brethren who helped me get this done on schedule too:
*Big Brother Smoke handily delivered the rub on time and it was spot on amount wise (even had a bit extra Cherry!!!:wink::thumb
,
*Bigbutzbbq made up and delivered some FINE sauce (cranberry and orignial) on schedule and...
*Great Lakes BBQ Supply handled the Blues Hog in fine order.
*Big JT so graciously loaned out his Ole Hickory Pit to a guy he only met a few weeks ago!!
Long post I know.......thanks so much for lookin y'all.
THIS PLACE ROCKS!!!!!