The Royal

Just got back from the American Royal in KC.  Andy, Jamie, Kenny, Dave and Heather Chittum made up the I-QUE squad, we had a blast and had some good results.  A 15th place Rib ribbon in the Invitational event (30th Overall out of 90 teams)... in the Open we hit an 8th place Chicken ribbon and 8th overall (!) out of 475 teams.

Its a pretty brutal challenge spending 4 days in a parking lot and cooking two KCBS competitions back to back. First day ribs and brisket were real good .  The pork had great flavor but I had sourced a natural farm raised pork I had never cooked before. The butcher had taken a slightly different bias on the boston butt portion of the shoulder and as a result I had a hard time with presentation.  Chicken deservedly bombed (82nd).  Dave and I conferenced Saturday night and worked out a completely different chicken recipe for the Open.  We were pretty proud of the big turn around in that category.   Andy did very well with the side dishes and we came in 5th Overall in the side categories. 

I feel pretty tuned up for Jack Daniels and can't wait to get down there for another cook.   Congrats to I Smell Smoke for the Chicken call and Transformer for Ribs.