Matthew Odam, food critic for the Austin Statesman, joins House to talk all things Austin food including his latest best Austin restaurants list, tacos, and of course barbecue. The barbecue starts at around the 29:00 mark and includes talk of the inventive stuff LeRoy & Lewis are doing at their trailer, the barbecue/Mexican hybrid at Valentina’s, and of course, Franklin Barbecue.
Author: Barbecue Bros
Linkdown: 11/21/18
Rodney Scott and Dr. Howard Conyers are on Southern Living’s Southerners of the Year 2018
Midwood Barbecue and Seoul Food Meat Co make Charlotte Agenda’s list of Top 50 restaurants in Charlotte:
Missed this a few weeks back, but here is Matthew Odam’s list of best barbecue in Austin
Several barbecue restaurants including Midwood Smokehouse, Sauceman’s, Seoul Food Meat Co, and Peace-N-Hominy Q Shack are represented on this list of best wings in Charlotte
Brunswick stew was the culprit for what made nearly 300 people sick from the Poplar Tent Presbyterian Church BBQ in Concord
Awesome news:
More on Dave Grohl’s barbecue obsession, this time from Maxim
The Smoke Sheet is a new barbecue newsletter worth checking out:
Tex Mex and Barbecue equals crazy delicious:
When you enjoy a slice of juicy brisket wrapped inside a warm tortilla, you’re celebrating the marriage of our two most beloved cuisines. This is nothing new at South Texas barbecue joints, where a side dish of rice and beans is as common as coleslaw and you’ll even find the occasional fideo. But the current Tex-Mex wave is deepening the bond between the two cuisines in new ways. You’ll find a lot more than just barbecue tacos, in other words.
PREACH:
On Chicken Bog
Monk: Chicken Bog is a South Carolina Pee Dee regional dish with Gullah
Geechee roots that’s at least 300 years old but if you were to ask someone outside of that small region, chances are they have never heard of it. Per DiscoverSC.com, it’s most popular in the stretch of SC between Horry County (think Myrtle Beach) to Florence in the eastern part of the state. Loris, SC (30 miles inland from Myrtle Beach towards the NC border) has been home to the Loris Bog-Off Festival since 1979. Personally, it wasn’t until a little over 2 years ago that I first encountered and tried it at Buxton Hall Barbecue (in the mountains of NC no less). Though if you know Buxton Hall, that’s not so far-fetched because pitmaster Elliott Moss is originally from Florence and has brought his family’s recipe for the dish to western NC.
I liken chicken bog to a SC version of jambalaya. It’s base ingredients are rice, chicken, and sausage and from there its anyone’s call. In that way, its a bit like Brunswick stew where everyone has their own version – some have various veggies while others are pretty simple with just the main ingredients and everyone’s spice mix is a well-kept secret. The version I made with my neighbor for an oyster roast this past weekend was on the simpler end of the spectrum. My neighbors have been having oyster roasts for a while now and initially would cook a chili to accompany the steamed oysters. A few years back, they made the switch to chicken bog and it was such a fan favorite that they haven’t done chili since.
I don’t have the recipe but the version we made was pretty simple (check the Discover SC page above for a more exact recipe). In two large pots, we placed 3 whole chickens, chopped smoked sausage, and spices into water and brought to a boil which both cooked the chickens and also created the stock we would later cook the rice in.
Then, the chickens were taken out of the stock and pulled into coarse chunks and set aside. Combining the stock into one pot, the rice was boiled and once cooked we added the pulled chicken back in and stirred the entire pot up. Spoon that mixture into bowls, add some hot sauce if you prefer, and its done – simple as that. It was a huge hit, and its so easy that you should do it too at your next oyster or even pig roast.
For more on Chicken Bog:
A Taste of SC: Just What Is Chicken Bog?
Elliott Moss’ Chicken Bog recipe
“On South Carolina, Gullah Cuisine and the History of Chicken Bog” by RL Reeves Jr
Friday Find: Bob Garner visits The Redneck BBQ Lab in Benson, NC
The folks at Redneck BBQ Lab in Benson, NC – Jerry Stephenson and his sister Roxanne Manley – don’t strictly adhere to eastern or western NC barbecue disciplines and instead pull from all barbecue cultures. Bob Garner visited for North Carolina Weekend on UNC-TV.