Monk: After an extremely successful stint recapping season 2 (ha), I’m back to recap the third season of BBQ Brawl, which airs on Monday nights at 9pm ET on Food Network. Let’s brawl!

With Jet down to one contestant, he gets a chance to steal a teammate from one of the other teams. Team Anne remains fully in tact, and that is where Jet sets his sights. In somewhat of a surprise move, he steals Sunny who apparently has a lot of competition experience (who knew?). She seems rather happy to be joining forces with Winnie on what they’ve dubbed themselves as “Team Mom.”

Once that bit of business is done, Jet picks the Advantage Challenge of cooking sirloin cap as this week is beef-themed. Sunny is thrilled with this challenge and lets out an audible yelp of joy.

Advantage Challenge

“Team Mom” immediately starts cooperating together and decide to cook the sirloin cap two ways: Sunny cooking skewers with a simple rub of salt, pepper, and garlic salt and Winnie going with a skillet-seared version with butter.

Team Anne now consists of Rashad and Don. Rashad decides that he is going Brazilian style but trims the fat cap (something Sunny did not do) before serving it as a taco. Don is unfamiliar with this cut but leans on his Asian influences for a Japanese steak and eggs, although he ends up scrapping his eggs at the last minute.

On Team Bobby, Tina is going with an Argentinian preparation with a pomegranate molasses glaze while Matt is going with a rub of salt, pepper, and Chinese five spice and tops the steak with a cilantro chimichurri.

Tina, Sunny, and Rashad are named the top dishes of their respective teams and in the end, Sunny wins the Advantage Challenge for Team Jet. Jet’s steal is already paying dividends.

Team Brawl

The Team Brawl this week is a “Texas Big Beef Challenge” where teams will have their choice of six big cuts of beef: Texas-sized bone-in ribeye, Denver roast, angus strip loin, chuck-eye roll, wagyu bavette steak, and beef tenderloin. Chuck-eye roll is likely to be picked last due to how long it takes to cook.

Team Jet gets first pick and exclusive use of the pantry for one minute, and they go bone-in ribeye and Denver roast. After that minute is up, the rest of the teams scramble for meat and Team Anne gets tenderloin and strip loin, leaving wagyu bavette and chuck eye roll for Team Bobby.

Team Anne goes for a Texas steakhouse vibe with New York strips and fries as well as cooking the tenderloin whole. Even with Anne’s micromanaging, the team is scrambling until the end. I wonder how much Sunny’s absence will hurt Team Anne in both the near and long term.

Tina opts for surf and turf and for the chuck eye roll, Matt is initially going to smoke the smaller one and also reverse sear the larger cut before getting the idea from Brooke as she’s visiting to grind it for a burger. Matt decides to add smash burgers to his other two preparations instead of editing one out. Matt also declines to get help from Bobby (who Carson points out owns a burger restaurant) so looks like he will sink or swim on his own accord this week. Matt and Bobby’s weird, contentious energy continues through the rest of the cook and while he eventually gets Bobby to help out finishing his steak on the grill he doesn’t get around to actually getting it on the plate much to Bobby’s dismay.

On Team Jet, Sunny is reverse searing bone-in ribeyes but Winnie’s Denver roasts are a cause for concern if the fat doesn’t render. After the steak temp isn’t moving anywhere, she makes the decision to butterfly the steaks to get them to cook faster and eventually gets something servable.

Results

For Team Jet, Winnie’s Denver roast comes out alright in the end and Sunny’s bone-in ribeye with garlic compound butter is “salty, meaty, and cooked immaculately” according to Brooke. While her three-cheese only tastes of one cheese, Jet’s creamed corn with leaks is a judge’s favorite.

For Team “Anne-gus,” Don dried out the interior of his NY strip trying to get the proper sear. Rashad’s whole tenderloin needs seasoning but is aided by his mushroom sauce.

For Team Bobby, Tina’s bavette steak and butter poached crab meat topping suffers from the crab meat stealing the show from the steak. Matt only shows up with his smash burgers which are mostly well-received, but the judges note the lack of a true steak dish from him in two hours of cooking.

In the end, this is his undoing as Matt is sent home when Team Bobby lands on the bottom. He clearly should have worked better with Bobby and only has himself to blame.

Team Jet pulls off the win this week, aided by Sunny’s mastery of steak cookery. Team Anne’s win streak ends, but Sunny’s individual streak continues. Team Anne does manage to get through the challenge in tact even though this wasn’t their best cook.

Why didn’t Matt take Bobby’s advice? Is Sunny officially the frontrunner after five episodes? Who will maintain their two-person team advantage after next week? Check back here next week and find out.

Monk: After an extremely successful stint recapping season 2 (ha), I’m back to recap the third season of BBQ Brawl, which airs on Monday nights at 9pm ET on Food Network. Let’s brawl!

Last week I started to feel a little weary of some of the challenges this season, which have been more reliant on gimmicks versus just giving us smoking or live fire cooking. This week, we are 1 for 2 but the episode begins with Jet (whose team came in last previously) picking a challenge for just the captains that is right in his wheelhouse.

Advantage Challenge

That challenge is…bison fried rice? I’m sorry, but I’m not going to waste too many words on this particular challenge. Jet wins the challenge and similar to last week’s advantage, his team gets their pick as well as dictating what the other teams get in the Team Brawl.

Team Brawl

The theme this week is “Throwback BBQ” and in the Team Brawl “throwback” refers to “historic heat sources” – campfire “from the early days of barbecue,” barrel smokers “from the dawn of the pitmaster,” and offset or kettle cookers from “the dawn of modern era” – as well as the use of whole duck, which is one of the oldest proteins that has been cooked. Bit of a contrived setup to get to “BBQ Duck Through the Ages” but at least the challenge is more what I think it should be.

Team Jet goes with the offset and kettle smokers while giving Team Anne the barrel cooker, and of course stick Team Bobby with the campfire method, the least predictable and least consistent method of the three.

Matt is on fire and duck duty for Team Bobby and after some false starts, he is able to eventually get the fire roaring by restacking the logs in a Lincoln log stack. Tina pushes the team in a Cuban direction, and Bobby gets to work on a sour orange glaze and a beans and rice dish. Tina opts to cook a “Cuban cole slaw” with blood orange as well as rum and brown sugar-glazed plantains.

Rashad is the fire and duck man for Team Anne and while he is not familiar with the barrel smoker but he is going to embrace the challenge and dedicates himself to the cooking of the ducks after rubbing it down with salt, pepper, and Chinese five spice. Sunny goes with a diced sweet potato dish and bread rolls that Anne will top with fuck cracklins while Don will make bao buns to eat the duck on and a thai basil spring slaw.

Team Jet immediately picks “honey” and “citrus” as their flavor profile for the duck, and Michelle decides to do a bread pudding while Winnie opts to cook a quiche and a parmesan and lemon broccolini. Jet poaches the duck in broth to tighten the skin before putting them in the offset. However, between the duck and Winnie’s quiches, Michelle has no space for her bread pudding in the offset so pivots to an ancient grain salad, which she is not so thrilled about.

During the cook, Matt is concerned with the fire hitting the ducks while Bobby says to leave them, but he still rotates them once Bobby turns his head. A bit risky going against the advice of Bobby Flay but Matt seems comfortable with campfire cooking.

Rashad is constantly making adjustments on each of the 3 barrels, including working with Sunny to restart her rolls on a hotter temp. After not being happy with how hot the barrel was getting, he and the rest of the team improvise to create a human rotisserie to get the skin nice and crispy.

Even though Jet and team have the advantage of “modern smokers,” Jet accidentally dumps duck fat into the coals of his kettle cooker, creating a grease fire. Between the fire and running out of grill space, they have by far the most difficult cook of the three teams.

Results

Team Jet is unable to crisp their duck skin enough, the bacon in Winnie’s quiche is not crisped up enough, and Michelle’s grains are undercooked. Jet’s squash and Winnie’s broccolini seems to have been executed well enough.

Team Anne’s duck is cooked nice and crispy and works well on the bao bun. Sunny & Anne’s mashed sweet potatoes with duck cracklins is a hit. But Sunny’s rolls/biscuits lack some flavor and Don’s thai basil spring slaw could have used a little more oomph.

Team Bobby’s Cuban-inspired duck was cooked well over the temperamental fire but lacked a little salt. Tina’s Cuban slaw and plantains both have orange and are well received by the judges. Not mentioned was Bobby’s beans and rice.

For week 4, Team Anne is – stop me if you’ve heard this one before – once again named the first safe team and although she didn’t win the Captains Challenge, Team Anne has won the last five team challenges (including the last 3 Team Brawls) by my count and is looking formidable.

Team Jet is – stop me if you’ve heard this one before as well – on the bottom again this week. Michelle goes home for her “severely undercooked grains” and will perhaps be upset that she wasn’t able to cook her original dish and pays the price as a result. Jet is upset for her that he didn’t execute the duck but of course he isn’t going anywhere.

Next week looks to be beef-focused, and I hope that both challenges continue on the same trajectory as the Team Brawl this week. Let’s get this season back on track.

Who will Team Jet draft onto their team next week? Will they get off the schneid as a result? Who from Team Anne sticks out or are they overly reliant on Anne’s leadership? Check back here next week.

Monk: After an extremely successful stint recapping season 2 (ha), I’m back to recap the third season of BBQ Brawl, which airs on Monday nights at 9pm ET on Food Network. Let’s brawl!

Team Anne went from the bottom to the top in last week’s episode, while Bobby flipped the other way. That means he gets to pick the Advantage Challenge, and this week’s theme is “Backyard BBQ.” Bobby picks “Backyard BBQ Pizza” and I’m with Rashad who doesn’t think pizza when I hear “Backyard BBQ.” Regardless, the contestants are off and running.

Advantage Challenge

The contestants are thankful they get pre-made dough for their crust and are able to just focus on the toppings for the 30 minute challenge. The contestants struggle with the challenge as a whole and especially cooking their dough on the grill. The ones who opt to use cast iron pans for their dough are the most successful. Tony, Sunny, and Matt are named as the best on their respective teams, and Sunny pulls off the win for Team Anne with her pear, prosciutto, and arugula pizza with gorgonzola cheese. That’s three wins in a row and counting.

Team Brawl

The “Backyard BBQ” theme continues with a “Last Minute BBQ” challenge which has “Chopped”-style mystery coolers that are themed “Suburban,” “Bachelor,” and “Vegetarian.” The pantry is closed for this challenge. Anne not only gets first choice of her box but gets to dole out the boxes to the other teams. As I would have expected, she gives Bobby the “Vegetarian” box as punishment while she takes the “Bachelor” box. Team Jet is pumped because the “Suburban” box was their first choice.

Let me just say, I am not a fan of this challenge and am a little frustrated with the selection of challenges thus far this season. With most Team Brawls having a 2 hour time-limit, I can understand the limitations, but they just aren’t clicking with me so far. Let’s lose the gimmicks and focus on true barbecue and live-fire cooking.

That said, the Suburban cooler isn’t as much of a prize as Team Jet would have expected and they struggle to come up with a menu based on the odd assortment of items. It seems like Team Bobby enjoys the limitations the vegetarian cooler gives them. Team Anne hums right along with Anne leading the way as usual.

Results

Team Anne is once again named the first safe team and they find themselves on a bit of a roll now after winning four challenges in a row. The judges don’t pick out any individual dish but note that all were solid albeit unspectacular. Those dishes were:

• Don’s dry ramen with tri-tip and fried rice
• Rashad’s tri-tip and pancetta burgers
• Sunny’s beans, cheese, and rice dip with flour tortilla chips made from frozen burritos
• Sunny and Anne’s scallops
• Anne’s dessert of grilled pineapple with blueberry compote and whipped cream.

Team Jet is on the bottom this week with Tony’s chicken wings and Winnie’s lomo saltado being the main culprits why. In the end, Tony’s lackluster wings that had no flavor under the skin sends him packing. Winnie’s pre-marinated steak with her lomo saltado was tough but her “ounce cake” saves her. Tough result for Tony after success in the pizza challenge.

Was it harsh for Tony to go home after performing well in the pizza challenge? Should Anne continue to micromanage her team even though they keep winning? Who do you think is the frontrunning contestant after 3 episodes? Check back here next week.

Monk: After an extremely successful stint recapping season 2 (ha), I’m back to recap the third season of BBQ Brawl, which airs on Monday nights at 9pm ET on Food Network. Let’s brawl!

After a week one where no one went home (but the bottom two teams switched captains), we’re back to the usual elimination format in episode 2. After some trash talk from Bobby, whose team won week 1, they jump right into the Advantage Challenge.

Advantage Challenge

The captains will join their teams in a culinary relay challenge to perform the following four tasks: shuck and de-kernel 8 corns, cut a pork shoulder and grind into five sausage links, break down a whole chicken, and chop 3 quarts of coleslaw. The teams have 5 minutes to gameplan.

Team Anne jumps out to a big lead but eventually everyone gets to the coleslaw challenge, and Jet starts making up time with his serious chopping skills. Tony on Team Bobby has a unique “chop everything” technique and starts to make up time but ultimately Team Anne’s lead is too much to overcome and they win. A chintzy new “Pigasus” trophy is introduced and they proudly display at the front of their station. Not sure if this will come into play other than bragging rights.

Team Brawl

For the Team Brawl, the BBQ Games continue in the form of “BBQ Tag Team”: each team has to create a cohesive theme in at least 4 dishes, whatever each team wants. Two hours cooking time, 15 minutes to prep and cook as a team, but after that that initial period only one contender can cook at a time in 15 minute increments and everyone has to cook twice. Team Anne’s advantage is that they get to tag Anne in once to help outside of the beginning and ending 15 minute periods.

In order of judging:

Team Anne goes with a “BBQ Melting Pot” theme which means each person basically does what they want (similar to Team Jet’s concept from last week when he was captain of these same contestants). The cook goes fairly smoothly and Anne comes in for the last 30 minutes total as part of their advantage. Their menu:

• Don’s Vietnamese chicken with ginger garlic rice
• Sunny’s garlic herb tri-tip
• Rashad’s roasted garlic and cheese mashed potatoes and sweet and sticky brussel sprouts;
• Anne’s Mexican street corn

While the judges agree that the menu was all over the place, they seem to like just about every dish but note that the brussels could have used some char.

Team Bobby’s them is “Southwestern BBQ” and by far the most cohesive concept amongst the teams. Their cook also goes well for the most part until James knocks over a grill with his meat and vegies right as they get to the last 15 minutes but he thinks he can salvage the steak.

• Matt’s smoked salmon and scallop ceviche with tortilla chips
• Tina’s chile relleno casserole and charro beans
• James and Bobby flank steak with salsa roja
• James flatiron steak fajitas

Immediately there are issues noted by the judges. They question the use of salmon with scallops together in Matt’s ceviche. It turns out maybe James shouldn’t have served the steak fajitas after all as Brooke and Carson both taste a gritty and sandy texture in their meals. On the other hand, Tina’s chile relleno and charro beans are a hit and the flank steak and salsa roja works once the ingredients are combined.

Team Jet‘s theme is “International Soul Food BBQ” (again Jet with an international theme).

• Tony’s cast iron chicken with Armenian spices and pomegranate drizzle
• Winnie’s char siu pork
• Michelle’s cajun shrimp and andouille over cheesy grits
• Jet’s roasted cauliflower with agrodulce

Tony’s chicken isn’t getting color on the smoker so at one point he pivots to cast iron to give it a sear before putting it back on the smoker. In the end this leads to a successful dish. Winnie’s Chinese char siu pork has good flavor but is slightly overdone. Both Michelle and Jet’s dishes needed more char on the shrimp as well as more evenly on the cauliflower.

Results

Team Anne is named the first safe team, which makes sense based on the feedback from the judges. Team Jet is named second and happily makes the walk off the set.

That leads to Team Bobby predictably being named as the bottom team. Between James and Matt, they seemingly had the two weakest dishes of the Team Brawl. In the end, James takes the bullet for dropping his meat on the ground and then serving it but Matt should feel lucky with his muddled ceviche.

Will Team Anne start a winning streak? How will Bobby react to losing the first contestant of the season? Check back here next week.