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 landing on the bottom last week (with Team Jet winning on the strength of Sunny’s steak cookery), Bobby actually opts not to steal a contestant from another team and instead sticks with just Tina. Nice vote of confidence for her. He then selects rabbit for the Advantage Challenge for the captains.

Advantage Challenge

Anne actually loves rabbit and has cooked it a ton so this may have backfired on Bobby. She grills a leg and loin and puts it over white beans and arugula. The leg gets dinged by the judges for being a little tough.

Jet, on the other hand, is by far the least comfortable. He goes with Korean flavors in a rabbit bulgogi but his rabbit undercooked and tough to chew.

Bobby has a plan for this challenge which he executes well: rabbit tenderloin fried nuggets with a horseradish sauce and a grilled leg with carrot hot sauce. Well played, Bobby.

The judges select Anne and Bobby as the top with Bobby winning the advantage for Tina. Jet is predictably last.

There will be no captains in Team Brawl, which is “Unusual Cue”; the contestants pick from a choice of goat, alligator, offal, cuddle fish, and jackfruit and do their usual thing.

Team Brawl

Tina gets first selection as a result of Bobby’s win and selects venison, which she loves. For Team Anne, Don chooses alligator and Rashad gets goat leg. Neither have cooked either of their proteins. That leaves Sunny to choose offal and Winnie gets cuddlefish for Team Jet.

Anne is somehow even more micromanaging on this challenge, which is no surprise based on the season thus far. Despite having no prior experience with their meats, Don and Rashad seem good with their respective plans.

Tina is also confident with her venison tenderloin with a red wine and blueberry sauce.

Team Jet is scrambling during their cook and Sunny is just taking a shot in the dark with her chicken livers. Winnie has a better idea and goes Malaysian but waits until the last minute and then decides to do jackfruit fritters with 4 minutes to go. She ends up finishing with 30 seconds to go but is happy she got it on the plate because it’s a Malaysian staple.

Results

Team Anne picks up another win. Don’s gator tempura was just ok but Rashad’s goat sausage was the best dish of the day according to the judges. Tina is also safe and in the least shocking part of the episode Team Jet is on bottom having been put behind the eight ball due to last pick in the proteins.

Sunny goes home because even though the judges didn’t like the texture of the cuddlefish, she had no idea what she was doing with the chicken livers and her sides fell short. Tough result for Sunny who was a huge asset last week in the beef challenge. But in the end, she definitely shouldn’t have picked offal.

Next week is the last challenge before the finale, and Team Anne has two contestants remaining while Bobby and Jet have one left.

Will Team Anne continue to roll on to the finale? Is this the season that Bobby loses? When will we get a true barbecue challenge? 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!

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.