Mitch Benjamin - BBQ Revolution: Innovative Barbecue Recipes from an All-Star Pitmaster

Innovative Barbecue Recipes from an All-Star Pitmaster

MITCH BENJAMIN

Meat Mitch Barbecue and Char Bar Smoked Meats & Amusements

I have known Mitch for more than two decades and have enjoyed plenty of meals at his house and mine. Yeah, the food is always great... but its even more fun watching him cook it! It is so much fun, in fact, that I started to cook so I could be his wing man. When he needed another ABS Smoker, he talked me into buying one. It was in my backyard for a year or two and I have not seen it sincethat is, unless I visit his house!

We have had a lot of adventures together. Once, at a local BBQ competition, I brought a good friend to see everything that goes on at the Meat Mitch tent. We ate so much food that the team barely had enough food left to turn in. Ill never forget my friend asking one of the team members why he wasnt diving in. It turns out that team member was a vegetarian. Without hesitation, my friend replied: That, my friend, is the ultimate form of hobby.

A few times a year Mitch and his team would cater the Royals locker room after a game. It seemed like it was always when those damn Yankees were in town. Not only did the Royals players love Mitchs food, but the Yankees did too. (I heard it was their favorite post-game meal from around the league.) That gave me an idea. In 2012, I arranged for Mitch and his team to do pre- and post- game meals at all the All-Star Game events inside the stadium in Kansas City. You can even pull up the Home Run Derby online and watch John Kruk scarf down ribs while broadcasting the eventit was a classic!

A few years later, Mitch and I took a trip to New York City to meet the Barstool Sports team. We were serving them BBQ and having a day of fun. We had smoked all the meat at Mitchs house and flown it there with us. While we rented a place with an oven to heat it all up, I did not realize Mitch was going to try to smoke some of the food as well. Next thing I know, the smoke alarms are going off, hes throwing the door and windows open, and security was there! Ultimately, we delivered some great food to the Barstool headquarters and fed their entire crew. Everyone had a blast.

Over the years, I have learned a lot from Mitch, and you can, too. I encourage you to try these recipes. I cannot wait to make the ones I havent tried already! There is nothing better than smoking or grilling in the backyard with a Coors Light in the summer or a glass of red wine in the winter. So, go for it, Podsy! You will have a blast just like me: its a BBQ Revolution!

George Brett, Kansas City Royal and Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer

Not long after graduating from college, I moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Kansas City to work as a sales representative for TaylorMade Golf Company. It was my dream job and all I had thought about for ages. After a year on my own, things were going great. In fact, I felt like KC should be our new home, so my fianc, Jennifer, joined me. We soon got a dog, then bought a house, finally got married, and a year later started our family.

Everything we did had a huge impact on me, including our first house. We moved in next to Jim and Marge Hickey, and we could not have been more fortunate. Jim and Marge were empty nesters with kids older than me and took us in as their own. Their backyard had a pool, a big smoker, and a refrigerator filled with beer. Jim and I became fast friends and he introduced me to smoking. We smoked ribs, briskets, pork butts, chicken, pork tenderloins... you name it, we smoked it!

I was not afraid of cooking. Growing up, I lived in a house where my dad cooked most of my meals. I learned a lot just from watching him. By the time I got to college, I was one of the guys that would break into the fraternity kitchen late at night and make food for myself and my buddies. By the time I was an adult, I felt that cooking was in my DNA. When I laid eyes on that smoker at Jims house, I couldnt wait to watch it get it fired up. I watched and listened and learnedthen I bought one of my own.

I still remember the day I found an Oklahoma Joes Longhorn Smoker at a local store and brought that baby home. It was game on from there, smoking and grilling everything I could. I was constantly asking questions and slowly getting better... and then it happened. My other next-door neighbor took me to my first American Royal World Series of Barbecue party. Wow! It was awesome. Hay bales, bars, dancing, DJs, bands, Daisy Duke shorts... I was hooked.

The next year, I wanted to enter the contest. I named my team Meat Mitch and suckered a few friends, including Bruce Trecek and Jamie Burrell (Jims sons-in-law), to help me. By October, we were in business. The goal, however, was not to win, but to have an amazing party! Well, we had a rager: I mean a knock-down, drag-out, kick-ass party. Yet we somehow still managed to successfully turn in all of our meat competition categories. Once that was done, we cleaned up our competition site, loaded up our trailer, grabbed our last full keg of beer, and high-tailed it back to my house to continue the party. There was an award ceremony that evening, but in our minds, we had already won and our smoked meat had nothing to do with it.

About an hour later, I received a phone call from a friend asking me where I was. He told me we never should have left because Meat Mitch won third place brisket and we were the only team that wasnt there to take the stage for victory!

Cory Lagerstrom, Mitch Benjamin, and Jamie Burrell at the Memphis in May World BBQ Championships.