How to Smoke the Best Brisket and Other Tales at the Lee Ranch Barbeque Cook-Off

Making the perfect barbeque was the challenge Saturday at the annual Lee Ranch Cook-Off benefitting the West Texas Boys Ranch. 

Barbeque chefs converged on the Lee Ranch north of San Angelo on Friday night to camp with elaborate trailer-mounted barbeque smoking apparatuses. Some time Friday, or early Saturday morning, depending upon the requirements of each contestant’s secret barbeque recipe, the smokers were energized with coal or mesquite wood, usually cooking four kinds of meat; one for each category.

Laci Jo Walter ran the judging with the assistance of Tara O’Donnell inside the Lee Ranch house down the road from the armada of smokers and campers all day long on Saturday. A rotating panel of eight unique judges for each meat category (Poppers, Brisket, Ribs, and Chicken) sat around a table and tested what the contestants provided, grading each for presentation, smell, taste, and overall on a scale of 1 (bad) to 10 (best).

Jory Rector, owner of the Rockin’ J Fence Co. is a partner with Sonny Dooley on the Silver Bullet cook-off team in San Angelo. The duo competes in cook-offs around the local area.

Rector said that the presentation of the meat is important. Contestants pack their samples into a Styrofoam take-out plate and seal the lid and send it off to the judges, hoping for the best. “You want to make sure it’s moist. Making it moist and tender are the most important aspects of it,” Rector said. Most cook-offs like this one do not allow garnishments. “It’s all up to what the meat looks like, smells like, and tastes like,” he said.

On raw meat selection, Rector said it’s no big secret. He said Sam’s and HEB offer great selections of briskets. “There’s different grades of meat, so usually, the higher the grade, the better the brisket,” Rector said.

Rector said he starts cooking six to eight hours prior. “We like to cook ‘em hot and fast,” he said.

Participating in cook-offs is a hobby for Rector. “You don’t make enough money on our scale. But there are people who make a lot of money with it,” he said.

Here are the winners of the cook-off:

Overall Champion – West Texas Smokehouse (Father/son team of Thomas Davis, Jr. and Thomas Davis, Sr.)

Reserve Champion – Two Docs and a Grill (Keith Ward, Chris Cole, Grant Ingram, and Bruce Schwartz)

Best Brisket

1. Riverbank BBQ (Jimmy Martin, Luke Lindsey, Bobby Martin, and John Martin)

2. Silver Bullet (Sonny Dooley, Jory Rector)

3. West Texas Smokehouse (Father/son team of Thomas Davis, Jr. and Thomas Davis, Sr.)

Best Ribs

1. Silver Bullet (Sonny Dooley, Jory Rector)

2. West Texas Smokehouse

3. Two Docs and a Grill

Best Chicken

1. West Texas Smokehouse

2. Two Docs and a Grill

3. Big Dreams BBQ (Knoal Jordan)

Best Poppers

1. River Bank BBQ (Jimmy Martin, Luke Lindsey, Bobbie Martin, and John Martin)