We paired with some coworkers from Advantage Trailer to compete in the ‘Cue for a Cause BBQ competition in downtown Elmhurst over Labor Day weekend. Not only did we capture second overall, but we also claimed the title of Best Ribs in Elmhurst.

The event was a fundraiser for the Elmhurst Walk-In Assistant Network and featured 26 local teams competing in ribs, chicken, and sauce.

While most teams cooked on backyard smokers, we brought Rosie, our 500-gallon Primitive Pits smoker (which is available to rent locally). Overkill? Yes. But the airflow it provides and the space to maneuver the meat through different temperature zones gave us great flexibility for the cook.

In the chicken category, we chose to do competition chicken thighs. We pulled the skin off of each one and scraped the fat off the skin. Then, we seasoned each thigh, wrapped the skin around each one, and seasoned the skin.

We did the thighs two different ways. The first way was to place nine thighs into a foil pan surrounded by butter. We smoked them uncovered for an hour at 275 degrees, then covered with foil for another hour. Then, we dunked in a glaze and let smoke until the sauce set.

The second way was simply to smoke nine thighs on a wire rack, completely uncovered the whole way. At the end, we dunked in sauce the same way. We elected to turn these in to the judges because the skin was much crisper and the appearance was better.

For the ribs, we trimmed spare ribs into St. Louis cut ribs and peeled off the membrane. We seasoned each one with our Down With the Swine rub and placed them in the smoker at 250 degrees.

After a couple of hours, we foiled them with butter, maple sugar, and honey and returned to the smoker for another hour or two. Finally, we unwrapped the foil, placed the racks onto a wire rack and glazed with our Up North sauce.

Once they were done, we sliced them up to find the best six individual ribs to turn in to the judges.

When chicken and sauce winners were announced at 4:30pm, we were disappointed to not hear our name called. Still, we were confident in the products we turned in. We had hope for the final results.

At 7pm, rib winners were announced and we were thrilled to take first place! We earned a trophy with the title ‘Best Ribs in Elmhurst’. Then, the top three overall were announced and we captured second. That means our chicken and sauce both ranked highly even if they didn’t make top three.

Overall, it was a great experience to share with my coworkers. Many of the teams we competed against were veterans in this event and had their trophies from past years proudly displayed on their tables. As for us, this was our first competition since The Ohio Eggfest in 2019 when we were named top three out of 36 teams in both judge’s vote and people’s choice.