We’re foodies. We cook a mean BBQ. And – maybe most importantly – we’re a little competitive. We found competition BBQ and fell in love. If you’re interested in being a BBQ pitmaster, judge, or volunteer, we share options that will get you acquainted with the world of competitive barbecue.
Join a BBQ Society and Become a Member
Get started and learn the players. There are lots of barbecue associations and societies across the country that support competition BBQ. At first, we joined the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) and Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN) – two of the largest associations in the country offering their own competition circuits, protein categories, and approaches to judging.
Now that we’re competing, we also want to build relationships in the regions where we’re competing. We joined the Mid-Atlantic BBQ Association and the Alabama Barbecue Association (ABA) and primarily participate in KCBS-sanctioned events. We’ve also participated in events sanctioned by the Georgia Barbecue Association (GBA) and NorthEast Barbecue Society (NEBS) as part of our barbecue journey. They’re all great. The events are fun, well managed, and offer a mix of opportunities to participate. Check out the list and consider becoming a member to take advantage of their membership perks.
Turn Your Backyard BBQ Hobby into a Competition BBQ Team
If you’re thinking about getting into competition BBQ, but not sure where to begin, KCBS offers both a Professional and a Backyard series with sanctioned events nationwide. KCBS-certified judges judge both the professional and backyard events. Many events include a professional and backyard component and sometimes it’s possible to find backyard-only events.
The Backyard division makes it easy to get started. Generally, Backyard competitions have lower entry fees, pitmasters use more modest equipment, and typically, there are only two required protein turn-ins. The cook will be a little easier and gives teams who are cooking on a budget an opportunity to compete.
- Professional teams turn-in four meats: chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder, and beef brisket.
- Backyard teams typically turn in chicken and pork ribs. Some events allow backyard teams the opportunity to compete in pork shoulder – and some require it – though the pork scores don’t count toward the annual points chase for Backyard Team of the Year.
If your competitive instincts are kicking in, look up Backyard barbecue events happening near you and register for one. Most backyard competitions have between 20-30 teams, offer prizes for the top 3-5 competitors, and are an affordable way to test out your skills.
Another way to compete is to join a KCBS one-meat challenge. These events usually happen the night before the full competition, are open to both Pro and Backyard teams, and count towards the KCBS Team of the Year points chase. Pro and Backyard teams compete on level ground in the one-meat challenge, a great opportunity to see how your skills compare to some of the best teams in the country.
Competition BBQ Investments
Before competing in your first backyard bbq competition, you’ll want to prepare. Follow these tips:
- Take time to learn the rules and what the judges expect. Contact your event organizer or check out the event website if you need a copy of the rules. YouTube videos are a great resource for competition cooking tips.
- Develop your recipes and perfect your technique. Practice makes perfect and you’ll want to have your routine down before the competition. Take time to practice your timeline and make sure you’re allowing yourself enough time to smoke and rest your meat, get it into the box, and walk it over to the turn-in location. There’s nothing worse than having undercooked meat when it’s turn-in time.
- Gather your equipment. Of course, you’ll need your smoker(s). Make sure to think through all of the other things you’ll need to compete, including tables, knives, coolers, charcoal and wood, power sources, and cleaning supplies. Our downloadable checklist is a useful guide.
- Plan your travel. Every team has its own approach. Some folks stay in hotels, many have RVs or trailers that double as a place to sleep, and a few even camp. Do what’s most affordable (and comfortable) for you.
Not Ready to Compete? Become a BBQ Judge or Volunteer
Barbecue competitions are not only about cooking. There are other ways to get involved in the BBQ community. Consider becoming a judge or volunteering.
- Judging: Each barbecue society has opportunities to become a judge and most want certified BBQ judges. To become a certified BBQ judge, check out the website for your barbecue society to find information on how to become a judge. KCBS requires prospective judges take a class and remain in good standing with their KCBS membership. KCBS offers judging classes throughout the year.
- Volunteers: Each event has a local coordinator or team responsible for ensuring everything goes smoothly. Depending on the event, volunteers help get teams set up, support the judges, and/or facilitate smooth operations throughout the competition. Contact the event representative to find out if there are volunteer opportunities.
5 Responses
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.
Thanks so much for your blog! You have an amazing schedule lined out… what influenced your decision to go back yard rather than pro?
Experience. Although we were familiar with competition BBQ from judging for several years, we had never competed before and don’t have culinary backgrounds.
Backyard also offers a lower cost option for competing. Not only are the registration fees lower, the product costs are lower because you’re only cooking chicken, ribs, and sometimes pork.
Another thing to keep in mind is that KCBS has rules about the number of Backyard competitions a team can participate in each year and overall before they consider you a Master’s team.
So what if you know in 2-3 years you’ll want to compete in KCBS Master’s, is it a good or bad idea to just start out in Master’s, and why? Either backyard or Masters I would personally camp out beside my equipment and save a buck!
A lot of teams go straight in to Master’s and do great. It’s definitely an option. As the Backyard division has grown and more organizers are offering Backyard competitions, it’s becoming more common for teams to start off in Backyard and progress to Master’s after a period of time.
Two main reasons we’d recommend starting in Backyard are cost and experience. The costs for getting into Backyard are lower and that will allow you to get a feel for the competition circuit without breaking the bank. Not only are your registration fees higher in Master’s, but you’re also paying for all four proteins for every competition. If you’re only doing a couple a year, that might not be a problem, but if you’re competing more often, the additional costs add up quickly.
However, beyond the cost is the learning curve. If you’re new to competition BBQ, there’s often a learning curve to find out what hits and then a need to build consistency in your cooking week after week. It can be discouraging if you’re not getting calls and hard to focus on improving if multiple proteins need improvement.
We found that cooking Backyard for 18 months was invaluable. We were able to dial in and focus on two or (sometimes) three meats and really perfect our recipes and presentation. Only having 2 or 3 turn-ins gave us more time to focus and, ultimately, we probably became better chicken and rib cooks that we would have if we started in Master’s cooking all four proteins. Moving into the 2024 season, we’ll be transitioning to Master’s and now we will be able to dedicate time to our pork and brisket and not have to worry as much about chicken and ribs. We have had a number of Master’s teams tell us they wish there was more of a Backyard circuit when they started because it can be tough to breakthrough in the Master’s division.
On the flip side, there are disadvantages to the Backyard circuit. There aren’t as many competitions, so you may need to travel further depending on your location. Our home base is North Carolina, but we were often traveling to Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia and beyond to compete because there weren’t many Backyard competitions in North Carolina. Registration fees for backyard may be lower, but payouts are also lower if you do win. It can be hard to break-even as a Backyard team.
One final consideration is the sanctioning body you’re competing with. We compete with KCBS, the Kansas City BBQ Society, and they have restrictions on being a Backyard team. Once you’ve competed in more than three Master’s competitions in one year or 12 in a lifetime, you no longer qualify to be a Backyard team. If you surpass those restrictions or your circumstances change and you want to return to Backyard, you’d just need to petition the KCBS board of directors to be able to return to Backyard.
As for camping out, yes, do it! There’s a wide variety of ways teams handle sleeping. Some folks sleep in their cars/trucks or tent camp, many have campers or cook trailers that they can put a cot in, and others have RVs and 5th wheels. The best advice we can give you is to start simple. And, if you decide you like the competition life and want to upgrade, there are always teams upgrading and selling used equipment.
Let us know if you have more questions!