The combo plate at Hickory Jack’s is your choice of meats and sides. We had tri-tip, brisket and pulled pork with sweet potato fries and cole slaw.
Having judged barbecue at Memphis in May, the American Royal in Kansas City and the Houston Livestock BBQ Competition, I’ve eaten a lot of smoked meat in my career. So I thought I’d share a few tips with our readers about smoking meats at home.
The key point is do your cooking “slow and low.” The sweet spot is 225 degrees Fahrenheit. The longer you cook, the more tender the meat will be.
Ribs should smoke for four to five hours, brisket for 10 to 12 hours and chicken breasts or thighs around two hours. It doesn’t hurt to spray water into your smoker every 30 to 45 minutes to maintain the moisture level.
If you like really smoky meat, use mesquite or hickory. Cherry and other fruit woods yield a medium smokiness and for purists, especially for Texas-style barbecue. White or red oak is preferred. The worst thing you can do is cook at too high a temperature, especially for meat like brisket, which will turn out dry and tough.
And that brings me to Hickory Jack’s Barbecue in Redlands. We tried a number of different meats, and the results were mixed. The tri-tip was tender and flavorful with a nice bark (a blackish crust on the meat’s surface which forms after rubbing the meat with salt and pepper and smoking). Don’t mistake it for being burnt.
The brisket was tough (likely cooked at too high a temperature) and had little flavor. I don’t know if they slice the brisket in advance, rather than for each order, but if so, that’s a sure way for the meat to dry out. The smoke ring (a reddish layer beyond the edge where the smoke has penetrated into the meat), while very evident on the tri-tip, was nowhere to be found on the brisket.
The color of the brisket, instead of being a vibrant reddish brown, was more a tannish gray in appearance. The pulled pork had a perfect amount of smokiness, so that you could still taste the porkiness — and it was moist to boot.
That brings us to the chicken, a tale of two sister chickens from different mothers. The quarter smoked chicken was succulent and definitely smoky, yet the meat on the pulled chicken sandwich was mushy, as if it had been mixed with broth instead of their high-quality barbecue sauce, one of which is laced with a Habanero sauce to give it a nice kick.
Then came a side of ribs (3 for $12). There’s an old BBQ adage that if the ribs arrive table side lathered with sauce, then its prime purpose is to mask underlying deficiencies in the meat. In this case, the sauced ribs were unevenly cooked. One you literally had to tear the meat off the bone with your teeth, while on another the meat came cleanly away from the bone without a struggle.
Furthermore, the ribs were of various and sundry sizes and shapes. The ribs should be able to stand alone.
The sauce should be served on the side, allowing the customer to decide about saucing the ribs.
The sides we ordered were both quite good. The cole slaw had just enough mayo to hold the cabbage and carrot match sticks together, while the potato salad was both savory and flecked with herbs.
I suggest that customers stick with the tri-tip, the pulled pork and the BBQ chicken. That and a couple of sides should leave you pleasantly full.
David Cohen is the former co-host of the PBS show “Dinner for Two.”
Hickory Jack’s Barbecue
Where: 2087 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and on Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
Entree price range: $9.79 to $18.99. Tuesday to Friday daily specials: $8.29 to $10.29.
Details: Indoor and outdoor dining, take out, drive-thru and catering are a available.
For more information: Visit hickoryjacksbbq.com or call (909) 798-5757.
