Top 5 Best Recipes to Make on Your Smoker

Now that you have the smoker of your dreams in your hands, all you have to do is use it. These recipes can only be made on quality smokers and cannot be made on a gas grill because there is less humidity inside due to the air circulation, therefore because of the propane that must mix with the air to have combustion.

Now that you're ready, you're probably wondering where to start?

This is completely normal!

That's why we offer you a TOP 5 recipes developed by BBQ Guru Max Lavoie and Pitmaster JP Lavoie. This will give you a great starting point to delight your taste buds and those of your guests.

Max's Recipes

Beef Short Ribs

(find photo of beef short ribs maybe story or IG jp)

This recipe can be made on any type of smoker

Ingredients

• BBQ spices Quebec Texas
• BBQ Spices Quebec X Ferme Monette Appalaches
• BBQ Spices Quebec Montreal
• Rack of beef short ribs

Granules

Jack Daniel (oak)

Sugar Maple

Recipe

1. Preheat smoker to 275 F
2. Cover the beef short ribs with a mixture of Texas, Appalachian and Montreal spices (⅓, ⅓, ⅓)
3. Place the short ribs in the smoker for about 5 hours of cooking.
4. When the meat reaches 180 F, wrap it in aluminum foil (this is about the last hour of cooking)
5. When meat reaches 203 F, remove from smoker
6. Let the meat rest for 1 hour.

Whole pig

This recipe should be made on a smoker that is at least 36 inches.

Ingredients

• Whole pig
• Kansas Spices
• Spices Explorer
• Argentina Spices
• Wood chips / Wood chunks / Charcoal (depending on the barbecue you are using)
• Apple, maple, oak or pecan according to your taste

Recipe

1. Preheat smoker to 225 F
2. Rub the pork generously with a spice mixture of 50% Kansas, 25% Explorer and 25% Argentina.
3. Place the pig inside the smoker.
4. Cook until desired internal temperature (203 F). This can take anywhere from 8 to 16 hours or so, and maybe longer if your pig is very large. Typically, it will cook about 5 to 10 lbs per hour.
5. Remove the pork at 203 F (prick in several places to make sure it is cooked everywhere).
6. Let stand for at least 1 to 2 hours.

JP Recipes

Whole chicken

Can be done on any type of smoker.

When making this recipe for the first time, we suggest using just one piece of wood and then adding more over time if you prefer a more pronounced smoky flavor.

Ingredients

• Quebec chicken of about 3-4 pounds
• Sweet Lemon Sauce
• Piece of cherry wood
• Kansas Spices

JP suggests going with a spice of your choice, but has categorized them in order of his preference with chicken: Kansas, California, Caribbean, New Delhi, Jerk, and Argentina.

Recipe

1. Preheat smoker to 225 F.
2. Put your favorite spices on the chicken.
3. Place the cherry wood on the charcoal
4. Place the whole chicken in the smoker for about 4 hours. If you want to cook it faster due to a lack of time, you can do it in 2 hours by setting the smoker to 325 F and in 1 hour by setting it to 400 F. At this point, it is important to reach an internal temperature of 175-180 F.
5. When the desired temperature is reached, glaze the whole chicken with the Sweet Lemon Sauce or use it to dip your chicken pieces.
   
   

Pork shoulder

Can be done on any type of smoker.

Ingredients

• Pork butt OR picnic style pork shoulder of about 8 lbs

( *If possible, choose one with plenty of intramuscular fat AND a good layer of fat on one side, with the rind removed)

• Sweet Kansas Spices from BBQ Quebec
• Quebec BBQ Champion Sauce
• Butcher BBQ Injection Mix

Recipe

1. Light the smoker and let it rise to 275 F.
2. Inject the piece of meat with the Butcher BBQ injection mix (or other see ingredients). Very important to inject every inch or so, moving the syringe slowly so that the liquid disperses well in the shoulder.
3. Blot excess liquid from outside of pork shoulder
4. Rub the shoulder with a good spice for pork, Sweet Kansas from BBQ Québec.
5. Place in the smoker for about 6 to 8 hours.
6. At around 160 F, you may experience a plateau, the 'stall' or your piece of meat will stop heating up completely. 1-2 hours later, the outside of your piece of meat will be nicely caramelized and crispier, therefore drier, which will allow it to start heating up again, for a final temperature of around 203 to 210 F.
7. Wrap your shoulder in aluminum foil halfway through cooking, right around 160-170 F. This will save time, and keep more juices and fat around your shoulder during cooking, protecting it and keeping more juices for the final result (so more flavor!)
8. Once the meat reaches 200+F, it's important that it stays above 200 F for a good 20-30 minutes so that the connective tissues, fat, collagen, and anything else that might create resistance begin to melt away.
9. Remove the meat from the smoker
10. Shred using the shredder
11. Season with Champion sauce, Sweet Kansas spices, apple juice, butter or duck fat to achieve exactly the result you dream of.
12. Put your ''Pulled Pork'' in reusable containers and freeze them. It can be used in a lot of recipes, including replacing the ground steak with your pulled pork in a burger, tacos, pizza or even in a salad!

The Brisket

Brisket is the most difficult cut of meat to make, due to its size (it doesn't fit in all smokers!) and its cooking time, which is even longer than its cousin, the shoulder. It's the cut of meat that differentiates men from children, and BBQ queens from little girls. When you master our Brisket recipe, you've reached a level of BBQ so high that even tofu could be saved thanks to you. At this point, you've become a BBQ Jedi, a Samurai of smoke, a Mr. Miyagi of beef brisket. But before that, you'll need a few 101 tips on Brisket.

Please note that if you smoke in a smoker where the heat comes from below (example: Kamado, Drums, Weber Smokey Mountain, etc.), we recommend that you place the fat towards the bottom to protect the piece of meat from the slightly more intense heat.

If you are smoking in a smoker that has heat coming from the side (like an offset smoker), you can put the fat side up, however you will have grill marks on your "meat" side. JP always prefers to put the fat side down.

Ingredients

• Brisket of about 12lbs or between 10 and 18 lbs

**If you use a brisket that is too lean, it will be even more difficult to cook. A quality brisket will ensure a better result. Brisket tends to become dry if cooked too quickly, too long or if you do not use the right techniques**

• Texas Spices
• BBQ Booster Spices Quebec
• Butcher BBQ Injection Liquid
• Cherry wood pieces

Recipe

1. Light the smoker at 275 F
2. Put the cherry wood pieces
3. Inject the brisket with the Butcher BBQ injection mixture approximately every inch, making sure the liquid is well dispersed throughout the piece of meat.
4. Blot excess liquid from outside of pork shoulder.
5. Rub the brisket with Booster BBQ Québec spices and then Texas from BBQ Québec .
6. Place the brisket in the smoker.
7. Cook until an internal temperature of about 205 F. You can speed up the cooking process by wrapping the piece in aluminum foil once it reaches 160 F.
8. Take out the piece of meat and slice it
9. Serve with its juice or with your favorite BBQ sauce