American Royal BBQ Competition
The BBQ Mavens team started out at the largest BBQ competition in the world, at the 2017 American Royal BBQ Competition in Kansas City, Kansas.
2017 Competition
The 2017 American Royal BBQ Competition was held the weekend of September 1st to 3rd at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. A group of friends and I decided to get a team together, The BBQ Mavens, and compete in the Open Competition.
This was our first BBQ Competition, and was a lot of fun and a great learning experience!
KCBS competitions includes Beef Brisket, Pork Butt, Pork Ribs, and Chicken as well as Turkey, pork loin, and Sausage optional meat turn ins for some competitions, as well as some additional optional side dishes and desserts for teams to compete in. The turn-ins took place on Sunday starting at 11:30 am, which meant that we were up all night preparing and smoking the meats that we would turn in for judging.
During the 2017 competition we partnered with a friend of Maven Ben’s who has created his own sauces under the name The Wolf Creek BBQ Co. We also created our own brine recipe that we used on our chicken and turkey and our own brisket rub to use at the competition! These are great for people to use at home when preparing their own BBQ!
2018 Competition
For the 2018 American Royal, we were much more experienced than 2017 and had a full schedule laid out and plan of attack to make sure we got everything cooked properly. We felt really good about what we produced, including a top 50 finish in Chicken, Pork Loin, and Sausage (cooking the Sausage Fatty recipe), but a DQ from our Brisket caused the overall performance to fall flat of our expectations. The whole team is looking forward to redemption in 2019!
Also for 2018 Royal, The Mavens worked with our friends at Rubia Rojo to help us design a brand new Logo! This logo was printed on shirts, stickers, and a banner to help us look the part at competitions going forward!
2019 Competition
The 2019 American Royal brought some new challenges for The BBQ Mavens. Consistency was the name of the game, as we struggled with having 2 of our 4 racks of ribs become inedible and having some of our chicken not cook right. We aren’t sure if we had issues with our smoker or we messed up some part of the cook, but we improved in 3 of the 4 main meats from 2018 so that is a positive!
We also were interviewed by the guys at The Smoke Sheet while we were prepping our final meat turn-in. Be sure to check them out, and who knows when you might see The BBQ Mavens appear!
2021 Competition
A year with no American Royal Competition in 2020, meant a long layoff for the Mavens in our competition. The 2021 edition of this competition saw a few solid results, including a few in the top 25% of teams competing. This meant 53rd in turkey, 87th in ribs, and 84th in brisket of the 467 teams who competed. The improvement was fun to see, but still room to grow across the full slate of competition!
2022 Competition
2022 had some more ups and downs for us as a team, as we struggle to figure out what the wide variety of judges really want at the Royal. Was a great year in terms of fun, and a few of our friends on other teams got a call, so that always makes for a good weekend! Maven Mario put together this video to highlight the 2022 competition!
To find or to learn more about The American Royal and their BBQ Competition, visit their website or follow them on twitter at @AmericanRoyal. To see how The BBQ Mavens did at the American Royal, and other competitions, check out the results page.
