Get pro tips on summertime barbecuing from these Tucson experts

If you ask Jordan Rhone at Da Boots BBQ Shop on Tucson’s south side, he’ll set you straight about the difference between barbecue and grilling.

Barbecue is the art of low and slow.

Grilling is high heat and fast sizzle.

Anyone can throw a burger or chicken thigh on the grill, but it takes patience to pull off barbecue, he’ll tell you.

That’s just chapter one of the art of ’que.

We tapped some of Tucson’s most noted barbecue experts for pro tips on how to pull off the perfect summertime barbecue.

The smoke

Barbecue is all about the smoke, preferably wood-fired using regionally plentiful mesquite or pecan or other more spendy woods like oak, hickory or apple.

The flavor of the wood will permeate the meat, so the milder the wood, the milder the flavor. Ken Alexander of Ken’s Hardwood Barbecue at 5250 E. 22nd St. prefers pecan with its milder smoke and hickory, when he can get it.

Rhone and his Da Boots partner George Lovett use mesquite at their small restaurant at 1830 S. Park Ave., while Marisa Lewis fires her smokers with pecan wood and uses mesquite for grilled steaks and burgers at her and husband Curt’s Holy Smokin’ Butts BBQ, 6940 E. Broadway.

The best way to get smoke is to use a smoker, which you get at any hardware store or big-box retailer. They range in price from under $100 to several hundred. You can also use a charcoal grill — use wood instead of charcoal for the fire — and, if you’re desperate, a gas grill, which gets a little tricky given that you will be cooking the meat for hours and your propane will likely run out before the meat’s finished, our experts say.

The key with using a traditional grill is to keep the meat off direct heat and flames, said Alexander, who doles out barbecue advice on his popular “Get Your Barbecue On” podcast that’s available on Spotify and his website (kenshardwoodbbq.com).

While you can get a smoke flavor from using wood in your charcoal grill, you’ll need a smoker box — a metal fire-resistant box that you fill with wood chips — for the same effect on a gas grill. The key is to place the box near the meat.

“The secret to good barbecue is low and slow,” said John Aldecoa of Brother John’s Beer, Bourbon & BBQ on North Stone Avenue. “It’s hard to stay low when you’re on a traditional grill because your space is there altogether. If you cook it too hot and too fast, you’re not going to get a smoke ring.”

It’s also harder with grills to regulate the heat, Alexander said.

“Say you want to cook a pork butt and the recipe says you need to have it at 225 degrees. You need to control the heat at 225 degrees,” he explained.

Flavor profile

If you’re going for Texas-style ’que, you’re looking at a very basic salt-and-pepper rub with a heavy hand on the pepper. At the Original Mr. K’s BBQ at 6302 S. Park Ave., whose history goes back to 1997, owner Ray Kendrick adds a few secret seasonings to the spice mix.

Depending on the flavor profile you’re going after, you can add everything from sugar and cayenne pepper to garlic and onion powder and chile flakes to the mix and make it dry or wet.

“You can play around with it,” said Brushfire BBQ owner Peter Wagle, who said the key to rubs is making sure to coat the meat fully. “Make sure it covers the meat equally.”

Meat tips

Barbecue isn’t all about ribs, pulled pork and brisket. You can smoke chicken, turkey and sausage as well. Here are some meat tips from the pro:

Never smoke frozen: At Brother John’s, which has been in business seven years, the meat is almost always fresh and room temperature. Smoking frozen product “pulls moisture away from the meat,” Aldecoa said.

Fat is a good thing: Mr. K’s Kendrick knows that what he is about to say will sound contradictory to everything nutritionists have been trying to pound into us in recent years: Go for the fat.

“When you are cooking at a low temperature, you want that fat to kind of render down through your meat,” he explained. “And I don’t think people understand the process ... Smoking is low and slow so the muscles and tendons and fibers in the meat break down and become tender.”

Don’t rush perfection: Remember the golden rule of ’que: Low and slow. Don’t pull your meat out before it’s time.

“The longer that you’re able to cook it, the more tender and tasty it’s going to be,” said Wagle, who had 40 years experience in fine dining when he bought the popular Brushfire BBQ company restaurants in 2017.

Go for choice meat: When it comes to ribs, Da Boots’ Rhone prefers St. Louis-style because they have more meat on the bone. As for brisket, he looks for a smaller fat cap and that the fat is distributed throughout the meat.

“Don’t get anything less than a choice cut,” he added. “You get what you pay for.”

Fat side up: The key for Lewis at Holy Smokin’ Butts is to place the fat side up when smoking brisket and pork butts.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

If the fat is on the grill, “you lose that flavoring and so now instead of the fat rendering into the meat, it is now dripping into your pit,” Lewis said.

Lewis also uses a whole brisket, which has a lean side with a small fat cap, a middle cross cut that’s lean on the bottom and the fatty moist top side that seems to be everybody’s favorite.

“They like that rich flavor,” she said.

Sauce me up

To sauce or not to sauce is entirely dependent on personal tastes and styles. In Texas, barbecue is served sans the sauce straight from the smoke so that the rub and smoke are the dominant flavors. Sauce is usually served on the side, which was a hard thing for Tucsonans to grasp when Brother John’s opened in the old University of Arizona Wildcat House in 2015.

The restaurant got dinged on social media sites because the ribs weren’t bathed in barbecue sauce like you get at chain restaurants.

Sauces vary from sweet ketchup-based to more the tangy apple cider vinegar-kissed and mustard-based. Some folks like pepper-heavy barbecue sauce while others are going for the white sauce made from mayonnaise. Of course you can get store-bought, which is perfectly legit for the backyard ’que, or you can Google a recipe that fits your flavor profile and make your own.

Get to the good part

If you’d rather skip the barbecuing process and get to the good part, here are some of Tucson’s homegrown barbecue restaurants where they smoke it low and slow and serve their ribs, brisket, pulled pork, chicken, smoked turkey and sausages with a slew of perfect-for-the-backyard-barbecue sides.

Brother John’s Beer, Bourbon & BBQ, 1801 N. Stone Ave., brotherjohnsbbq.com; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Partners John Aldecoa and Patrick Vezino opened Brother John’s in the old University of Arizona hangout Wildcat House seven years ago and have since expanded the 10,000-square-foot space to include a 5,000-square-foot beer garden and patio. They do classic Southern style barbecue from Memphis-style ribs to Texas-style brisket.

“My No. 1 selling meat hands down, two to one combined, is brisket,” Aldecoa said. “I think Tucson favors the Texas style, but everybody loves their ribs.”

At Brother John’s, barbecue is made without sauce and sauce is served on the side.

Holy Smokin’ Butts BBQ, 6940 E. Broadway, holysmokinbutts.com; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, until 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Marisa and Curt Lewis launched their barbecue venture in a food truck in 2016 and were in a brick-and-mortar location off South Wilmot Road a year later. Within two years, they moved again, this time to a 6,500-square-foot restaurant that used to be home to Gordo’s Mexicateria. The restaurant, whose name is always a great conversation starter, has a loyal following for its pulled pork, but brisket is the signature that keeps people coming back for more. Marisa said the restaurant makes its sauces — a sweet barbecue, spicy, extra spicy and Carolina mustard sauce as well as its ranch dressing — in house.

Ken’s Hardwood Barbecue, 5250 E. 22nd St., kenshardwoodbbq.com; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Founder Ken Alexander and his namesake son opened in May 2017 in what many considered hallowed barbecue ground: the old Jack’s Original Barbecue that was in business from 1950 to 2013. Alexander, a retired Raytheon engineer, turned his passion for barbecue — he hosted hundreds of barbecue parties for coworkers, friends and family for more than 20 years before launching a barbecue food truck in late 2015 — into one of Tucson’s most celebrated barbecue joints. For two years in a row, Ken’s Hardwood Barbecue has snagged the Arizona Daily Star’s Readers Choice Award for best barbecue.

Known for its Texas-style brisket and ribs, Alexander recently added rib tips to the menu.

Brushfire BBQ Co., 2745 N. Campbell Ave. and 7080 E. 22nd St., brushfirebbq.com; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Brushfire got in early in Tucson’s barbecue resurgence, opening its first restaurant in 2006. It now has two locations that are known for their Texas-style brisket, beef and pork ribs and a host of “messy dishes” — fries and mac and cheese that comes topped with barbecue, sauce and fries. The original owners sold the restaurants to Peter Wagle in 2017. Wagle said he had hoped to expand the brand but the pandemic put a crimp in those plans.

Da Boots BBQ Shop, 1830 S. Park Ave., dabootsbbqshop.com; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.

Partners George Lovett and Jordan Rhone borrow from their hometowns — Lovett is from Florida, Rhone hails from Louisiana — in their take on classic low and slow ’que. The pair, both retired Raytheon engineers, served barbecue for five or six years at the annual Tucson Juneteenth celebrations before opening up on South Park Avenue in the old Mr. K’s BBQ space, next to the now-closed African-American Heritage Museum. Their landlord and Mr. K’s founder Charles Kendrick moved his restaurant to Stone Avenue in 2011; it closed two years later.

At Da Boots, Rhone and Lovett feed their commercial smokers local mesquite wood to slow cook brisket, ribs, chicken and pulled pork. Rhone, the more talkative of the pair, said their style of barbecue lies somewhere between Louisiana style with a little kick and the subtle dry rub of Florida.

Smokey Mo, 2650 N. First Ave., smokeymo.com; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Smokey Mo fires up the smokers to create Kansas City-style barbecue in the old iconic Shari’s Drive-in burger shack. KC-born-and-bred pitmaster/owner Ocie Davis brings a lifetime of ’que IQ to the table, specializing in brisket, ribs, wings and succulent fan-favorite burnt ends.

Davis and his partners, Patricia Jorgenson and Brandon Johnson, opened the restaurant in March 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

Texas Burrito Company, 1570 E. Tucson Marketplace Blvd., texasburritoco.com; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Jason Scott created Texas-style ’que from his BBQ Rush food truck at the southside KOA Campground for nearly nine years before quietly opening a brick-and-mortar in mid-March. Scott calls his fusion of Texas barbecue and Mexican food “Texican,” employing his family’s centuries-old recipes in a menu of signature burritos, tacos, sandwiches and plates. One thing that sets this place apart from other Tucson barbecue restaurants: It serves ’que for breakfast in a selection of breakfast burritos and tacos.

Coming soon: Texas import Rudy’s “Country Store” & Bar-B-Q, 2100 E. Ajo Way, is expected to open July 12.