BBQ with the Pros Class

Learn to cook brisket, ribs, pork butts, and chicken in one 10-hour day.

What You Learn

• Award-winning techniques for barbequing brisket with au jus, competition-style ribs, sweet and juicy pulled pork, tender, applewood smoked chicken, elegant spatchcock chicken, fancy pork loin, and other traditional BBQ meats
• Recipes for sauces, rubs, brines, and injections
• Taste a variety of top commercial rubs and sauces
• Theory of smoker design, operation, and how to control all types of smokers, including Lang trailer, ceramic, ugly drum, pellet, water, and cabinet
• Minion method of lighting and controlling charcoal
• How foiling and brining work
• How to cook ahead, store, and reheat BBQ
• How to plan events
• How to “doctor” bottled sauces to make your own
• How to pull pork, chicken, and rib tips
• Lots of time to ask your own questions and stuff yourself with BBQ

What to Expect

You will spend the day cooking over 250 lbs of meat, shoulder-to-shoulder with us Pros. There will be plenty of time to interact with us instructors and our pitmaster, and ask questions. We guarantee you will have a lot of fun and probably make some new friends. For sure you will leave with the skills you need to be a great brisket, rib, pulled pork, and chicken cook.

What You Get

• 10 hours of hands-on instruction
• Step-by-Step manual containing what you learned in class
• Recipes for rubs, sauces, injections, and crowd-tested sides
• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Invite a guest for our full banquet dinner
• Diploma, worthy of framing
• Southern Thunder Cooking School of BBQ apron
• Skills you need to be a great BBQ cook

Class Overview

7:15 am - Upon your arrival, we will give you a step-by-step illustrated manual can use to follow along with our instructions and take notes, and also an apron because you are going to need it. Enjoy our hot breakfast buffet while waiting for class to begin at 7:30 am sharp.

7:30 am - Class will begin with us demonstrating how to prepare a 12-14lb whole brisket. You can watch on our BBQ cam and we will be discussing not only what to do but also the rationale behind each step - very important. Next, you will go to a lab table where you and your teammates, along with a lab assistant, will prepare your brisket as we showed you. When you have finished, it will go into one of our six or so smokers - various brands and types. Next, you will do the same with pork butts, ribs, chicken, pork loin, and whatever else we feel like cooking that day.

10:30 am - All the big meats will be in a smoker, so it’s time to begin preparing today’s lunch items: pork loin, lollipop chicken, smoked sausages, and drumsticks.

Noon - As shown above, we be using many different types of smokers, including ceramic, Webber charcoal, pellet, gravity-fed cabinet, and a trailer smoker. Most schools only use one brand and type but to be a real pitmaster you need to be familiar with how different smokers operate and some general theory on smoker design. After we cover this in class we will go outside and walk you through each of the various types of smokers and how they are designed to operate.

12:30 pm - Lunch break. Beer and wine available for cheap.

1:00 pm - Prepare hens to go into an apple-wood-fired Webber smoker.

2:00 pm - We will give you a handout and a brief lecture on how to create BBQ sauces and then you and your teammates will return to your lab table and everyone will work on inventing their sauces. You will be tasting each other’s sauces which adds to the value of this lesson. At the end of the lab, your team will select one sauce and turn it in for judging. The winning team will be announced during the evening banquet.

2:30 pm - In the afternoon there will be more lectures on cooking ahead, storing and reheating meats, and other need-to-know topics. You will also be participating in the cooking steps needed to finish brisket, ribs, and pork butts.  You will also learn to make burnt ends and cook spatchcock chicken.

5:00 pm - Students pull pork, chicken, and rib tips. Absolutely no tasting allowed! (just kidding).

5:30 pm - Those who have met our strict academic standards will receive a frame-worthy diploma. Guests will begin arriving with adult beverages and an appetite.

6:00 pm - A full BBQ banquet starts at 6:00 P.M. Invite a guest to dinner or take some home. Bring some red wine if you like and plan on making a picnic out of it.

Our Goal

We want every student to leave with the ability to do an excellent job of cooking the four major meats: brisket, pork butts, ribs, and chicken.

To accomplish we give everyone an illustrated manual describing our simplified BBQ cooking techniques, live demonstrations, and hands-on lab work.

It’s a busy day but you will have a lot of fun interacting with us and stuffing yourself with BBQ.