UCON BBQ Chili Cookoff Winners!
In August United Contractors held the annual BBQ and Chili Cookoff which was a blast! Our family of companies showed up to support the McGuire and Hester team, “Jabba The Chili Hut,” which took home the People’s Choice Award for Best Chili 🏆! Our Chef Robert Sabin made an out-of-this-world Chili. We had a wonderful time filled with food, drinks, and laughs!
Together We Build Things Right (chili included!)
Spatchcock Turkey
Robert has also generously shared his turkey recipe with us, just in time for the upcoming holidays!
A Spatchcock Turkey means you remove the spine and flatten out the turkey. The benefits to this are it cooks more evenly, is faster, and has great presentation. An ideal turkey size is 13-15 pounds, the bigger you go, the harder it will be to keep the turkey from drying out. Instead, get 2 smaller ones, plus more leftovers!
I like to brine the turkey, you can do this step whole. Let it brine overnight, up to 24 hrs long. To keep it simple, I use the Meat Church Bird Bath Poultry Brine. When the brining step is complete, remove the turkey, rinse off and pat dry.
Season the turkey in your favorite rub. A binder is optional. I choose to use a binder to help the run adhere to the meat. For rub I use a light layer of salt, pepper, and garlic, then I layer it with Traeger pork and poultry rub.
Set your smoker to heat up to 275 degrees. I use a mixture of pecan and hickory wood. This will usually take about 3-4 hrs to cook depending on the size. The internal temperature of the turkey should be around 160-165 degrees. I will occasionally baste the turkey in butter when I feel it needs to be. Once it’s reached the goal temperature, let it sit for about 15-20 minutes before carving and enjoying it!