Peppercorn Duck Club Recipe

Seems everyone looks for something "different" to serve for the holidays. Here is a great recipe that will break you out of the culinary rut we find ourselves in every Christmas.
I used to prepare this dish for Thanksgiving every year and it never failed to be a real treat; it was always the first of the meats to literally vanish after the first helping.
This is, as far as I know, the recipe still in use today at the Peppercorn Duck Club at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City.
First, start with one 4 to 4 and-a-half pound duck (domestic only) and rise it well, pat dry and set aside.

In a bowl combine the following ingredients mixing together. 1 teaspoon of each: dried rosemary, whole fennel seed, anise, granulated garlic, white pepper and paprika. Add 1/2 cup of non-iodized salt.
Season duck with the rub you've made and make sure it is rubbed all over; then add 1 tablespoon into the cavity of the duck.
Smoke the duck at 225 degrees, with hickory chips. You want to end up with an internal temp of 160 to 165.
At this point, the duck still contains a lot of grease. So preheat your oven to 350-375. Then, using a deep roasting pan place a poultry stand in the middle with the duck placed on the stand. Cook the duck, with the oven light on, monitoring the grease loss and the bird.
I had to play with this a few times, but what you are looking for is the meat, once pulled, to have the same characteristics of the dark meat on a turkey.
If you find this to be a keeper, just keep in mind, two ducks means doubling the rub or tripling and so on.

The Chain Gang Is Morphing Into The BBQ Pit

We have found a ideal location to move our BBQ joint inside and escape our serving trailer. Plans are that we're moving next door to Nixa Hardware which is great spot because of all the traffic that comes in.
Hopefully, after the first of the year we will be open for business there an no longer have to fight cold weather and the elements to serve our BBQ.

We are also dropping the name Chain Gang BBQ. This name was originally conceived as a BBQ team name for the KCBS barbeque cook-off 2009 season and really isn't a branding name for a restaurant.
So after much debate, designs and discussions we landed on a short and sweet name: The BBQ Pit. That's it. We like the clean look of the logo and the overall design. So, to say were excited about this is an understatement to say the least, but yet, with all "new" ventures, there is always a little apprehension. I guess you could call it what performers refer to as stage fright, those little butterflies in your gut that just won't go away until the performance begins. We look forward to see everyone in our new digs and you can sit down at a table and enjoy your 'cue from THE BBQ Pit!!!

Forget Political Correctness

Everyone "surfs" the web. And 9 times out of 10, I surf for BBQ related sites (imagine that.)

Well, the other night I did a search on Google for BBQ Joints and low and behold, I found this place. I have no idea where they're located; but I'll give them the brass balls award for being politically UNcorrect.

Holy Toledo. But, I can tell you Muslims don't eat ribs, pulled pork or sausage. So, come in, it's KOOL inside!

Meat Prices On The Rise

In case you haven't noticed, inflation is back, especially for groceries. Prices have gone up as high as 18% for chicken, beef and pork and now they're about to be passed onto consumers at the restaurant level.

What started all of this, aside from the miserable economy, is the diversion of corn from the farmer and livestock producers to the gas pump and it's only going to get worse. Before the election, the Environmental Protection Agency increased the amount of ethanol (corn) from a 10% blend to 15%.

What does this mean? Well, corn becomes even more scarce, thus less feed for livestock. If you can't feed your cattle, hogs and chickens, you reduce the amount of live animals to keep costs in line. Now that would work out great if demand was at or below the farm inventories but it's not and that's one reason prices are headed north.

Milk is up too. From the summer prices of $2.79 a gallon for whole milk that same gallon is now selling for prices as high as $4.12 a gallon. It's forecast to only get worse with big names like General Mills, Kellogg's, McDonald's and Dominos announcing price increases. This may but the end to "value meals" and lunch for $2.99.

Ahh, the good old days when a BBQ pork sandwich was just 30 cents.

A Church With Barbecue In Its Name?

I was just watching a BBQ TV show and they featured a church in the Carolinas with Barbecue in its name and I thought, what? No way, get out of here Bobby Flay. But hold the phone, little Bobby was tellin' the truth.

Meet the Barbecue Presbyterian Church in Sanford, North Carolina; I kid you not. This church was established in 1895 and the story goes that the church founders gazed upon fog rising from a nearby pond and remarked how it looked like a BBQ pit. And a church is born.

Members, apparently, often dine on chopped pork, sweet potatoes, slaw and rolls after Sunday service. They even incorporate the word barbecue in some of the hymns they sing.

What a place!!

If you have your doubts, Google this puppy. It's located at, ready? 124 Barbecue Church Road.

Meet our Day and Night Jobs

My family and I operate Chain Gang BBQ in Nixa, Missouri. We have operated our little red serving trailer for all of 2010 and pride ourselves in serving up Championship Quality BBQ and homemade side dishes from our own family recipes.

As the weather gets colder, we will be offering up our famous Pit Chili and a wonderful Brunswick Stew. Now granted, Brunswick Stew is a favorite of the deep south, it is truly worth trying some. It will remind you of a gumbo without the seafood or rice. We make ours with chicken, andouille sausage, yukon gold potatoes, okra, and other goodies. It is a "stick-to-your-ribs" dish.

The Chain Gang also features our signature side dishes, baked beans along with creamy cole slaw, 7 cheese mac n' cheese and 3 varieties of sausage; polish, BBQ and hot link.

As we like to say, it's BBQ like no other.

My BBQ Compass Is North By Northwest

In my neck of the woods, southern Missouri, we are influenced by the Kansas City style of BBQ. Sauces are tomato based with molasses, brown sugar and a dash of vinegar thrown in for the tartness to off set the sweet. It's a balance that works well for folks around these parts. If you go to southeast Missouri, the Memphis style begins to take a firm hold on BBQ tastes.

In all my years of tending a pit, I never really got into the "history" of BBQ in Kansas City that would end up being a blueprint for what many have followed throughout the years.

In the early 1920's, a young man named Henry Perry left the Mississippi river boat restaurant scene and headed to Kansas City. Historians say that Perry operated a BBQ joint from inside an old trolley car not far from the 18th & Vine area. Perry sold a full slab of ribs for the unbelievable price of 25 cents; he also smoked and sold woodchuck, possum and other critters indigenous to Missouri. But, aside from being known as the "Father of Barbeque" in Kansas City, he was responsible for the formation of two BBQ joints still operating today in KC.

Early on, Perry hired two employees to help him work the pits; one was Arthur Pinkard and the other was Charlie Bryant. Pinkard was the first to be lured away from Perry and he was done so by a man named George Gates in 1946. Pinkard and Gates then formed Gates & Sons BBQ which still has multiple locations in KC and sells BBQ sauces, meats and rubs on line. Not long after Pinkard left, Perry suddenly died and Charlie Bryant took over the operation but soon retired. At that point Charlie's brother, Arthur took over, made a few cosmetic changes, but kept the pits churning out phenomenal BBQ and is still at 18th and Brooklyn in KC.

Perry's original sauce was rumored to be very hot with pepper and harsh. Many said Perry got a kick to see customers grab their glasses of water to wash away the heat in an effort to find relief. The Bryant brothers made changes to the Perry recipe to make it sweeter and more palatable and that formula is still served today.