My Pro Q Elite 20 Adventure

[Steaksy]

Cheers to Gumb for the tip to start the thread.

First Instalment of what I hope to be many!

Picked up my Pro Q Elite 20 Smoker on Tuesday from Josh @ Aussie BBQ's at Murarrie (Brisbane) an upgrade from a cheap Bullet Smoker I got as a Xmas present after a quick assembly that afternoon (very impressed with the ease of assembly simply screw on 3 legs and you're away) I got around to seasoning it yesterday arvo with just a quick burn of a half chimney of gidgee and a small block of Acacia for a bit of smoke.



One thing that impressed me was the calibration of the built in temp gauge on the Pro Q (the gauge never worked on my cheapie!) there seemed to only be about a 10 degree difference in heat from the gauge to my meat probe



Bring on the weekend now looking forward to my first cook in it, I'm yet to decide what I'll christen it with I'll see after I visit the butcher Saturday morning!

Cheers all for reading, anyone else using a Pro Q I'm more than happy for any tips advice techniques etc etc

Heath

[urbangriller]

Sure looks pretty with the red grommets and handles!

Looking forward to seeing the cooking!!

Chris

[Steaksy]

I was actually surprised how cool the handles where to touch, after about a solid hour at 250f I thought I'd try the handles out to see just how hot they got and to my surprise I could easily lift sections off with out any hint of heat in them at all.

Heath

[Smokey]

They are an awesome smoker mate, Your in for some fun
My advice is to start with a 4kg lump of chuck. Very forgiving.

[Gumb]

Good stuff, keep 'em coming over the weekend.

[Transplant BBQer]

Pork Ribs are also fairly easy if you want to spend the money on them, I do tend to find however that the spare ribs from a normal butcher tend to be pre-trimmed of pretty much 80% of the fat which makes for quick,dry cook.

I tend to get my Ribs from Costco as they don't do much but a basic trim leaving on the lovely fat to melt away into the meat. mmmmm

Of course what you cook will also be dictated by how much time you can set aside for said cook, and how much beer you have a on hand haha.

[Steaksy]

So Saturday just gone saw an early morning visit to the Super Butcher to grab a few meaty delights to help christen in my new Pro Q Elite 20 with.


Meat Bounty

After packing everything in the freezer i decided upon Beef Ribs and Chicken Wings done 3 ways for the first run in the Pro Q, the beef ribs copped just a S&P rub and went into the smoker with a bit of Acacia wood for smoke and pit temp was around 270f. After about 3 hours and when the smoke had died off i put the wings in one lot i marinated in Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sauce and finished off with the Blends smoked Honey (seriously how good is this honey!) the two other lots both got dusted in Mad Hunky Hot Ass Whangs Chicken Rub with one lot finished with the Blends smoked Honey and the other lot finished with a Louisiana Hot Sauce. The wings came out spot on about three hours later and the beef ribs too came out solid after about 7 hours, all in all happy with the first run.


3 hours in and the wings are on.


4hours in and time to wrap


finished wings


the sauces


7hour slow cooked beef ribs

Cheers all for taking the time to read

Heath

[2browndogs]

Fantastic. Bet it was all smokey and moist.

[Narmnaleg]

Fantastic work Steaksy!!! The Pro Q looks like a great BBQ. Keep the pics coming!

[Steaksy]

Everything came out super juicy and moist the Mrs was very impressed with the flavours and tenderness of the finished product, I must say I think I'm fanboy of the Pro Q already after just a couple cooks. Night before last I thought I'd try brining a chook which I've never done so after getting a recipe off the site here I mixed it all up and put the chook in the fridge to brine for 5 hours or so.



5 hours later took the chook out patted it dry shoved a plastic cup up its clacker then onto a plate then into the fridge to air dry overnight.



Came home from work yesterday fired up the Pro Q with just charcoal no smoke got the pit to somewhere between 250f-275f rubbed it with oil and a bit of S&Pand thru the chook in, 3 hours later it was done. Its doesn't look the best in the picture caused I used thongs to removed it and it puled the skin away. The skin wasn't super crunchy but the chicken meat it self was the juiciest moist chicken I've ever eaten no going back from here i'll be brining all my birds from now on.



Cheers for taking the time to read this.

Steaksy

[Nath]

Looks fantastic! The captains brine is just the best!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Gumb]

Great result steaksy, brining chooks is definitely the way to go.

[Steaksy]

Saturday morning decided to throw a few racks of Pork Ribs into the Pro Q Elite 20 for a lunchtime feed with a cold can whilst I watched the footy, so after a quick coating of some American Mustard and a liberal rub down with a Texas BBQ Sweet Rub I threw'em into the smoker.





The temp sat between 230-250f and I went for the 3:2:1 approach, I smoked them over apricot wood and used Gidgee lump charcoal.



3 hours in I took them off and wrapped them in alfoil with brown sugar, butter and a drizzle of Blends Smoked Honey and put them back in for another 2 hours. After the two hours I unwrapped them put them back in and started to sauce them every 15mins or sauce with Sweet Baby Rays Chipotle Honey.


sauced up!

served up!

In summation, though the ribs were moist, juicy, tender and came away from the bone very easily (I spritzed every 45mins or so) I reckon the initial 3 hours over smoke was probably 45-60mins to much based on the thickness of the ribs a 2:2:1 approach I think would of seen a higher quality end product but dam they were good!

Cheers for taking the time to read.

Steaksy

[Steaksy]

Had the parents stay for a couple of nights to help out looking after my young fella during school holidays so I teed up to do a leg lamb yesterday. So I was up early to getting the Pro Q started and to prep the lamb as I had to go to work. So by 8.30am the lamb had been on for 2hours smoking over black wattle and the pit was stable at 225f after a quick run thru with the old man and what to do I headed off to work. Old girl called me about 12pm and said the internal temp of the lamb was 160f so I got her to drizzle it with smoked honey double foil it and put it back in. I got home just after 3pm (early mark!) the Pro Q was puffing along nicely and by 5pm it was 195f so I pulled it out wrapped it in a couple of towels and put it in the esky for 90mins. Mum had also wrapped a couple of big sweet potatoes in alfoil and threw them in at lunch time as well. After towel wrapping the lamb we set about knocking up a potato bake and a bit of cabbage & bacon to serve with it, 6.30 the potato bake was done and lamb pulled apart nicely with good flavours of smoke and the garlic and rosemary that I studded it with in the morning.



Not the best of photos as we were sitting on the back veranda and light isn't the best



Still with plenty of heat in the pit I removed the middle stacker and water bowl and put the top stacker and grill directly over coals then set about making caramel dumpling for dessert using my tagine.



I did put the Pro Q Lid back on over the top to keep the heat in, after 15mins I had a quick look to make sure all was travelling as planned which it was!



Then by the time everyone had finished dinner the caramel dumpling were done stoked with the end result having only done low and slow cooks of meat to knock out a dessert in the Pro Q was another feather in the cap so to say. Cook time for the dumplings was about 25mins and they sat at 350f/180c roughly for the whole time and were a big hit.


Perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream!

Cheers for reading.

Steaksy

[Gumb]

WOW ! That's excellent !