50 in 50. Top 50 Texas BBQ joints in 50 weeks. First stop: Hutchins BBQ in McKinney

Great place that now includes a drive-thu window.

Okay, so hopefully you read my first post on here. If you did, thank you. If you did not, thanks for dropping by this time. For those of you who did not see my first post below, this blog was created for a few reasons, but the main thing I will post about for now is my 50 in 50 trip. Me, my wife and my 5 year old son will be going on a trip over the next 50 weeks to visit the 2013 Top 50 BBQ joints in Texas, a list that was just published in Texas Monthly’s June 2013 issue, hence the title of 50 in 50. The first joint that we visited was Hutchins BBQ in McKinney. Texas Monthly gave them 4.25 stars out of 5 stars.

Got wood????? They do…

We visited Hutchins on Memorial Day and the place was packed to the gills, so this was a good sign, right? Well yes, it was…in fact, it was a great sign! On our 50 in 50 tour we are only going to order the Holy Trinity of Texas BBQ: brisket, pork spare ribs and sausage. Well, Hutchins has an all you can eat option, so since we hadn’t eaten anything that morning, I decided for a few bucks more I could get the buffet and make a meal out of it and not eat again the rest of the day. So, we did have sides and dessert at Hutchins, but from here on out, we will more than likely have brisket, pork spare ribs and sausage only….unless my arm gets twisted to try something else.

On to the review of Hutchins…here is my first plate, consisting of brisket, pork spare ribs and sausage.

Good eats for sure!!!!!

I also got their beans, mac and cheese and a broccoli salad. After tasting all three meats, here is how I broke them down:

1. KING – The star of the show was their brisket. I asked for all “moist” slices and General Manager Dustin asked me if I was sure if I didn’t want any “lean” slices. I told him no thank you, give me the moist please. I think most of the flavor in brisket comes from the moist or fatty slices and this was the case with these slices of brisket. It has a great smoke flavor, a nice smokie ring and had a bit of a sweetness to it as well. It has a great bark and the brisket was very tender – you barely had to give it a tug to tear it apart, which is what you want brisket to do. This was the best out of the three meats and if I only could order one meat at Hutchins, it would be the brisket.



General manager Dustin slicing me some moist brisket…


2. QUEEN – Pork spare ribs. The first few that I ate were just a bit salty for my taste, but they last few I had were perfectly seasoned and had a nice bark as well. They did not fall off of the bone, which is a good thing. If someone brags about their ribs “falling off the bone”, don’t eat there. If it falls off the bone, the rib is overcooked. With ribs you want to be able to take a bit and see your bite mark in the rib meat, and these ribs left that desirable bite mark. If you are looking for a sweet rib, this rib is not for you…if you like a salt/pepper rub with a nice bark, then this is the rib for you.
3. PRINCE – Sausage. They have two sausages – regular and a jalapeno sausage. Both had a very nice snap to them, but the taste of the jalapeno sausage was just a bit off to me. I can’t really explain it, but if you order sausage, I would recommend the regular over the jalapeno. I was able to speak to pit master and owner Tim Hutchins and he let me know that Local Yocal, a “Farmer Owned, Full Service Butcher Shop & Local Goods Market”  just down the street, will be producing a house sausage for them in the very near future. Tim also let me know that he is going to create and produce a house link as well, so when these are on the menu, we will be back for sure to tase them and see how they stack up to the current sausages they offer. Don’t get me wrong, both were good, but not as good as the brisket and ribs.


Second go around…nice char or bark on the ribs…

So, all in all it was an excellet start to our 50 in 50 trip. If this is any indication of how good the other 49 jointsd are, then we are truly in for a fantastic treat! I also wanted to mention that their smoked turkey is amazing!!!!! Texas Monthly only rates these joints on the three meats we got, but if they had rated their turkey, I have no doubt they would have received another half star, maybe even more. But, since they don’t include turkey in the ratings, it is a moot point.

With their current boost in popularity thanks to their Top 50 status, they have been borrowing this huge smoker from Loyal Yocal.

If you go and eat at Hutchins, please do yourself and get the turkey in addition to the other meats. Heck, don’t be a cheapskate…spend a few more dollars and get the all you can eat ($16.59).

If you dine in, they have a great peach cobbler, an interesting textured but tasty banana pudding and soft serve with cones and toppings as well, all free of charge.

Again, this was an excellent start to our journey and pit master and owner Tim and general manager Dustin were extremly nice to us.

Owner and Pit Master Tim signing our copy of Texas Monthly’s 2013 Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas.

Tim even said he was honored that we came by and that we asked him to sign our Texas Monthly and he and Dustin were also honored to take a few photos with us.

Trust me Tim and Dustin, the honor was all ours! Congrats on the 4.25 stars and we wish you nothing but continued success in the future and we hope to be back in 2018 when the next list is published!!! (Although I did read that Daniel Vaughn, the BBQ Editor for Texas Monthly and author of the newly published book, Prophets of Smoked Meat, has said that he is looking at publishing this list every four years instead of every five years. Sounds great to me! Daniel also has what I believe to be THE BEST BBQ blog out there…if you haven’t done so yet, give it a read. Full Custom Gospel BBQ).

General manager Dustin on the left, me and my son in the middle and Owner and Pit Master Tim to the right. We are holding up 50 for the Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas!

I gave in…finally. Good or bad, that is yet to be determined.

Well, it finally happened…I have a blog. After being prodded (like a cow I guess – hey this blog will be mostly about BBQ and other food I love)  by my loving mother and after getting some inspiration from two friends who have great blogs of their own (more on them later) I decided to create a blog. Now….what to do with it? Well, for those of you who don’t know me, I assure you, it is no big loss. (just a little humor, mom) I intend this blog to be a little bit of everything ranging from BBQ and the fine art of smoking different cuts of meat (one of my current passions) to my boring everyday life…with different things sprinkled in from time to time that I hope you will find funny and enjoy as well.

So, my first “real” entry will be on our (my beautiful wife Nikki and my awesome 5 year old son Dustin) trip to Hutchins BBQ in McKinney, Texas. I am sure you are asking yourself, why the heck do I want to read about a rookie bloggers visit to a BBQ joint in McKinney, Texas? Well, as mentioned above, one of my passions is BBQ and smoking all types and cuts of meat. I began smoking BBQ in November of 2009 because my best childhood friend (Jeff Surles) had been smoking meats for a while and around the same time my uncle gave me an old bullet style charcoal/water smoker that he was going to throw away from a property he had just purchased. He called me and asked me if I wanted it and I said yes, as I hardly ever turn down free stuff, even if my wife and others consider it to be junk. Long story short, I read up and researched all I could find about smoking meats…then I took the plunge, head first with no life jacket to save me. I was still pretty clueless when it came to knowing what I was actually doing, but I caught the BBQ bug BIG time.

Over the course of the next year, I smoked something 50 out of 52 weekends…yeah, think about that for an hour or two…. And, I wasn’t using a set it and forget it electric smoker or a Big Green Egg (which I would love to own one day). Nope, I was feeding my fire with wood about every 45 minutes…and sometimes I would do this for up to about 14 hours straight. Some thought I was crazy (which I might be), but I loved every minute of it and really enjoyed learning more about the great big wonderful world of smoking meats, and doing it the traditional way of low (temperatures) and slow (smoking the meats until they are done to a specific temperature of the meats internally).

So, fast forward almost four years later and I am ready to do this blog. Now rewind to why my first real post will be about our trip to Hutchins BBQ in McKinney. If you don’t love BBQ as much as I do, then you might not know that Texas Monthly (what, you haven’t heard of Texas Monthly????? What, are you a Yankee????? Do yourself a favor and Google it and get you a subscription) publishes a Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas article every five years, and the current June 2013 edition has the new kings of que.

That being said, we (me, my wife and my son) are going to attempt to visit each of the 50 joints in the next 12 months (I told you I was a bit crazy)!!!!! So, we are going to Hutchins first because it is about 25 minutes away and I wanted some BBQ on Friday night. My plan is to dine on the Holy Trinity (sorry for that reference mom…I will go to confession soon) of Texas BBQ – brisket, pork spare ribs and sausage at each joint and get each pit master to sign their name on the corresponding write up of their joint in the Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ joints issue. I also want to see if they will let me take a photo of them with us and I will take as many photos of the food at each joint and their pits as well.

I think it is going to be a ton of fun and I hope you will enjoy living vicariously through my words and photos. If not, no big deal, I know I will still enjoy the journey I am about to em-bark (BBQ lovers like me will get that) upon. So, sit back, relax (no need to tighten or put on any seatbelts, in fact, at some point you might need to loosen your belt (because some of the food photos will make you want to eat your screen) and enjoy this little journey with me.

Okay, if you have read this far, thanks, and I truly mean that. I hope that this blog will entertain you and I hope you visit often and I hope you share your comments and experiences with me as well. I will mainly post about BBQ and BBQ related items, including things I smoke, but I will also post about baking, grilling and cooking as well and I like to do all three. If at any time you have any suggestions for me, don’t hesitate to let me know…just take it easy on this rookie blogger!!!

And…remember I mentioned earlier that two people besides my mother inspired me to create this blog (that’s okay, I know you are lying and don’t remember)? Well, they both have blogs, and quite good ones at that. One I know through Facebook and his blog and the other I first “met” at TheSmokeRing.com, but then I finally had the pleasure of meeting him in person. Do yourself a favor and give them each a visit: Griffin’s Grub and Cranky Buzzard. Thanks Jason and Charlie for getting this charcoal chimney started…

Until next time, BigPhil out…