Sat, Apr 22
|Shawnee
Holy Smokes BBQ Competition
BBQ competition at the park on Saturday, April 22, 2023. The goal is to have 15 - 20 teams. If you are interested in volunteering to help out with this, please contact Chris Meyer at cjmeyer83@gmail.com or Jake Rieke at jrieke81@yahoo.com.


Time & Location
Apr 22, 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Shawnee, 19301 Midland Dr, Shawnee, KS 66218, USA
About The Event
General Rules:
Holy Smokes BBQ Competition
Event Details:
Registration is $100 due by April 1, 2023
Electricity will not be available. If you are going to need power, you must provide on your own.
Beer, ice, soda, water, and food will be available for a donation.
Kid’s zone will be available for a donation.
General Rules: Each team will be assigned a cooking space. Pits, cookers, props, tents or any other equipment shall not exceed the boundaries of the team’s assigned cooking space. All seasoning and cooking of product shall be done within the assigned cooking space. Teams shall not share an assigned cooking space or cooking device.
Fires shall be of wood, wood pellets or charcoal. Gas and electric heat sources shall not be permitted for cooking or holding. Propane or electric is permitted as fire starters, provided that the competition meat is not in/on the cooking device. Electrical accessories such as spits, augers, or forced draft are permitted.
All competition meats shall be inspected by the contest committee member on the day of the competition. Once the competition meat has been inspected, it shall not leave the contest site. Cooking shall not begin until the competition meat has been inspected. All competition meat shall start out raw. No pre-seasoned meat is allowed other than for the sausage category.
Parboiling, Sous-vide, and/or deep-frying competition meat is not allowed.
Meat shall not be sculptured, branded or presented in a way to make it identifiable. Rosettes of meat slices are not allowed.
The allowable turn-in time will be five (5) minutes before to five (5) minutes after the posted time with no tolerance.
Sauce is optional. If used, it shall be applied directly to the meat and not be pooled or puddled in the container. No side sauce containers will be permitted in the turn-in container. Chunky sauce will be allowed.
Entries will be submitted in a lettered or numbered container, provided by the contest organizer. The letter or number must be on top of the container at turn-in.
The container shall not be marked in any way so as to make the container unique or identifiable. Aluminum foil, toothpicks, skewers, foreign material, and/or stuffing are prohibited in the container.
Each contestant must submit at least six (6) portions of meat in an approved container. Chicken and pork may be submitted chopped, pulled, sliced, or diced as the cook sees fit, as long as there is enough for six (6) judges. Ribs shall be turned in bone-in. Judges may not cut, slice, or shake apart to separate pieces. If there is not enough meat for each judge to sample, the shorted judge(s) will score a one (1) on all criteria.
Prior to cooking, meat must be maintained at 40° F or less. After cooking it must be held at 140° F or above OR Cooked meat shall be cooled as follows: Within 2 hours from 140° F to 70° F and Within 4 hours from 70° F to 41° F or less.
Meat that is cooked, properly cooled, and later reheated for hot holding and serving shall be reheated so that all parts of the food reach a temperature of at least 165° F for a minimum of 15 seconds.
Judging Procedure:
Judging will be done by a team of 6 persons. Only Judges and necessary support staff are allowed in judging area during the judging process.
Each judge will first score all the samples for appearance of the meat. The turn-in containers will then be passed around the table and each judge will place a sample from each of the containers in the appropriate box on the judging plate. The judge will then score each entry for taste and tenderness, before moving on to the next entry.
The scoring system is from 9 to 2, all whole numbers between two and nine may be used to score an entry. 9 excellent, 8 very good, 7 above average, 6 average, 5 below average, 4 poor, 3 bad, and 2 inedible.
A score of one (1) is a disqualification and requires approval by the head judge. Grounds for disqualification: All judges will give a one (1) in Appearance for unapproved garnish, pooled sauce or less than 6 samples of meat. All judges will give a one (1) in all criteria for sculptured meat, a marked turn-in container, foreign object in the container, incorrect meat. All judges not receiving a sample will give a one (1) in all criteria.
The low score will be thrown out. Results will be tallied. If there is a tie in one of the categories, it will be broken as follows: The scores will be compared (counting all five judges) for the highest cumulative scores in taste, then tenderness, then appearance. If still tied, then the low score, which was thrown out, will be compared and the higher of the low scores will break the tie. If still tied, then a coin toss will be used. In the event of lost, destroyed, or missing score cards the remaining score cards will be averaged in each category and those averages shall be used as the missing scores on replacement score cards. After there are six total score cards the normal procedure will be followed for dropping the low score.
Total points per entry will determine the champion within each meat category.
Cumulative points for all categories will determine the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion. Category specifications:
Sausage: May be ground or in casing. Bacon explosion not allowed.
Chicken: May be any of the following chicken parts: thigh, breast, drumstick/leg, or wing. Bone in or bone out is acceptable.
Ribs: Pork ribs only. May be spare ribs or baby backs, cut however you like (St. Louis style, etc.). Country style ribs are prohibited.
Pork: Must be pork tenderloin. The entry may be sliced, pulled or chopped.
Friday, April 21 4:30pm - 7:00pm – Park is open for early setup if desired. This is at your own risk, and liability for your property is not the responsibility of the Knights of Columbus. The park will not be patrolled and the gates will be locked overnight at 7pm. No overnight camping allowed.
Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 7:00am – Gates open
8:00am – Check in all meat and get setup
10:00am – Cooks meeting and opening prayer
2:00pm – Judges meeting
2:30pm – Sausage turn-in time
3:00pm – Pork turn-in time
3:30pm – Chicken turn-in time
4:00pm – Ribs turn-in time
5:00pm – Awards ceremony