Mesquite Gaming’s Christian Adderson presents Lucky’s Q’s head Cook Justin McGlaun with a check for $1,500 for taking first place in the chicken category.  Photo by Teri Nehrenz.

Mesquite Gaming’s Christian Adderson presents Lucky’s Q’s head Cook Justin McGlaun with a check for $1,500 for taking first place in the chicken category. Photo by Teri Nehrenz.

Smoking in Mesquite BBQ competition was held this past weekend, May 6-8 in conjunction with Mesquite Days for the first time in eight years. Mesquite Gaming and the city of Mesquite named this year’s festivities appropriately “Smokin Hot Mesquite Days” but it wasn’t the weather they were referring to.

The city and Mesquite Gaming combined efforts to bring together a fantastic carnival with vendors and a world class BBQ championship that has one of the biggest prize purses in the west.

The BBQ competition was held at the Casablanca Event tent and grounds where vendors set up to smoke and BBQ more meat than one could imagine with most cooks beginning their meats the night before, slowly smoking them for 12-14 hours. Some of the new-minded cooks prefer a much faster method of cooking with higher heat and don’t put in as much time actually cooking the meat but the preparation is extreme for both.

Competitors set up their pits early Friday evening and were already beginning their preparations for the event that many had come quite some distance to be a part of.

Mesquite Gaming’s Christian Adderson presents Lucky’s Q’s head Cook Justin McGlaun with a check for $1,500 for taking first place in the chicken category.  Photo by Teri Nehrenz.

Mesquite Gaming’s Christian Adderson presents Lucky’s Q’s head Cook Justin McGlaun with a check for $1,500 for taking first place in the chicken category. Photo by Teri Nehrenz.

With $40,000 at stake, the largest in the Kansas City BBQ Society’s competitions, 36 teams competed to be the favorite choice of the judges in Pulled Pork, Brisket, Chicken and Ribs.

Each of the four category winners took home bragging rights and a check for $1,500. But the most coveted award was to be named this year’s Grand Champion of the Smokin’ in Mesquite competition with not only bragging rights but a prize of $14,000. Grand Champion is chosen based on the total of their combined scores in all four categories.

Clark Crew BBQ’s Travis Clark didn’t just take home the brisket; he also took home to Yukon, OK the bragging rights and the check for $14,000 along with the title of the Smokin in Mesquite 2016 Grand Champion.

This year’s category champions are:

1st Place Chicken- $1,500- Lucky’s Q from Waverly, Iowa- Head Cook- Justin McGlaun

1st Place Ribs- $1,500- Left Coast Q from Banning, California- Head Cook- Matt Dalton

Clark Crew BBQ’s Travis Clark didn’t just take home the brisket; he also took home to Yukon, OK the bragging rights and the check for $14,000 along with the title of the Smokin in Mesquite 2016 Grand Champion.  Presenting the check is Mesquite Gaming’s Christian Adderson.  Photo submitted.

Clark Crew BBQ’s Travis Clark didn’t just take home the brisket; he also took home to Yukon, OK the bragging rights and the check for $14,000 along with the title of the Smokin in Mesquite 2016 Grand Champion. Presenting the check is Mesquite Gaming’s Christian Adderson. Photo submitted.

1st Place Pork- $1,500- Big B’s Down N Dirty from Pacifica, California- Head Cook- Bill Souza

1st Place Brisket- $1,500- Clark Crew BBQ from Yukon, Oklahoma- Head Cook- Travis Clark

You can find more information on the Kansas City BBQ Society by visiting their web site at: www.kcbs.us/ .