Quickly Slow BBQ... How to Make Burnt Ends Quickly and Tasty

What makes great Bar-B-Que... SLOOOOOW Makes Great BBQ. You put the meat on, you grab a cold one, sit back, and wait. However, there are more options to waiting all day... or all night.

One of my favorite things about BBQ is burnt ends. The only thing is, it can take a while and there is never enough burnt ends to go around. This is how you create more burnt ends in half the time for all your friends and family.

Burnt Ends are just what the name says... It's the end of the Brisket or Pork Butt. The normal way to get burnt ends is to cut the ends off the brisket or pork butt. However, burnt ends have gained such popularity (especially in KC BBQ circles) that the need has grown to make more. Here is what I did to get more burnt ends. I cut the meat up before I smoked it. What that did was create more surface area to get more smoke AND by default, making it a faster process. So here is how you do slow-smoked BBQ... quickly.

Supplies

1-2 Pork Butts (typically bone-in, but non-bone-in is easier to cut up)
BBQ sauce of your choice. (I prefer something with real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup)
Honey
Apple Juice
Brown Sugar
Butter
Pellet Smoker, Kettle Grill, or Standard Smoker along with wood, pellets, and/or charcoal
Large aluminum pan and foil

Step 1: Cut the Meat

Carefully cut around the bone and cut the meat into small to medium size pieces. The biggest piece I had was about 3" rectangle and smallest was about .5" X 3". Don't worry about the varying sizes. If you would like, you can also make them more uniform smaller pieces.

Step 2: Use Your Favorite Rub and Place on Smoker

I used Bovine Bold. Yes... it is "made" for beef. However, it has a higher sugar content, which I like for beef, pork, ribs, and most any bbq. After sprinkling an even layer on all sides, pat it in to make sure it sticks. After you have done that on ALL sides, place the pieces on the smoker at 225 degrees Fahrenheit. You will want to avoid letting them touch. I smoked these for 3 hours. Side note... I use a pellet grill smoker but this can be done on any smoker you are comfortable with using. You may need to modify times based on your smoker. My smoker has a built-in water pan that you can add any liquid you desire. It is simply to add moisture in the air. I typically use water and/or apple juice. Some suggestions are juice, wine, whiskey, beer, or broth. (Excuse the mower sound in the background of the video. I wanted to have the sound of the fire roaring and then the neighbor started their mower.)

Step 3: It's Time to Make More Ends...

The time has arrived to do some cutting. When the pieces reach about 160-170 degrees Fahrenheit, take them off and start cutting into 1" - 1.5" square pieces. Be careful... They are HOT. After they are cut, place them in a large aluminum pan. Now the fun part... add the rest of the ingredients. This may take some of your "spidey senses" as it depends on if you want a little different flavor profile or you fixed more meat. I added 2 cups of BBQ Sauce, 1 Cup of Apple Juice, 1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar, 1/2 Cup of Honey, and about 10 - .5" slivers of stick butter. If you want to add some kick, you can put your favorite hot sauce or use spicey BBQ Sauce instead. I personally can't emphasize enough that I feel BBQ Sauce with Sugar rather than High Fructose Corn Syrup makes all the difference.

After cooking for a while, I moved them to my charcoal grill. Why you may ask....??? I had something else I wanted to cook on the pellet grill. However, I feel that charcoal cooking does add a nice "ruggedness" to the flavor. I left them on Indirect Heat on charcoal for about 2 hours. Again, some of this is feel. The recommended edible temperature of Pork is about 150 degrees Fahrenheit. However, it is not going to be good eating at that temperature. You will want to take it to 190-201. And of course, Pitmaster privilege is getting to taste test at this point.

Step 4: Time to Eat...

What I didn't show you was the BBQ Beans, Hashbrown Casserole, and cucumber salad being made. While the meat could be a meal in and of itself, nothing rounds out a good BBQ dinner more than some good ol' country sides.

We had friends over for this meal. They not only got seconds, but we had leftovers for us and leftovers to send with them, as well as shared with a neighbor. Be prepared... This feeds a lot of people.