Jeff and Donna had been talking about taking me to Pappy’s Smokehouse for some time now and knowing that Skip Steele of Super Smokers fame had moved into a new home, we had to try it. We arrived early, hearing that sometimes Pappy’s will run out of food and simply go home and the Beef Brisket is usually the first to go. We ordered up the brisket, and I had to try the Deep fried corn on the co, oh yeah! We assembled all the various sauces and waited for our food to arrive.

While waiting, the BBQ Pro Shop Webmaster, Jeff Hirsch started a conversation with the nice lady helping us and before we knew it, Skip himself was serving us our food. He and I talked about BBQ in Chicago. I commented on how much I liked his Brisket, it was tender, very flavorful and more beef like than any smoked brisket I had ever had. He told us that he believes in cooking the brisket right and not drying it out and destroying the flavor. It was something special. He then brought us out a slab of St. Louis ribs to try and they were perfect. Tender, but not falling off the bone, just enough.

Skip is a man who loves his art, he worked at RUB BBQ in NYC and in Las Vegas, and he has helped out many restaurant owners start-up their BBQ joints. Skip gave us a tour of his custom designed and built smoker that he had them design so that he could get the maximum amount of food in it every day to keep his customers happy. He uses different smoking woods delivered from local sources and his style and passion for what he does is palatable.

The BBQ World is really a special fellowship and one which I am proud to be a part of in some way. Take a look at Skip’s simple rub recipe below, I found it on the web and loved it. Tried it on some ribs and it really was something special.

Chef Skip Steele of RUB BBQ Dry Rub Recipe

2 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1.5 teaspoons black pepper

1/2 teaspoon red pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon allspice