How many smokers do you need to compete?
 

I am thinking about starting to compete in some of the smaller BBQ competitions here in AZ. I started thinking, how many smokers do you need to compete in a BBQ contest? I have a WSM and a Char Broil silver smoker (offset) and a uniflame charcoal grill. Is that enough to get started? Please share your opinions. Thanks!

The first competion I ever competed in, I had 2 $30.00 Brinkman water smokers. I finished 9th overall with a 2nd in chicken and a 6th in pork.

Steve

Looks like you are set!

I see people all the time with a couple of Weber kettles or a WSM and a kettle. Just figure out if you can fit everything you need on the equipment you have!

Unless your a stickler for using specific woods on certain things. You can get away with one cooker if you have the capacity. I use 3 though. 2 WSM for the brikets and butts, just so I can catch a rest. Stickeburner for the ribs and chicken. Brisket and pork butts also use seperate woods. Ribs and chicken use a third. Sometime the ribs go in with the butts. Its all personal preference.

Oh screw it... just use hickory for all of 'em! :lol:

A seperate rig for chicken is highly desirable. After trying several methods, cooking chicken hotter than you want anything else is the way I get the most consistent (both in quality and repeatable cooking time) results. Your uniflame will do nicely for this, you see lots of teams that cook their chicken indirect on small grills and cook their other 3 catagories on bigass fancy cookers of every variety.
If ya can swing it another WSM would give ya a bit more elbow room, like Phil, butts and briskets in the WSM's, chicken on your grill and ribs in the silver. Provided you like ribs in your silver this setup would be golden :wink: