Pig Whisperers top competitive BBQ team

Published 8:46 am Monday, September 15, 2014

Four years ago some bad ribs cooked at the Deep Roots Festival spurred a local man to form one of the best competitive barbecue squads in the southeast.

“We went down there to cook ribs and had no idea what we were doing and probably made the worst ribs ever created,” Chris Goodwin said. “But I really liked everything about it, and we got started from there. I dedicated myself to doing a heck of a lot better than that going forward.”

Milledgville’s Pig Whisperers consist of Goodwin, along wife Denise and father Ronnie.

They grew from a pop-up tent and a wood-burning smoker to a 28-foot catering rig with a porch smoker.

The team owned the “best brisket in Georgia” designation from 2011 to 2012 under the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS). The Pig Whisperers consider brisket their “money meat.”

“In 2013, we were the fourth best team in the state in the points series out of like 300 ranked teams,” Goodwin said. “From day one, my goal was to be one of the best teams in the southeast, and I think if we aren’t there, we are pretty close.”

A win at the oldest BBQ competition in the southeast, the Dillard Festival, proves their clout.

Last weekend, they took home Grand Champion at the Southaven, Miss. regional finals. This top award qualified them for the Sam’s Club 2014 National Championship, which will take place at the end of September. 

The local BBQ team was overwhelmed at the regional but managed to stand out in all categories including chicken, pork, ribs and brisket against

top teams from Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida.

Pig Whisperers, along with nine other teams that competed in last Saturday’s competition, will head to the Sam’s Club Headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. for the National Championship competition and a chance at the $50,000 Grand Champion prize. 

With Goodwin working at the Oconee Regional Medical Center and Denise at Three Rivers Home Health, the group doesn’t get as many events attended, as they’d like.

“For us, we do about a third of what everybody else does. I have a friend who has already done 26 this year, and most people are about the same,” Goodwin said. “Every time we steal a grand champion from them it’s even sweeter because we cook so few contests.”

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For KCBS events, teams check in on Friday to get the cooking site and meat situated. Then it’s all about prep before the smoke starts.

Some competitors begin the cooking process early Friday night, while others like the Pig Whisperers start around 4 a.m. on Saturday.

The local team cooks “hot and fast” at 50 to 75 degrees more than most.

“We get up and get it done,” Goodwin said. 

A Southern Q 500 water pan smoker gets the job done right. The moisture component caters to higher temperatures.

Southern Q water pan smokers enable users to cook at temperatures well above 300 degrees and still achieve perfect tenderness because the meat is protected from the hot fire by a large water pan. The water pan both adds moisture to the cooking environment and gives the pit master better control over temperature spikes.

The first year using Southern Q speaks for itself.

“We love it,” Goodwin said. “We’ve cooked six contests this year and we’ve gotten two grand championships off of it. You can’t blame it on the cooker now.”

In four years, the Goodwin team learned competitive BBQ isn’t just a hobby or a good ole’ boy environment.

Typical Georgia event trips cost nearly $1,000.

“It’s people my age with disposable income who are foodies. It’s a very expensive hobby,” Goodwin said. “It’s not what people expect really or for the faint of heart when it comes to finances.”

The Pig Whisperers constantly develop different sauces, rubs and meat injections to remain competitive. Researching regional taste profiles can separate the winners from the bottom of the pack.

The weeks leading up to the Sept. 24 departure for Arkansas will be spent perfecting the right flavor combinations across all meats.

“We’ll decide what tweaks we are going to make over the next few weeks and hope for the best,” Goodwin said.