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| - Last Christmas, my wife bought me a smoker, then for V-day, she bought me Smoking 101 class for 2 at the Phoenix BBQ & Grilling School! Her idea was that I would take a buddy with me to this BYOB school, but I think my bros were as skeptical as I was at first. Upon receiving a couple of respectful declinations from them, I decided to nudge she-who-had-paid for the class to accompany. Even she was hesitant at first!
Buuuuutttt thankfully I had more sway with her than I did with my friends, so we went together a couple of weeks ago and took a little of our own beer and wine with us (this is allowed and you can consume openly while there).
And boy were we blown away. We learned some great tricks on smoking brisket, pork, chicken and a variety of styles of ribs. We also learned the basics on several different types of smokers. Further, in cooperation with our classmates, we created some tasty side dishes, learned an amazing bbq sauce recipe and some great rub recipes.
The grand finale, DUH!, was when we got to take everything we had learned how to create off of the multiple smokers in use at the facility, prepare and devour it all (with lots of leftovers to take home)! My bros REALLY missed out but, frankly, I was glad that my wife and I did it together. It turned out to be something that will bring us closer together in the kitchen and enable us to work hand in hand to create meals we'll both enjoy in the future.
Our instructor was amazing, as were all of the grill techs who were assisting us and ensuring we didn't screw up anything on the smokers. They also provide access to a web portal containing all of the recipes we learned so that we could reference them on our own afterwards.
Can't recommend the Phoenix BBQ & Grilling School enough. Well worth it from a learning standpoint, great fun, and a great experience for my wife and I to have had together!
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