The BBQ Nerd Goes to Church (BBQ)

My buddy Dakota was driving through Texas and asked if I wanted to meet him for BBQ (by the way, the answer to that question is always yes). We did the math on where he was, where he was going, and where I lived and we decided to meet up in Huntsville to hit up Church BBQ. This was an East Texas style joint operating out of, well, a church (or to be more precise in the building right next to it. When we walked in, the ambiance of small town local joint greeted us, as did the smell of smoked meat and friendly folks.

Dakota ordered a two meat plate with chicken and brisket, which came with bread, beans, and potato salad. For desert he ordered a buttermilk pie. 

The first thing we noticed was that the meat was COVERED in the sauce. In this case, it was actually a good thing and the sauce was pleasantly tangy and the perfect balance of smoke and sweet. The brisket wasn’t spectacular, but it was tender and still had a good beefy flavor. The chicken had great flavor with a kiss of smoke mixing perfectly with the sauce. The skin, on the other hand, wasn’t cooked quite as well, and had the dreaded rubbery texture. For my part, I tried the beef on a sandwich along with potato salad.

The beef works best as sandwich meat in my view. The strong beef flavor is prominent and the crust on the edges poke out of the sides. Throw a few pickles and onions and you have the makings of a delightful sandwich. But the real stars of the day were the deserts and potato salad.

The beans were well cooked and subtly seasoned but the potato salad blew me away. It had the tang from mustard you’d expect but had a little something extra for an additional kick and even a slight sweetness. I almost suspect pickle juice or even poppy seeds, but whatever the secret is, I would buy and eat a GALLON of that potato salad. One of the best I’ve eaten, no hperbole. My pecan pie tasted fresh and sweet, but not sickeningly   saccharine. The buttermilk pie was a thing of beauty. Light, sweet, with a pleasant vanilla flavor, this pie alone was worth the drive.

In lieu of my usual scoring methods, I’ll just say that Church BBQ is worth a good hour long drive. The meat is respectable, the sauce is great, and the potato salad and deserts will leave you floored all while you are being taken care by some of the nicest people in the state. It’s enough to make this agnostic BBQ fanatic wonder “Should I go to Church more often?”