WE SKIPPED TO LOCKHART SMOKEHOUSE

My day job has been doing it's very best to interfere with my BBQ addiction lately. It has been so succesful that I totally forgot that I had not written a blog about my trip to Lockhart Smokehouse, while I was on vacation last month, until I was clearing space on my phone and ran across the pictures I took.

The plan for the day was to go to Dallas and do a little shopping and then hit Pecan Lodge. I knew we needed to be to Pecan Lodge early but a slight time management miscalculation put us there about 30 minutes after they opened for lunch, on a Friday, and the line was about two blocks down the street already.

So I pulled up the Texas Monthly BBQ app on my phone and found the next nearest Texas Monthly Top 50 Q-raunt to us and hoped for the best.

 
When we got to Lockhart Smokehouse I could see that they were pretty busy but the wait was short enough to handle. So we got in line and started putting together plans for our order.

For those of you not familar with Lockhart, or Central Texas, style BBQ. You don't order dinners with sides like we do here in Oklahoma. You pick your sides and then you order your meat by the pound.

 Lockhart Smokehouse only deviates from the procedure in that you pay for the meat, sides, and drink at the same time instead of having to buy meat and then go stand in another line to buy your sides like they do at Smitty's, Kruez, and many other old school Texas Q-raunts.

I was there for the meat so I told my wife and mother-in-outlaw to pick the sides they wanted to buy and I would buy all the meat.

The meat all comes served in butcher paper. Which just happens to be my favorite way to have it served. I don't know why I prefer it that way. Maybe it's because you get that feeling of excitement like you get when you are opening a birthday or Christmas present but this is a delicious meat present.

I knew for sure I wanted brisket and sausage. I also noticed they had shoulder clod on the menu, which is something else we don't find here in Oklahoma, and the wife and mom-in-outlaw wanted smoked chicken.

This was my first time eating shoulder clod. The texture kind of reminded me of rump roast but it comes from a completely different part of the cow from a rump roast. The flavor was good but I didn't really like the texture. I'm not saying the texture wasn't right it's just a personal preference and the reason I compared it to a rump roast. Because I don't like the texture of a rump roast either.

The brisket was moist, tender, and the rub had that peppery kick that I love about this style of brisket. It's not quite as good as what I've had from some other Central Texas joints I've visited but it's still better than anything I can get in Oklahoma.

The jalapeno cheddar sausages served at Lockhart Smokehouse are made by Kruez Market in Lockhart, Texas. I loved the sausage I ate on my trip to Kruez and I loved this sausage. Even better is my wife and mom-in-outlaw don't like jalapenos or sausage. So I didn't have to share this one and I enjoyed every single bite of it.

As a rule I don't order chicken  from Q-raunts unless it is fried. Chicken is difficult enough to get right in the backyard let alone in an environment where it has to be cooked and held.

Lockhart Smokehouse has apparently figured out how to do it right because this was some really good chicken. Moist. smoky, and delicious.

While Lockhart Smokehouse isn't drawing the lines that Pecan Lodge is. You can see they are still doing a pretty good business at this location in the Bishop Arts District of Dallas. I also don't know how long this location has been open. So it could just be new enough that people are still finding it.

Regardless it is, in my opinion, worth finding. Especially if you don't want to make the drive all the way to Central, Texas to eat this style of Q.