Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark queens, i'm in phoenix arizona and i'm very excited for lunch today, because we're going to jl, smokehouse, barbecue and pit master james. He just looks like an amazing guy he's full of energy and positivity and he's also legendary he's known for his pulled pork. Oh man and his ribs.

It's gon na be an incredible meal, and i'm gon na share everything with you right now. It's a blazing hot day in phoenix. Today the sun is shining, and so the location here we are in south phoenix, we're on 24th street and broadway around this area. There's a church over on this side.

Jail smokehouse is right here and already outside you just smell the smoke just pouring from this entire side of the street. It's gon na be so good. Let's go inside very good. How are you today we came inside.

We immediately placed our order: uh got the slugger pack, which is includes almost everything, plus an entire rack of ribs and now just in the kitchen, um and they're chopping up the meat. The aroma in here is just unbelievable. Oh, these are rib tips all right. Nice! That's a brisket beautiful, oh man, it smells so good.

Is that the classic sauce? How sauce? I only want barbecue? Okay, that's the barbecue sauce, so you're seasoning, the pork ribs. Okay. We call this pressure. It's not that it's special, oh okay, it's not! What's in the, but not what the bottle says, that's a distraction, your your blend of spices.

Yes, poor park best in the country, man, oh man, i agree you can taste that into cooking in the sea again for sure the proper way to cook a rib is to cook the bone down. Okay, you might see a lot of people. Do it y'all blogging, you see a man cooking, the rib with a like this with the meat on the grill just know, he's an amateur okay, okay, okay, okay, what repetition he got he's an ambulance, so it has to be going down on the smoker. I'm going to show you right now: you can see it any other way.

Okay, now you got a lot of amateur, even though tv they own tv, but they have to. And how long have you been smoking? 30 wow. That's right here, bone down that would never ever get flipped. Now, if you flip a rib, you are an amateur and you don't know what you're doing and how long do we smoke for three hours, three hours? Okay, this is a funny even time.

Okay, we're loading up now for the evening time, while i'm here, i'm gon na, show you something: okay, i'm gon na wash my hands okay and i'm gon na come back. I'm gon na show you why i got the best pool pork in the country. Awesome. Do you normally go by james or jl jl, okay, james lewis, but uh jl jl, so he's just showing us the smoker here and the putting on those ribs and i'll showing you why i got the bad poor, pork in the country.

I cannot wait all right not here. This is a sweat melted. My fire is really low. Here i got my brisket sitting back here chilling.

These are briskets up here. They all get, they all are done and finally get ready to come off. My sweat melted is around the salt that i put on there to get down to the inside, and so once that rise up to the top, it's gon na, like a game like no, i meant for you to have your ass down there, so i got ta. Put her back down there where she belongs inside of the meat you see, and so we don't pull our pulled pork when you order it most places will take a poor pork shredder.

I have it over there when i'm doing big catering, we keep it all on the bone. If you take your meat off your bone, what's going to happen, meat going to dry up when blood starts coming. No, you have to stop the flow sure same thing here. Once you take this meat off this bone, it's going to dry out so keep your meat on the bone.

You right here, i can go anywhere just melts like butter. Can you see that oh man and it doesn't matter where you add in there and see when you get a piece of that right there? That's that's a piece of heaven and that's just straight tongues just go into it like a yeah like it doesn't matter where you go in there, you can go here, we can go wiggle the bone and the bone will come out. You know all of that. Good stuff, how long does that smoke? It's all been on here since yesterday, at 6? 30..

Oh, so, that's like whatever time it's going on like 20 hours, it's going to come off! Now it's going on 20 hours all day! I've been wow 6. 30. Yesterday evening, wow and we're just now from the pool, so you just keep this smoker going like it's never hours a day, it's 24 hours a day. I got ta, give me a piece of that.

While i did all that yeah, this is an honor grab. It out here, oh yeah, we can do a toast, yeah toast. Oh oh wow, your eyes, roll back in your head. I don't think i can stand up straight after that, but wow it just completely dissolves.

It's just dissolving your mouth. You see that's without turning into salt. None of that stuff is needed, even though people look at me crazy. When i tell them, i got the best fourth book in the country, but this method that we the way we do it.

Let me tell you: jl has the best gold, pork in the country there you go. Oh man, i'm telling you that the melt is the way we go about, doing it not afraid to put the salt, because we knowing how to get the salt to get down in there. Okay, that's the rack and the tip okay. Until back in the day, this right here, you know, as barbecue in america, started on the slave field, but man after american and everything they did not want this part of the of the rip they threw it away and gave it to their slaves and uh.

This right here is where you get your rib tip from, and you come right here and cut it yourself. You got a santaluar style cut, marking song, arkansas, okay right below memphis. All right. I grew up with memphis barbecue.

Okay, so is that your i mean it's! Your own style, but does it have a it's similar to me, similar to memphis stuff, okay, some of them okay? But you can't be when people try to be regional because barbecue is done different in different regions. So people try to go here and get put on a building and put on their neighbor central texas barbecue. Well, you know what they tell me. They tell me you got good brisket.

You got good smoke, sausage, your rib sauce, your pulled pork socks and you ain't got much else, but if i'm a big fan of brisket that smoke sauce, i won't text them. But if i want good ribs good pulled pork, pork belly chicken rib tips - i want. I want memphis, i want the mississippi. I want arkansas, i want alabama, you know so when you just be one face, that's not barbecues yeah, so i got a little carolina style.

I got you know. I think i have all of those influences with me. Not just memphis, okay, you know when it comes down to pulled pork, i'm thinking about how carolina okay and how those guys get better to do it. So we make the sauce a little a little tangy a little sweet little spicy, oh yeah, you know and uh, and that that is a combination of memphis and the carolinas.

Okay you'll follow me yep yeah for sure. So i totally understand i won't let them put that that label people exactly exactly, but i think it take away from barbecue. Oh and some cayenne there's only goals on one side. Okay, if i put it on both sides, be a little too high, always make your season become one act like you're having one season and you're not having another one.

I make it become one season, that's what we're doing with the rub here. One season kind of blending in so these you do smoke on both sides. Oh yeah, unlike the ribs, these can be flipped, okay, very good chords. I just love the way jl.

He puts his love and passion into everything that he's cooking, but then, at the same time, just your immense experience is what shines your knowledge of barbecue, of every step of the process exactly. I would never do anything without a y. If you have too many uh copycatter right there in the field, you know a duplicator will never be successful like that uh-huh. Do you have a catering? If you don't know why you're doing something, it should not be done? If you can't listen to the meat, you shouldn't be cooking: okay, because the meat would tell you what it went on and that's what hitchhiker is all about.

When we use that slogan, we don't want to drive, we just want to ride. We don't want to drive. We want to ride yeah, just let us ride along with it. Our sauce is made the same way.

It's not a heavy sauce. It's a light sauce that just complements your meat, it's right alone, but at the same time you can taste the smokiness of that pulled. Pork, the smoking, that's what that brisket, the smokiness of that real, that sauce doesn't dominate where now you're tasting just the sauce and not the smoke man. I had that stuff out there 21 hours 22 hours.

Now, i'm not going to destroy it by putting a uh one of the most thick sauce that people like in kansas city like to use sorry cancer. But i don't do that. You know i'm sorry, kansas city but y'all like to have that pickle sauce and take away from your your food and uh. The only person that needs to think soft is the person that did not smoke or he didn't smoke it properly.

If you smoke it right, you'll need that thick sauce. The way it complements it's so incredibly flavorful yeah, but at the same time it does complement. Oh, what type of wood do you ski mesquite? Okay, where i come from, i was using hickory, okay, hickory! Oh yeah! That's just radiating heat, so much heat coming out of there like tic-tac-toe, okay, stack it up, tic tac toe got a lot of airflow. Okay come through.

Oh and those are so dry. They just immediately start burning, that's pretty getting pretty hot okay, yeah yeah, it breathes! So hot you're, leaning wow, i want on the low end. This is very important in smoking. Come over here come over here.

I'm gon na show you guys something coming this way now. Everything is coming in everything's gon na come in this way, but they got ta release out. They're gon na come in they're gon na go all throughout the smoker gon na go that pathway, but then they got ta exit out. If i have too much of it to stay inside of the smoker, my food is gon na, be like gas.

The more you leave the dough open, the more air i lie in and now, if i do this here, uh that really is telling me now the chimney and i'm also increasing the fire, now watch out that fire is going to increase going to increase because of The airflow see another thing about smoking. Meat is controlling the airflow. If you don't control the airflow you're not going to be able to cook properly. We don't do a lot with this.

That's my temperature! Okay! That's that 300! Okay, but that's not normal! It's about it's about the love, your heart and experience for sure, barbecued, two ways: it's science and heart white folks use signs black folks use heart awesome, that's pretty much the way it is in america. Most of the time. I can't stereotype everybody, but that's mostly the way it is. I love jl.

He is a man of passion, a man of knowledge and just a man who just takes ultimate pride in his barbecue and, and it shows now uh we're gon na go inside and i think kevin is gon na assemble our entire barbecue platter and everything that we Ordered because uh they're getting really busy inside for the lunch rush yep, i think that's our order. Next is your name: kevin yeah kevin very nice to meet you too. What's your name mark nice to meet you nice to meet? You pulled pork, okay, okay, you can already tell the amount of flavor that that's gon na be the smokiness plus the layer of the tangy barbecue sauce, oh man, okay, so the last meat that goes on to the slugger combo is the brownie smoked bologna yeah. Sure.

Oh yeah, hey we're heading to the smoker to grab a rack of ribs. I think that's the last part of our order. Oh man, oh man, yeah and now i'm about duty, maybe an hour and a half okay grab, two of them: okay, cool! Thank you! Okay. You guys gon na eat right now.

Yes, okay, yep! I have this rack. Thank you very much. Do you normally sauce the ribs too yeah? You want them soft or you want to wait till you pull it apart, um yeah! Maybe, after okay, you guys ready for a table ready for a table, yeah maybe go outside to eat. Thank you.

Thank you. Kevin. After walking around the the barbecue pits after hanging out with james and kevin, i cannot wait to try the barbecue or the slugger combo. Oh yeah, i immediately opened that up and just that poof of barbecue sauce, oh yeah, everything is piping.

Hot too. We've got the mac and cheese collard greens and the barbecue beans. Finally, we got the whole rack of ribs and again i just love how they assemble. All the meats chop up all the meats and then just lather it just give it a hose down a spray down a bath of barbecue sauce.

You could just smell the tanginess, the fierceness of that barbecue sauce. I have to go pulled pork first, and this is one of his most famous meats, which chef james pit master james says it's some of the best pulled pork. You will ever have oh wow, okay, he's not joking or exaggerating at all. That pulled.

Pork is insane. Oh, it just melts in your mouth, the smokiness of it, the flakiness of it and then that barbecue sauce, oh man, it is as good it's actually better than it smells and it smells unbelievable. Okay, should we try the brisket next brisket again just smothered in the sauce? There's the fatty part and the the leaner part, i think, is on the top here. Look at that drip, the texture of that brisket and the way it just kind of like kernels.

You feel like the kernel is just coming apart: flaking in your mouth try some of that mac and cheese next, and i think i saw everybody ordering the macaroni and cheese so soft and so cheesy, oh yeah, that's delicious! Okay! So we got two different types of sausage. Can't exactly remember. I think this one is the hot link, and this one is the smoked sausage. Try that hot link first and i can guarantee you that every bite you're going to want to just like scoop up and wipe up as much of that barbecue sauce on the bottom there as you can, i think that's the hot links just a little bit spicy, But you taste the flavor of the chili that i love that outer tasting the snap of it.

I'm gon na balance that off with some collard greens, oh yeah, that's awesome. It's actually really smoky tasting and then very like salty, but not rich. Okay! Next up, i'm gon na go for the baloney, the smoked bologna. It's been so many years since i've had bologna, and even on top of that, i don't think i've ever had smoked bologna in my life.

So this will be my first time for smoked bologna, which uh james said that they smoke it and then they pan fry it to sear it off on those edges. But here we go smoked, maloney and again, whoa that slides off the board pretty easily. It's pretty good um, probably not my favorite meat on the platter, but it is tasty without a doubt. It's tasty! It's a really, really smooth kind of texture.

Okay, next up for the rib tips, the rib tips, it does have the the bone. Just like the end of the bone in it, i think so it's more like cartilagey, so you can chew down. You can bite down on that entire. The entire thing, i believe, oh wow, yes, rib tips are amazing, so many different textures.

If you do get a piece of that cartilage, it's like almost crispy and then you've got the the outer casing is just a little bit crunchy and so smoky and then the inside, sometimes you get a mix of fat. Rib hips are amazing just because of those different textures and the different like ratios of fattiness. Okay, last meat on the platter is the smoked sausage. Oh wow, that is juicy fatty.

That's the type of sausage digestion you just bite down you bite into that casing and uh. You can feel the the juices and the oiliness just squirting, so good next up for the bbq baked beans. Those beans are so soft and then you taste a little bit of a sweetness a little bit of a spice to it awesome and then the last meat that we got is the entire rack of ribs, and these are still so hot. You can barely pick it up all that smoke inside of it that has just been building up.

Oh man, i think we can just kind of tear into it. Oh look at the inside of it it's so juicy all the bone is just completely clean and typically, i believe they would slice it down the bones every every piece, but i just thought it would be cool to leave it whole. So we got it whole and now you can just pick it up. You can tear it and you can just fully fully enjoy the juices.

Oh wow, the fattiness crunchiness, the mixture of juices, but definitely i'm addicted to that barbecue sauce, i'm just gon na pour it on here all right and then we'll save that sauce for dipping other meats, oh and reduce re-dip that oh yeah, you have to have the Sauce that just balances the entire flavor, rounded out just bursting with flavor, and one of his slogans here - is get some salt in your mouth and that oh man, that is south in your mouth yeah that smoke just goes all the way to the bone. I think for me: okay, the brisket is amazing, but i think for me, what really stands out is that pulled pork, the pulled pork, oh man, it's just the perfect texture, the perfect fattiness and then again i cannot emphasize enough. What just makes it next level is that barbecue sauce man that barbecue sauce is just out of control, i'm just going to go ahead and submerge. That pulled pork and another thing that i've seen about jl, smokehouse barbecue, is that this i mean, along with the amazing barbecue, along with the friendliness of the owner.

This place is really a kind of a community center people come here regulars people that come here. You can tell that they come here frequently or once a week. It's a place to come together to meet to hang out to just build community and that's exactly what food does it just uplifts people? It builds us up together and that's another huge aspect that i've seen just spending a couple hours here and meeting a lot of friendly people, while we're sitting out here while we're in the restaurant, the best part is just digging into that meat. I think at the bottom, because all the all the oily juices and all the barbecue sauce has just accumulated down there.

Thank you, okay, thank you for your help. Thank you so much. Thank you so much okay, and so that wraps up one of the most memorable bbq meal experiences that i've ever had jl his personality, his knowledge, his experience and just his unbelievable love that he undeniably just pours into everything that he does. He is a wealth of knowledge of barbecue in just an hour or two hanging out with jail.

I learned so much. I learned more than i've ever learned about barbecue about the technique about how it's a combination of dry rub smoke and sauce get the sauce. Even though the sauce was probably my my favorite barbecue sauce, i've ever had it's his philosophy. Is that it's not just about the sauce? The sauce is not overpowering the meat, but it's complementing the meat.

So that's going to wrap it up. I want to say a huge thank you for watching this video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, leave a comment below i'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed, click subscribe and also click the little bell icon. That way, you'll immediately get notified of the next video that i publish thanks again for watching goodbye from phoenix arizona, and i will see you on the next video.