[Steven] From the historic Alamo to the scenic River Walk and Mexican market, San Antonio is the second most popular city in Texas with a rich history and an unmatched cultural diversity.

Absolutely amazing.

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

[Steven] But we came here for the food.

On the menu, Carne Asado breakfast tacos.

So many layers of flavor.

Oak-smoked, cherry-glazed ribs.

Look at that, oh, man.

Oh, man.

And beef cheek barbacoa.

This is like brisket tenderized to the hundredth degree.

[Esaul] I agree.

[Steven] From the Pearl on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas, I'm Steven Raichlen.

And this is Planet Barbecue.

[opening theme music] [announcer] Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" is made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: [Steven] From its founding as a Spanish mission and Colonial Outpost in 1731, San Antonio has occupied a cherished place in the Texas psyche.

It was here in 1835, that Texas declared its independence from Mexico.

A year later, a small band of Texans, among them James Bowie and Davy Crockett, lost their lives defending the Alamo.

During the Mexican civil wars, thousands of refugees settled in San Antonio.

Today, more than 65% of its citizens identify as Hispanic.

Another civil war in far off Germany brought waves of German immigrants throughout the mid 1800s.

They launched the Texas Brewing Industry, whose legacy lives on in San Antonio's trendy Pearl District.

Today, San Antonio is a vibrant multicultural city of 1.5 million, with a culinary heritage so rich in 2017 UNESCO designated it a creative city of gastronomy, one of only two in the United States.

The breakfast taco is a San Antonio institution.

The tortilla should be flour, the beans refried.

But whether you fill it with smokey brisket or pork poached in lard, depends on your background or your neighborhood.

Today, I'm going the steak and egg route.

The steak being a Tex-Mex grilled fajita skirt steak.

Now that's a breakfast that will keep you going all day.

Step number one, make the fire-charred Pico de Gallo.

Brush your onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos with extra virgin olive oil.

To cook the tacos, I am using a grill with a Plancha and Santa Maria style grate.

I fired it up with local mesquite hardwood.

Grill the vegetables until charred on all sides, but still raw in the center.

The idea is you want to impart a mesquite smoke flavor to the salsa.

Once the onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos are charred on the bottom, turn them over.

Oh, that's a beautiful one.

When the vegetables are cool, do a rough chop.

Next, your onions, and remember to remove the toothpicks.

And finally, your jalapeno chilies.

Remember, the seeds and stems are the hottest part.

So, if you like a milder Pico de Gallo, remove the seeds.

For a spicier salsa, leave the seeds in.

I'm going to go about halfway here.

Now transfer your rough chopped vegetables to a food processor.

Next, take a bunch of cilantro and again, quick, rough chop.

Fresh limes, cut in half and squeeze in the lime juice.

The cilantro for pungency, of course.

The lime juice for acidity.

Finally, add a generous pinch of salt.

And pulse the machine to combine the ingredients for the salsa.

Don't grind it too finely.

Mmm.

Amazing wood smoke flavor.

And that is a Pico de Gallo that will definitely wake up your taste buds.

Next step, the skirt steak.

Season your skirt steak with coarse sea salt.

Freshly ground black pepper.

Granulated onion for pungency.

And dried oregano for fragrance.

Then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

And pat the seasonings into the meat with the flat of a fork.

Then turn the skirt steaks over and season the other side the same way.

Now place your skirt steaks on the grill running diagonal to the bars of the grate.

The grilling time is quick, three to four minutes per side will do it.

Meanwhile, I'll warm up the refried beans.

How do you know when it's time to turn the steaks?

Well, the bottom will be sizzling and golden.

And on the top, you'll see little beads of blood pooled up on the surface.

Turn the skirt steaks over and grill the other side the same way.

Next, warm the tortillas.

Brush your Plancha with extra virgin olive oil and arrange the tortillas on the hot metal.

Once the steaks feel gently yielding, that's a nice medium rare, transfer them to a wire rack to rest.

Very important to rest the steak for a few minutes before carving.

If you serve it hot off the grill, it'll taste dry.

Thinly slice the skirt steak.

Mm.

Crusty, smokey, and sanguine just the way I like it.

Finally, fry your egg.

While the egg fries, start building your breakfast taco.

So, it starts with a tortilla.

Spread it with refried beans.

Add your grilled skirt steak.

Next, a spoonful of your fire-charred Pico de Gallo.

A dollop of sour cream.

A sprinkle of Tajín.

That pepper and citrus seasoning.

And there's your San Antonio breakfast taco.

Now, the moment I've been waiting for.

Mm.

So many layers of flavor.

The crusty tortilla, the creamy beans, the smokey steak, the fried egg, Pico de Gallo, the sour cream.

It's the San Antonio steak and egg taco.

Now that's a breakfast of champions.

It wouldn't be Texas without Texas barbecue.

Most people come to Two Bros. BBQ in San Antonio for the brisket.

So, it takes a special kind of restaurateur to make baby back ribs one of his calling cards.

But Jason Dady is no ordinary Chef and his cherry-glaze ribs are in hot demand.

Pitmaster Darion Densley keeps the operations moving smoothly day and night.

He's going to show us how this low slow cooking process keeps the customers coming.

Darion, I'm a big fan of Two Bros. BBQ.

What do you have for us?

Today we got our baby back ribs.

We're actually going to peel the membrane off of them.

[Steven] And how do you take off the membrane?

[Darion] You kind of just use your fingers and you should just be able to peel it right off and as soon as you get a little bit of it-- Yep.

--it just kind of slides right on out with no problem.

Beautiful.

How many ribs will you go through in a day?

[Darion] On a slow day, Monday through Wednesday, we usually go through about 30 racks of ribs.

[Steven] Thirty.

How about on a Saturday or Sunday?

Saturday, Sunday, we can go through as many as 45 to 120.

Wow, that's a lot of ribs.

That's a lot of ribs.

Next step is we're going to get some of our seasonings here, which is mainly salt, pepper, and a special ingredient that we call our Bro Rub.

Okay.

And what's in the Bro Rub?

Bro Rub.

The main ingredient is definitely paprika.

Other than that, it's just a secret.

Tell you what, sprinkle a little in the palm of my hand here.

That's it.

Okay, I'm getting a little sugar, maybe brown sugar.

Definitely the heat from the pepper.

Paprika.

Maybe a little chili powder?

But I guess if I got any deeper into that, you'd have to kill me, right?

I can't say that, but yeah, most likely.

All right.

So pretty much now we're just going to sprinkle a little bit of this on.

[Steven] Now you say a little bit, you're going pretty heavy on the rub.

I am going pretty heavy, but once I rub it down here, as you could see it kind of-- [Steven] Massages right into the meat.

-Yeah.

-Yep.

[Darion] Exactly.

[Steven] What time did you start this morning?

[Darion] I started at about 6:30 this morning.

Okay.

I will leave about 9, 9:30 tonight.

[Steven] Wow.

So just one side.

Nice thick coat.

Just one side.

Nice thick coat.

And now these are actually ready to go on the pit.

Let's do it.

So, Darion this is your smokehouse, huh?

[Darion] Yes, sir.

[Steven] Fantastic.

And the pit looks like it's a hundred years old.

I love the horseshoe handles.

And then of course these, the lids are on a counterweight there.

And I guess you have bricks to kind of-- [Darion] Exactly.

Because these doors are, since it's all metal, these doors are really heavy.

[Steven] Super heavy, I'm sure.

Wow, okay.

This is our beauty of a pit.

Yeah, this is nice.

Can already see the great smoke coming through and we're going to actually go ahead and drop these meat side down.

[Steven] Now why do you start meat side down?

[Darion] We start meat side down, so that way the meat can actually get a good pattern on them-- [Steven] Mhmm.

[Darion] And then this way they can get a good sweat with them as well.

And by sweat, that's the juices that you're going to actually see right here as the cook process goes.

[Steven] So you'll actually see the juices collect in that concave part of the rib.

Yes, exactly.

And it helps actually keep the ribs really tender and juicy as well.

[Steven] What's our starting temperature?

[Darion] I look for 200, 250.

Low and slow.

[Darion] Low and slow.

I think that's the mantra.

Now, what sort of wood are you using?

We're using Post Oak wood.

Post Oak.

That's interesting because I think for most east coasters like myself, we think Texas, we think mesquite.

But you prefer Post Oak.

Why?

[Darion] To me, post oak helps control the temperature very well, and it has a very good smoke for our meat.

Mesquite burns really hot, right?

Yes.

And it's a very irascible kind of wood.

It spikes.

It sparks-- Exactly.

This is a little bit more even.

So, you're going for what I call a log cabin configuration.

To crisscross the logs, you have plenty of airflow...

Exactly.

[Steven] ...and you burn a clean fire.

Exactly.

Well, that's the secret.

That's the soul of barbecue.

Wood smoke.

Two Bros. BBQ certainly gets the smoke right.

But it's the cherry glaze that sets their ribs apart from the competition.

[Darion] It's been about an hour, and you can already start to really see that sweat on these ribs.

[Steven] Yeah, look at that.

[Darion] And we're going to just go ahead and flip these over.

You can see they've got a great color on them already.

[Steven] Yep.

[Darion] And this cherry glaze will help darken them up to really get that perfect rib color and texture we're looking for.

[Steven] And that's simply cherry syrup?

[Darion] Just cherry syrup.

[Steven] Not one, not two, but three layers of cherry glaze go on as the ribs cook.

So, by my watch, it's been three and a half hours.

Yeah, let's go ahead and check out these guys.

[Steven] Oof.

[Darion] Oh yeah.

Those are looking beautiful.

[Steven] Beautiful.

Now, how do you know when the ribs are done?

The best way we're going to know is we're actually going to-- Just see how easily that's like separating right there?

[Steven] Yeah.

And you can see the meat has shrunk back at the ends of the bones about a quarter to a half an inch.

[Darion] Let's go ahead and take these bad boys off.

[Steven] Darion, those look amazing.

And it looks like your knife is gliding through the meat.

Oh.

Ooh, very deftly done.

Look at that.

Oh, man.

[Steven] Oh, man.

That is gorgeous.

First thing I'm seeing here, incredibly moist.

Second of all, a blush of pink.

That's not because these are undercooked, right?

[Darion] No.

[Steven] It's the smoke ring.

[Darion] It's the smoke ring.

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

Mm.

These are textbook ribs.

Little sweetness on the outside from the cherry.

Beautiful bark.

The meat is incredibly tender, but-- It's not fall off the bone.

It's still got a little pull to it, right?

It's got some texture, right.

That's a common misconception, people think ribs should be fall-off-the-bone tender.

No.

Absolutely not.

Little chew to them.

That's why God gave you teeth.

-Exactly.

-Okay.

Darion, you are not only an incredible Pitmaster, you're an incredible teacher.

Thank you so much.

Steven, you are amazing.

Cheers.

Cheers.

[Steven] 2M Smokehouse occupies the sort of unassuming cinder block shack you could drive by scarcely noticing it.

But there's nothing unassuming about Esaul Ramos Jr's Barbecue.

The year they opened, Esaul and his partner Melig made Texas Monthly's coveted Top 50 Barbecue Restaurant List.

Esaul trained with Barbecue Legend, John Lewis.

But he attributes his work ethic to his father and grandfather.

"Keep your head down and your quality up," he says.

The rest will come.

Esaul, welcome to Planet Barbecue.

And what is this?

[Esaul] So what we have in front of you here is beef cheeks.

[Steven] Beef cheeks.

[Esaul] Yes.

Not your ordinary beef cheeks, these are Akaushi beef cheeks.

What are Akaushi beef cheeks?

So it's the breed of the cow.

Okay.

So we have our Selects, we have our Choice, we have our Prime, and then we have our Akaushi, which is just top tier meat.

All of our beef comes from Flatonia here in Texas.

Beautiful.

Okay.

What's the first step?

So what we're going to do is we're going to start seasoning up these guys.

It shouldn't take too long.

We're going to get a little salt.

[Steven] Mhmm.

[Esaul] Put a little pepper in there.

[Steven] Freshly ground black pepper.

We'll get a little cumin.

[Steven] Ground cumin.

Granulated garlic.

[Esaul] Granulated garlic.

[Steven] Okay.

[Esaul] And onion powder.

[Steven] Beautiful.

[Esaul] We'll mix these guys up.

[Steven] Beef cheeks may be new for many of our viewers.

This is actually the cheek of the beef, right?

It's actually the cheek of the cow.

Yes.

Okay, and what is the dish we're making?

So what we're making today is we're going to make barbacoa.

Barbacoa.

Barbacoa is a traditional dish that I grew up with.

In Mexico, it's traditionally goat or lamb.

Mhmm.

But over here in South Texas, we use beef.

We'll just season them up real nice.

[Steven] All right.

[Esaul] And these are very, very marbled.

[Steven] Esaul, we're going to hook you up with a ceramic style cooker.

And the way we fuel it for true barbecue, there's a bed of coals in the bottom.

And we'll add three hardwood chunks.

Post Oak like you guys love here.

I was about to ask what type of wood is this?

Yep.

Post Oak.

And then if you'll grab that.

[Esaul] Absolutely.

[Steven] This is called the heat diffuser because you want to cook these guys low and slow.

You don't want to grill the beef cheeks directly.

What's going to happen, this will block the direct heat.

The smoke will come curling up around the sides and we'll be in business.

Sounds good.

And these guys, like I said, they'll get about an hour, hour and a half of smoke.

Smell the smoke?

Absolutely.

It's already coming.

We're just looking for a little bit of color.

That's all we're looking for.

A little bit of bark and that's it.

From there, we're going to wrap it up.

[Steven] We'll close the grill lid.

Target temperature?

We're looking at about 250, 275.

[Steven] All right.

So, I'll close the bottom vent.

I'll close the top vent.

[Esaul] Let's pickle some cactus.

So, these are nopal.

[Steven] Nopal?

Nopalitos?

Nopalitos, cactus, however you like to call it.

So, at the restaurant, we get these bad boys and we dice them up and then we pickle them.

So that's white vinegar.

We're going to go ahead and pour that in there.

We're going to want to look for a boil.

After that, we're just going to get all the ingredients and we just go ahead and put them in there.

Here's the salt.

[Steven] Okay.

[Esaul] We have sugar.

[Steven] So little salty, little sweet.

[Esaul] And a little spicy.

[Steven] I would say actually a lot of spicy.

[Esaul chuckles] We'll get some garlic cloves.

We can get about half of what's in there.

[Steven] Garlic.

[Esaul] And then what we have here is just whole peppercorns and dry sage.

Why don't you grab that whisk, please, Steven, and we'll start whisking it up.

[Steven] Mhmm.

[Esaul] And that's going to start boiling.

We'll go ahead and we'll dump this cilantro just right on the cactus.

So, this is a quick pickle.

All right.

Right, it's not going to take long.

We boiled all of our ingredients.

Go ahead and pour it over it.

I'll pour these over the cactus.

Mhmm.

[Steven] And the cilantro.

[Esaul] And the cilantro.

[Steven] Very good.

That looks great and it smells great.

Now how long until this is ready to eat?

So if you're impatient like I am, an hour to two hours, it's good to go.

But if you really want the full flavor and what it is, 24 hours.

And you can do this with any produce, not just cactus.

Broccoli.

Broccoli, cauliflower, beets, whatever you like.

It smells really great.

Yeah.

So, Steven, it's been about an hour, almost an hour and a half.

Let's check these guys out.

[Steven] Oh, Wow.

Those look amazing.

[Esaul] So this is what you want them to look like.

Not too much bark.

Just enough smoke on them.

From here, we're going to transport them over there.

[Steven] Okay.

[Esaul] We're going to wrap them up.

[Steven] All right.

Before that though, these are banana leaves and they got to get a little bit more pliable.

So, we're just going to pop them in the grill for a couple of seconds.

Bring them right back out.

[Steven] All right.

I want to get that earthy flavor in there as much as I can.

We wanted to do barbacoa on the ground.

It's traditionally done that way.

But we weren't able to, so I learned that wrapping them up in banana leaves really, really helps.

You can see they're a little bit more pliable now.

[Esaul] The colors changed on them.

[Steven] Uh-huh.

[Esaul] So we'll go ahead, we'll lay these guys just right here.

[Steven] Mhmm.

So we'll pop these guys out.

Beautiful.

Mm.

[Esaul] Put them in there.

We'll go ahead and wrap them up.

We'll apply this.

[Steven] Okay.

[Esaul] And it's really just about getting them as wrapped up as you can in the leaf.

[Steven] So the banana leaf is going to seal in moisture and flavor.

Mhmm.

It's also going to impart an herbaceous flavor of its own.

Yes, exactly.

Now, whenever you're wrapping these, just a little bit of advice.

The tighter, the better.

You really want to seal the steam in, right?

You really want to seal that steam in there, really seal that flavor in there.

[Steven] Okay.

[Esaul] So that's what you want to look for.

[Steven] All right.

[Esaul] And just get yourself a deep pan.

Whatever deep pan you can.

We're going to place it right in there.

Steven, can you please pour the water?

Sure.

And we're going to go about halfway.

About halfway up.

[Esaul] We're going to cover it up, once again as tight as possible.

[Steven] All right.

[Esaul] And then from here, we'll place it right back on the grill.

At the restaurant, they go anywhere from 12 to 14 hours.

Wow.

So plan on a long cook.

We'll go ahead and close it up.

[Steven] All right.

[Esaul] All right, Steven.

So, these cheeks have now been braising for a good while.

Okay.

So let's go ahead and pull them out.

Now, good while.

How long actually, ideally?

Well, they've been here now, you're looking at anywhere from 12 to 14 hours.

[Steven] Oh.

[Esaul] They have all that steam.

[Steven] Mm.

Oh, that aroma is fantastic.

[Esaul] So as you can see, our beef cheeks-- [Steven] Mm.

[Esaul] --are nice and done.

We'll go ahead and pull them out.

Wow, look how tender they are.

[Esaul] And as you can see, it just comes right off.

[Steven] Uh-huh.

Yeah, they just fall apart in your hands.

[Esaul] That's all good stuff.

And we just pretty much save all the good meat.

Would you like a little taster?

You bet.

Mm.

This is like brisket tenderized to the hundredth degree.

I agree.

And then we'll start assembling these tortas.

Mhmm.

Now this bread right here is torta bread or bolillo bread.

Mhmm.

[Esaul] So it's real simple.

Just a little bit of mayo.

[Steven] Beautiful.

Got to get both sides.

Get a little bit of-- [Steven] Barbacoa.

[Esaul] That Barbacoa.

Throw some of these tomatoes on there.

Mhmm.

We'll go ahead and we drizzle a little bit of Oaxaca cheese.

[Steven] All right.

[Esaul] A little bit of crema.

[Steven] And what is crema exactly?

It's almost like sour cream.

Just a little thinner.

Mhmm, sweeter.

Not as sour, yes.

Okay.

[Esaul] We'll get some of our salsa here.

So, in here we have Chile de árbol.

Mhmm.

We have tomatillos, tomato, a little bit of onion, salt and garlic.

Okay.

That's all we got.

I don't know about you, but I like to feel it.

[Steven] Yeah, yeah.

[Esaul] Okay.

And finally, we'll top it with our house pickled cactus that we have here.

[Steven] Holy cow.

Holy vaca, maybe I should say.

[Esaul] Top it.

Would you like to cut that first one?

Absolutely.

Wow, this is absolutely amazing.

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

Mm.

Esaul, this is amazing.

So, the barbacoa, it's sort of like pulled pork if the pulled pork had a Mexican mother and a Texas father.

Absolutely.

[Steven] You know what I mean?

It's just- That's a great way of putting it.

[Steven] I love the contrast of textures and flavors.

The crunchy lettuce, the wet tomato, the piquant cactus, the heat of your salsa.

Very nice salsa, by the way.

Thank you very much.

Creaminess of the cheese and the crema.

Esaul, this may be the best sandwich I have ever tasted.

Thank you so much for coming on Planet Barbecue.

Steven, thank you so much for having me.

It's been an honor.

And I can't wait to get back to the restaurant.

I agree.

[Steven] It's been a thrill discovering San Antonio's live fire cooking scene.

"Planet Barbecue" has truly found a home in the Alamo City.

[announcer] For recipes, books, and more live fire cooking, visit StevenRaichlen.com.

You can also follow Steven Raichlen on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" was made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: [Chris] Let's give Steven a clap.

Hang on.

And-- -Sound you're good?

-Sound good.

-Sounds good?

-All right.

-Sounds good.

-We're rolling.

[Chris] Go Steven.

[clap] -[beep] -[Matt] Is everybodyrolling?

[Larry] Sound rolling.

[Melanie] Yep.

Rolling.

[Matt] Give us a clap, Steven.

[clap] Wait one more time.

-[clap] -Wait, wait, wait.

Frame up Chris and clap.

[clap] -Okay.

-Stand by.

Lift your glasses up.

[Matt] Thank you, Steven.

[Darion] Makeup.