Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Product Review: Meat Church Injections - Beef, Chicken, and Pork

[FTC Standard Disclaimer] I received no compensation for this post, have no affiliation with Meat Church, and paid full price for the products mentioned.  

Did you know that Meat Church has meat injections now?  Neither did I!

Meat church meat injections are low cost, high quality BBQ injection.

I had logged into their website to order a pound of their Honey Hog BBQ rub when I saw a listing for a combo package of their 3 injections - chicken, beef, and pork - for about 65% the cost of my usual injection.  I immediately bought a set.  We have been using them for several weeks now and here are my thoughts on them.  

Meat Church Holy Cow Brisket Injection ($15.00 per pound)

For brisket, when I do inject, I normally either use a popular commercial injection or a homemade mixture of stock, shallot, and liquid aminos.  The Meat Church beef injection is similar to the two commercial ones that I use in competitions with proteins, MSG (flavor enhancer), phosphates (moisture retention/flavor additive), xanthan gum (thickener), and beef flavor.

I've used Meat Church Holy Cow Brisket Injection on 3 briskets now including this one that I did at my sister's house this weekend.  We were cooking for family but trusted Meat Church (and my mad skills, ha ha) to not screw it up.  In my trials, I mixed the Meat Church Holy Cow Brisket Injection as directed and injected in 1 inch grid pattern all over. I used 5ml for each injection point.

Challenger kamado cart / table
I fired my sister's large BGE up at the crack of dawn and put on a 16 pound angus brisket that we got at Restaurant Depot there in Jax.  I injected it with the Holy Cow and rubbed it with Meat Church's Holy Cow Brisket rub about 12 hours before it went on.

How to smoke brisket on a kamado big green egg grill smoker
I used some seasoned pecan cut branches that my sister had and smoked the brisket at 290°f.  I separated the point and flat so they would cook quicker.  Plus it makes my burnt ends have bark and smoke rings on at least 2 sides.

...said burnt ends that I just mentioned.  They were a big hit, as usual.  I glazed them with Blues Hog cut with beef jus.

Smoked brisket on a ceramic kamado grill like the big green egg, grill dome, or kamado joe.
Look how moist the flat was when I sliced it.

Finger test passed with flying colors.

Meat Church Hog Injection

Typically we use either a commercial pork injection for competitions or at home we make Chris Lilly's pork injection recipe (apple juice, water, salt, sugar, worcestershire sauce) from his Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book.  Meat Church Hog Injection has a lot of the same ingredients as that other commercial injection.  

I used the Meat Church Hog Injection on several pork butts that we did for the Laundry Love community event last month. We also smoked a few butts to refill our freezer because we always try to have some frozen pulled pork on hand at the house.



Meat Church T-Bird's Chicken Injection

When it comes to chicken, I used to use a homemade mix of things like chicken stock, butter, and seasonings.  For competition we started using a commercial injection.  Meat Church Chicken Injection has a lot of the same ingredients as the brisket injection, but with chicken stock and flavor instead.

We have used Meat Church Chicken Injection for a ton of leg quarters and bone in breasts that we smoked to make pulled chicken for the Laundry Love event.  We also used it when making a recipe that we learned in a BBQ class at Dead End BBQ last month.




Final Thoughts


After those cooking trials, the brass tax is this - Meat Church injections work every bit as good as the other commercial injections we have used but cost a third less.  They helped to keep the meat just as juicy and flavorful as our usual injections.  I have not used them in competition yet but I'm happy enough with the results to use them in our next competition.

  • Meat Church Holy Cow Brisket Injection - Good beef flavor, mixes well, and it doesn't discolor the beef. Intended for brisket, this would also be good used with beef short ribs and chuck roasts.
  • Meat Church Pork Injection - It works well.  But honestly, pork needs the least help and I don't always inject.  I have found that Chris Lilly's recipe with a little thickener like xanthan gum (we use Bob's Red Mill xanthan gum) work as good as any commercial injection we have used.
  • Meat Church T-Bird's Chicken Injection - Alexis likes this one more than the commercial one we used and it is her favorite.  It keeps the breast meat luscious and has a good but not overbearing flavor.


Note:
People who inject their BBQ meats mainly do it for retaining moisture and adding flavor.  Injecting also increases your margin of error, making it less likely that your BBQ will turn out a tad bit dry.  I think the latter is why most competition BBQ teams use some sort of injection, especially with us cooking hot and fast.  I find it makes the BBQ handle reheating better too, when you have leftovers. Do you NEED to inject?  Absolutely not.  It there anything wrong with injecting? Absolutely not. It's a personal decision.