A return visit confirms, Killen's BBQ is one of the best in Texas

Phil's lunch of brisket, ribs, turkey & Sausage at Killen's Barbecue in Pearland. (Photo ©Phil Lamb)

Posse member Phil Lamb checks in this week with a dispatch from Houston:

The passage of time plays funny tricks on the BBQ mind. For example, I often wonder whether a particular joint serving above-average 'cue will hold up over time. This is especially true of out-of-town spots we don't regularly visit. Similarly, I occasionally wonder whether a joint we once ranked as "outstanding" was really all that special. It's as if doubt starts to creep in after a few months go by. Did that brisket really rank on my top 5? Were those REALLY the best ribs ever?

So it was nice to get to Killen's Barbecue on Wednesday and be reminded of how great their BBQ really is. We loved our first visit on the Houston Redemption BBQ Tour and Killen's was every bit as good this week. Both the Wagyu brisket and the "regular" brisket were spot on, the sausage and ribs were stellar and I'd put their turkey up against any other smoked turkey in the state. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that Ronnie Killen is a star pitmaster and Killen's BBQ ranks among the best in Texas.

Killen’s Texas Barbecue, 3613 E. Broadway, Pearland. 281-485-2272. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. until the meat runs out. killensbarbecue.com

The line forms early at Killen's Barbecue in Pearland. (Photo ©Phil Lamb)

Killens' BBQ in Pearland is going to crash everyone's top 10 list.

Killen's BBQ in Pearland. (All photos by Jim Rossman)

I had lunch at Killen’s BBQ in Pearland today and the meats were spectacular.

I have no doubt Killen’s is the best BBQ in Pearland, and likely the best BBQ in the Houston-area. The Posse will double-check my thoughts as we head down to Houston for a BBQ tour at the end of June and Killen’s is a highly-anticipated stop.

I figured Mother’s Day would be a light day at a BBQ joint, but then I remembered this is Texas. Killen’s opens at 11 a.m., and at 10:05 a.m. I was 15^th in line. By the time the doors opened, the line was approaching 75 and there were still 50 in line when I left about noon.

Ronnie Killen has been selling BBQ for a while out of a tent in what was called a pop-up restaurant. His restaurant opened in February 2014, and there’s been a line since the beginning.

Once inside the door, there’s room for about 10 people to stand before you get to the serving counter, where Ronnie was on the knife. I was offered a really nice burnt end at the counter (always a nice touch).

Meat offerings include brisket, beef ribs, pork ribs, sausage (regular and jalapeno), turkey, pulled pork and pork belly.

The meats are available by the pound or on plates with two sides. Plates start at $10.95 for one meat and top out at a 6-meat plate for $28.95. I settled for the 4-meat plate (brisket, pork ribs, jalapeno sausage and pork belly.

Sides available include pinto beans, baked beans, potato salad, cole slaw, mac ‘n cheese and creamed corn. I opted for the corn and potato salad. The creamed corn was a hearty side that I’d order again. The potato salad was of the mustard variety and was just average.

The brisket was some of the best I’ve had in any place in Texas. It was just the right combination of salt, pepper and rendered fat to make me close my eyes and just nod my head up and down. I’ve had great brisket from Franklin, La Barbecue, Pecan Lodge and Snow’s.

Ronnie Killen’s brisket is as good as any of those.

I thought the brisket was going to be the standout, but I was wrong – today’s best bite was the beef rib.

It was perfectly cooked and bursting with beefy goodness with just the right amount of crust and smoke.

The pork ribs were St. Louis cut and they were perfectly cooked and rubbed with a spicy/sweet rub that I like to find on a rib.

Pork Belly is not on a lot of menus, but it’s a daily feature at Killens. The pieces I had were meaty and fatty and very good.

The house-made sausage comes in regular and jalapeno. I had a link of the jalapeno and it was very tasty, but almost too lean. There was no grease dripping out of this link at all. It had great flavor, but needed just a little more fat to keep it from falling apart.

Killen’s BBQ, 3613 East Broadway St., Pearland, Texas 77581. Open Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. until the meat runs out.

The line at Killen's stretched down the sidewalk before the 11 a.m. opening.

The welcome mat.

A simple menu above the serving line.

Owner and pitmaster Ronnie Killen

Four meat plate, including brisket, pork ribs, pork belly and jalapeno sausage 

Moist brisket and a beef rib

Early diners enjoy lunch. The line is visible outside.

Corkscrew BBQ: Finally found the best BBQ in Houston...well, Spring, TX.

Corkscrew BBQ in Spring, just north of Houston. (Photos by Jim Rossman)

For several months I've been monitoring the buzz around Corkscrew BBQ, a trailer operation in Spring TX, between Conroe and Houston.

My parents had forwarded me an article from the Houston Chronicle praising a new classic of Houston BBQ and decided it would be a priority on my next trip to visit my parents.

Fast forward and today's the day.

I got to Corkscrew just after noon and there were about 15 people in the line that stayed about that long until 1:30 p.m., when Pitmaster Will Buckman finally caught up enough to talk.

The BBQ Chronicles: Houston, we have a barbecue problem

The eight stops on the Texas BBQ Posse's Gulf Coast BBQ Tour.  (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)     

Houston is a wasteland for good barbecue, but Galveston and Bryan aren’t.

The main mission on the BBQ Posse’s recent 35-hour, 700-mile barbecue tour to the Texas Gulf Coast and back was to find good smoked meat in Houston.

We didn’t.

But an hour south, on Galveston Island, we met Leon O’Neal and learned again about the true power of barbecue.

O’Neal, who runs Leon’s World Finest In & Out Bar-B-Que House at Broadway and 55th, told us about the cleanup after Hurricane Ike in 2008.

He lost everything in his kitchen, he said, speaking from inside his old smokehouse where the storm’s surge had been 7 feet deep.

“The water didn’t do nothing to this pit,” he said, motioning toward a rusted, 18-foot tank-style smoker.

So he cleaned it, fired it up and started cooking barbecue for repair crews working on his joint and other places in the neighborhood. Soon, he said, people smelled the smoke, and he had cars lined up around the block.

“Everybody just wanted something normal again,” said O’Neal, who might be the most stylish barbecue proprietor we’ve encountered on our tours.

Leon O'Neal sits in his old smoker room at Leon's World's Finest In & Out Barbeque.  (Photo ©Chris Wilkins)  

Aged 70 plus a couple years, he wore a white T-shirt, beige shorts, red apron and black, shiny shoes, with a white mustache, soul patch and a straw hat.

His homemade Downtown Link was worth the trip by itself. The sausage had a nice initial kick and a lingering, changing aftertaste, like a good wine.

“Every now and then, you come across something special,” Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins said.
We asked Leon what was in the sausage. You could tell that he got that question a lot, and he wasn’t really intent on giving up any secrets.

He said it was a meatloaf mix that he developed with his butcher. Whatever. It was the tastiest meatloaf, stuffed in sausage casing, we’ve ever eaten.

Leon has a new pit now, a gas-fired Ole Hickory. We were happy to see that it has a huge firebox for wood, and O’Neal keeps it loaded with nothing but “pure oak.”

Wilkins, a photo editor at The Dallas Morning News, sets the itineraries for all of our barbecue tours. This was our 11th and first to the Houston area.

Over the past couple years, we’ve traveled about 4,000 miles looking for great barbecue and interesting joints in Texas.

We had high hopes for Houston because some of our planned stops had received very good reviews from respected blogger and self-proclaimed BBQ Snob Daniel Vaughn as well as Houston food writers.

The Posse, however, was underwhelmed. Adapting a phrase from Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington, “That’s how barbecue go.”

Our order of sliced brisket, pork ribs and smoked chicken at Gatlin's BBQ.  (Photo ©Chris Wilkins)    

At Gatlin’s BBQ, the top-rated Houston joint just a few miles from downtown, we sampled the brisket, pork ribs and chicken.

“It’s a lot of OK,” Posse member Jim Rossman said.

“If this is the best Houston has to offer,” there’s no doubt that Dallas-area joints have it beat, Wilkins said.

Pulitzer-winning photographer Smiley Pool, who sandwiched a tour of duty at The News between stints working at the Houston Chronicle, joined the Posse on this stop.

In Houston, Pool observed, “everyone says that if you want good barbecue, you pile in a car and take a two-hour drive.” He referred to the great joints in Central Texas.

Ouch.

In Dallas, we have the Pecan Lodge, which the Posse ranks among the top 10 in the state. And there’s Meshack’s in Garland, another excellent place.

Houston wasn’t the only disappointment. Our first stop was New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Barbecue in Huntsville.

The joint has received rave, almost reverential, reviews, but we thought we were served re-warmed meat from the day before.

“It was like a bubble burst,” said Posse member Phil Lamb, an attorney. “Boy, the romance is gone from that place.”

Tom Rossman enters Fargo's Pit BBQ, in their old location in Bryan.  (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)       

A joint that didn’t disappoint was Fargo’s Pit BBQ in Bryan. The Posse thinks it’s one of the top two or three places in the state, right up there with Franklin BBQ in Austin.

Fargo’s is a takeout place, so, sitting on our own chairs on the sidewalk out front, we sampled brisket, ribs, chicken and sausage. Everything was good, a rare consistency that defines a great joint.

“Mmmmm, that’s good,” Rossman said, licking his fingers again. “It’s a good meal when you can finish like that.”

Yes, it was. We just wish we could say that about any joint in Houston.

Houston BBQ tour itinerary

FRIDAY June 1
8:30 a.m.: Leave Dallas
11 a.m.: New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Barbecue, 2601 Montgomery Road, Huntsville; 936-294-0884; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
1 p.m.: Fargo’s Pit BBQ, 720 N. Texas Ave., Bryan; 979-778-3662; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
2:30 p.m.: Mallett Brothers Barbeque, 9339 Texas Highway 6, Navasota; 936-825-9440; 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday
7 p.m.: Pizzitola’s Bar-B-Cue, 1703 Shepherd Drive, Houston; 713-227-2283; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday
(Stay overnight in Houston)

SATURDAY June 2
10 a.m.: Galveston Beach for fishing and sun
11 a.m.: Leon’s World Finest In & Out Bar-B-Que, 5427 Broadway St., Galveston; 409-744-9363; 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday
1 p.m.: Gatlin’s BBQ, 1221 W. 19th St., Houston; 713-869-4227; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
2:30 p.m.: Virgie’s Real Pit BBQ, 5535 Gessner Drive, Houston; 713-466-6525; 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday
3:45 p.m.: Byron’s Gourmet Bar-B-Q, 2101 W. Little York, Houston; 713-290-0870; 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday-Saturday
4:15 p.m.: Leave for Dallas; arrive home at 8:15 p.m.

BBQ posse
The Texas BBQ Posse began in November 2009 when six friends took their first barbecue road trip to Central Texas.

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Blog: texasbbqposse.com
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The Texas BBQ Posse sets up camp in the shade next to Fargo's Pit BBQ in Bryan on June 1, 2012, during the Posse's recent Gulf Coast BBQ Tour. Left to right, Chris Wilkins, Gary Jacobson, Phil Lamb, Tom Rossman and Jim Rossman.