HURON — Attention all you neighborhood cooks who have a love of smoking meat and serving up pots of steaming chili for your family and friends.
In a few weeks, you have a chance to shine — and go home with some cash — in the annual Backyard BBQ and F.A.T. Friday Chili Challenge contests.
They are part of the South Dakota BBQ Championships, a Kansas City BBQ Society-sanctioned event set for June 1 and 2 alongside Wheel Jam on the state fairgrounds.
State Fair Assistant Manager Candi Briley says they are separate cooking events.
“So there are really three contests under the BBQ championship weekend,” she said.
A goal this year is to increase the number of teams competing in the Backyard BBQ event.
Typically, there are 12 to 15 entries for the chili contest and, at one time, as many as 20 Backyard BBQ teams. Recently, that has dwindled to a dozen.
It only costs $20 to enter the contests. For the Backyard BBQ competition, all of the meat is supplied to the competitors so they only need to provide what they use to marinate their entries.
The payout per meat division for the People’s Choice judging is $125 for first place, $75 for second place and $50 for third place. The payout per meat division for the blind judging is $150 for first place, $50 for second place and $25 for third place.

The four meat divisions are pork butt, turkey breast, brisket and boneless leg of lamb roast.
“The more teams we have, the more meat we can get out there and the more meat there is for people to taste so there’s plenty for everybody,” Briley said.
She hopes that people who sign up to compete in the Backyard BBQ contest get inspired to try competing in the KCBS-sanctioned event at some point. Last year, 32 teams competed in the KCBS event. The grand champion receives $2,500 and an invitation to compete at the prestigious American Royal in Kansas City, Mo.
Some who participate in the KCBS event in Huron also compete in the Backyard BBQ contest.
For the chili challenge, the judging will be done two ways — Overall Judged and People’s Choice.
The two divisions for awards for People’s Choice are individual and group.
Payouts for each division are $75 and trophy for first, $50 for second and $25 for third.
For the Overall Judged competition, first place is $250, second is $125 and third is $50. All are judged against each other, and the overall winner is an automatic qualifier to the World Open Chili Championship in Orange Beach, Ala.
Those in the F.A.T. Friday Chili Challenge must prepare a minimum of five gallons of chili.
So, what’s with the name?
“We were thinking about it when we first started this,” Briley said. “Well, you bring your friends, your appetite and your thirst.”
People who love to barbeque do so no matter the weather. Briley said she sees pictures of people on Facebook who break out their smokers year-round. Those are the folks who should seriously consider competing next month.
With Wheel Jam going on at the same time, the annual barbeque competition on the fairgrounds continues to attract large crowds.
“It’s just meant to be a fun event to raise some funds for the State Fair Foundation,” Briley said.

PLAINSMAN FILE PHOTO
A young girl prepares to sample a dish of chili during last year’s S.D. BBQ Championship and F.A.T. Friday Chili Challenge.