Scheels Will Host 13th Annual Barbecue Championship

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — Scheels is back with their annual North Dakota Barbecue Championship. With vendors preparing since Thursday with their stations and smokers for Saturday’s competition.

“So obviously Scheels is into sports. And this is the sport of barbecue and so that’s what we are promoting here. We want to expose people to barbecue and competition barbecue and just kind of fuel that passion for people who love to cook,” said Ashley Wait, Marketing Leader at Scheels Home and Hardware.

There are 47 teams from seven different states and from Canada preparing for the competition.

“This will be our third year cooking .. in this competition. This one two years ago was our first actual competition that we ever cooked so. It’s local and it’s a competition we always want to cook in,” said Ryan Dragt, Brazen Barrel.

While there are some who are all set for the next day’s event, they will have to prepare for the sixty judges who will be coming in from all across the world to taste their meat.

But for Prairie Smoke BBQ, this competition is not so much of a competition but something to learn from.

“Kind of like a brotherhood. We found that out early, we’ve only done four competitions. They are very approachable, reachable and very willing to give us a lot of tips and hints and stuff like that. So, its .. for us it’s been more of a learning curve,” said Tony Nickles, Prairie Smoke BBQ.

This year will also include three different donuts by Sandy’s Donuts one with apple habanero, another with raspberry chipotle, and hot pepper peach bourbon all topped with pulled pork. People will also have a chance to purchase a ten-dollar platter of samples of pulled pork. The proceeds for that will go to the United Way of Cass Clay.

The event will run tomorrow from 11 to 3 at Scheels Home and Hardware on 13th Ave S in Fargo.