Despite being a champion of low and slow cooking, Brandon Hurtado’s path to culinary renown was lightning fast. In 2018, the digital marketer turned pitmaster set up a food stand at a brewery in Arlington, Texas. Over the next five or so years, Hurtado Barbecue rocketed into an operator of four brick and mortar locations (in Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston) and the official ’cue provider for the Texas Rangers. “I never worked in a restaurant before owning a restaurant,” says Hurtado, who recently dished out the secrets to his Central Texas–meets–Tex-Mex smoking style in a new cookbook.
Barbacoa: The Heart of Tex-Mex Barbecue outlines the cooking journey of Hurtado and his wife, Hannah. “At one of our first pop-up events, we served brisket and pulled pork tacos,” he writes in the introduction. “Our sides weren’t the traditional potato salad and baked beans. Instead, we served smoked elote on the cob, charro beans, and Mexican rice. We didn’t know what to call it at the time, but we knew it represented who we were.” A local newspaper called the style “Mexicue.”
Hurtado’s cookbook is packed with pitmaster-friendly recipes for brisket, turkey, quail, ribs, and burnt ends—and equally packed with Tex-Mex sides like brisket esquites, serrano lime slaw, rubs, and salsas. He shared a handful of those recipes—Tex-Mex brisket, brisket migas, Hatch green chile mac and cheese, and smoked salsa two ways—with G&G.
Below, we chatted with Hurtado about his explosion in popularity, that fan-favorite mac and cheese, and his tips for new pitmasters.
It’s crazy that you didn’t have any experience working in restaurants before all of this, and now you’re a pro.
You have to have a passion for serving people just to be in the restaurant industry in general. I always tell our staff that we have to be unreasonably hospitable first and foremost. It’s about creating consistent food on the plate every single day, and that comes through using quality ingredients and hiring people who care. Our focal point is where we can source the best beef in the United States, and that for us comes from the 6666 Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, which for Yellowstone fans is owned by Taylor Sheridan. We also run Taylor Sheridan’s kitchens at his ranch in Weatherford, Texas.
What inspired you to start serving Tex-Mex sides with barbecue?
I come from a Hispanic background. My dad is Latino and I grew up eating Mexican food more than anything. I just love Tex-Mex food. My wife is Hispanic as well, and we felt like it was just a natural and fitting blend of two incredible cuisines and cultures. Being in Central Texas, we’ve really tried to focus on paying homage to the folks that have been doing this for years and years, and we fit in some of the recipes that my grandma was cooking at our dinner table when I was a little kid—like charro beans with brisket thrown in, because brisket makes everything better.
We still serve a lot of our early sides today. Elote we do fresh off the cob every day, there’s the brisket and charro beans that I grew up eating, and Mexican rice is a staple. Hands down, our Hatch green chile mac and cheese is the most popular side we have.
Tell me about that one.
It’s obviously ooey and gooey. It’s got this great texture from the cavatappi noodles, which I think are the superb mac and cheese noodle. I like how they catch all the cheese sauce, hold really well over time, and don’t get gummy or lose texture. The dish has got this really subtle heat from the roasted hatch chiles that just sends it over the top.
Someone’s coming to Hurtado Barbecue for the first time. What would you recommend they order?
The chef platter with a sampling of six different proteins. That has brisket and smoked turkey, which I think is hands down our best protein—even better than our brisket. It’s a sleeper. For sides, it’s the mac and cheese for sure and then a toss-up between the street corn and our tater tot casserole.
Since you’re self-taught yourself, what advice would you give to someone who is just getting into barbecuing?
Focus on the small things. Try and really give every little detail a hundred percent. Little things lead to great things. If you can focus on executing things well on a small scale, then you’re going to do big things better. For us, that’s like, how do we dress things? How do we make sure that if something’s not done yet, like a brisket, we’re not going to try and cut corners to finish that cook time?
Tell me about the breakfast migas, since we’re talking about brisket.
The migas are something that I’ll make at home for my family, spur of the moment on a Saturday morning. It’s quick and easy and a staple here in Texas for brunch and breakfast cuisine, but I’d eat it any time of day. It’s got texture from the tortilla chips, spice from the salsa, and it’s just ooey-gooey crispy. And then you throw brisket in there and you get, like, this whole other level of smokiness and umami.
What made you want to write a cookbook?
I met the editor of my cookbook in Chicago while I was on a barbecue festival work trip, and he said, “Hey, I’ve been creeping on you. I’m looking for someone to write this cookbook.” I finally decided to do it. And I wrote every word. It makes it even more special to me that I can go to my kids someday and say, “You can do things that are outside of your repertoire.” I cooked every recipe that was photographed there. We did fifty recipes for the photo shoot over five days, and I was largely involved in the photography.
What do you hope people take away from it?
I hope it brings them closer to the people they care about, that they’re able to share a meal with friends and family and maybe try something different, or cook something they have tried and make it better. For people in the barbecue industry, I hope they’re able to take some of these recipes and make them their own. I hope someone can look at Big Red barbacoa or brisket birria tacos and go out and make something of their own and spread the barbecue gospel.
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