2025 Alabama BBQ Tour: Randolph County - Boondocks BBQ and Creamery, Wedowee, Alabama

 

Yesterday we drove about an hour away to Randolph County to try some BBQ.

Randolph County is on the central eastern border of Alabama.  Its county seat is Wedowee. Its name is in honor of John Randolph, a member of the United States Senate from Virginia.  Wedowee, which means "old water" in the Creek language, was named after a Muscogee Creek Indian chief. This area was historically occupied by the Muscogee Creek people.

Boondocks has a large enclosed dining area which is light and airy.  There's also an outdoor dining area with tables with umbrellas, plus water bowls for the doggies!

We were welcomed immediately upon entering and asked if we had been there previously.  When we answered it was our first time, the young lady informed us that we could take a menu to a table, choose what we wanted, and come back to the window and order.  We would be given our drinks and a table number and our food would be brought to the table.  

There was no confusion, no standing around trying to decide what the ordering process is, or anything like that.  It wasn't just for us, however.  Every person that came in was greeted and the process explained.  It may not seem like a big deal, but when you're entering a new restaurant, it's great to have someone to explain the process!

Here's the menu!

We ordered and returned to our table to await our meal.  Each table had three bottles of sauce for sampling.

As you can see, the consistency was the same across all the flavors.  The spicy had a little kick of heat, but wasn't hot enough to be mouth scorching or remove any flavor of the food.  The Carolina sauce had a great mustard flavor (notice it's in the yellow bottle!), but wasn't overpowering.  The original was peppery, but was flavorful and paired well with all the meats.

We were very intrigued by two items on the Spring Special Menu:  the Cattlemen's Roll and the Piggy Roll.  These can be purchased singly or in a basket of three rolls.  We chose one of each.

Let's start with the Cattlemen's Roll.  It's a hand rolled egg roll filled with smoked brisket, macaroni and cheese, shredded cheese and a sprinkle of diced jalapenos for heat.  It's topped with ranch, bbq sauce and diced candied jalapenos!

Granted, this is a lot of flavors packed into an egg roll wrapper.  But they all work together to give you a bite of smoky brisket, creamy mac and cheese, and a bit of heat from the jalapenos.  These were delightful!  I can understand why customers would order a basket.  

Now, on to the Piggy Roll.  It's also a hand rolled egg roll filled with smoked pork, mac and cheese, and a sprinkle of coleslaw for some crunch.  It's deep fried then topped with ranch, bbq sauce, and cilantro.

These were yummy as well.  The pork and slaw are a classic combination and add in the rich mac and cheese with the zip of the sauces and cilantro and you've got a great appetizer!

As a side note here, when we ordered these, the employee taking our order read all the ingredients back to us to make sure we were okay with the cilantro and jalapenos.  That way, there's no surprises to diners who may not care for these ingredients.  

Now on to the main event.  We'll start with Sweet Harold and his 1/2 smoked chicken plate.  He added baked beans and cole slaw as his sides.

I appreciate the symmetry of the plating.  The metal tray was large enough that everything had its own space and the result is very visually appealing.  As we all know, we eat with our eyes first!

The 1/2 smoked chicken was expertly smoked with a gorgeous bronzed color.  The meat was tender and juicy.  The smoke flavor was subtle and the Carolina sauce was a great match.

The cole slaw had a distinct sweet taste, but the texture was crunchy and fresh.

The "baked" beans weren't baked and had no added ingredients such as the pulled pork, onions, or peppers.  They were fair, but after he added some of the spicy bbq sauce, he enjoyed them more.

We wanted to try as much as possible from the menu, so I ordered the sampler platter which consisted of pulled pork, smoked wings, brisket, and two ribs.  I selected potato salad and macaroni and cheese as my two sides.

Again, the presentation is lovely.  I appreciate the extra time it takes to plate the food selections.  Each of our orders had a slice of Texas toast, pickled red onions, and a few slices of bread and butter pickles.  These were great to have between the meat selections to refresh the palate.

Let's start with the smoked wings.  The platter had three wings (two drums and one flat) and they were tender and had a distinct smoky flavor.  It's a skill to get wings smoked with a yummy crunch but have the meat tender and juicy.  They succeeded.  The spicy sauce was perfect for these wings.

Next up, the brisket!  Brisket is another protein that takes skill and time to perfect.  Too short a time on the smoker and the meat will be chewy.  Too long a time on the smoker and you have jerky!  I followed the Kansas City BBQ Judging guidelines for brisket.  The slices did separate after a gentle tug which means it was "slightly" overcooked.  But...the flavor was there big time.  I thoroughly enjoyed the brisket.  There was a beautiful smoke ring as well.

Next, the ribs:  two St. Louis style ribs which were served without sauce, but with a generous dry rub coating.  The dry rub had a sweet component which was probably brown sugar.  Not spicy at all.  The ribs were well smoked and had a nice flavor and texture.

Finally, the pulled pork.  At last, a pulled pork that's not chopped into tiny, dried out pieces!  There was an equal mixture of bark and tender inside meat.  The smoke flavor was not overpowering.

The macaroni and cheese was the creamy variety, not baked.  If that's your preference, you'll enjoy this side.

The potato salad was an average potato salad.  It wasn't not good, but it didn't wow me either.

For the second part of their name.... "Creamery"  

They offer many flavors of homemade ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, and milkshakes!

I will almost always choose chocolate as my go to!

Super creamy and rich with an out of this world chocolate flavor.  

Sweet Harold's go to flavor is butter pecan and he gave two thumbs up immediately!  

These were a great ending to a very enjoyable meal.

We definitely appreciated this extra!

Side note:  the entire time we were dining, we noticed that every employee was constantly moving and working.  Cleaning tables, asking diners if they needed drink refills, sweeping the sidewalk outside, even cleaning the legs of chairs!  No cell phones were present by ANY employee.....these young people were working hard!

Standouts:  ALL the meats, both egg rolls, the ice cream, wet wipes, great employees.

Point Takeaways:  the average sides (which with a little extra love could be great!), plastic utensils

Our Score:  93

Grilled Chicken Drumsticks (with Cooter Brown's Dry Rub and Sauce)

 

Sweet Harold received dry rub and a bottle of BBQ sauce from Cooter Brown's Rib Shack for Christmas.  I decided to experiment with it on some chicken drumsticks.  If you're not from around here, Cooter Brown's Rib Shack is located in Jacksonville, AL near the Jacksonville State University Campus.  

Here's the link to their webpage: https://cootersribs.com/about/

Here's the link to their merchandise!  Cooter Brown's Rib Shack Merch

The dry rub is not overly salty and I detected just a touch of sweetness.  The ingredients include sugar, salt, paprika, garlic, molasses, onion powder, cayenne, and black pepper.

The sauce is more on the thin side (yea!!) and has a nice zing to it that pairs well with most grilled meats.  

I liberally seasoned the chicken with the dry rub and let the drumsticks rest while the grill preheated so the rub would adhere nicely to the meat.

I preheated the grill to 450 degrees F. and then placed the drumsticks on the grill.  After a few minutes, I rotated the drumsticks 90 degrees to get those great grill marks.  Then I lowered the heat so it maintained a consistent temp of 325 degrees F.

I continued to rotate the chicken and checked the internal temperature regularly.  You'll need the internal temp to reach 170 degrees.  It will take 25-30 minutes for the chicken to cook through.  

When the temperature got to 160 degrees, I began to add the sauce.  You don't want to add it too early because the sugars in the sauce can burn.  Liberally add the sauce and turn the chicken over to help it glaze from the heat.  Add sauce to the other side and continue turning and saucing until the temp reaches 170 degrees.

These are looking and smelling great!

After they're all done, I removed them to a tray to carry indoors.

The drumsticks were super tender and juicy.  The dry rub seasoning and the sauce were perfect together.  I like the char on the chicken as it gives a nice texture and flavor to the meat.

This was a delicious mid-afternoon meal!

Buffalo Cucumbers

 

During our recent trip to NYC, I had these delicious cucumbers from Parm.  Simply put, these are sliced English cucumbers, drizzled with your favorite buffalo wing sauce and then garnished with blue cheese crumbles.

I know, I know, that seems like such a random combination, but wowza, does it all go together in amazing fashion!

The cool crunchy cucumbers, the heat from the buffalo sauce, and the rich funky blue cheese crumbles are a match made in heaven.  This is going to be my new favorite summer side dish!

Wash and trim the ends from an English cucumber, slice lengthwise, and then cut into 1/4" thick slices.

Place in a bowl, drizzle with a couple of tablespoons of buffalo wing sauce, and then top with blue cheese crumbles.  That's it!

Low Country Boil

 

Yesterday we invited some friends over for a very informal Sunday supper.  If you think you can't cook, don't like to cook, or are usually asked to bring drinks and ice to any gathering, this is what you need to serve your friends and gain a whole new level of respect!

You can make a huge pot, a generous serving portion, or low country boil for for 2 or 3!  It's all about what ingredients you like and how many you're feeding.  I'm going to share what I used and what amounts and you can adapt to your next gathering.

First of all you're going to need something to season that water to get things going.  Zatarain's has a liquid version and a packaged seasoning that's in a mesh bag.  Either way, you add it to your water and get that to boiling.

Yes, you can prepare this outdoors over an open flame cooker, or in the house on the stovetop like I did with a 9 1/2 quart Dutch oven.

I filled it about 1/3 full of water and seasoned with the mesh bag of Zatarain's spices.  I added two whole lemons that I quartered, two onions that I quartered, and three whole heads of garlic that I peeled and halved lengthwise.

Just because I wanted to, I added about a teaspoon of the liquid seasoning and 1 T. of the dry Creole seasoning.  I let this boil for a few minutes. 

You'll need to add the ingredients in order of how long it will take them to cook.  Longer cooking items obviously needs to go in first.

So, into the pot went the potatoes.  I used two pounds of multi colored small potatoes that I washed and scrubbed clean.

After 4 minutes, I added the corn.  I had 4 ears of corn, silks removed, and broken in half.

After a few minutes of cooking, the baby carrots went into the hot pot!

Now, for the major showstoppers!  Two pounds of hickory smoked Conecuh sausage, sliced into 2-inch pieces went into the boil!

If you need to reduce the heat at this point, do so.  I set mine on medium and let everything simmer for about 15-18 minutes.  When the potatoes, corn, and carrots are all knife tender, it's time for the shrimp!

I had two pounds of Gulf shrimp in the freezer that I thawed, peeled, and deveined.  

Cut the heat off, add the shrimp, give everything a stir, and place the lid on the pot.

Let everything remain in the hot liquid for 10-15 minutes.  

You can either drain (carefully!!) or use a spiral strainer, like the one pictured below, to remove all that goodness from the pot to a large serving platter.

 

Serve with lemon wedges, all your favorite hot sauces, cocktail sauce, remoulade sauce, and drawn butter if you'd like!

Doesn't that look delicious??