Meet AJ Garza of God's Country BBQ The first BBQ World Cup Qualifier

February 5, 2026·29 min·2 clips

The Pitmaster Podcast introduces a barbecue qualifier tied to a possible one-million-dollar prize.

1. The Pitmaster Podcast focuses on AJ Garza of God's Country Barbecue qualifying for the Barbecue World Cup.\n2. Hosts Anthony Luan and Jesse Johnson are introduced as accomplished barbecue competitors, while Derek Bernal interviews Garza during Jesse's absence.\n3. The episode asks how Garza reached a million-dollar Barbecue World Cup opportunity through a West Coast competition.\n4. Garza says his father cooked brisket nearly every weekend, shaping his early exposure to barbecue.\n5. Garza bought his first smoker around 2018 and began cooking for friends, neighbors, and family.\n6. His first cook-off produced an eighth-place brisket finish and convinced him to continue competing.\n7. During 2020, Garza found Lone Star Barbecue Society events when COVID reduced the number of cook-offs in Texas.\n8. Garza says he competed approximately 28 weekends in 2022 and won CBA brisket team of the year.\n9. His son was born in June 2024, temporarily reducing his competition schedule before family support allowed him to return.\n10. At Bullhead City, Garza won the grand championship while Uncle Jesse's Barbecue took reserve grand champion.\n11. Garza says his brisket, ribs, and pork were strong, but chicken finished approximately 35 minutes early and worried him.\n12. He describes the result as especially close because one judge's nine instead of eight could change the overall outcome.\n13. Garza says wind gusts ranging from five to thirty miles per hour made smoker management difficult at the event.\n14. A late rib decision changed the finish from a peppery direction to a sweeter flavor, which Garza says worked.\n15. Garza submitted money muscles after his pork butt tightened during resting rather than risk a tougher pork entry.\n16. He identifies ribs as his strongest recent category and chicken as his weakest category over the past several years.\n17. The interview format combines competition recap, personal history, technical cooking choices, and advice for newer teams.\n18. The hosts use informal banter while Garza answers detailed questions about judges, meats, equipment, and pressure.\n19. Competitive barbecue cooks seeking practical process advice would appreciate this episode.\n20. Listeners uninterested in barbecue contests, meat preparation, or competition strategy might skip it.

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