When I moved into my apartment in Allston Village two years ago, there was a nice little convenience store down the block on Harvard Ave. After about 2 months, the store closed down and remained vacant for a long time—almost 2 years. Each day I would pass by the empty storefront praying that it would turn into something useful—not a maternity-ware factory outlet or a Baby Gap.

Well, the gods smiled down on Allston and blessed us with Soul Fire (www.soulfirebbq.com). Soul Fire is a BBQ joint that entrapped me almost instantly with their reasonable prices and fantastic fare delivered without a long wait. Perfect for a graduate student on the move, like myself.

From its shocking red walls, to its handwritten chalkboard menu, to its diamond plate metal bar with a cornucopia of heated sauce dispensers, Soul Fire exudes a very bold point of view on the BBQ experience that is polished, hip, and most of all delicious.

For around six bucks you can get a sizable sandwich (pulled pork, brisket, or fried catfish), a small mountain of side dish, and pickles. You really can’t do much better than that in price to food ratio. I must say, their brisket sandwich is beyond compare. Tender, juicy, amazing flavor, and cut thick.

Also, if you have a spare army to feed, you can get their bulk platter that “Serves 4 Souls” which for only $42.00 includes:

• 1 whole hickory smoked chicken
• 1 rack spare ribs
• 1 lb. bbq meat
• 2 sides 1 pint each
• rolls, pickles, 4 corn breads

This is a hell of a lot of food. My family of 3 decided to get this once, and in actuality, it could theoretically serve around 6 very hungry Souls, and thus yielded leftovers that fed me for a week.

I love BBQ and have been going to The Village Smoke House, Redbones, and Blue Ribbon forever. Soul Fire carves a very nice niche in the Boston BBQ market and with a charm and style of its own that doesn’t overlap any of the other big name joints, as well as highly competitive pricing. Soul Fire food is clearly Soul Fire food, and I love it.

So enamored was I of Soul Fire, I decided to make it my first Food Monkey Monkeycast and interviewed Wyeth Lynch (right) and Josh Cook (left), the owner and the pit boss (respectively) of Soul Fire.

So, on a Friday afternoon, I headed through the busy kitchen with racks and racks of meat in pre and post smoke stages down into the massive bowels of Soul Fire, where I sat down with Wyeth and Josh, and we began to talk BBQ. This being my first interview ever, I expected to chat about the restaurant industry, what they liked/disliked about BBQ, etc. What I did not expect was a total education in the art and science behind BBQ. These guys REALLY know their BBQ. And it shows in their food.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy BBQ 101 with Wyeth and Josh with Part 1 of 2 of the Monkeycast, where we talk about the origins of BBQ, regional differences, the gentrification of BBQ, and much more. I promise you won’t be disappointed. You can subscribe to these podcasts on iTunes by clicking here.

Soul Fire Interview Part 1 of 2 :

After learning about the origins and regional styles of BBQ, we moved to the actual cooking techniques in used by Soul Fire and how to go about making some good tasting dishes.

Soul Fire Interview Part 2 of 2 :

The question I was itching to ask was how they got their chicken to look and taste the way it does. I had never had chicken like this before. I could tell that it was smoked, and it had a very smooth golden brown sheen to it. This was not the boring BBQ rotisserie chicken you typically get at these places. Very moist and very smoky, it’s has a great taste that permeates all the way through the meat.

Enough of my prattling, here’s part 2 of the interview. Here you will learn about BBQ chemistry and why brining works, high vs. low heat smoking, and how to make fried mac and cheese bites.

As for that chicken, Josh the Pit Boss was kind enough to give us the recipe:

SoulFire Hickory Smoked Chicken

For the Brine:

• 1 Gallon Water
• 1 Cup Kosher Salt
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• 1/8 cup soy sauce
• 1/8 cup black pepper
• 1/16 cup garlic powder
• 3/8 ounce oregano
• 3/8 ounce thyme
• 3/8 ounce onion powder

Chicken

• 3 chicken each 2 ¾ – 3 lbs fryers

Directions:

1. Rinse the chickens in cold water and pat dry with a paper towel
2. Place in a large plastic container and cover with brine for 12 hours.
3. (a small cooler works well. Just be sure to pack it with non melting freezer packs – ice will melt and negatively effect the brine)
4. In a charcoal burning, or electric smoker, heat to 260° F.
5. Add Hickory chips and put chicken in the smoker breast up.
6. Smoke for 3 to 4 hours, adding hickory chips as needed for the first two hours.
7. Remove chicken when a temperature probe inserted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 175° F

*There will be areas of the meat that are still pink. This is the nature of smoking meats, DO NOT BE ALARMED! Your chicken is cooked (provided you accurately asses the temperature to 175°F).

So anyhow, Soul Fire is at 182 Harvard Ave in Allston, MA, between Commonwealth and Brighton. You should really check them out. Tell them The Food Monkey sent you!

Let me know how you like the Monkeycasts and we’ll try to do some more!