Authentic South Texas-style barbecue at home at El Monte BBQ in San Antonio
On a dusty stretch of Bandera Road west of San Antonio, a small, beige shopping center topped with terra-cotta roof tiles is anchored by a tiny barbecue joint whose logo is the letter “M” formed in the shape of a deer skull and topped with fiery-red antlers.
This is El Monte BBQ. It is a unique example of South Texasstyle barbecue. To be sure, South Texas cooking traditions are prevalent in Texas barbecue, specifically in “Tex-Mex barbecue” joints that combine contemporary craft barbecue with Tejano and Mexican-American techniques and ingredients.
At El Monte, the Avila family has fully embraced their South Texas roots, including in the cities of Pearsall and Cotulla, where co-owner and head chef Jaime Avila Jr. can trace his lineage.
“My grandfather had a small tienda (store) in Pearsall where he sold fajita meat and ground beef,” says Avila, “And on Sundays, he made barbacoa.”
Specifically, he made the real-deal barbacoa from a whole cow’s head (cabeza) that is wrapped in burlap and then placed in a below-ground pit (pozo) filled with coals. The pit was covered and the head left to cook and simmer for hours. The prized cheek meat (cachete) is easily stripped off and made into tacos or combined with chopped portions of tongue (lengua), eyes (ojos) and sweetbreads (mollejas) to create a “mixta” filling.
Today, due to contemporary health department regulations, cooking food in the ground is forbidden. As a result, Avila prepares his own version of barbacoa (Sundays only) using beef cheek cooked with mesquite and live oak on an offset steel barrel pit that his father, Jaime Sr., built from scratch in the 1970s.
The rest of the menu features excellent versions of brisket, pork ribs, sausage, pulled pork and turkey, as well as sides such as rice and beans, and cream corn made from family recipes. A taco combo features house-made corn tortillas cradling smoked meats topped with sliced avocado and pico de gallo.
Another South Texas specialty served here is pan de campo, a type of fry bread best described as a cross between a tortilla and a biscuit. Originat ing from cowboy traditions of this area, pan de campo was a sturdy and filling source of energy for vaqueros on long cattle drives.
Flour, baking powder, salt, shortening and water are made into a dough, rolled into a disc about a half-inch thick, and placed in a Dutch oven filled with a shallow layer of cooking oil. The Dutch oven would be preheated over a bed of coals, a cover placed on top and more coals placed on the cover for even cooking.
Avila follows a similar recipe, cooked in a Dutch oven but without the coals. His pan de campo is a golden-brown disc about 6 inches in diameter that is crisscrossed with score marks so it can be easily broken apart and shared with fellow diners. Served with butter, it’s a deceptively simple and addicting accompaniment to smoked meats beyond the standard white bread or flour tortillas.
El Monte BBQ, named after a South Texas term referring to brush country, is a family business. Brothers Ricardo and Jose have joined Jaime Jr. and their dad, Jaime Sr., to carry on the barbecue traditions started by their grandparents in the small towns along the highway south toward Nuevo Laredo.
Central and East Texas-style barbecue may get all the headlines, but South Texas is still one of the most influential barbecue traditions in the state.