No matter how you slice it, chopped barbecue is good.

Hidden within the menus of most barbecue restaurants lies chopped barbecue. It’s usually sold by the pound or in sandwiches, and while it doesn’t have the glitz and the glamour of the barbecue trinity — brisket, ribs, sausage — to dismiss it would be a huge mistake.

Chopped barbecue is an amazing replacement for most recipes that call for ground beef or chicken, providing a quick smoky twist that adds layers of flavor. Buying it from someone else saves hours of cooking time.

And unlike takeout brisket or turkey, chopped barbecue usually comes loaded with plenty of tasty fat, making reheating without it drying out a breeze. And nobody needs to know it didn’t come from your pit.

The triple chop barbecue at Bushwood BBQ on the North Side includes a mixture of brisket, sausage and turkey for $21.99 per pound. It’s also in a range of dishes, including sandwiches, nachos, chili and a baked potato. It’s one of the most popular menu items, according to owner and pitmaster Keith Hill.

“We can easily do 20 to 30 pounds a day in triple chop business,” Hill said. “Customers love it, and it’s also a way to cut our losses with meat that we can carry over from the previous day’s cook. I think what makes ours stand out is we are the only ones that I know of who mix the

chopped brisket with sausage and turkey.”

You would be hard-pressed to find a better chop than the one at Bushwood. It’s best put to immediate use, but when you do need to store it for a day or two, it can easily be revived with some stock and a slow simmer on the stovetop. If it has a nice fat layer on top, it should work well reheated in the microwave or oven.

Chopped meat also commonly comes doused in a sauce bath, adding moisture. If pre-sauced meat isn’t your thing, ask about it before you order.

Over at 2M Smokehouse on the East Side, one of San Antonio’s best barbecue restaurants, coowner Esaul Ramos doesn’t put chopped brisket on his menu, but that doesn’t stop customers from demanding it. He obliges, and the beef is chopped fresh in front of the customers at traditional brisket pricing.

“We reserve certain ends of the fatty part of the brisket for our chopped,” Ramos said. “I would personally say that I’m not a fan of it, but there’s no doubt that there is a following for it. … Customers definitely buy it to take home and use it as an ingredient for other dishes they want to make at home.”

At home, use chopped barbecue as a quick and easy protein topping for baked potatoes, and in Frito pies, grilled cheese sandwiches and a pot of baked beans. It can also be incorporated into more sophisticated fare, such as stuffed peppers or pasta shells. Basically, if you can do it with ground beef, you can do it with chopped barbecue.

Jerry Lara / Staff photographer Chopped barbecue turns a baked potato into a tasty, protein-rich dinner. Recipe, Page E16.