Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker is efficient, maintains temperature like nobody's business, and has a compact footprint. Check out these tantalizing photos of ribs, sausage, tenderloin, and beans from my first cook on the BX25!

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The BX25 has a sleek and tight design with just the right capacity for personal use. I couldn't help but fall in love with it from the first cook!

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

Here's a sneak peek of the ribs and beans.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker
Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The BX25 Box Smoker ready to fire for the first time!

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

This one has the optional stainless steel interior, which is a highly recommended upgrade. Stainless steel eliminates the possibility of rust or peeling primer/paint contaminating your food.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

Meadow Creek's box smokers work well with or without the water. Some prefer to cook with water and others prefer to use it dry. It's really a matter of preference, but the water keeps the humidity very high in the smoker, which steams the meat and creates a softer bark than it would in a dry smoker.

The water pan slides into the side of the smoker and is secured with postive-lock latches. The 5-gallon water jug rests on the port on top of the water pan.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The BX25 Box Smoker comes with three T304 food-grade stainless steel grates and can hold a total of six grates. The smoker and grates are nothing short of handsome.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

I opened the vents all the way, put roughly 8 pounds of charcoal briquettes into the charcoal basket, and lit them with my propane torch. You can add more briquettes for longer cooks as long as you leave enough room for a log split or several wood chunks.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

Once the coals are lit, the smoker should be getting close to 200 degrees F. From there you can start dialing in the temperature by closing down the bottom vents.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

I added a split of pecan on top of the coals. This was enough fuel and smoke flavor for the entire cook.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

Each BX25 grate holds two racks of baby back ribs. Here I'm cooking four racks of Swift Premium baby back ribs from Weis, a local chain grocery store.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

I coated the ribs with Meat Glue and then a mixture of Meadow Creek Brisket Rub and Meadow Creek Gourmet Seasoning.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker
Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker
Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The sausage links were the Weis brand. Their recipe is a favorite of mine. The pork tenderloins were Swift Premium, same as the ribs.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The beans were BUSH'S Original Baked Beans. I added some barbecue seasoning and a handful of rib trimmings.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The biggest challenge with this first cook was getting the smoker up to 225 degrees F after I added the meat. It wanted to hover around 210 degrees. Part of the problem was that I had the door open a lot to take photos, so it's a bit hard to tell exactly how it would have handled under normal operation. Having said that, I felt like it did an incredible job of holding a steady temperature for a long time. I look forward to mastering the firing process for my target temperature.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The ribs were in the smoke for 3 hours and then we wrapped them in aluminum foil.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

After 75 minutes in the foil, we sauced the top side of the racks with Sweet Baby Ray's sauce and set them back in the smoker.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker
Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

If these ribs aren't beautiful, I'm not sure what is!

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

After 30-45 minutes back on the grate unwrapped, the ribs were ready to slice and eat!

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

These ribs were tender and delicious with a nice smoke ring.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

Served with fries and smoked beans, this was a meal to remember.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker
Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

The sausages disappeared quickly. These are delicious sliced into chunks or on bread with a little sauce and a slice of cheese.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

Pork tenderloin is a lean cut so these are best cooked to only 145 degrees. The tenderloins got a little too hot by mistake and because of that, some of them were a bit dry. But they were still edible and the rest of my success made up for it.

Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker

Would you like to cook amazing barbecue in your backyard? Click the button below to get prices and more information about the BX25 smoker.

You can also contact us or visit us during business hours to discuss which type of smoker would be best for you.

2 thoughts on “Breaking in the Meadow Creek BX25 Box Smoker”

  1. [* Shield plugin marked this comment as “trash”. Reason: Failed GASP Bot Filter Test (comment token failure) *]
    Jesse at Meadow Creek indicated that the 10 CFM fan I have with my BBQ Guru Digi-Q would be adequate for my BX25 but I have been having trouble keeping a steady temperature with the fan as the only draft. Instead I have to keep the manual drafts open about a quarter of an inch to maintain temperature with lump charcoal. Do you have any recommendations to make the draft work with the Digi-Q fan only? Also, I see a big difference (40 degrees F) in pit temperature between my Digi-Q and the dial thermometer that came with the unit. What could I do to make them agree with each other? I have the Digi-Q probe at the same height as the dial probe.

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Meadow Creek Barbecue Supply is a specialty BBQ equipment and supply store in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

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140 W Main St in New Holland
Phone: 717-355-0779

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