Pitmasters these days are celebrated for many kinds of barbecue artistry, but one genre of smoked meat is finally gaining its own well-deserved turn in the spotlight.
Halal barbecue is frequently served by immigrants from across the Middle East and Africa and influenced by the traditions of native-born Black Muslims, as well. And here in Texas, where beef is at the center of all things barbecue, halal pitmasters are thriving.
Farhan Mustafa has been writing about the rise of halal barbecue for Bon Appetit. He joined the Standard to dish on the details. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: The story that you tell about halal barbecue really begins with the community and sharing across cultures. Can you say a little bit more about how today’s halal barbecue movement sort of grew from those roots?
Farhan Mustafa: So I was born and raised in eastern North Carolina, and my first barbecues, I remember, were Black Muslims teaching us how to basically grill. And for us, it was more than just a cookout. We began to learn about the actual traditions of what barbecue is.
And so, of course, for us it was learning about eastern North Carolina barbecue chicken. But I think most Muslims that I spoke to, especially the ones that were born and raised here, the pitmasters, a lot are taking those experiences they remember from early on, right? Their childhoods. Whether it was at a mosque cookout, whether it’s just a normal community cookout.
I remember going to pig pickins a lot and couldn’t eat, but kind of really wanted to, just because I was curious to see what was going on there on the grill.
So I think it’s holding all those memories and then… You know, I think like I wrote about it’s how do you bring in your own stories, whether it is the American side of you or the immigrant side of you, right? Both, and that shows up on the plate.
Can you say a little bit about what halal barbecue is for people who may want to know? Am I missing something in the distinction?
Sure, so the first thing I’d say is that, well, there’s no pork, and that’s number one and probably the most important part.
And the second part of it is halal barbecue… Technically “halal” would mean that it’s zabiha, which means it’s similar to kosher and that it’s slaughtered according to Islamic standards.
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I see. Texas keeps popping up in your story – from pitmasters who made the Texas Monthly top 50 BBQ list this year to Muslim pitmasters who were early innovators. I have to ask, why do you think Texas has been so important to halal barbecue’s growth?
I think it’s the demand of beef. It’s that, right? It’s the availability.
And then you also have a lot of producers – smaller producers – in Texas that are recognizing the growth of that market. You have a lots of Muslim populations growing in Texas – whether it’s DFW, Houston, all that.
So I think you’re seeing it on both sides, which is not just the pitmaster side, but the availability is there now.So I wrote about a smaller brand like Wagyu~X that’s creating really premium beef products but processing them halal.
So I think Texas almost becomes the perfect halal barbecue lab as a state in that sense, where you have a growing population, but also the producers are rising to meet that demand and creating cooler products and newer products to play with.
I want to namecheck a couple here. Tell us a little bit about Yearby’s BBQ.
So Yearby’s is run by CJ and Sabrina Henley, and they’re both Black Muslims. CJ grew up in New Orleans and Sabrina grew up in Philadelphia. And so I met them initially through the chat and then at the halal pitmasters annual competition done in Plano.
To me, their story is what resonates the most in terms of how I grew up, which was learning from Black Muslims. And so when you speak to CJ, a lot of it is, “hey, we’re just serving the same food we grew up with. We just happen to be Muslim.”
So it’s smoked meatloaf. It’s chicken. It’s smoked mac and cheese. They even serve Philadelphia-style water ice, right? So it is a completely American menu. It just happens to be halal because they’re Muslim.
Muslim pitmasters are working with a lot of different traditions as well, though, and food cultures. Are there some particular styles of barbecue that you find especially popular in halal places?
Yeah, it’s funny. I think as you see the growth of Texas-style barbecue growing across the country, that’s the one that resonates the most. And again, it is what else can you get besides a nice piece of brisket?
So when you have a lot of pitmasters and amateur pitmasters, when they’re getting their Green Eggs, their Kamado Joe’s and their Traeger’s, the first thing they’ll do is look for nice pieces of briskets to learn.
So I think it’s resonating because it’s just the easiest protein. It’s big. It is fancy. And it’s a process and so we also can stand around and hang out for 8 to 12 hours around the smoker.
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I think, though, you mentioned the educational aspect of this and I think that for a lot of listeners, halal barbecue may be a new concept. I wonder to what extent educating non-Muslim customers is something that pitmasters may find they’re having to do a lot here.
It is. I mean, when you speak to them, what you’ll hear is that, yes, they have to explain it, but as time goes on, they had to explain it less and less.
And CJ tells a great story about how surprised he’s been, but how grateful he has been is that their non-Muslim customers are the ones that are explaining what halal means to other new customers, right?
Oh, that’s cool.
Yeah, it’s really cool, and I think, you know, as far as I understand, what I’m hearing is that it’s really becoming as common to understand as what kosher is, right? It’s more like, hey, this is meat for a specific religion.
But otherwise, the fact that it is called halal barbecue, it is still just normal Texas barbecue. The flavor is going to be a bit different based on the pitmaster. But that’s it, right?
So I think part of what I try to tell in this story and talking about halal barbecue is it’s just really just barbecue, there’s nothing else to it.
