Caleb Cox is anything but chicken in the kitchen.
The Carroll County teen won first place at the State 4-H Poultry Cook Out Competition without practicing his barbecue chicken recipe and will represent Mississippi at the National 4-H Poultry Barbeque Demonstration at the National Egg and Poultry Conference in Lexington, Ky.
He said he didn’t do a test dinner because of the weather and because of the presentation he had to prepare.
“I spent a lot of time working on my 10-minute speech,” he said. “I probably put 12 or more hours in just doing the research about broilers in the state of Mississippi and practicing.”
The speech must present an understanding of the poultry industry and its impact on the state’s economy. The 4-H program is designed to help develop well-rounded skill sets, such as public speaking, teamwork and academic thinking.
The state competition was held July 7 at Mississippi State University in Starkville.
“I was nervous until I got there,” Caleb said. “I wasn’t shocked that I won, but I was happy.”
He got the hardest part out of the way early, volunteering to go first, before heading to the grill.
But even in the kitchen while he was barbecuing, Caleb and his fellow competitors had to be quick on their feet cooking and answering questions.
“Some of them were really easy, like ‘Why do you keep your chicken breast side down?’, but others aren’t,” he said.
Yet Caleb doesn’t practice for that part either. “You either know it or you don’t,” he said.
Contestants have 2½ hours to marinate, cook and serve their chicken. “There is no time for mistakes,” he said.
Caleb’s secret weapon is his custom barbecue sauce, “Skinny’s Specialty Sauce.” He made the original version at his first 4-H cooking competition when he discovered he forgot to bring barbecue sauce.
Since then, he has improved the recipe to the sweet and flavorful sauce it is today.
“I put it on right at the end,” Caleb said. “Everyone seems to like the flavor.”
The judges even asked about it at the state competition.
Caleb and his special sauce will compete at the national level in November.
“It is an honor to represent Mississippi,” Caleb said. “I suspect there will be a good many people there, so I want to make everyone proud.”
Caleb has been cooking since he was 5 years old and aspires to become a chef, maybe even owning his own restaurant one day.
He is the son of Wayne and Denise Cox.
• Contact Andrea Hall at ahall@gwcommonwealth.com.
