(powerful rock music)
- There are a lot of barbecue spots in Chicago,
but there are not a lot of places
that have been open for 90 years,
and that's why when Roy said we had to check out Russell's
in Elmwood Park, we rushed right here
to find out what their secret is.
We hear it's in the sauce.
Ben, Russell's has been here for a very long time.
- Yeah, Russell's has been open since 1930.
- How much have you learned
about being a barbecue pit master
in your 34 years here?
- We learned how to make the beef sandwiches, the ribs.
To carry on the recipe that has been followed for many years.
Another two full slabs of ribs.
- Does the food taste the same as it did in high school?
- Absolutely. - Hasn't changed at all?
- No.
- I grew up coming here since I was a kid,
and now I'm bringing my kids.
- I have been coming here since I'm a child,
probably 200 times.
- Does the food taste the same
as it did in the 60s? - It does.
- [Ben] Our sauce is not everywhere else.
It's different, and that's what makes us unique.
- What's different about this barbecue sauce
at Russell's? - I'll tell you one recipe.
One ingredient that is in our barbecue sauce
that highlights that from every other sauce
is the cinnamon that goes in our sauce.
- Cinnamon, and does their sauce taste different
than the standard barbecue sauce?
- It does, it's got a sweet, kind of savory flavor to it.
- What do you like so much about the sauce?
What makes it different? - I'm not sure.
It is different, I don't know what makes it different,
to tell you the truth.
- [Ben] Why is Russell's Barbecue Chicago's best?
- We carry on our consistent products.
We carry on our good value,
and we've been here for many years.
- [Marley] What are we making today?
- The combo meal, which consists of barbecue ribs,
a 3 1/2 pound chicken, we cut it in half
and then we marinate it, and then we cook it.
- I got a 1/2 slab and a 1/2 chicken.
- Yes, with some sides, some macaroni and cheese
or french fries, whatever.
- Yes to both? - Yes.
- Yes, I like this attitude, yes with yes.
Yes, should we go do those things?
- Sure, go ahead, join me. - Okay, I'll join you.
(bouncy electronic music)
- What we gonna do is
we gonna put the au jus in our oven here.
- You tell me when, Ben, okay?
- And then we gonna cook this at 350 degrees.
We going to take these ribs.
The thickest part goes in first, like this.
- The thickest part goes in first, okay,
and what is the reasoning to the thickest part
going in first? - So to cook it evenly,
then we gonna push it inside slowly
so that you don't get burnt.
We gonna set this
at 350 degrees. - I'm gonna trust you
to set that at whatever 350 is.
So we got these in here for 1/2 hour,
but we have chicken to make.
- We going to use butter.
- You wanna do one as a demo? - Sure.
I can start off with one, and then
you will do the other one. - Sounds perfect.
- So now what we have here is some spices
that we have to sprinkle on top of it.
This is a preheated oven to 350 degrees,
then we close it, and then we turn it on.
- Chicken's in, 15 minutes here,
gotta flip these babies, and then we gotta hit the grill
after that, right? - Great, yes.
- All right, I'll meet you over there.
(energetic music)
- So we gonna go here, and we got our finished ribs
that we just cooked over there.
We gonna take one of those chickens
that we just finished cooking over there,
and we just gonna put it in there
for three and a half minutes.
- All right, back to our ribs.
- We're going to put some of our famous barbecue sauce
on top of them. - This is that special
cinnamon barbecue sauce? - Yes.
Try not to be so skimpy on this one.
Try to put a lot of sauce in there.
- [Marley] Skimpy?!
(Ben laughs) Who you calling skimpy, Ben?
- Do the same thing. - Don't be skimpy,
I got the message.
- [Ben] Okay, so our chicken
is done now. - All right, we're ready?
- Yes. - Take her out.
- Let's brush some of the barbecue sauce on the chicken.
Put a little more on top of the chicken.
- Oh yeah, wow! - And on the ribs as well.
- All right, well this looks perfect.
I know you mentioned rolls and mac-and-cheese,
so why don't you plate these up,
make one for yourself, I'll get us some drinks,
and then we can eat! - Perfect.
(guitar music)
- [Marley] All right, Ben, just a little bit of food.
- [Ben] Just a little bit.
- Let's dig in, right? - Sure.
- Do you have a way you like to try to eat this?
- So usually what I do, I just cut
the bones on each piece, the ribs like this,
- Cut right through the ribs. - Right, in sections.
- Put a little extra sauce on there,
no skimping here at Russell's.
I just love how easy this is to eat.
It just falls right off the bone.
It's amazing to me how much flavor it has
when all we did was just cook it in the au jus.
You just put it right in its own juice,
but it's so flavorful.
- [Ben] Can you taste the cinnamon flavor
on the barbecue sauce? - Since you've told me,
I can taste it.
The chicken is great, the outside, the skin is so crispy,
but the inside is still so tender.
All right, let's see how much of this we can eat.
- Sure.
- Cheers! - Cheers.
(upbeat rock music)
- This is a dangerous game, I'm a trained professional.
Warning if you have kids: they should not be watching this
right now, because these are disturbing scenes.
- Craig said we had to check them out
because of their deceptively killer meat,
and when we-- (exclaims)
(Marley laughs)