If you want to chow down on some of the best BBQ Texas has to offer, the foodie website Chef’s Pencil recommends hitting up BBQ joints in … El Paso? Wait, whaaa?!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blastin’ EP 'Q joints. We most definitely have some shining stars that serve some amazing beef ribs and wet brisket up in here. Desert Oak Barbecue comes to mind. Even the spikey-haired, flame-shirt wearing TV chef Guy Fieri made it a point to eat there when he came to check out our food scene for "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives."

But, be honest, when you think of El Paso cuisine, Mexican food is most likely the first thing that comes to mind, right? And rightly so. You don’t have to go far to find a Mexican restaurant around here. From “authentic Mexican food” to Tex-Mex and fine dining Mexican-fusion, El Paso has it all, and it’s done better than most anywhere else in this great state of ours.

And according to Chef’s Pencil, that’s not all our city excels in. In a recent article titled “America’s Best & Worst Cities for BBQ,” the "international foodie magazine" based out of Sydney, Australia declared the ‘cue in El Paso #1 in Texas and the twelfth best in the entire U.S. of A.

Oh, man, I can hear heads exploding from San Antonio to Austin to Houston at the blasphemy (in their eyes, at least) of such a declaration. Barbecue is a religion in that part of the state. Now, to be fair to Central and East Texas, the rankings were based on “TripAdvisor ratings of all BBQ joints in the nation’s top 75 largest cities and ranked…on their average rating.”

Maybe ours is better, maybe it’s not. That's a discussion best left to others who don't have as simple a palate as mine. But I can't help but smile about their rankings. El Paso is Texas’ red-headed step child that often gets overlooked when it come to, well, everything. I’ll take the win. And a full rack of beef ribs, please.

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Best BBQ in El Paso According to YELP

Desert Oak Barbecue
1320 N Zaragoza

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit
1513 N Zaragoza Rd

Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que
1135 Airway Blvd
1360 George Dieter Dr
7501 N Mesa
12704 1/2, Montana Ave

Johnny’s Pit Barbeque
4768 Doniphan Dr

Old School BBQ Food Truck
(915) 867-0880

Tony’s the Pit Bar-B-Q
1700 Myrtle Ave

Rib Hut
2612 N Mesa St
12302 Montana Ave Suite 901-903

Rudy’s “Country Store” and Bar-B-Q
6401 S Desert Blvd
7970 Gateway E Blvd

Smokey’s Pit Stop
9100 Viscount Blvd

The State Line
1222 Sunland Park Dr

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