LAS VEGAS, Nov. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Award-winning pitmaster and Girls Can Grill® founder Christie Vanover has launched a new online education platform, Competition BBQ Tips, designed to teach backyard cooks and aspiring pitmasters the proven step-by-step methods used by championship barbecue teams.
Drawing from years on the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) circuit, Vanover’s new series of online courses reveals the exact techniques she uses to produce top-scoring chicken, ribs, pork and brisket – the four meat categories that define KCBS competitions.
Each course features detailed video lessons, transcripts and recipe and equipment lists to help cooks master the craft.
Instead of spending thousands in entry fees without a call, these lessons show competitors how to shave months off their learning curve and turn those weekends into winning weekends.
“I’ve been in those shoes, spending weekends chasing a walk that never came,” said Vanover. “For the longest time, I kept landing in the middle of the pack, never hearing my name called, until I made some key changes.”
Now she’s pulling back the curtain and teaching those exact changes. Each lesson breaks down the competition process so anyone can understand what judges truly look for and start turning in boxes that score.
The Competition BBQ Tips platform offers several ways to learn:
- Single-Meat Courses for focused mastery of chicken, ribs, pork, or brisket.
- Four-Meat Bundle for competitors ready to level up across the board.
- VIP Pit Crew Membership, which includes all four meat courses plus three additional lessons, downloadable timelines, and a personal score-tracking system.
- One-on-One Coaching, where Vanover personally analyzes a cook’s boxes and scores to identify improvement opportunities.
Vanover has used these same methods to earn multiple Grand Championships, more than 80 top-10 calls, and a top-five finish in brisket at the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational. As a certified world-championship judge, she knows exactly what separates a good entry from a winning one.
“Competing in barbecue isn’t cheap,” Vanover added. “For less than the cost of one entry fee, competitors can learn strategies that have earned Grand Championships and prize checks worth thousands.”
Vanover created the courses to fill a gap in the BBQ education space. While countless backyard tutorials exist, few instructors reveal the real secrets and full recipes and timelines of competition-level cooking.
Each course is filmed on real smokers with competition-style boxes, guiding students step-by-step through trimming, seasoning, injecting, cooking, boxing, and turn-in strategy.
Enrollment is open now at CompetitionBBQTips.com. Join today and start cooking like the teams that win.
- Christie Vanover
- Competition BBQ Tips