LAS VEGAS – Award-winning pitmaster and Girls Can Grill® founder Christie Vanover has launched a new online education platform, Competition BBQ Tips, created to teach backyard cooks and aspiring pitmasters the proven, step-by-step methods used by championship barbecue teams.
Built from years of experience on the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) circuit, Vanover’s series of online courses reveals the exact techniques she uses to produce high-scoring chicken, ribs, pork and brisket — the four meat categories that define KCBS competitions.
Each course includes detailed video lessons, written transcripts, and complete recipe and equipment lists so cooks can learn and replicate competition-level results at home.
Rather than spending thousands on entry fees and waiting for a call, these lessons help competitors accelerate their learning curve, turning practice weekends into true opportunities to win.
“I’ve been in those shoes, spending weekends chasing a walk that never came,” Vanover said. “For the longest time I kept landing in the middle of the pack, never hearing my name called, until I made some key changes.”
She now shares those exact changes. Lessons break down the competition process in clear steps so students understand what judges look for and can produce boxes that score consistently.
The Competition BBQ Tips platform offers multiple learning paths:
- Single-Meat Courses for focused instruction on chicken, ribs, pork, or brisket.
- Four-Meat Bundle for competitors ready to improve across all categories.
- VIP Pit Crew Membership, which includes all four meat courses plus supplemental lessons, downloadable timelines, and a personal score-tracking system.
- One-on-One Coaching, where Vanover personally reviews a cook’s boxes and scores to pinpoint opportunities for improvement.
Vanover’s methods have produced multiple Grand Championships, more than 80 top-10 calls, and a top-five brisket finish at the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational. As a certified world-championship judge, she understands the difference between a solid entry and a winning one.
“Competing in barbecue isn’t cheap,” Vanover said. “For less than the cost of a single entry fee, competitors can learn strategies that have led to Grand Championships and prize checks worth thousands.”
These courses were developed to fill a gap in barbecue education. While many backyard tutorials exist, few instructors share complete competition recipes, exact timelines, and the practical techniques needed to compete.
Each lesson is filmed on real smokers using competition-style boxes and walks students through trimming, seasoning, injecting, cooking, boxing, and turn-in strategy so they can follow proven workflows step by step.
Enrollment is open now at CompetitionBBQTips.com. Join today to start cooking like the teams that win.
Founded in 2015, Girls Can Grill is an online resource dedicated to grilling and barbecue. Owned and operated by pitmaster Christie Vanover, the site offers hundreds of recipes, how-to videos, product reviews and tips for everyone from beginner grillers to experienced pitmasters. Vanover has won multiple state BBQ championships, was named the 2023 Nevada BBQ Team of the Year, and appeared on Season 4 of Food Network’s BBQ Brawl. She has produced instructional videos for major outdoor grill brands and regularly reviews grills. Her hands-on experience spans dozens of grills, and she maintains a large collection for testing and development.