Slow burn: Mighty Mike's Meats offers savory barbecue that has been smoked for hours

Smoking meats is a labor of love for Mike Mondragon.

The time-consuming process is something Mondragon takes great pride in. He does not skip a step and does not cut corners when preparing food for his food truck, Mighty Mike’s Meats.

Slow burn: Mighty Mike's Meats offers savory barbecue that has been smoked for hours

“Doing barbecue is stupid to do for a living, to be honest,” he said. “It is something I love. It’s one thing I’m good at. When other chefs call me chef, I tell them that I am no chef because those guys are on a different level. I’m good with meat and with barbecue. You really have to know what you’re doing, and you really have to love everything about it because you’re messing with fire, you’re messing with elements.”

Mondragon puts in about 15 hours of work before he even opens his food truck. It takes 10 hours to cook the pulled pork and another four hours to prep his sides such as macaroni and coleslaw. It also takes some time to prep the food truck trailer itself just to open for four to six hours a day.

Just like his cooking, Mondragon started out slow. Mighty Mike’s Meats began as a tent pop-up.

“I worked for 10 years and then I had a heart attack,” Mondragon said. “I was about 30, maybe 29, and I had a heart attack. It’s just hereditary. The doctor told me that I needed to slow down, but I have two boys. I have two young boys and I thought I need to speed up. I constantly tell my kids to work for themselves and do what they want. But you could tell them or you could show them. So I started Mighty Mike’s pretty much the day I got out of the hospital.”

He began by vacuum sealing brisket and pulled pork by the pound. Mondragon, who used to compete in strongman competitions, would drive to several different gyms around Albuquerque and set up shop. He also would travel to various strongman events in Durango, El Paso and Austin, Texas, and sell his meats.

“I was sleeping in parking lots and barbecuing overnight,” he said. “For a Pride parade, I slept in the park and cooked overnight there. I slept in front of gyms (and later was) cooking overnight. I put in a lot of work getting this little shindig going.”

Mondragon is a self-taught barbecue master who always had a passion for grilling.

“Just like most other New Mexicans, I grew up very poor,” he said. “And we would watch movies where the steakhouse was a thing or barbecue was a thing. And I always wanted in my life, as a kid, I always wanted more ... Back in my day, there was no internet, I would read books or watch my dad. He would grill, not so much smoke, but I would watch what my dad would do and read books. I just played around with grilling and then I stumbled upon smoking through a friend. And I just got obsessed with it when I was probably about 18. I just love the way smoked meat tastes. To me, the smoke is just another seasoning. It’s salt, pepper, garlic and smoke.”

Mighty Mike’s Meats incorporates its smoked proteins into all of its menu items including its macaroni and quesadillas that are its top sellers.

“My mac and cheese is a little different,” Mondragon said. “Most people just make regular macaroni and then they toss the meat on top of it. What I do is, I make my noodles, I make my cheese and then I throw the macaroni on the grill, on my flat top, and I melt cheese onto there. And then, I saute the meat onto the macaroni and then top it off with some barbecue. It’s a simple dish, but it’s very filling and it is ridiculously delicious.”

Mondragon also turns a simple quesadilla into something unique.

“I only use butter on that truck,” he said. “I use either butter or beef tallow. There’s no oil, there’s no vegetable oil, there’s no seed oils. We crisp up the tortilla and the cheese on the flat top, and I saute the green chile with butter and some seasoning on the side before I throw it on the tortilla. And then we just put barbecue sauce and our meat. It’s really nothing complicated, it’s a real simple thing, but it’s just better than everybody else’s.”

Another popular menu item is Mighty Mike’s pulled pork sandwich topped with Mondragon’s special slaw.

“We don’t ever use mayonnaise on our truck,” he said. “Our coleslaw is a honey- and lime-based coleslaw. It’s more of a refreshing slaw. You get that on the sandwich with our fresh pickles and barbecue sauce. It’s simple but we use better products, better quality. We don’t cut corners. I don’t cut corners on anything. We use top-shelf bread, whole muscle products, just like any other barbecue should do, nothing is generic. All I use is quality on that truck.”