Three Houston barbecue restaurants have earned slots on a newly-released best BBQ list. The list, Top BBQ Joints in the South, is from Southern Living magazine, a magazine fond of lists, and features 17 restaurants in Texas overall, including Houston-area restaurants Blood Bros. BBQ (Bellaire), Truth BBQ, and Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue (Tomball).

All three are critical favorites. Blood Bros. received a shoutout in the New York Times for its innovative blend of Asian flavors and Texas barbecue. Tejas Chocolate earned a spot in the Michelin Guide, and Truth is one two restaurants to make the top 10 of Texas Monthly's top 50 barbecue joints three cycles in a row.

The list was compiled and ranked by Southern Living’s Contributing Barbecue Editor, Robert F. Moss, who is based in Charleston, South Carolina. It's probably completely unrelated but the No. 1 "joint" on the list is City Limits Barbeque, which just happens to be located in West Columbia, South Carolina. Of the 50 on the list, 12 are in South Carolina.

Moss was appointed barbecue editor at the magazine in 2014 — one year after Daniel Vaughn was appointed barbecue editor at Texas Monthly. A release says that Moss dined at each restaurant on the list in person — no long-distance UberEats-ing — and has visited most multiple times. Geographically, Texas is as far west as the list goes, and it ventures as far north as Maryland.

"When compiling the list, he revisits as many previous honorees and as many potential new contenders as time will allow," it says. So: not all. Also, he doesn't use score sheets or grading systems — instead, it is a "qualitative ranking based upon the enjoyment of the meal and the overall experience of the visit."

Moss seems to prize history and experience as much as, if not more than, the way a restaurant's food tastes, which produces some surprising results. For example, Spring's Corkscrew BBQ is one of only four barbecue restaurants to earn a Michelin star, but it didn't earn a spot in Moss' list. Two other star holders — InterStellar BBQ and La Barbecue in Austin — are also absent from Moss' list. Similarly, buzzy Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin — which made No. 1 on the most recent Texas Monthly list — comes in at No. #31.

The Texas restaurants that made the list are as follows, with their ranking:

• #2. Snow’s BBQ - Lexington
• #4. Louie Mueller Barbecue - Taylor
• #5. LeRoy & Lewis - Austin
• #13. Kreuz Market - Lockhart
• #15. Panther City BBQ - Fort Worth
• #19. Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue - Tomball
• #20. Franklin Barbecue - Austin
• #27. Truth BBQ - Houston
• #28. Barbs B Q - Lockhart
• #31. Burnt Bean Co. - Seguin
• #37. Goldee’s Bar-B-Q - Fort Worth
• #38. Micklethwait Barbecue - Austin
• #40. Dayne's Craft BBQ - Aledo
• #42. Blood Bros. BBQ - Bellaire
• #43. Cattleack Barbeque - Dallas
• #46. Hurtado Barbecue - Arlington
• #47. Smitty’s Market - Lockhart

Eric Sandler contributed to this story.