Being on a diet = smoked chicken

hickorybutt · Jan 18, 2015

Well the wife and I are trying to drop a few pounds over the next couple of months. She is also working towards a half marathon (I'll leave that to her). Being on a diet means no ribs, pulled pork, beef, or sausage - which is basically my usual menu. So in light of trying to eat cleaner, I'm gonna live off smoked chicken.

My inlaws have a farm down in GA and we got a bunch of chickens from them back in November. I smoked five this evening. One was seasoned and consumed for dinner (we had guests over). The other four were pulled and put away for meals throughout the next two weeks.

Here is the pregame:

Smoker- offset reverse flow
Brine- 4 gallons of water, 2 cups of salt, and a little garlic/onion powder. Pretty basic.
Rub seasoning- black pepper, salt, garlic, onion, paprika
Wood- cherry and pecan mix (thanks Dirtsailor for the recommendation!). Cherry was from a fallen tree and pecan was from WesternWood. I have some of my own pecan currently seasoning. The cherry/pecan combo was out of this world for chicken.
Temp- 280 to 300
Time- it finished in 2:10, pulled at 170 IT

Here are the birds that just came out of the freezer yesterday:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Got my ingredients for the brine:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Making the brine in a concentrate:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Added brine concentrate and rest of water to the plastic buckets I bought at Sam's - perfect for brining:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Chickens in the brine and into the basement fridge last night to go for 18 hours:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Sunday approx 3:15 pm EST, starting my charcoal...

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

While the smoker heats up, I prepare the birds - again, seasoned one of them for dinner this evening:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Smoker up to my temp range:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

On the birds go:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Now I just have to watch a fire for a short while:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Look at that thin blue smoke. If you can hardly see it, that's because it's thin and blue:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

These girls are just about ready to be let out:

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Here is supper - mmhmm man was it tasty. I broke the "diet" and had some bbq sauce with it. Carolina sauce to be exact - love mustard sauce with chicken.

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

And here is our meal staple for the next couple of weeks...

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

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hickorybutt
Jan 18, 2015

Thanks for looking.

James

gary s · Jan 19, 2015

Great job James, Chicken looks very tasty, Sorry to hear that you have the diet bug , maybe you will recover soon.

I have to say, I remember when you started on this forum, and asking questions on how to do mods on your smoker, and now you are posting regular great looking smokes.

Gary

hickorybutt · Jan 19, 2015

gary s said:
Great job James, Chicken looks very tasty, Sorry to hear that you have the diet bug , maybe you will recover soon.
I have to say, I remember when you started on this forum, and asking questions on how to do mods on your smoker, and now you are posting regular great looking smokes.

:Looks-Great: :points1:

Gary

Thanks Gary - really appreciate it.

themule69 · Jan 19, 2015

That is some fine looking yard bird. Good luck on the diet. Remember smoked fish and other seafood is also good. Then all of the smoked veggies.

Happy smoken.

David

hickorybutt · Jan 19, 2015

themule69 said:
That is some fine looking yard bird. Good luck on the diet. Remember smoked fish and other seafood is also good. Then all of the smoked veggies.
Happy smoken.
David

Thanks David. I actually do grilled vegetables when I get a chance. Haven't ever smoked any fish before, but it's bound to get done as long as I stick to this diet.

Bearcarver · Jan 20, 2015

Awesome looking Chicken, James!!!

Just Beautiful !!!

All looks Mighty Tasty!!

-------------------------

Good luck to you on your diet !!!

BTW: That TBS looks Perfect !!!

Bear

hickorybutt · Jan 20, 2015

Thank you Bear!

seenred · Jan 20, 2015

Nice job, James! The smoked chicken looks delicious! Another menu item to consider smoking is pork tenderloin. Very lean and fairly low-cal compared to many other meats.

Red

gary s · Jan 20, 2015

Hey Hickory, how is the UDS coming ?

Gary

hickorybutt · Jan 20, 2015

gary s said:
Hey Hickory, how is the UDS coming ?

Gary

Gary - haven't started yet really. Had a few things come up this past weekend (when I had planned to start). I'm hoping to drill my holes and burn it out this weekend if I get a chance. We'll see. Thanks for asking.

SeenRed said:
Nice job, James! The smoked chicken looks delicious! Another menu item to consider smoking is pork tenderloin. Very lean and fairly low-cal compared to many other meats.

Red

Red - love the idea! I sure miss my pork, and that will add some variety. Love it.

noboundaries · Jan 20, 2015

Another great way to use smoked meat on a diet is to make soups. That way you can have your beef and pork too You can load the soup up with veggies and smoked meat. Brown rice, barley, and/or quinoa are good additions if you don't overdo it. Same with beans. No dumplings though. I like to make big pots of soup for just my wife and me and we always lose weight when that's what we eat for the week.

hickorybutt · Jan 21, 2015

Noboundaries said:
Another great way to use smoked meat on a diet is to make soups. That way you can have your beef and pork too You can load the soup up with veggies and smoked meat. Brown rice, barley, and/or quinoa are good additions if you don't overdo it. Same with beans. No dumplings though. I like to make big pots of soup for just my wife and me and we always lose weight when that's what we eat for the week.

Agree - soups are good for a diet if you proportion veggies higher than you normally would.

My wife makes a great chicken tortilla soup, and I plan to put some smoked chicken in there.

rgautheir20420 · Jan 21, 2015

hickory, good luck on your diet and the chix look real good. My wife and I are also healthy eaters and as such watch what we eat. The key to an effective diet is portion control and healthy(er) eating. There's no need to deprive yourself of the things you love. You could very well do a pulled pork salad or lots of soups like others have suggested. Although I do love some pulled chicken with a bit of BBQ sauce!

Good luck and feel free to PM me for extra support and recipe ideas as you and your wife go through the diet!

hickorybutt · Jan 21, 2015

rgautheir20420 said:
hickory, good luck on your diet and the chix look real good. My wife and I are also healthy eaters and as such watch what we eat. The key to an effective diet is portion control and healthy(er) eating. There's no need to deprive yourself of the things you love. You could very well do a pulled pork salad or lots of soups like others have suggested. Although I do love some pulled chicken with a bit of BBQ sauce!

Good luck and feel free to PM me for extra support and recipe ideas as you and your wife go through the diet!

Thank you for the support rgautheir. That is one of my biggest problems - portion control. If I do pulled pork, I gotta have two sandwiches plus some meat on the side with no sauce or bun. If wife makes a cake, I gotta have either a huge piece or just nibble on it all day. My goal is to lose a few pounds and once I get to a comfortable place, try and be moderate moving forward. Its a tough thing when one of your hobbies involves making food!

gary s · Jan 21, 2015

Portion control, you hit it on the head.

Gary

rgautheir20420 · Jan 22, 2015

hickorybutt said:
Thank you for the support rgautheir. That is one of my biggest problems - portion control. If I do pulled pork, I gotta have two sandwiches plus some meat on the side with no sauce or bun. If wife makes a cake, I gotta have either a huge piece or just nibble on it all day. My goal is to lose a few pounds and once I get to a comfortable place, try and be moderate moving forward. Its a tough thing when one of your hobbies involves making food!

You are indeed correct. It's very hard to loose weight let alone maintain when good food is sort of what you do. I'm a sausage fanatic...if you couldn't tell...so I've just had to make some more chicken based stuff to still get my fix. However, I still do some pork also.

One of the best things that's help me and my wife be aware of what we are eating, is weighing and counting everything we eat. It's a shock at the beginning because like you said, gotta have 2 sammies. But then you see just how many calories are in that and it's a bit frustrating. After a few days of counting calories and weighing your portions, it becomes second nature. In my opinion, a great way to hold yourself accountable is to be counting your calories. If you go over, it was your decision, and the next day when you look at what you ate, you'll realize it wasn't worth it when you're not loosing the weight you thought.

We use My Fitness Pal for counting the calories btw.

backyardsmokin · Jan 22, 2015

I am right there with you and support you hickory. Having a energetic 3 yr old takes a lot out of my wife and I so we are trying to lose weight as well. Portion control is one our hardest parts as well. I have done a couple of things to help me that might be able to help you as well.

The first thing I did was when my smoking session is finished I break it down to 3-4oz portions, vacuum seal each portion and then into the freezer it all goes. This way when I wan some I have pull out just what I need and that is it.

The other one is that since I love smoking, my smoker has become the communal smoker. My neighbors and I all pitch in for fuel and various cuts, then we take turn watching the smoker for those extra long smokes. Once everything is done we all take some of this and some of that, but I don't take as much as others. This allows me to continue smoking and not having to eat everything that I smoke.

On a side note, I have found that counting the calories is not everything. My wife is also on weight watchers and using their points calculator there are times that the low-cal/diet item winds up being worse off than the regular product.

I hoped something in my ramblings made sense.

I wonder if we could get a forum section on healthier recipes/eating.

Bearcarver · Jan 22, 2015

BackyardSmokin said:
I am right there with you and support you hickory. Having a energetic 3 yr old takes a lot out of my wife and I so we are trying to lose weight as well. Portion control is one our hardest parts as well. I have done a couple of things to help me that might be able to help you as well.

The first thing I did was when my smoking session is finished I break it down to 3-4oz portions, vacuum seal each portion and then into the freezer it all goes. This way when I wan some I have pull out just what I need and that is it.

The other one is that since I love smoking, my smoker has become the communal smoker. My neighbors and I all pitch in for fuel and various cuts, then we take turn watching the smoker for those extra long smokes. Once everything is done we all take some of this and some of that, but I don't take as much as others. This allows me to continue smoking and not having to eat everything that I smoke.

On a side note, I have found that counting the calories is not everything. My wife is also on weight watchers and using their points calculator there are times that the low-cal/diet item winds up being worse off than the regular product.

I hoped something in my ramblings made sense.

I wonder if we could get a forum section on healthier recipes/eating.

We have one, and you are already a member.

It's called YAWYE (You Are What You Eat), and it was started by "Pops".

Here ya go-----A Link to "YAWYE":

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/groups/show/15/yawye

Bear

backyardsmokin · Jan 22, 2015

Thanks Bear.

Something about being at work makes my brain shut down

Bearcarver · Jan 22, 2015

BackyardSmokin said:
Thanks Bear.

Something about being at work makes my brain shut down

LOL----Been there!!

Bear

Being on a diet = smoked chicken

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