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:
Got my ingredients for the brine:
Making the brine in a concentrate:
Added brine concentrate and rest of water to the plastic buckets I bought at Sam's - perfect for brining:
Chickens in the brine and into the basement fridge last night to go for 18 hours:
Sunday approx 3:15 pm EST, starting my charcoal...
While the smoker heats up, I prepare the birds - again, seasoned one of them for dinner this evening:
Smoker up to my temp range:
On the birds go:
Now I just have to watch a fire for a short while:
Look at that thin blue smoke. If you can hardly see it, that's because it's thin and blue:
These girls are just about ready to be let out:
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.
And here is our meal staple for the next couple of weeks...
Thanks for looking.
James
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:
Got my ingredients for the brine:
Making the brine in a concentrate:
Added brine concentrate and rest of water to the plastic buckets I bought at Sam's - perfect for brining:
Chickens in the brine and into the basement fridge last night to go for 18 hours:
Sunday approx 3:15 pm EST, starting my charcoal...
While the smoker heats up, I prepare the birds - again, seasoned one of them for dinner this evening:
Smoker up to my temp range:
On the birds go:
Now I just have to watch a fire for a short while:
Look at that thin blue smoke. If you can hardly see it, that's because it's thin and blue:
These girls are just about ready to be let out:
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.
And here is our meal staple for the next couple of weeks...
Thanks for looking.
James