I'm cooking for a church youth group activity taking place this coming Wednesday. They requested pulled pork, so who am I to refuse? I'm going to smoke them tonight, pull them tomorrow, then refrigerate until Wed. I'll re-heat by putting the bags in boiling water, then hit them with finishing sauce. I've got 3 butts rubbed with Jeff's rub ready to go in later tonight for another overnight smoke. I'm going to use cherry wood on this go around because I've got a lot of it right now and I've been using apple a lot lately. Change of gears.
Since I'll have the smoker running, I figured I might as well try something I haven't done before. I've got two chickens, each cut in half sitting in JimmyJ's brine recipe right now. Since it's his recipe, I'll let him be the one to post it here if he wants to make it public. But it smells GOOD. I did use fresh thyme instead of dry, and I added in about 2T of fresh sage because it sounded like a good idea. My herb garden isn't going to last much longer now that it's cooling off, so I figured I'd use it while I can. The chickens will brine for about 24 hours. I'm very much looking forward to that.
So the grand total will be 3 butts, 25 lbs total and 4 chicken halves in the smoker. This is my biggest cook I've tackled yet.
I've got the necks, backbones and some giblets I saved. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do with those? Has anyone ever used their smoker to boil them down for smokey gravy? I think I'm gonna give that a try, unless someone else has a killer idea.
Anyway, I didn't take any pictures as I was doing prep work because my hands were constantly covered in pork or chicken juices and I didn't have the time to wash them to snap a pic or two. I will post pics as the cook progresses.
But since I don't have any Q view pics yet, for now here's a picture of Vigo the Carpathian.
Q view to follow later tonight!
Since I'll have the smoker running, I figured I might as well try something I haven't done before. I've got two chickens, each cut in half sitting in JimmyJ's brine recipe right now. Since it's his recipe, I'll let him be the one to post it here if he wants to make it public. But it smells GOOD. I did use fresh thyme instead of dry, and I added in about 2T of fresh sage because it sounded like a good idea. My herb garden isn't going to last much longer now that it's cooling off, so I figured I'd use it while I can. The chickens will brine for about 24 hours. I'm very much looking forward to that.
So the grand total will be 3 butts, 25 lbs total and 4 chicken halves in the smoker. This is my biggest cook I've tackled yet.
I've got the necks, backbones and some giblets I saved. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do with those? Has anyone ever used their smoker to boil them down for smokey gravy? I think I'm gonna give that a try, unless someone else has a killer idea.
Anyway, I didn't take any pictures as I was doing prep work because my hands were constantly covered in pork or chicken juices and I didn't have the time to wash them to snap a pic or two. I will post pics as the cook progresses.
But since I don't have any Q view pics yet, for now here's a picture of Vigo the Carpathian.
Q view to follow later tonight!
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