4th of July Birds!

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

devolutionist

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jun 3, 2007
184
15
Tampa, FL
Here's a pic of the eight birds we did for the 4th up at the lake! We were using my Dad's BBQ Grillware Vertical Smoker, which is identical to mine. The top 4 were done with just some of dad's rub, the next 2 were brined with limes and lime juice and a little worchestershire added, and the bottom two were marinated overnight with buttermilk and a little salt and pepper.

They were carved and set out separately for the gang that came up to the lake, and the buttermilk chicken won hands down, with the brined chicken behind it.

I was kind of nerveous about it, because the other half of the menu was Uncle Wallace and 30#'s of his ribs smoked over pecan wood... Uncle Wallace has forgotten more about smoking, grilling, frying, and cooking in general than I know to begin with. His ribs were awesome (sorry, no pics though - the Corona intervened and kept me from documenting this properly), but I got enough compliments and pats on the back to feel good about it.

8birds.jpg


The thing I was really intrested in here was to see how packing 8 whole chickens in the Grillware smoker would turn out. The internal temp difference from the bottom 2 to the top 2 was never really more than 10 degrees off, so cooking time was pretty uniform. It definitely gets hotter up in the top of that smoker - the internal temps of the top birds were always higher than the bottom birds.

Overall a great day with fireworks, family, friends, BBQ, beer and a beautiful lake. An absolutely awesome 4th!

PDT_Armataz_01_34.gif
 
Hey Devo that's an awesome display of birds. Sounds like you had a great time! Thanks for sharing. Gives ya a "Gut Feeling/....???
 
That' a full smoker, that's the first I've heard of buttermilk, did you put anything else on them during the smoke
 
It's actually the easiest and one of the best ways I like to do chicken. All I do is put a bird in a 2-gallon ziplock bag with about a quart of buttermilk and some salt and pepper, zip it up and let it sit overnight, and you're off to the races. When it's in the smoker, you've got to put it on the bottom though, or else the buttermilk will drip all over the stuff that's below it. I did a buttermilked boston butt one time on accident that way.
eek.gif


Buttermilk is a great marinade base for poultry and any wild game - it's the best for taking the "gamey" taste out of most wild meat. Historically we use it on stuff like rabbit and squirrel.
PDT_Armataz_01_11.gif


We had some BBQ sauce that mom whipped up on the side, but didn't mop them while they were in the smoker. When we have a whole bunch of people over to eat, I mostly like to serve the sauce on the side.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky