I smoked 3 chickens and 2 racks of ribs Sunday. I have to start out by telling you, that Grill Mates rub for ribs and chicken is soooo bad. My ribs were cooked perfectly, fall off the bone, but still firm, but I was trying to move my daughter while cooking too, so instead of making my usual rub, I used that Grill Mates crap to save time. I feel like I wasted 2 good racks of ribs. I won't make that mistake again. Now the chickens are another story. Again to save time, I used Cracker Girl seasoning in the cavity, and as a rub. It is a little spicy, so the family wasn't crazy about the skin, but once the skin came off, Katie bar the door. The best tasting chicken I can ever remember eating other than my Grand Mothers fried chicken. I usually melt some butter mixed with some Creole seasoning, or use olive oil and Creole seasoning to inject in the chickens. Well this time (to save time again) I just used straight olive oil. I couldn't get over how good it was without all the extra seasoning. I brined the chickens as usual, but changed my brine recipe to include brown sugar instead of white sugar and that's all I changed in the brine. If I had put my regular rub on the chickens, man o man, they would have been perfect. I'm doing that again, but doing it right this time. This weekend was so hectic. I wanted to get pictures so bad, but it was run, run, run, all weekend. Next time I will for sure.
