Smoked Chicken

[elde]

Loaded up the smoke vault this weekend...

Two chickens brined for four hours, one with just plain salt one with my rib rub (based on Alton Brown's).

Smoked to just shy of done, the foiled with some chicken stock in a 210 degree oven until done.

Pulled/sliced and ready to serve with a home made honey BBQ sauce. (Ketchup, Lexington style 'dip' in place of straight cider vinegar, braising liquid, honey, spices.)

Turned out not too bad, but not a lot of difference in flavor between the brines. Looking back at the recipe, I need to work out a brine of 'overnight' strength (to avoid getting too salty) to allow more time for the spice flavor to penetrate.

The breast was somewhat overdone because of the braising step, but a good dippin' sauce covered that up. I need to pay better attention to time/temperature next time.

 

[richoso1]

Nice smoke and Q. Keep trying my friend, as it only gets better.

 

[scarbelly]

Nice job on the smoke and as Rich said it only gets better with experience

 

[badfrog]

try try again...and the best part is you can eat your errors!!!
Its a good looking pan of yard bird.

 

[john3198]

Looks good. Have a chicken on right now.

How long did you smoke them?

 

[ronp]

Looks good to me. Next time try foiling at 185' and you'll get some great pulled chicken and it shoudn't be dry.

 

[ecodork]

hmmm, all that does look good! How did the brined vs. rubbed compare juiciness-wise?

And someone talking about "lexington-style" dip's gotta be from or just real familiar with NC's bbq culture/terminology...

Speaking of, I did some chicken quarters this weekend and let them soak overnight in two sauces. One was Scott's eastern NC style sauce and the other was a west indies BBQ rub with a little olive oil and italian dressing. I think the vinegar soaked one was better.

 

[beer-b-q]

Looks Great...

 

[smokin-jim]

Nice chickens.

 

[elde]

John138, I smoked them for four hours between 225 and 250 over maple.

Ronp, they were foiled at 180 degrees. I'm thinking now that they should have been foiled and gone into a cooler rather than the oven, I know chicken is done at 180 - I just put them in the oven because the beef that was also in the smoker was going into the oven and because that's what I do with pork.

ECOdork, I grew up in Winston-Salem... :)

They were both brined, I just used rub rather than salt alone. While the one brined with rub was just a little tastier, the one brined with just salt was juicer. (Both recieved 1 cup/gallon of salt or rub.) This makes sense because the rub is only about 1/2 salt.

Hmm... soaking them in dip before smoking does sound like a helluva idea (makes notes).

 

[ranprew]

RonP -- when you say --- foil them at 180 degrees or so --- is that 180 degrees for the actual chicken ... or is that 180 degrees according to the thermometer on the smoker? Thanks -- love your posts. randy in Monroe, LA

 

[rivet]

Hey nice looking birds anyhow, and no worries on the breast- it's all good as Richoso says and no need to waste it.

As you said, a nice Lexington dip is good, and my opinion is that it can do wonders

Nice vault fill, by the way....lots of good food there.

You might be interested in this:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=77690

 

[elde]

Thanks, I always figure that if I'm going to spend all dang day tending the beast there's no sense at all in running it half empty.

I've been a dedicated briner for years for my Thanksgiving turkey, so brining a whole chicken seems to be a no brainer. One my grill specialties is my 'Chicken Cinco de Mayo', chicken breasts brined in chicken stock with chili spices (not powder) then grilled, sliced, and used as burrito filling. This cook was an experiment in bringing that to the smoker.

 

[mballi3011]

I like the birds and they don't look alittle dry but you cann'e see everything but like everyone has said you will get better with more practice. Atleast you can eat it and maybe try soaking the pieces in some chicken stock and see if it will soak up any moisture that way.