Smoked Margarita Lime Chicken Galantine !!!

[tallbm]

Hi everyone.  So I discovered Chicken Galantine like 3 nights ago and was very intrigued so I gave it a shot today.  

After a little research I saw many different approaches and recipes.  It gave me an idea to try a Tex-Mex version of a Chicken Galantine and I found no reference to such an attempt so I figured I would give a Tex-Mex version a shot and man did it turn out great!!!!

Lots of QVIEW first and description after!!!

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• tallbm
• Jan 21, 2017

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I will try and keep this brief.

Day 1

• Made a Margarita Chicken Marinade from one I looked up online, I can post the recipe if people care.
• Deboned and marinated a 5.25 pound chicken for 12 hours (over night).  I figured this would be an awesome flavor for a Tex-Mex Galantine and was right.
• I made Spanish/Mexican Rice and Charro Style black beans (using black beans from a can) the while the chicken was marinating.
• Put some black beans in a strainer over a bowl and wrapped with plastic wrap.  Stored in fridge, this let beans drain over night so I had beans and as little bean juice as possible for the stuffing. 
• Put extra beans and rice in the fridge for sides.
• Also made Salsa.

Day 2

• Took chicken from marinade and patted try inside and out.  
• Seasoned inside of chicken with a dash of ground Cumin, a few dashes of Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Dehydrated Onion, and Black Pepper.  
• Made a little over a cup of stuffing with the Rice, drained Beans, and Pico fresh made from the grocery store.
• Put a layer of shredded Mexican Cheese blend on the chicken.
• Put mixed stuffing layer on the chicken and in the leg holes.
• Crushed up red and green tortilla chips and layered on top of the stuffing.  This was an awesome idea, the chips gave such great flavor and corn meal texture to the stuffing.  Grocery store had Christmas tortilla chips on clearance and I thought the color would make for a great visual so I went with them hahahaha.
• Wrapped and tied chicken chicken with cloth string
• Seasoned outside with a dash of ground Cumin, a few dashes of Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Dehydrated Onion, and Black Pepper.
• Seasoned top (breast side) of chicken with a pinch of salt.  No salt needed on inside due to marinade but top skin could use a little touch. 
• Cooked and Smoked about 3hrs 15mins using 35% Mesquite / 65% Maple pellets
• MES Temp 200F for first hour and 15min then 240F for hour two and then 275F for last hour
• Cooked to IT of 165F in the breast meat
• Let stand for about 20 minutes while plating with sides and such.  Cut and removed cotton strings.  
• Platted and served
• Added salsa on carved slices for a good picture, salsa was my equivalent to other Galantine recipes sauce/gravy

Lessons Learned

• Still having trouble with MES and getting chicken skin to be a very good texture. I cooked at an average temp of 268 or so for about an hour and the skin was much better than other chicken cooks in the past BUT still not as good as I wanted.  
• The skin on the bottom that laid on the rack was moist and nice, no chewy rubberyness.  The top skin on the chicken was edible but still had a slight rubberyness to it.  Maybe cookin for 1.5hrs at 275F will do the job. 
• Attempted to use a torch on the skin later but it didn't really do much good so getting good chicken skin for the MES still remains a future goal, didn't hurt this dish though
• Use pan to catch drippings.  I didn't think about it and had a little more of a mess than usual since this dropped down on my heat deflector and ran to the side of the MES wall
• Next time I debone a chicken for Galantine, I will cut/thin out the breast some and spread those pieces of meat into the waistline section of the bird.  I tried to flay/flatten out the breast meat while keeping it one piece.  The breast meat the way I left it did not leave as much space for stuffing as I would have liked so I need to work on getting more stuffing into the upper breast and more evenness of stuffing within the entire bird.
• The stuffing was so awesome in the chicken that I want more stuffing and less meat.  Funny aye!?
• THIS TASTED AMAZING!!!!! I was so surprised how well this turned out on my first attempt.  I have never deboned a chicken like this, never cotton twine tied a piece of meat, never made a galantine, never used or made a Margarita Chicken marinade, and never made this stuffing before.  I cook a lot so I had a very good educated guess it would be good but I never imagined it would go so well.  

I hope you enjoy this post and it gives you great ideas.  I think my next Galantine will be an Italian one stuffed with mozzarella cheese,  cheese tortellini, crumbled italian sausage, seasoned roma tomatoes, and onion/bell pepper mix.  Might do a Balsamic glaze or marinara sauce for the sauce/gravy aspect. 

Feedback appreciated 

 

 

[SmokinAl]

It looks absolutely delicious!

Excellent thread!

Point to you Sir!

Congrats on making the carousel!

Al

 

[worktogthr]

Wow man, the skill and attention to detail that went into that meal is incredible. That looks so delicious! Points for sure!!!

 

[tallbm]

Thanks guys, it was a great experience and I'm still eating on it :)

 

[nicefly]

Incredible!  I had thought about taking a whole chicken and removing the breast and ribs but never thought to do the whole chicken.

Inspiring I will have to try this. point.

I will have to look up Galantine not sure if it means deboned chicken or what.

A real piece of art.

 

[b-one]

Looks great,I would finish it under your broiler rather then tempt fate with the torch.you want 325+ to crisp up skin.

 

[tallbm]

 
Incredible!  I had thought about taking a whole chicken and removing the breast and ribs but never thought to do the whole chicken.

Inspiring I will have to try this. point.

I will have to look up Galantine not sure if it means deboned chicken or what.

A real piece of art.

Thanks NiceFly, as others had posted I watched videos of Jacques Pepin deboning a chicken and doing Chicken Galantine 



Thanks b-one.  I agree I think I'm going to start playing around with smoking and then finishing in the oven.  So far my oven attempts to crisp have been unsuccessful but that is probably because I didnt approach it properly.  I would just shove wings or quarters in a pan that is too small and then into the oven on broil for 15min.  Didn't really solve anything.  I need a better approach.

I will be laying around and see what works.  When I find out I will definitely post my notes because this is a common occurrence and every mention of broiling, grilling, torching I have seen are brief and my attempts at just taking a stab have not produced any good results.  So looks like another project :)

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Looks tasty! Point!

I'd run your MES as high as you can for the entire smoke. It's about the best you can do to get the skin to crisp up. I'd place the bird on a drying rack over a pan while smoking.

Try pulling the chicken at 150. Then into the oven to crisp up and finish to 165.

 

[tallbm]

Looks tasty! Point!

I'd run your MES as high as you can for the entire smoke. It's about the best you can do to get the skin to crisp up. I'd place the bird on a drying rack over a pan while smoking.

Try pulling the chicken at 150. Then into the oven to crisp up and finish to 165.

Thanks!  That will be my next plan of action.  I will try with some leg quarters or something simple.  Not going to do it with my Italian Chicken Galantine idea.  I want to improve on the Galantine not repeat the same issues :)

 

[myownidaho]

Bravo! Point!

I agree with ds on pulling the bird early and finishing in the oven.

 

[atomicsmoke]

Nice creation. And plating too.Looks very festive.

 

[ab canuck]

That does look absolutely amazing.... And yes if your willing to share the recipe or parts I am all in..... I am definitely wanting to try this when I get home.... Points....

 

[tallbm]

 
That does look absolutely amazing.... And yes if your willing to share the recipe or parts I am all in..... I am definitely wanting to try this when I get home.... Points....

Sure on sharing the recipe.  For the most part the recipe is all in the marinade so I will go with that.

Deboning a Chicken:

• See the video here, it's the one I watched: Jacques Pepin Deboning a Chicken

Marinade (adapted from here  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/margarita-brined-chicken)

• 1 five pound deboned chicken
• 1 cup cold water

• Zest from 1 Naval Orange
• Zest from 2 Limes

• 1/2 cup of 100% real Orange Juice (fresh squeezed or Simply Orange brand is good.  From concentrate = bad)
• Juice from the 2 Limes that were zested (keep both Lime rinds after squeezing)

• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
  
  (Blend the following in a blender)
• 1 cup Warm water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 
  2 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Large bowl or container (preferbly with lid) to fit a deboned 5 pound chicken 
2. Zest Orange into bowl (I then ate the orange hahaha)
3. Zest 2 limes into bowl
4. Squeeze juice from zested limes into bowl and throw in squeezed Lime rinds into the bowl
5. Add 1/2 cup of real orange juice (I had Simply Orange and it is not from concentratre) to bowl 
6. Add 1 Tablespoon of whole black peppercorns to the bowl (I'm sure regular black pepper would work here and would do probably be 1/2 a tablespoon or less)
7. Add 1 cup of water to bowl
    
8. In a blender or a magic bullet add 1 cup Warm Water, 1/4 cup Salt, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar and blend until dissolved and add to bowl
9. Add chicken to bowl and submerge
10. Cover bowl with lid or plastic wrap and marinate for 12 hours or overnight in fridge

Chicken Stuffing:

• Beans (Black or Pinto) - I used 2 cans of Black Beans from the pantry.  Added diced onion, diced tomato, cilantro/coriander, a pinch of ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and simmered for 20 minutes.  This made charro style beans.
• Spanish/Mexican Rice - buy or make.  This is a recipe in itself, if interested let me know I have it available.
• Pico de Gallo - (fresh diced onion, tomato, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro/coriander, and a little lime juice) bought mine fresh made from the grocery store, as I never seem to make it correctly
   
• Tortilla chips crumbled
• Shredded Cheese or Mexican Cheese blend

1. Pat dry both sides of chicken after marinating
2. Season chicken meat side with seasonings (See chicken seasoning/rub secion below for more details)
3. Mix some beans (not all of it), some rice, and some pico together to make a cup and a half TOTAL of stuffing mix
4. Add layer of cheese onto chicken and stuff a little into leg holes/pouches of deboned chicken
5. Add layer of stuffing mix onto chicken and into leg holes. Add more rice if needing more stuffing filler.
6. Add layer of crumbled tortilla chips onto chicken an a little stuffed in legs
7. Wrap and tie up chicken with twine/string
8. Season outside of chicken (see chicken seasoning/rub section below for more details)

Chicken Seasoning/Rub:

• - 3 pinches of Ground Cumin
• - 3 teaspoons Chili Powder
• - 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• - Garlic powder
• - Onion Powder or Dehydrated Onion (I use Dehydrated onion because it's what costco has)
• - Ground Black Pepper 

1. Pat dry both sides of chicken after marinating
2. On meat side of chicken season lightly with 1 teaspoon Chili Powder, 1 pinch of Cumin, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder/Dehydrated Onion, Ground Black Pepper (no salt)
3. Stuff and tie chicken
4. Season chicken skin all around with 2 pinches of Cumin, 2 teaspoons of Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Dehydrated Onion, and Ground Black Pepper
5. Season top/breast side of chicken skin with 1/2 teaspoon of Salt

Cook and Smoke:

1. Since this is a Tex-Mex dish I recommend having some Mesquite in the smoking setup to get that good spice smoke flavor.  I used a pellet blend that is 35% Mesquite and 65% Maple.
2. With a light Mesquite a blend, smoke chicken for 3 - 4 hours
3. Cook until Internal Temperature (IT) is 165F and then pull chicken
4. Rest for 20 minutes or more
5. Cook temps may vary as I haven't figured out how to get my MES to properly do 100% acceptable chicken skin.  This may need to be smoked while an IT is at something like 130-150F and then transferred to an oven until IT ofr 165 is reached at an oven temp of 325+ as mentioned in an earlier post.  I still need to explore this to give precise info/details

Eating

1. This is a no brainer, plate, serve, and carve any way you like
2. Prepare to be AMAZED at how delicious this dish is.  It blew away all of my expectations.  I have never had any Margarita flavored Chicken that came near what this tasted like.

Let me know if I missed any part of the recipe or if there are any other questions.  Also if you want the rice and/or the salsa recipes just let me know.  Thanks! :)

 

[ab canuck]

Awesome and Thx. TallBM. I saved it and sent it to the wife as well. I definitely want to try this one. Thx. again

 

[tallbm]

 
Awesome and Thx. TallBM. I saved it and sent it to the wife as well. I definitely want to try this one. Thx. again

Anytime!  I hope you guys knock it out of the park and enjoy it as much as I did :)

 

[chilerelleno]

Nice stuffed bird and even nicer presentation... Point!

 

[tallbm]

Nice stuffed bird and even nicer presentation... Point!

Thanks!  I'm not much of a presenter so this was about as good as it gets.  It simply all just came together :)

 

[disco]

Absolutely beautiful knifework, pictures and post not mention a beautiful dish.

Point!

Disco

 

[tallbm]

 
Absolutely beautiful knifework, pictures and post not mention a beautiful dish.

Point!

Disco

Thanks Disco!  It was amazing and something I think people should play around with to push a few personal limits.  It was an adventure for me for sure :)

 

[thehessian]

I want to try this so bad now! Good job! Point for being creative.