Smoked Chicken

I watch the cooking shows on PBS on the weekends and I saw something this past weekend that I wanted to try.

America’sTest Kitchen was demonstrating their instructions for smoked chicken.  I love smoked chicken barbeque but it’s almost impossible to find it on Cleveland’s west side.  None of the barbeque restaurants serve smoked pulled chicken.  It’s all grilled.  Yuk!  Not the same at all!!  So, I’ve been wanting to try it myself but had no idea where to start.  I was going to invest in a smoker until I saw the show where ATK turned a grill into a smoker.  They used charcoal and I have natural gas but I figured I could adapt their directions. 

I went to their website and, lo and behold, they had directions for gas, too!!  I’ve never brined poultry before but this worked so well, I may do it more often.  Put cup of salt and cup of sugar in a galleon of water.  I had to use the top of my cake keeper as I don’t have a bowl that big.  I added ice as I can’t fit something that big into my fridge for the hour it needed to soak.

 They called for 3 cups of wood chips, not any particular variety, so I went to the scrap wood pile between the houses and pulled out some oak sticks that were nice and dry and clean.  I broke them up and soaked half of them.  Then I wrapped the two sets of twigs in double layers of foil and poked a few holes in for the smoke to escape.

Once everything was brined and soaked, I drained the chicken, patted it dry and brushed it with a little veg oil and ground on some pepper.  Out to the grill!

I pulled the grates from the right side of the grill and laid on the two foil packets.  I put a small aluminum pan on the other side under the grates.  I turned on the fire on full and let everything heat up.  After about 10 minutes, I had lots of smoke.  I cleaned and oiled the left side grates, where there was no fire and put on the chicken, breasts furthest from the fire, legs next and then thighs.  I turned the heat down to medium high, set my timer for 1 hour and 15 minutes and went back inside to see about sides.

When the timer went off, I took out my instant-read thermometer and everything was the correct temp; 175 degrees for thighs and 160 degrees for breasts. 

They came out beautifully and were wonderfully moist, too!   The smoke flavor was just enough.  It smells divine! Oak seemed to work fine.  I have access to holly wood and apple wood and may try some of those to see if there is a taste difference.   I made enough for 2 meals and I’m going to put barbeque sauce on the rest later in the week.  Yummy!!