[How about some tips on doing whole chickens in my smoker?]
Danny Gaulden--
Some folks like to smoke them fast, and others slow. I've tried both methods over the
years, and I prefer the slow method. I also like to do my chickens in halves, rather than
whole. They take on a little more smoke, brown on both sides (which I think looks a lot
nicer and they have a better flavor), plus you can apply a finishing sauce to both the
outside and inside if you like.
Here's how I do chicken. Take your whole chicken and remove the giblets and neck from
the body cavity. Wash the chicken off in cold water and then cut it in half through the
breastbone, dividing the chicken into right and left halves. Pat the halves dry with a
paper towel. I apply olive oil or a good cooking oil to both the outside and inside,
season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and lemon pepper. Sometimes I use a little thyme
(be careful with this), or poultry seasoning. Place the chicken in a Ziploc bag, and let
it sit for about 4 hours in the refrigerator. When you fire up the smoker, bring chickens
out of the refrigerator and let them sit at room temperature for as long as 30 minutes--no
more. I'm kind of cautious about chicken and bacteria. I smoke my chickens at 225 to 250F
and it usually takes about 3 1/12 to 4 hours. When I take my chickens off the smoker using
the 'shaking-hands' technique and I measure the internal temperature, it is always between
180-185F.
After an hour or so of smoking, brush the skin with a little oil, and again after about
2 hours. This helps keep the skin from drying out. Oh, make sure you smoke your chicken
skin side up. If you wish to flip it over towards the end of the cooking time, fine.
I'm very relaxed barbecuing chicken, for an extremely constant temperature is not that
critical. Why? Because chicken is not a tough piece of meat; it cooks in a fairly short
period of time, so you don't have to worry so much about temperature spikes (for fear of
burning the outside, and undercooking the inside) as one would with a brisket or pork
butt. I find chicken is a fairly forgiving meat to barbecue.
When you can shake hands with the drumstick, and it moves freely all the way up into
the thigh, it is done. Until you smoke a few and learn how to do this, I recommend that
you use a thermometer to check for doneness, but always practice the shake-hands method at
the same time. Using a thermometer can be difficult for beginners, for it will not read
accurately if inserted next to a bone or cartilage. So be careful and make sure you insert
it into the thigh; the last part of the chicken to cook. You can feel a bone if you hit
one--no problem--just back off and try again. You'll figure it out after barbecuing a few.
I think this is the reason so many people have trouble with chicken, and tend to undercook
or overcook them. They just don't know how to tell when they are done. Once you figure
this out, it's very easy to barbecue chicken, and your confidence will grow.
Chickens are cheap, fun to barbecue, and taste pretty darn good too! So practice,
practice, practice. Have fun, and let me know how you are doing.
==============
Editor—
To make really outstanding smoked chicken, brine it first. Use Kent's brine method
below or see additional methods in Section 10.5.4. After brining, you can smoke the
chicken using Danny's method above or Kent's method below. DO NOT stuff a whole chicken
before smoking!
-------------------
[Can someone tell me a few competition secrets for doing chicken?]
Kent Rhodes--
Brine your chicken. For each gallon of water (enough to cover bird) use 3/4 cup kosher
salt, 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, some garlic, cumin, pepper, maybe some hot sauce, or any other
flavors you like. Let the whole chicken soak for about 8 hours. In your competition
schedule, be sure to include enough time for brining and smoking. Wash the chicken off in
cold water for about 30 seconds each.
Turn the chicken over (breast down) and cut through the rib cage. Once cut, place a
large knife just inside the breast bone and press down until you hear a crack. Then, turn
the chicken back over and press down, this will give you two halves with the skin still
intact between the two. Take some Italian dressing and rub it all under the skin. Get you
hands real far up there, all the way to the leg bone. Then, rub down with your favorite
rub all under the skin also. Smoke-cook as usual, and baste if needed with some more
dressing, being sure to lift up skin and baste under there also.
--------------------
[What is 'Up the butt' chicken?]
Editor--Summary of several posts--
It is a method for smoking whole chickens using a wire rack that goes in the butt
cavity and holds the chicken upright during the smoking process. Some barbecuers also use
a beer can, either empty or half full of water or beer in place of the wire rack. I saw
whole chickens being barbecued with a 'beer can up the butt' at a barbecue competition
where the barbecuers smoked the chicken in the horizontal position, breast up. It was
delicious. Smoking times will be 3-4 hours at 220-250F. Use Danny's 'shaking hands with
the drumstick' method to determine when it's done--internal temperature of 180-185F.
-------------------
[Every time I smoke a roaster chicken in my ECB it turns out real nice and tender and
juicy the only problem is with the skin. The skin looks real good but when you try and eat
it is like rubber. What am I doing wrong? I am smoking it at 220 to 230F according to the
candy thermometer I installed at rack level.]
Ed Pawlowski--
Roasting a chicken, the crispy skin is the tastiest part. Smoking a chicken, the skin
is as you describe it. Two things you can do. Unlike some other meats, chicken does not
have to be tenderized so it can be cooked at a higher temperature. That helps. The second
is to fire up the grill and after smoking, finish the chicken on the grill. Oh, it also
helps to oil the skin before putting it on the smoker.
10.4 Grilling Chicken
-------------------
[Chicken breasts are a favorite in our family when we grill on the gas-fired BBQ grill.
Even though I have a 'non-flaring' grill (the kind with adjustable slats), I still have
trouble with chicken breasts flaring up when I grill them. When I remove the skin and fat,
no flare ups but the breast meat is dry. I've tried removing the fat and leaving all the
skin and part of the skin, but nothing makes to chicken taste as good as when I grill it
with the fat and skin in place but my wife hates the black from the flaring fire caused by
the burning fat. What do the experts have to say about grilling chicken breasts?]
David Westebbe (EskWIRED)--
I usually use (gasp) Kraft Barbecue Sauce on chicken breasts. It's got a good
old-fashioned (as in "when I was a kid") taste.
This is how I do it:
Start the breasts with the skin side up--the coals are too hot at first to put the skin
side down. Flip them over after about 15 minutes, and then again after another 15. If the
skin is not yet crispy, cook them skin side down some more. You want good, crispy skin.
Keep that fire low and don't allow it to flare up.
When you have good skin, brown and bubbly, paint it THINLY with barbecue sauce.
Continue to cook it with the skin up until the sauce dries on. Then flip them over and
paint the bottom thinly as well. Cook long enough so that the barbecue sauce burns a
little bit, and gets nice and caramelized. This will form a nice surface to really slop
the sauce onto, so that lots of it soaks into the burned stuff. Continue cooking
(skin/sauce side up) until it dries; it should be thick and sweet and gooey. Paint some
more on, so that the breasts are shiny; put them on a platter and serve.
This may sound complicated, but it's not. Just cook until the skin is crispy. Put on a
thin coat of sauce, burn it, and then slop the sauce on. That's all there is to it. Your
guests will rave.
==============
Garry Howard--
I always grill chicken over indirect heat. There is always going to be grease dripping
if the skin is still on the chicken and it will invariably flare up if placed directly
over the heat source whether it is gas or charcoal. If you can't grill indirectly you just
have to keep a close eye on it.
==============
David Gerard--
As the song goes . . . "Turn, Turn, Turn" No way to get a good crispy skin
without the flare. Try turning it over as soon as flare up occurs. Try using lower heat
and maybe the edges of your grill surface. Don't bother trying to par boil to remove fat,
all the flavor disappears too.
==============
Glenn Manning--
In my experience, the black which occurs on chicken comes from two sources: (1) grease
fire burning from dripping fat and (2) tomato/sugar-based barbecue sauce which blackens
quickly. By far the worst of these is the sauce problem. On most grills, at least the ones
I have used, it is possible to adjust the heat high enough so that dripping fat from the
skin ignites on the ceramic or lava bricks and burns quickly without accumulating to cause
a long term blaze. The downside of the higher heat is that the chicken must be watched
closely to keep it turned as needed. You did not mention whether or not you use basting
sauce and if so what kind. I can guarantee that if you baste with most store bought
barbecue sauce during cooking you will end up with burned chicken if you don't watch it
constantly. My wife loves chicken basted with sauce as it cooks. I find that with medium
high heat and almost constant basting and turning I can get a golden baked covering of
sauce without the blackness which occurs from burning.
==============
Dave Gomberg--
Here is how I grill chicken on a Weber "take-along" grill (the small
rectangular one). Get a good charcoal fire going and reduced to gray, then lay the chicken
on the grate. Close the vents in the lid but keep the lower vents open. Cook, turning
every five minutes for 20 minutes. Should be crispy, but not blackened. If the fire
threatens to go out, open the top vent BRIEFLY.
==============
Ed Pawlowski--
I've been participating in bulletin board and mailing lists for barbecue and grilling
for about three years. NO ONE has come up with a method of doing an honest-to-goodness
grilling of chicken. Indirect heat, parboiling, water pans, spay bottles, and many other
ideas may result in stopping the flare ups, but they are also not grilling. They are
methods of cooking chicken on a gas grill. Live with it or buy a Weber.
==============
Bad Penny--
Cut and de-skin all of the chicken, raw, into slivers, strips, or small cubes. Skewer
the pieces onto long bamboo slivers, (that you'll find in big round packages in the
oriental section of any good supermarket or go to a Chinese grocery store). Do not pretend
this is shishkebab. Anything else you want to cook at the same time, put on separate
skewers. Get your wood or charcoal fire going and let die down to HOT coals. Put the
skewers of chicken over the coals on the grill, with an inch or two of bamboo skewer
hanging over the edge, where you can get at them without burning your fingers.
These cook fast, so you can serve them as they cook. Turn, turn, turn, turn, until
done, add more skewers as done ones come off. As they cook, mop lightly with shoyu, (soy
sauce), mixed half-half with water or apple/orange juice. (Actually, what I do is I have
the shoyu mixture in a tall jug on the table next the grill, and once or twice, while I'm
turning the skewers, I just dunk 'em in the jug). Or make up your own mop using lightly
sugared sauces, or just plain Worcestershire and fruit juice. Try cranberry juice by
itself. It adds a nice "edge" to chicken.
These only take five minutes or so, depending on how thick your pieces are.
This is a way--and the only way that I know of--to grill chicken without either drying
out, or having flare-ups. Juicy and tender, and unburnt. No flare-ups.
==============
Author unknown--
I don't count as an expert, but I can let you know my easy way to do chicken.
I use a Weber, and bank all the coals on one side. Then keep your chicken cooking
indirectly until the last few minutes. When they're done I lay them directly over the hot
coals to give them that "grilled" appearance.
I leave the skin on, but peel it back to season it. Peel the skin back and rub a thin
coating of oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and some sweat basil. Then fold the skin back
over. Place on the rack skin side up (the meatier side). The temperature stays right at
250F and I only turn once or twice. Cooking time is about 1 to 1.5 hours.
This way takes longer than direct grilling, but I don't have to stand over the chicken
turning and spraying every 2 or 3 minutes.
BTW, I mixed up an unusual sauce that goes pretty good with chicken and pork. Mix 4
parts Worcestershire, 2 parts raspberry preserves, 1 part Polish mustard, dash of
Louisiana hot sauce for some bite. It has a strong sweet and spicy flavor, so a small
amount will do a large serving of meat.
==============
Dave Lineback--
Aside from the grammatical difficulties of "BBQ" being used as an adjective
to describe a grill, your technical problems can likely be solved by basting and frequent
turning.
I did grilled chicken breasts (with bone in and skin on) last Friday by cooking over
very hot charcoal (with pecan and hickory chunks for smoke) without any burning problems.
But, they were basted and turned frequently (about every 2-3 minutes). Also, I moved them
around on the grill to ensure uniformity of cooking. After 20 minutes of cooking the
breasts were perfectly done and as moist throughout as if they had been deep-fat fried.
==============
Frank Boyer--
To grill large quantities of chicken, I like to cook halves and keep them 18-24"
off of the grill. It takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to finish but, it is an easy way to do a
4'x8' grill full of halves. The meat needs to be rotated in and out of the fire a couple
of times. This gives a golden crispy skin and juicy meat. On my Kingsford grill I put them
on and come back in about an hour and a half. They are slightly dark on the bottom but
ready for a glaze.
==============
John Mitchell--
There is a very good Indian chicken recipe that I use on a grill over direct heat that
does a terrific job. You grill skinless boneless breasts that have been pounded to uniform
thickness. All the fat is removed. The chicken is then marinated in the juice of fresh
squeezed limes (2 or 3 limes), with 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon
garam masala or a curry powder, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne and two or three cloves of garlic
minced fine.
Let the charcoal settle down with a gray coat. Set the charcoal rack two positions down
from the top and lay the breasts on the grill. Flip in three minutes and continue to
grill. Flip again for one more minutes heat and transfer to a platter.
Melt butter and dissolve honey in it at a three part butter to one part honey ratio and
dredge the cooked chicken in the mixture. Serve. Pour any remaining honey/butter in a
small bowl for dipping at the table.
I find this very flavorful and yet the breasts don't blacken as all the fat was removed
and there are no flare ups. The sugar, honey, is added after the meat is off the fire.
==============
Rock McNelly--
All right boys, I've waited to see if anybody else was going to suggest this method for
cooking up chicken, but it looks like it's up to me. `Tis a sad, sad day, when I have to
be the voice of reason.
I'm going to tell you now, how to cook chicken without ever burning it, and you don't
have to keep fussing with it! It aint' grilling, but it doesn't take too much longer to
cook it this way, as it does to grill it, and my way will always turn out juicy! Use a
Spanek vertical roasting rack. You know, the kind that looks something like a wire-framed
flared bell of a trumpet!
Season the whole bird under the skin. Making sure to get it everywhere. No need for wet
marinades or mops. If you want, you can add a couple of pats of butter under the skin and
on the chicken breasts.
Crank the heat up on the smoker to around 300 to 350F (Higher temps = Juicier chicken).
Cram the chicken onto the rack being sure that the loose neck and chest skin is tucked in
at the top to keep meat from being exposed to the heated air. Place it sitting up in a pie
pan, making sure that there is plenty of room between the bottom of the chicken and the
pan.
Place blocks of wood under rack to raise it up about an inch. Reason being is that you
want as much air as possible to circulate up through the bird. Then place said pan into
your smoker and shut the door and go catch the news or a snooze. Come back in about 45
minutes and add hot fluids to the pan. The reason that you don't add it to begin with is
because you want that dry heat flowing through the bird to sear the juices in. The added
fluids now are to help with the outer skin. You may if you so choose, baste the bird at
this time just to jump start it. I myself don't find it necessary.
Close the door and come back in about 20 to 30 minutes. Shake hands with that ol' bird
to see if it's done! It should be pretty doggone close if it's not. This method takes
about a third of the normal time to cook a chicken. If in doubt, whip out your handy dandy
thermometer and check the inside temperature at the thigh being careful not to hit a bone
(180F is done).
When that bird's done, it will be as moist and tender as any bird you've ever had! You
won't even need a knife to carve that ol' girl up! I remember when I first saw a
demonstration of this method, the guy used a carrot to carve the bird!
I've done a side by side comparison of cooking the bird this way, and while sitting on
a half a can of beer. My way cooks faster, and the bird turns out juicier.
==============
Dave Weeks--
I have been using a fairly large gas grill for several years now. Last year I finally
found a technique that produces great chicken on a regular basis.
I marinade the chicken first, typically in a marinade of chicken bouillon, Italian
dressing, apple-cider vinegar and a few spices. I get the grill heated to a medium heat,
then I turn off the left burner. I use wood chips (soaked, then wrapped in aluminum foil
pierced with a fork) on the right side to produce smoke. I cook the chicken, typically
chicken breasts with bone or leg-thigh pieces on the left side, with indirect heat for
about 40 minutes. I also spray the chicken frequently with a spray bottle filled with
water and a little apple-cider vinegar.
At the end of the cooking, I turn the right side back up to high, and move the chicken
over to that side to put the "grill lines" everyone expects to see. This may not
be the "right" way, but it works for me!
==============
Martin Graw--
Listed below are three chicken recipes for the grill.
Mardi Gras Grilled Cajun Chicken
