BBQ for Christmas

We travel out of state for Christmas to visit relatives every year. To make it easier on the family we visit, we like to take some bbq along. We cook it the week before, vacuum seal it, and freeze it. When it's time to eat - we thaw it the rest of the way, reheat in the microwave, and add a little Blues Hog BBQ Sauce. It always turns out well. I highly recommend this method if you need to take food along with you when you're traveling - especially if you like to eat well. After all, what's better than bbq you cooked yourself?

I seasoned the pork butts and brisket the night before. I always refrigerate the meat overnight in the refrigerator to allow the spices to penetarate the meat better. I used my own spice rub on the brisket and tried some Oakridge BBQ seasoning on the pork butts.

I don't inject anything into the brisket, but usually inject a mixture of apple juice (3 cups), honey (1/2 cup), and whatever spice rub (3 TBSPs) I'm using into the pork butts. Those amounts work well for two pork butts. You would need to adjust the quantities accordingly for less or more meat as desired.

Since the cookers were hot, I decided to cook some chicken quarters (minus the drumsticks) on the WSM.

These were seasoned with poultry rub and marinated for 3 hours in Newman's Own salad dressing.

Here's a video of the pictures from the prepping and cooking process if you'd like to see them:

BBQ Spatchcock Chicken

I barbecued a spatchcock chicken today and made a video of the entire process.  If the term spatchcock is a new term for you, it simply means "to prepare (a dressed chicken) for grilling by splitting open" (definition courtesy of TheFreeDictionary.com).

I used a recipe from the Smoke & Spice bbq cookbook (page 175) called Birds of Paradise and a 3 pound cornish rock chicken grown "free range" at The Dam Ranch near Bradenton, FL. And, if you're in the mood for a laugh or two, take a few mintues and check out Brewster the Rooster on their web page.

The recipe uses a marinade of garlic cloves, mint, parsley, cilantro, salt, and olive oil coupled with a basting mojo juice made from orange juice, lime juice, garlic cloves, cumin, oregano, salt, and more cilantro. I marinated the chicken overnight in the refrigerator and then cooked it on my Weber Smokey Mountain.

Whole Chicken

I wanted to share some pictures of my Memorial Day bbq chicken.  This beer can chicken was cooked on my WSM (minus the water pan) at 300-325 degrees and took about 2 1/2 hours to reach 170 degrees in the breast and 180 degrees in the drumsticks. 
After eating chicken cooked this way, I'm not sure I'll return to cooking individual chicken pieces ever again. The brine allows a practical way to add flavor and retain moisture.

BBQ Chicken

Simple Grilled Chicken Wings and Drums

--Marinade in Newman's Own "Olive Oil and Vinegar" for 5 - 6 hours (in the refrigerator)

--Start your charcoal and let it grey over a little, before adding chicken to grill
--Cook chicken slowly (around the edges of the grate) to reduce flare ups
--When it's done, brush with your favorite bbq sauce to finish
--Enjoy

 

The marinade will add moisture and internal flavor, while the bbq sauce adds a little kick.  No matter how you grill your chicken, I would not eat chicken that is not marinated in Newman's Own "Olive Oil and Vinegar". It really makes a difference.

Chicken Brine Recipe

Like many people, I usually marinade my chicken thighs in Newman's Own salad dressing. This weekend I experimented with a vinegar brine that tasted pretty good.

Chicken Brine

• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup sea salt
• Add enough water to cover chicken
• Refrigerate for 3 hours prior to barbecuing

It's simple. It's easy. It's good.

Naked Chicken Thighs

In the quest to find the perfect bbq spice rub and sauce combination, we barbecue fanatics sometimes overdo them both and end up with bbq "candy".

This past weekend I decided to experiment with chicken thighs without using spice rub and with very little bbq sauce added.

I've been marinating my chicken thighs and drumsticks in Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar since the beginning, but after spending some time thinking about it this weekend I realized that I have never really experimented to identify exactly what the dressing adds to my chicken recipes. I just started using it because I read about it on the web at some point and followed suit.

The thighs in the picture were not trimmed and squared up properly for a bbq contest turn-in, but they were fine for eating here at home.

The thighs and dressing were placed in a 2 gallon plastic bag and were marinated for 4 hours in the refrigerator. I pre-heated the WSM (without the water pan) to 275 degrees and put the chicken on for cooking. The naked thighs were cooked for 1 1/2 hours to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Near the end I brushed on a little bbq sauce for a little flavor, but as you can see from the picture there was very, very little sauce used. That really wasn't the main point of this test anyway.

What did I learn?

The salad dressing helps keep the chicken moist while cooking, but adds very little flavor. The thighs were juicy and tender, but were quite bland. Based on my test, I doubt that it matters what kind of salad dressing is used for a marinade. Anything with olive oil and a little vinegar will probably work fairly well. I don't think the Newman's Own is an absolute requirement.

How to BBQ Chicken

If you want to barbecue chicken there are three basic methods you can use.

1) direct grilling

2) low and slow smoking

3) combination of direct grilling and slow smoking

The choice depends largely upon personal choice and type of equipment you have available to use. If the only barbecue equipment you own is a gas grill, then you are limited to direct grilling. If you own a kettle grill then your choices are wide open. If the only equipment you own is a low and slow smoker, direct grilling is probably not going to work for you.

Direct grilling:
The fastest way to cook your chicken in an outdoor setting isn't always the best choice for moist and tender bbq chicken. When cooking chicken at temperatures above 400 degrees you risk chicken that is crisp or slightly burned on the outside skin, but undercooked on the inside. Or as is often the case, chicken that is raw in the middle. The high temperatures associated with grilling will result in "drying out". However, if you like crispy chicken skin this is probably the best choice.

Low and slow smoking:
The slowest way to cook chicken outdoors is the best way to ensure your chicken is tender and juicy. You can use a bbq rub on the skin without burning it and you can ensure the chicken is cooked throughout without the risk of overcooking. This method often results in chicken skin that is a "rubbery" texture. If you don't like the skin, simply remove it before biting into the juicy and tender chicken.

Combination direct grill and slow smoking:

Lately I've been favoring a combination of the two methods. I cook my chicken over direct charcoal heat for 4 - 5 minutes turning it often to prevent burning. This helps render the fat on the underside of the skin and helps prevent the "rubbery" effect. I then finish it off on my smoker for about an hour at 225 degrees. This combination offers the best of both crisp skin and tender and juicy meat.

Secret tip #1:

Whichever method you chose, make sure you put bbq rub under the skin prior to cooking. This will help add flavor throughout the piece of chicken.

Super secret tip #2:

After placing the spice rub under the skin let the chicken marinate in the refrigerator for a couple hours prior to cooking. The rub will penetrate deeper into the chicken. If your spice rub has a lot of salt in it, marinating longer than 2 - 2 1/2 hours might create an undesireable "salty" flavor. If your rub is hot with a lot of pepper, marinating longer than 2 - 2 1/2 hours might create "spicy" flavor.

Competition BBQ Secrets

Bloody BBQ Chicken

It's almost painful to type the title to this article and I realize it's not very appetizing, but this topic is gaining more and more press in bbq circles.

We've had a good amount of success cooking bbq chicken in FBA and KCBS sanctioned contests. We've always cooked our chicken thighs "low and slow" to an internal temperature of 170 degrees. To this point we've never had an issue with the judges and I hate to jinx it by talking about it, but it's a topic worth exploring.

There's a discussion at HomeBBQ.com that talks about removing the veins in chicken thighs to help reduce the effect from "clotting" that even can cause blood to appear in chicken cooked to a conservatively high 180 degrees.

It sounds like I need to start paying more attention to my chicken thighs and try to "devein" them before my next cook. It can't hurt.

Competition BBQ Secrets

BBQ Chicken Test

From the Barbecue Test Kitchen:

(Sept 14) I've been reading and hearing a lot of debate regarding the pro's and con's of cooking chicken "low and slow" versus cooking at "higher" temps, or even starting at low temps and finishing at higher temps to "crisp" the skin.

I plan to highlight all three methods here this week and provide a step-by-step outline of my testing methods, recipes, marinades, cooking temps, finishing temps, rubs, sauces, cookers used, etc.

I am going to be cooking 12 Amish chicken thighs--4 using each method outlined above.

I like "Amish" chicken thighs specifically because in my experience any chicken that has been soaked in a sodium solution during processing turns out too salty after it's been seasoned with a bbq rub. I've good luck with Publix chicken (all-natural), but since we've moved to Michigan I can't find it. Another good brand is Pilgrim's Pride, which is also Sodium free.

The chicken will be rubbed with an equal mixture of garlic granules, onion granules, black pepper, salt, chili powder and a small amount of chipotle powder. I always put the spice rub under the skin and then fold the skin back on top of the rub and spread the skin evenly over the thigh.

I will marinate the chicken thighs in an Italian dressing mixture that includes apple juice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, honey, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

I never have been a big proponent of allowing meat to sit out until it reaches room temperature as some folks do, so I will remove the chicken directly from marinating in the refrigerator and place it directly on the cookers.

(Sept 19) The chicken cooking test turned out a little unexpected.

The chicken cooked at high temps (325 degrees) and low and slow (225 degrees) then finished at high temps (325 degrees) turned out to be a lot dryer than I expected. Also, the skin did not really crisp up very well. It's a very fine line between crisp skin and burnt black skin.

The chicken cooked at 225 degrees (the way we do it in competition with good results) had a much more predictable result--tender, juicy, tastey, but with "chewy" skin.

I guess I've confirmed what a lot of folks have know for years....there are tradeoffs in just about everything you set out to do it life...bbq is no exception.