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Basic
Chicken
Smoke
There are many
ways to cook a chicken. You can bake it, broil it, grill it fry, put it on a
rotisserie or my favorite – smoke it! My two favorite processes for turkey are;
are brining and injecting. I use a
combination of the two and my birds are juicy and tender every time! I can’t
take credit for this technique I learned it from our TV buddy Ron Popiel.
Thanks Ron! In fact I didn’t even like turkey until I bought his famous set it
and forget it “Show Time Rotisserie.” They are fantastic! Perfect tender and
juicy meats every time and the food injection process he talks about in his
infomercial is something you really want to try – especially on poultry! If he
invents a machine that combines smoking and the Show Time Rotisserie – I’m
gonna be on it like white on rice!
Okay let’s get
back to the bird!
Brining
Brining is simple
technique of soaking the bird in water with salt and maybe sugar and a few
spices added. It could be simply water and salt but hey while that birds
sucking in the water don’t you want it to drag in all your favorite spices too?
Brining requires that you soak the bird in the brining solution either over
night up to 24 hours, or at least four to six hours before smoking.
Here is my
favorite brining solution:
1-1/2 gallons ice cold water
1/2 cup salt ( sea or kosher)
2 teaspoons Garlic
Power
2 teaspoons Onion Powder
2 teaspoons Cajun Spice
* 1/3 cup Dextrose or sugar - optional
* Sugar is
optional. Some people say it helps balance the salt but most recipes will
suggest you use as much as a full cup of salt – that would be salty for my
taste and you would really need sugar to offset the saltiness. I choose to
reduce the salt instead. Although Pure Vermont Maple Syrup is a nice flavor to
add to that bird!
Take a few cups
of water and boil it. You can throw it in a microwave for a few minutes to
speed up the process. Place it in a heat resistant bowl and stir in your salt
and sugar to dissolve them. The salt is the hardest to dissolve, so keep your eyes
on it. Once they have dissolved add the rest of your spices stir them in then
add a few ice cubes to cool it down or just wait. Now add you’re the mix to your ice water and
stir it up well.
Throw the bird
in the brine, tilting the cavity up so it fills with water and doesn’t try to
float. Place something heavy on top to keep the turkey submerged and wait. I
like to inject the bird at about 3 inch intervals with the brine water on
shorter brines or 4 to 6 hours to sort of jump start it.
In the photo
below I am just using a plastic food storage container filled with brine water
to hold the bird down. A heavy plate will work as well.
NOTE: if you are brining
in the summer you may want to add an ice cube tray full of ice once or twice
during a 24 hour brine or if you have a container that will hold the bird and
brine you can place in the refrigerator do it. You want to keep this bird below
40ºF to prevent bacterial growth!
Brining requires that you soak the bird in the brining
solution either over night up to 24 hours, or four to six hours before smoking.
After the brining is complete rinse the bird in clear fresh water to rinse off
any extra salt that may be on the bird. Rinse for about 5 minutes changing the
water a few times. Don’t soak the bird just rinse!
Flavor
Injecting
Flavor
Injecting, injecting for short, is taking a solution of some kind of fluid and
spices in a large syringe made for food, filling it, then
injecting the fluid into the meat. It’s a way of spicing up the meat on the
inside and making it tastier and juicier in the process.
The injector
can be purchased at most department stores and cooking shops. One of my
injectors looks like the one above. There are numerous injectors available at a
full range of prices. I even bough one at Wal-Mart for like $4.
NOTE: When not using the
injector, remove the needle, slide the piston in almost all the way with the
cap off and slip the needle in the piston shaft, screw the cap down. The needle
is a bit to long to snug the cap down but it will keep
you from getting stuck by the needle or keep you from loosing it!
My favorite
injection mixture and rub for poultry is below:
1 stick of margarine, butter or Butter
Buds
3/4 teaspoon Garlic Power
3/4 teaspoon Onion Powder
** 3/4 teaspoon Cajun Spice **
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
** Download my
free eBook of 70 Ethnic, International and Regional Spice Blends the eBook includes a recipe to mix your own
Cajun Spice as well as many other popularly purchased spice blends!
Place you bird
in a shallow pan or a clean sink this can get messy and it also allows you to collect and reuse the spilled injector fluids
to rub the outer surface of the skin.
Inject the bird
in several spots all over it. I use a
spacing of about three inches. If you inject deeply into the meat at an angle
you can flavor a lot of meat without poking a lot of holes. As
to press the injector plunger in slowly pull the needle out at about the same
rate of speed. Don’t forget the wings and legs! One or two injections in
a wing or leg parallel to the bone will do it!
If your using
butter as your base it
will start to solidify once injected and the stuff that spills can be rubbed on
the surface of the skin. I also sprinkle
some of the same blend of spices on the outside of the bird. It will stick to
the butter you just rubbed all over the bird. You can do this or add a bit of
your favorite rub.
For more
information about rubs download Deejay’s Book of Rubs from the Herbs
and Spice Downloads page.
Smoking the
Bird
Once the bird
is brined, and
injected you can begin your smoke. Now the general rule for smoking dictates a
low and slow with light wispy smoke. This is not the best method for smoking
poultry however. Unlike briskets, Boston
butts and ribs poultry does not have
tough connective tissues that need be to broken down. Poultry is naturally
tender and fatty. The skin on poultry is full of fat compressed between the
layers of the skin. In order to render this fat and get a nice crispy skin you
need higher temperatures!
Smoke poultry at between 300º - 375º F for
the best results.
NOTE: Some smokers will
not consistently reach 350 o F let alone 375 o F - this
is the reason I have given you a full range of temperatures to choose from.
Whatever the highest temperature is in that range that your smokers is capable of – use that temperature!
Whatever
temperature you to use smoke the poultry - smoke it until it reaches 168ºF
in the thickest part of the thigh or breast.
Poultry cooking time ends up being between 15 and 20 minutes per pound of meat between
300 and 375ºF, but it’s still the temperature is what you need to watch – not
the time. The time is just a guideline for a guess of when to start cooking not
when to finish cooking!
Chicken is a
fast smoke so it’s great for a week day meal, picnic
or to feed that need to smoke during the work week!
Woods like cherry, orange and tangerine will give your
poultry a nice deep red/orange color with great flavor. Try mixing these in
with your other favorite smoking woods! I like to mix theses woods with hickory
or pecan.
Place the bird on the lowest grate you can manage with and a
pan on the grate below to catch the juices .Place foil in the pan or you have a water pan, place foil on the
pan suspended above the bottom. You don’t want the foil to touch the bottom
because the heat from the pan will cause the juices to dry up. Add about a cup
and a half of water to the pan to mix with the juices and to prevent drying.
Below is a picture of my water pan foiled to capture
the juice for making gravy later. Notice how the foil is just a few inches
below the top of the pan and all the juices are captured in the pan.
Once the bird reaches 165º F, let it rest with foil
tented but not touching over the bird for 20 minutes or so before carving to
allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. The internal temperature
will continue to rise by about 5º F after removing it from the smoker.
Can’t get any easier than that!
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