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Barbecued or Smoked chicken is king down in Georgia. Chicken houses are plentiful in the somewhat hilly terrain that I'm used to living in, so getting a hold of quality chicken was never an issue. Wood smoking was the way to go, usually with Hickory wood or Pecan, both of which are readily available back home; you want to steer clear of Mesquite because it's too harsh and strong of a flavor for chicken.
We'll be making a simple rub for the exterior of the chicken, which we'll spatchcock to help it cook faster inside of our smoker. Oh yeah, you'll need a smoker of some form. A fancy-pants electric one that are popular now, or even just a simple 'bullet' smoker that is much more...low-tech. Shopping List:
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Hardware:
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Prep:
Spatchcock the whole chicken, and try to remove as many unnecessary bones as possible. If you don't know how to do this, there are plenty of tutorials, but the high-points are:
Soak your wood chips in water for an hour or so. You don't want dry chips because they will smoke too quickly and ruin your flavor and timing.
Take your natural chunk charcoal (I prefer this over briquettes for authenticity's sake, and because it burns a little hotter) and start it in a chimney starter if you've got it. Stay away from lighter fluid, but if you don't have a chimney starter or a lot of newspaper, then you'll just have to make do. You'll want a decent amount of charcoal as your first batch, because you'll have to be adding charcoal and wood periodically throughout the smoking process.
Prepare the rub. This is all personal preference, and you can really add whatever you want into it, but try to keep a 4:3:2:2:1 ratio of (brown sugar : chile powder : salt : pepper : cayenne). TL;DR: use a lot of brown sugar.
Rub that all over your spatchcocked chicken and let it chill on the counter for a few minutes before starting your smoker.
Crack open a good beer or three, you'll need it.
The Business:
Smoking is an indirect cooking method that takes a long time. There's no 'firing-up' the grill for a few minutes to burn off some hot dogs at your cousin's party at their house. You'll need to do this on a Saturday.
You're not grilling. Low temperatures are your friend (ideally below 300 deg F).
The general formula, though:
Get a consistent temperature inside of your smoker and keep it there. Add a handful of wet wood chips directly onto your charcoal and walk away. Go do something productive like coding in python. Keep an eye on the general vicinity of the smoker after about 30 minutes, and if you notice a lack of smoke, consider adding some more wood chips onto your coals, or adding more coals altogether. You're kind of following the CrockPot mentality here; the less you open the lid/door, the quicker you'll be rewarded with delicious, succulent meat candy. However, this doesn't really matter as much for smoking a chicken because it takes significantly less time than if you were smoking a whole brisket.
This entire process should be repeated for a few hours, of adding more wood and charcoal until your bird has reached the safe internal temperature put in place by the handy folks at the United States Department of Agriculture. I think it's 165 for breasts. I don't know, ask Google. Use a meat thermometer.
Eat it when it's done. You should know the rest.
Spatchcock the whole chicken, and try to remove as many unnecessary bones as possible. If you don't know how to do this, there are plenty of tutorials, but the high-points are:
- Remove the spine with some heavy duty poultry shears
- Butterfly the chicken open with some old-fashioned elbow grease
- Slice down the interior of the breastbone to remove the keel bone (it's near the 'crotch')
- Try to filet off rib bones still attached to the breast
- Lay it out flat, and try to partially separate the thigh/legs from the breast/wings (there's a picture below)
Soak your wood chips in water for an hour or so. You don't want dry chips because they will smoke too quickly and ruin your flavor and timing.
Take your natural chunk charcoal (I prefer this over briquettes for authenticity's sake, and because it burns a little hotter) and start it in a chimney starter if you've got it. Stay away from lighter fluid, but if you don't have a chimney starter or a lot of newspaper, then you'll just have to make do. You'll want a decent amount of charcoal as your first batch, because you'll have to be adding charcoal and wood periodically throughout the smoking process.
Prepare the rub. This is all personal preference, and you can really add whatever you want into it, but try to keep a 4:3:2:2:1 ratio of (brown sugar : chile powder : salt : pepper : cayenne). TL;DR: use a lot of brown sugar.
Rub that all over your spatchcocked chicken and let it chill on the counter for a few minutes before starting your smoker.
Crack open a good beer or three, you'll need it.
The Business:
Smoking is an indirect cooking method that takes a long time. There's no 'firing-up' the grill for a few minutes to burn off some hot dogs at your cousin's party at their house. You'll need to do this on a Saturday.
You're not grilling. Low temperatures are your friend (ideally below 300 deg F).
The general formula, though:
Get a consistent temperature inside of your smoker and keep it there. Add a handful of wet wood chips directly onto your charcoal and walk away. Go do something productive like coding in python. Keep an eye on the general vicinity of the smoker after about 30 minutes, and if you notice a lack of smoke, consider adding some more wood chips onto your coals, or adding more coals altogether. You're kind of following the CrockPot mentality here; the less you open the lid/door, the quicker you'll be rewarded with delicious, succulent meat candy. However, this doesn't really matter as much for smoking a chicken because it takes significantly less time than if you were smoking a whole brisket.
This entire process should be repeated for a few hours, of adding more wood and charcoal until your bird has reached the safe internal temperature put in place by the handy folks at the United States Department of Agriculture. I think it's 165 for breasts. I don't know, ask Google. Use a meat thermometer.
Eat it when it's done. You should know the rest.
