Get Your Grill On

With the Colorado Avalanche playing in the NHL Stanly Cup Playoffs, life in my home is crazy to say the least! Food at anytime is a priority, but during NHL Hockey playoff time, Smoking and Grilling are a priority! One of the things we love and eat a lot of around the homestead is Smoked Chicken. I’ve written about smoked chicken before, but what we haven’t shared is the secret of getting the bite through skin that we desire, instead of the gummy nasty chicken skin a lot of people associate with smoked chicken.

With a little practice and the right technique you can produce some amazing chicken that could rival the best fried chicken in town. There are a few techniques you can use to be successful. Today I will share with you a couple of mine that I have found to work pretty well and have helped out Bossman Bar-B-Que competition team with some award winning chicken

First, it’s important to understand how we prepare the skin for the smoker. We need to help insure the chicken itself will be moist during this smoking and remain that way to the first bite!

Brining your chicken is critical. I would recommend brining your whole chicken or pieces for a minimum of four hours and a maximum of twelve hours. I usually brine my chicken overnight the day before smoking. A basic brine for chicken would consist of :

Basic Brine

• 1 gallon Water
• ½ cup Kosher Salt
• ½ cup Sugar

Once the chicken has had time to set and get happy in the brine, remove the chicken from the brine, rinse the chicken and pat it dry with some paper towels. Allow the chicken to sit, uncovered in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. The air drying of the skin also aides in the process of crisping the skin up and we have found it to be a successful step in this process.

The second step in crisping the chicken skin is applying a dry rub that has salt as the major ingredient in the rub. The reason we want salt in the rub is that the salt itself will draw our moisture from the skin helping to crisp the skin. The rub you use should reflect your taste and what you’re trying to accomplish in flavoring your chicken. Most of the time I use a real basic rub for chicken such as this one.

Basic Chicken Rub

• ½ cup Kosher salt
• ¼ cup Turbinado sugar( Sugar in The Raw)
• 2 TBS ground black pepper
• 2 TBS Celery Salt
• 1 TBS Granulated Garlic
• 1 TBS Lemon Pepper
• 2 TSP Dried Basil Leaves

I prepare and use a mop or basting liquid on the chicken half way through the cook. Use this mixture as you feel it is needed during your smoking session. The vinegar in this mix will help tenderize the chicken and at the same time help remove fat from the skin. The butter helps your rub stick to the skin.

Chicken Mop

• 2 cups Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 4TBS Butter (yes butter, margarine just doesn’t cut it!)
• 2TBS Basic Chicken Rub

I like to smoke chicken at 225-255 and take it to an internal temperature of 165 or when the juices run clear when the thermometer is inserted and removed. A lot of people apply barbeque sauce to the chicken after they have smoked it. The problem then is the sauce causing the chicken skin you just put all your effort into to go soggy. My suggestion is to lightly coat the chicken skin with your choice of sauce 10 minutes prior to it being removed from the smoker.

If after following these steps your chicken skin is still not as crisp as you desire there is still one more step you can take to get the skin crisp. Pam Cooking Spray has come out with a spray especially made for grilling at high temperatures. The step I take when needed is prior to applying the barbeque sauce, I apply a small amount of “Pam for Grilling” to the skin of the chicken and then turn the chicken skin side down on the grill for at least 5-10 minutes.

Prior to applying the barbeque sauce, I remove a piece of chicken and test the crispness of the skin to determine if more spray needs to be applied or if the chicken is ready for a light coat of barbeque sauce.

Some may say this is a lot of work to just crisp the skin of chicken, but then again, unlike grilling this is smoking which is low, slow and full of love. I predict that if you follow the steps I have outlined and apply them to your chicken smoking you will see the results I have described. One bite and you will be hooked, smoking chicken this way for many days to come! Let me know how this works for you and if you have changed anything up in the process