Get Your Grill On

I recently set up my new Char-Broil Double Door Smoker/Grill combo and was eager to get something on the grill! So I followed the seasoning instructions, coated the interior of the grill with vegetable oil and built a small fire in the firebox and let the smoker get up to temp and sealed it off for two hours while it cooked away.

I decided upon some fresh chicken thigh/leg quarters and a separate package of thighs. I built a fire in the fire box utilizing charcoal briquettes and stuffed some paper underneath to get the fire going. In prepping the chicken I took six pepper blend, cajun seasoning, ground black pepper, salt free steak seasoning, cayenne, paprika, and a few other herbs and spices that looked appealing and blended them together to rub on the yard bird. I laid out the cleaned pieces of chicken on a platter and generously rubbed the seasoning into the skin on both sides and then left them to sit for about 30 minutes before taking them to the grill.

While the smoker was getting up to temp I went inside and made three hickory smoke bombs. I took hickory wood chips and double wrapped them in heavy duty aluminum foil and then poked several holes into the package. I then took one more piece of foil to wrap loosely around each bomb and set them aside.

When the grill reached an internal temperature of 250 degrees I set the dampers to allow proper ventilation and added the chicken to the grates to get them SMOKIN! The entire process took around 4 hours and I added the smoke bombs every 1/2 hour starting about 30 minutes into the cooking process. To keep the fire at a constant 250 degrees I added about 8-10 briquettes to the fire every 30 minutes and followed the old adage - “if ya lookin, ya ain’t cookin!” and kept the lid closed during most of the smoking. I had to rotate a few smaller pieces further away from the fire box about and hour into the cooking process and again 2 hours later.

The smoke bombs worked perfectly and added some wonderful hickory smoke through out the smoker and the chicken cooked up perfect. I checked the far side away from the firebox to ensure that the internal temperature had reached 165 degrees and removed the chicken after confirming the correct temperature had been met. As soon as my 2 and 3 year old daughters saw me entering the house with the chicken they both were arguing over who would get the first piece. As it ended up I had to give each of them meat pulled from two thighs to keep them from grabbing chicken of each others plate! Both exclaimed that they loved the chicken and that’s quite a compliment coming from two of the most finicky eaters I have to please. I took their squeals of delight and singing to mean that I put together a flavorful combination on the trial run of the smoker/grill. This was soon confirmed at the 4th of July family picnic when the chicken was devoured along with several comments as to the juiciness and excellent flavor of the meat.

Stay tuned for upcoming SMOKIN! pork and beef recipes cooked on the Char-Broil Smoker/Grill.