Smoked Chicken
May 11, 2008 by Black Coffee & Bourbon
Yesterday after returning from our mini-vacation I decided to break out the smoker. Becks bought me the little Brinkman Smoker a couple of years ago and in the past I have cooked ribs and Boston butt on it. I like smoking food as it gives the meat a really great taste.
This time I decided to cook two whole chickens. I made a dry rub of salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika and garlic powder and coated each chicken with the rub. As I was letting the rub set in I filled the water pan, cleaned the grates and lit some charcoal in my chimney starter. When the coals were hot I placed them in the center of the fire pan and surrounded the lit coals with additional charcoal. By doing this the hot coals would slowly ignite the other ones and this would result in a longer burn time. It also keeps you from having to open the door to add more charcoal which can lower the temperature inside the smoker and alter the cooking time.
Once everything was set, I placed both chickens on the bottom rack above the water pan and placed some hickory chunks onto the charcoal. The smell of the chicken cooking mixed in with the wood was very phenomenal. After three hours of cooking I opened the smoker and took the temperature of the chicken. They were done and I removed them from the heat. I wish I had taken a picture of the chickens because they looked great and tasted even better!
I’ve cooked both turkeys and chicken with my Brinkman Smoker. I love that thing!
Currently mine is packed up in the next trailer load headed up to Monticello.
The folks we bought our house from suggested I try green Hickory nuts next time I smoke something.
So green hickory nuts it will be!
I ‘ve got a tree right next to the house.
Hoping to give smoked Mullet a try as well.
Glad to meet a fellow Brinkman Smoker user, I love mine too! Hickory nuts? Interesting. I never even thought of tossing them in. If you try that, let me know how the results are. I have never tried to smoke mullet although it is pretty popular in the Big Bend.
You should try using natural hardwood charcoal. I’ve used it for BBQ and the last time I smoked a turkey (a 25lb turkey) I used natural hardwood.
I didn’t have a problem with losing heat and I could add raw coals to the fire continuously.
I would love to try smoking a turkey! I imagine that would taste amazing. I have never used natural hardwood charcoal but I may give it a shot next time I break out the smoker. Thanks for the suggestion!
Matt cooked a chicken in the crock-pot yesterday. It turned out much better than the time I incinerated chicken in the crock-pot. I daren’t even try a smoker.
From my limited knowledge of your cooking skills, I think your decision not to use a smoker is a good onel. I think if you did it could lead to an emergency room visit or a portion of your home burning down!
I think Lowes has the hardwood charcoal in a large Kingsford sized bag.
Publix sells hardwood charcoal but it’s not a very large bag and some of the charcoal has a weird sparkler effect. Shoots very hot pieces of stuff everywhere.
The coolest thing about hardwood is that if you use a Weber Smokey Joe , You get the fire going and do your cooking. When you are done, you close all the vents and choke the fire.
When you cook again, just gather up the coals that remain and put them back in your chimney starter and fire them up again.
Much less waste than the Briquette nonsense and none of the dirt that goes along with it.
Smoking a turkey is easy. I’ve brined mine and sometimes I’ve just thrown it in and smoked it.
Thank you for the information! I am looking forward to using hardwood charcoal the next time I fire up my smoker! How long does it take to smoke a turkey? I imagine it would be 7-8 hours?
I’ve smoked a turkey almost every Christmas for the last 10 years. I would concur that 7-8 hours is enough.
The biggest challenge I’ve had is brining.
I’ve used a basic brine of Salt, Brown Sugar and Apple Juice.
It’s hard to handle a container big enough for a turkey.
I plan on using a giant ziplock
But I previously used a big Crock from Lehmans (www.lehmans.com)
The ratios are to taste.
I’m not looking for a super salty turkey.
Overnight brining.
Take turkey out of brine and pat dry.
Light smoker, Get hot fire, add hickory and put turkey in.
The cooking time is relative. It’s been windy on a few Christmas days, so that pushes the temp down.
I usually don’t continue with the hickory after about the first load has burned up. I don’t like a super smoky turkey.
If I’m really concerned about maintaining heat, I pull a coal or two out of the Fire and put back in the chimney starter. I then add unburned coal to the chimney. I will then add burning coals to the fire pan as I can. I use a large pair of serving tongs to add the hot coals.
I saw someone advertising Hardwood charcoal on Tallahasee Craigslist a month ago or so. I thought the price was good, but I don’t live up there yet. I mostly like the hardwood because it is cleaner in a different way and I can reuse the coals when I bbq. My wife has made fire starters out of rolls of newspaper dipped in old candle wax. These work really well for starting the chimney.
I’ve cooked on the BBQ at my house in Monticello three times now on the same coals. I expect to reuse them again next time. I do add fresh charcoal when needed.
I’ve managed to stop using Briquettes completely. I hate having all those lumps of dirt. If you get a hot fire going, the fire will draw that grit up onto the grill and onto your food.
Thanks for the instructions on how to smoke a turkey. I am going to give this a shot when I get a chance to break out the Brinkman again. I will report back how it turns out!