Chicken Start to Finish

One of the best dishes you can make when it comes to BBQ is traditional BBQ chicken. BBQ chicken is one of the staples of BBQ. Here again I make a very simple BBQ chicken that is guaranteed to please.

First you want to start off with the right kind of chicken. As we talked before if you are looking to make chicken breast you are basically going to bake them in a shallow pan of chicken broth or water, but today we are going to be making that finger licking traditional BBQ chicken, I am talking about thighs, quarters, halves however you cut it, chicken that is bone in and skin on (now for this example I will be cooking chicken quarters, but all these same steps apply to thighs, halves whatever you plan to cook).

           


           Step 1: Get your fire started.

Just like anything else, don’t waste time playing around start working on getting your temp up to heat. For this example you are going to be baking your chicken not slow cooking it, so you will want your smoker at 375.

            Step 2: Prepping the chicken.

Start by giving your chicken a good wash, and then pat dry as much as you can (you won’t be able to get the chicken completely dry, but get as close as you can). Now like the brisket COVER your chicken with my secret BBQ rub.

            Step 3: Musical chairs.

I hope by now you know where your hot spots are on your smoker, this is one time you want to take advantage of that extra heat and get your chicken skin nice and crispy. Now I normally would advise not to open the smoking chamber while you are cooking, but in this case you have to keep those chickens moving (I normally do not flip the chicken I cook them skin side in the case of quarters), you want to rotate the chickens in the hotspot so each piece gets its fair share of face time with the hotspots I normally will move them all around about every 12 to 15 minutes.

            Step 4: Sauce glaze

Typically you will cook the chicken to an internal temp of 180 – 185ish. Around 180 I normally put a nice glaze of BBQ sauce on the chicken and then put them back on the smoker for just a few minutes, just long enough that the sauce caramelizes around the chicken.

Once the sauce is nice and caramelized you are set to go, you don’t have to slice or chop chicken so you can just plate, serve, and enjoy! It’s really that simple.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Simple Smoke Kissed Salmon

Want some smoked salmon but don’t want to commit all the time it takes to correctly cold smoke it (the citrus cure, and extended curing process, etc). Well I have a pretty simple Smoked salmon that I really enjoy.

Back to one of the basic concepts take your favorite baked salmon recipe and convert it to smoked salmon. This is why I call it smoke kissed because typically you are going to cook salmon 30 minutes per half inch, so measure the thickest part of your filet typically you are looking at 45 minutes cook time. This short cook time gives the salmon just a light kiss of smoke. So fire up your smoker to bake some salmon!

1.      Pre-heat your smoker to about 350 degrees (you will want to keep the heat between 300 and 375)

2.      Take a piece of foil and fold the edges to create a shallow pan

3.      Spray the foil with non-stick spray and place filets on the foil

4.      Drizzle honey over the salmon filets

5.      Sprinkle brown sugar over the filets

6.      Lightly dust with cinnamon

7.      Lightly salt and pepper

8.      Smoke for 15 minutes per half inch of filet (lightly butter filets half way through if the edges are starting to get dry).

This is my personal version of baked salmon, I like the sweet from the honey and brown sugar and something about the sweet with the cinnamon just pops. Like I said take your existing recipe and try it on the smoker, there are literally HUNDREDS of baked salmon recipes online.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Bake or Broil Smoke or Grill

            So as I was sitting here thinking what is one of the most important items to cover when someone first starts wanting to BBQ and it hit me. It was one of the first concepts that I learned that makes so much sense now I almost forgot all about it (keep in mind you BBQ masters that are reading this, this blog is for the noob walking them to master).

            Smoked BBQ is completely different then cooking burgers on your grill, and here is how. Smoked meat (brisket, ribs, etc) is cooked using what is known as indirect heat, where grilling (burgers steaks, etc) is cooked with direct heat. Now I know all of you that have read this before are thinking “Tell me something new”. Well here it is, smoking is baking, and grilling is broiling. Why is this a revolutionary concept? Well once you figure that out, you have a HUGE library of recipes some of which are probably sitting in your wife’s baker’s rack. Any recipe that calls for you to bake, you can do it on your smoker. Once this clicked I was easily able to take existing recipes and do them on my smoker. Now keep in mind your aunt’s tuna tatter tot casserole may not be a family hit on the smoker…or could it ???

            The idea with this tip is to think in terms of baking and broiling. This will save you the head ache of throwing things on the smoker that don’t belong or throwing them in wrong. For example have you ever read a recipe that calls for boneless skinless chicken breast to be baked at 350 degrees on the middle grate (not in a pan, covered or in broth)? NO! Everyone knows if you did that you would end up with DRY tasteless chicken, yet I know SOOOO many people that go out buy a smoker and do just that! They waste time and money and they get discouraged because their chicken is dry as a bone and taste like ash. Now take the same example and think baking, you look up baked chicken breast recipes, you want to find one that does not require the pan to be covered because you want the smoked flavor. Low and behold place breast in a shallow pan and lightly cover with chicken broth or water bake at 350, etc. Now you are thinking in the right terms.

This is a SIMPLE variation of this exact example and an easy first recipe. This won’t win any awards but makes a very tender chicken breast and will boost your confidence if this is your first attempt at baking anything on your smoker.

            Nate’s BBQ Chicken Breast

            1 - Package of boneless skinless chicken breast

            1 – Disposable foil cake pan

            1 – Bottle of your favorite bbq sauce

Directions – Take your package of thawed chicken breast and place them in the disposable cake pan. Fill pan with water so the chick is almost completely covered. Lightly drizzle BBQ sauce over the chicken place in smoker at 300 – 350 degrees. Cook until chicken can be broken apart with a fork (turning chicken occasionally).

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/