Grilling and Chilling

Well, I have been dragging my feet lately with my blog updates. I hope to catch up. I have been judging week after week. We’ve travelled all over. You wouldn’t believe! One week in Southern Alabama, next in Southern Georgia. Then we traveled to Salisbury, Maryland, then Northern Mississippi, and then spent a week in Memphis. We had little time to rest, because after that we travelled to Sevierville, TN and then back to Stone Mountain, Georgia. So we’ve been all over recently! Now, we are home for two weeks, and the 4th is right on us.
And it is definitely grilling and chilling time.

I have so much catching up to do, I am going to make this short and sweet.

So let us grill some chicken thighs. I think they are the best: more flavor, more meat and easier to do. Don’t let the Mayo fool you like it did me!

Now we are grilling:

L.R.B.’s Bar-B-Q ‘d Chicken

Use thighs that are the same size.

To make marinate, use one bottle of Kraft Spicy Italian salad dressing. Let it sit then pour off the oil and leave the goodies. Then take the juice from a jar of sliced and pickled jalapeno peppers and fill the dressing jar. Shake.

To make glaze use

1 part Memphis style B.B.Q. sauce or what you have

1/4 part Pure honey

1) Clean thighs, place in zipper locking bag and add marinate. Leave in for 2 hours.

2) Pull skin down over top and sides and pin.

3) Start fire and bring up to 275 degrees Fahrenheit (use wood chips if you can)

4) Take your thighs and pat the skin dry

5) Add a heavy coat of mayonnaise to skin side.

6) Put into the smoker for 1 hour

7) Wrap in Heavy Duty foil for 1/2 hour, and test internal temperature. You want it to be 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

8) Remove from foil and wipe off excessive mayo.

9) Glaze with your glaze. Then put it back into the smoker to caramelize. DON’T LET IT BURN!

Now we are chilling:

Blueberry & Lemon Chicken Salad

This is one that you can play with. You may want more of this and less of that, so do your thing. Another is if you are calorie conscious, you can use yogurt instead of mayo.

Here is what we need:

4 Lg. split chicken breast, with skin and bone.

1 red bell pepper (med)

1 celery hearts

1 bunch green onions

1 pt. fresh blueberries

2 fresh lemons (if you get lemon yogurt you will need only 1 for garnish)

1 pt. yogurt (now you can get lemon yogurt) or mayo

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

You will need some good crackers

1) Let’s boil our chicken with a little salt and pepper till just tender.

2) Get it out of the hot water. Let it cool, then pull off the skin and bones.

3) Cut into 1/2 inch squares and chill in the fridge.

4) Cut your red peppers and celery in 3/8 inch squares

5) Slice green onions 1/4 inch thick, white and green parts.

6) What I like to do is to fix everything the day before and let it chill in zipper locking bags. I like to wash and look my blueberries. I use a chilled S/S bowl, add everything BUT the chicken, including the mayo or yogurt If you don’t have lemon yogurt then take the zest of one lemon, then add salt and pepper.

7) Now it’s ready to eat except for the chicken.

8) Lastly, fold (DO NOT MIX) in the chicken. Then transfer to serving dish that the edge is garnished with thin slices of lemon around the edge of your dish.

Serve on a lettuce leaf or with crackers

Smoking Chicken, A How-To

I guess I should start out by saying there is a lot more to Bar-B-Q’ing than building a fire and throwing a piece of meat on it.

Let’s smoke some chicken. We will always use thighs.

MMMmmmmm Look at this yummy chicken!

For Mouthwatering chicken like that, I use 10 phases:
1) Preparation
2) Marinate
3) Fire up your smoker
4) Add dry rub
5) Let rest
6) Place on grill & set probes
7) Cook
8) Mop
9) Arrange on platter
10) Serve.

1) We want thighs that are the same size or close to it. Hold them with the skin down in your hand. Remove any excess fat and lose meat.

2) Place the thighs in a zip-lock bag and cover good with marinate. Place in fridge.

3) Fire up your smoker and get it stabilized to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. This is by far the hardest part. This is when you want to smoke it for 1-1/2 hours with wood or wood chips. Then go to charcoal.

Let’s stop here because I am speaking of real smokers. If you have a gas grill all you have to do is to create smoke. If your grill does not have a smoke unit, you can use a cast iron skillet and place it down on your burners to make a smoker. You should use some hickory and about twice as much apple. But you can use any hardwood (BUT NOT ANY EVERGREEN).

Did you know that you can get the Maverick remote thermometers? That are very reasonably priced and a must to have control of your temperatures. I can’t express enough how important that a stable temperature is. You need to always know the temp next to your meat and inside it (And NOT what it is up in the top of your grill) ALL THE TIME

We use thighs all the time because it will not dry out like white meat and they will usually be the same size. You are better off to trim off some to make them cook evenly then to have some that are not done.

4) Next we need to add the dry rub. Dry rub what’s that?? There are all kinds on the market. But I make mine by using:
12 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1 teaspoon Chili Powder
3 teaspoons Paprika
1/4 teaspoon Granulated Garlic
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Poultry Seasoning

To apply, remove chicken from marinate and pat off excess. Take your finger and run it under the skin in a couple of spots and add some dry rub in there (not a lot). Now cover the skin well with mayo. I take 8 round toothpicks and place the thigh in my hand, skin side up and pull the skin as far around as I can and secure with a toothpick, about 4 to the side. With poultry scissors, cut to 1/2 inch sticking out. Now sprinkle well all over with dry rub. (Don’t rub it!)

5) Let it rest about 10 min.

6) Place the meat on a cookie cooling rack (skin side up) so you can put them on all at once and lift them off when finished. You will conserve heat by doing this. Into the smoker they go. I will set one probe by the side of the meat without touching the meat or the grate. This is the pit probe. Then I place one into the fleshy side of the thigh about halfway through without touching the bone.

7) Cook. Smoke for 1 hour, and spray with apple juice and turn over wait 1/2 hour and spray again. Don’t add anymore wood. Go to your other heat source.

8) Now is the time to turn DOWN the temperature to 230 –240 and MOP and I don’t mean the floor! We make a finishing sauce and what it consist of is nothing but 2 parts of Lil’ Red Barn Bar-B-Q sauce and 1 part of honey.

At this point, they are still on there backs. So mop this side, turn over, mop the skin side, wait 15 min, and mop the skin side again. Cook for 15 to 30 minutes, until done with internal thermometer reading about 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

9) This is one of the most important steps, and that is Presentation. Always remember, if it DOES NOT LOOK GOOD then it is most likely that your guest won’t think it is.

10) Serving. Do not put your platter of chicken on the table before they are seated. Let them wait on it. Anxiety will build up their approval.

I have moved up a notch by installing Bar-B-Q Guru’s. They will regulate your temperature to within 2 degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius, A/C or D/C. If you would like more information about the Bar-B-Q Guru, let me know and I will give you what they do for me along with log sheets that I am going to keep on each cooking.

Do you really want to know how to Bar-B-Q?

If so lets start with this:

What kind of a cooker (smoker) do you have? What kind would you need?

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Dave Franks