adam clyde
TVWBB Pro
whew. Just finished the big pre-baby chicken cook. turned out great.
Things I found out:
1) finding space (bowls, bags, buckets, etc.) to brine 6 whole chickens can be challenging.
2) fitting 6 whole chickens on the WSM is challenging. These were 4.5 - 5 pounders. Ended up touching in a few places, 3 to a rack.
3) hard to maintain high temperatures with that much cold chicken going into the WSM. Put them in around 350, never really got much above 290 after that, even without anything in the water pan. Not a big deal though - they finished in about 2 hours.
4) Cutting, shredding, then packaging (foodsaver) 6 chickens takes about as much time as it does to cook the chicken. Yikes, I'm tired.
Anyway, the chicken turned out great. Wonderful, in fact. I made 3 gallons of brine, with 4 cups of kosher salt, and 2 cups of sugar. Brined them for about 3-4 hours. Ended up being just right - good flavor and not mushy at all.
I didn't use a rub on these, since I wanted a pretty neutral flavor, as I don't know what the final "resting place" of the chicken will be. Instead, I basted with lemon juice, salt and peppered the outside, and threw a large slice of lemon, 2 whole (slightly crushed) cloves garlic, and quarter onion in the cavity of each. Loved the resulting aroma and flavor. Should have thrown in a sprig or two of fresh thyme or rosemanry, but just didn't think of it.
I wasn't worried about the skin, since it was all going into big shreds and being frozen for future use when baby #3 keeps us up all night.
Wish I had pictures... seeing 6 of those mohagany babies all lined up makes a man proud...
Things I found out:
1) finding space (bowls, bags, buckets, etc.) to brine 6 whole chickens can be challenging.
2) fitting 6 whole chickens on the WSM is challenging. These were 4.5 - 5 pounders. Ended up touching in a few places, 3 to a rack.
3) hard to maintain high temperatures with that much cold chicken going into the WSM. Put them in around 350, never really got much above 290 after that, even without anything in the water pan. Not a big deal though - they finished in about 2 hours.
4) Cutting, shredding, then packaging (foodsaver) 6 chickens takes about as much time as it does to cook the chicken. Yikes, I'm tired.
Anyway, the chicken turned out great. Wonderful, in fact. I made 3 gallons of brine, with 4 cups of kosher salt, and 2 cups of sugar. Brined them for about 3-4 hours. Ended up being just right - good flavor and not mushy at all.
I didn't use a rub on these, since I wanted a pretty neutral flavor, as I don't know what the final "resting place" of the chicken will be. Instead, I basted with lemon juice, salt and peppered the outside, and threw a large slice of lemon, 2 whole (slightly crushed) cloves garlic, and quarter onion in the cavity of each. Loved the resulting aroma and flavor. Should have thrown in a sprig or two of fresh thyme or rosemanry, but just didn't think of it.
I wasn't worried about the skin, since it was all going into big shreds and being frozen for future use when baby #3 keeps us up all night.
Wish I had pictures... seeing 6 of those mohagany babies all lined up makes a man proud...