Sassafrass smoke for chickn WORKS!

[Dave Russell]

Some might appreciate the details of a highly successful chicken cook for our family reunion last weekend. I smoked three pork butts in my wsm overnight, and my cousin and I smoked aprox. 35 lbs. of leg quarters in a large vertical smoker fueled with well seasoned Sassafrass. The pork butts cooked a bit too much so were a little dry (Don't fail to monitor IMT with a probe, because I was reminded that you can't always go by how far the bone is sticking out!

)

... BUT, the chicken was as good as I've ever had.

The night before, my cousin bagged the chicken in ziplocks with Wishbone Italian dressing while I mixed the seasoning. I didn't have my usual recipes with me so I just decided to try Paul Kirks rub recipe.

Well, we were kind of late getting up and so we had to just shake the marinade off and season right before going on the pit. However, the chicken was fantastic, including the skin. I don't think it was all completely "bite through", but it sure was tasty, and had a perfecty acceptable texture.

I credit the success not only to good smoke, marinade and seasoning, but also to good temps, probably an average of 300, AND...my handy thermopen. The sassafrass smelled really sweet and didn't distract from the chicken's flavor at all. My favorite smoke for bird so far, and thankfully, my dad has some to cut on his place!

Get ya some!

 

[Bob Correll]

Sounds like a great cook Dave!
Thanks for the info!

I have a couple of medium size sassafras trees in the yard, been meaning to prune some for smoke wood.
I'll do it once the temperature drops from swelter to just hotter than heck.

 

[Dave Russell]

You're mighty welcome, Bob.

Just an FYI, I don't place huge emphasis on seasoning fruitwood, but I do when it comes to nutwoods like hickory and pecan. Pecan, especially, can be real sooty when green. Anyway, I don't really know if seasoning is paramount for sassafrass, but the wood we used was pretty old and I was actually wondering about how it would turn out. The smoke did smell sweet, though.

BTW, I didn't know "sweltering" was "hotter than heck"...lol..It's still cool here: 94 in the shade.

 

[Chris E]

I've been using sassafrass chunks from my local BBQ store on the WSM with chicken and turkey. Crowd seems to like it. Definitely distinct and smells nice when cooking.

 

[Bill Rogers]

Any truth to the "rumor" that you should remove the bark from sassafrass wood before putting it in the smoker? I read somewhere that the bark will produce a bitter taste.

 

[Dave Russell]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bill Rogers:
Any truth to the "rumor" that you should remove the bark from sassafrass wood before putting it in the smoker? I read somewhere that the bark will produce a bitter taste. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have no idea, Bill. Most of it was loose or already gone for our cook, as the wood was pretty old. If it would've been up to me, I wouldn't even had used it, but we didn't have anything else. Evidently the old guy who owned the smoker knew better, though.

I do try to hack off nutwood wood bark, but really, I'm just surprised not more folks talk about using sassafrass. Maybe it's nasty if it's green and got all the bark, and that's why folks might shy away from it. I have no idea, but I'll definately be smoking more with the stuff as soon as my folks come up to visit in a couple months. That giant Grand Marquis trunk is good for something!