Stuck at home? Multiple cooks!


 
Rich G

Rich G

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So, I'm stuck at home. Maybe some of you know the feeling? Well, I had some chickens that needed to be cooked, but the family agreed they didn't want that for dinner..... So, I decided I would smoke the chickens, then remove the meat from the carcasses for later use (saving the bones, of course, for some killer smoked chicken stock!) I set the 26" kettle up with a double stack of Kingsford Pro, some cherry, and lit both ends of the snake. Temps stayed pretty low (180-210), but that was fine with me, as I wasn't really looking for a quick cook. I think the total time for four chickens ended up being about 3.5 hours. For dinner, I got the coals going again (after shutting them down earlier), and cooked up some of the bratwurst I made the other day. These went indirect for about 12 minutes, then direct for 3-4 flipping a couple of times (this was over the saved coals from the chicken cook, so not as hot as a fresh chimney of coals. I'm VERY happy with this batch of sausage. Flavor was great, very juicy, and cooked up great on the grill.

So....here are some pics:

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I'm stuck at home for part of each week (in the office at least one or two days, the rest working from home), but that certainly has freed up more of my time for outdoor cooking, indeed. And, your picks make me want to do just that! Great job on the chickens and brats; keep up the good work!
 
Gotta make the best of the situation, and it seems you did just that. I've been cooking a lot more as well, and frankly, enjoying it.
 
Whoa! Looks great! If you showed those 4 whole birds up here you'd have looters at your door! Hopefully you truned the carcasses into stock!
 
I'm stuck at home also but with 30+mph winds and pouring rain on and off I haven't ventured outside to cook in over a month, maybe more.
Yesterdays high was 41 and windy, this morning started out at 27 degrees.
Guess it will be another adventure with the Instant Pot today.
 
CaseT said:
Whoa! Looks great! If you showed those 4 whole birds up here you'd have looters at your door! Hopefully you truned the carcasses into stock!
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Case, today's kitchen adventure will have that bag of bones along with all of my other saved chicken parts, simmering on the stove for most of the day. :) Usually I make my stock in the Instant Pot these days, but I've got an excess of chicken carcasses saved up, so I need a bigger pot! :)

R
 
Rich G said:
Case, today's kitchen adventure will have that bag of bones along with all of my other saved chicken parts, simmering on the stove for most of the day. :) Usually I make my stock in the Instant Pot these days, but I've got an excess of chicken carcasses saved up, so I need a bigger pot! :)

R
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That's great! The last batch I made yielded 16 cups of liquid gold! Which we froze into 4 cup portions. We use alot of homemade stock and always try and have 8-12 cups on hand.
 
Lots of good eats there Rich! Everything looks excellent.

OT.... You mentioned in one of your posts that you were working out of a 50 lb. bag of flour. Did you snag that on line somewhere? Up here KA flour ( any flour for that matter) is scarcer than toilet paper and hand sanitizer, One of the better baking suppliers up here said they haven't had a delivery from KA in well over a week.
 
Cliff Bartlett said:
OT.... You mentioned in one of your posts that you were working out of a 50 lb. bag of flour. Did you snag that on line somewhere?
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Cliff, indeed I did! Central Milling out of Utah makes fantastic flour, and their west coast distribution point is Keith Giusto's Bakery Supply in Petaluma. I was able to get an order of their Artisan Baker's Craft flour delivered at a "reasonable" cost/lb in the 50 lb sack. This flour is at the high end of AP or low end of Bread flour from a protein perspective, and I have found it is much thirstier than my Gold Medal that I usually use. I've upped the hydration on my bread from my normal 70% to 76% with this flour. I just checked centralmilling.com and they have 25 and 50 lb sacks of the ABC available. Typical turn around has been ~1 week.
 
That stock you are going to make today is going to make the whole cook worth it. What are you planning to do with the chicken? I like Brad's idea of a jambalaya if any of those sausages are left over. I have never created a stock from smoke birds, but I have from roasted birds, I am looking forward trying that this spring/summer. How much of the smoke flavor makes it into the stock?
 
Michael Richards said:
That stock you are going to make today is going to make the whole cook worth it. What are you planning to do with the chicken? .......... How much of the smoke flavor makes it into the stock?
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Michael, oh, yeah, I love saving carcasses (raw or cooked) for stock. Not sure what I'll do with the chicken, could be jambalaya, enchiladas, tacos, chile colorado, etc, etc. As far as the smoke flavor in the stock, it's subtle, but provides a great additional flavor note to the stock. Not overpowering in any way, just a bit more depth. I probably have 1/3 smoked bones to 2/3 raw carcasses from chickens I've butchered.

R
 
Rich,
I am up for so enchiladas made with smoked chicken.

My wife has never been a fan of bland Thanksgiving day turkey so I worked for years to perfect a killer rub to roast the turkey and also to use to make the best kicking gravy. Then I make stock with the bones and that stock is gold in my house. Usually sometime in later winter I repeat the process.
Michael
 
After a week of delightful upper 60’s - lower 70’s we have been Michigan weather slapped with cold and snow for the last three days! It makes me rather cranky simply because I’m really tired of winter! I don’t much feel like fighting with much right now but, that cook makes me pray for more seasonable weather!
 
Rich G said:
Michael, oh, yeah, I love saving carcasses (raw or cooked) for stock. Not sure what I'll do with the chicken, could be jambalaya, enchiladas, tacos, chile colorado, etc, etc. As far as the smoke flavor in the stock, it's subtle, but provides a great additional flavor note to the stock. Not overpowering in any way, just a bit more depth. I probably have 1/3 smoked bones to 2/3 raw carcasses from chickens I've butchered.

R
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I wanted to give you an update I smoked my last whole chicken just over a week ago. It was the first time I used a savory flavor profile to cook on my WSM. I made stock with the carcass and used that as a base yesterday when I made Pennsylvania Dutch style Chicken hen Corn soup. The flavor of the smoked and the flavor of the rub I used both came through, it was the perfect addition.
Michael
 
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