Chris in Louisiana
TVWBB All-Star
I cooked three chickens on the WSM tonight, based on recipes from Gary Wiviott’s “Low and Slow” book.
One each of:
Buttermilk Brine
Tequila Lime Brine
Thai Marinade
Followed instructions/time on brining and marinading the three split birds. Maxed out the brining/marinading times. Air dried the brined birds, etc, per the book.
Fired up two full Weber starters of Kingsford briquets. Put it all on, lit well, plus three chunks of hickory.
I ordinarily use a dry pan for chicken or turkey, but Gary’s book uses water for all, so I succumbed and used one big pitcher of water in the pan. All vents wide open the whole time.
After 1 hour of no lifting (the book said it should be done, though supermarket chickens are big these days and I threw on 3 rather than 1), temp was only 146 in thighs. Temp on ‘09 WSM dome said only about 250.
Kept smoking. Meat slowly crept to 160 in thighs, per my probe. Tested a few spots on other thigh pieces on top rack, all around 160, and removed. (Gary says 155 thigh/165 breast, but I went over to be safe).
Cut one open. Still a little too rare near the thigh bone. Surprised. (May have to check that probe temp; Thermapen is coming for Christmas.)
Put in oven to finish, because it was getting late, and we were hungry. Done in about 20 minutes.
All quite flavorful. We liked the Buttermilk Brine the best. Moist and tasty. Could taste a hint of the jalapeno in the Tequila Lime Brine chicken. That was a nice hit. Had a bit of No. 5 Sauce to go with them, but sauce was not really needed.
After we ate, I noticed the WSM temp was at 300+ and stayed there quite a while. I think the pitcher of H2O finally boiled out of the pan, and the temp went up.
If I had it to do over, I would use a dry pan and high heat as I usually do for chicken. I will use the Buttermilk Brine recipe again. The other two recipes were good, but the Buttermilk Brine was best and most plump/moist to us, and it is easier to do one big batch for all birds.
Has anyone else tried any of these?
Any thoughts or comments are welcome.
One each of:
Buttermilk Brine
Tequila Lime Brine
Thai Marinade
Followed instructions/time on brining and marinading the three split birds. Maxed out the brining/marinading times. Air dried the brined birds, etc, per the book.
Fired up two full Weber starters of Kingsford briquets. Put it all on, lit well, plus three chunks of hickory.
I ordinarily use a dry pan for chicken or turkey, but Gary’s book uses water for all, so I succumbed and used one big pitcher of water in the pan. All vents wide open the whole time.
After 1 hour of no lifting (the book said it should be done, though supermarket chickens are big these days and I threw on 3 rather than 1), temp was only 146 in thighs. Temp on ‘09 WSM dome said only about 250.
Kept smoking. Meat slowly crept to 160 in thighs, per my probe. Tested a few spots on other thigh pieces on top rack, all around 160, and removed. (Gary says 155 thigh/165 breast, but I went over to be safe).
Cut one open. Still a little too rare near the thigh bone. Surprised. (May have to check that probe temp; Thermapen is coming for Christmas.)
Put in oven to finish, because it was getting late, and we were hungry. Done in about 20 minutes.
All quite flavorful. We liked the Buttermilk Brine the best. Moist and tasty. Could taste a hint of the jalapeno in the Tequila Lime Brine chicken. That was a nice hit. Had a bit of No. 5 Sauce to go with them, but sauce was not really needed.
After we ate, I noticed the WSM temp was at 300+ and stayed there quite a while. I think the pitcher of H2O finally boiled out of the pan, and the temp went up.
If I had it to do over, I would use a dry pan and high heat as I usually do for chicken. I will use the Buttermilk Brine recipe again. The other two recipes were good, but the Buttermilk Brine was best and most plump/moist to us, and it is easier to do one big batch for all birds.
Has anyone else tried any of these?
Any thoughts or comments are welcome.