Too smokey chicken


 
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f.j. tedford

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I tried a 3.29# whole fryer om the WSM today with less than ideal results. I used Lazari mesquite lump charcoal and about six half fist size chunks of mesquite lit via the Minion Method. I smoked at 275 to 290 deg. measured thru the vent for 3.25 hr. I was trying to cook a little high to get a tender to slightly crisped skin. The rub was Steve's Hot Chicken Rub out of Paul Kirk's Championship Sauces book. I skimpped on the cayenne and thought the result was not spicy enough.

The real problem is that the bird turned out with too strong a smoke flavor. I think next time I'll just stick to Kingsford and fewer wood chunks. The chicken was tender and juicy - just too smokey and the skin was not tender enough. I might want to give dry smoking a try sometime too. All suggestions appreciated.
 
I tend to go with fewer pieces of wood and definitely avoid mesquite, as its flavor, at the best, is overpowering, and at its worst, gives a bitter taste to the meat.

I think you are on the right track using the higher temp for chicken to get the skin right.

Dale
 
I agree with Dale.
Hickory is great with Chicken. Cherry is also very good.
You may also try pre-burning down some of your chunks a little in your starter chimney or an extra grill. This will knock out a lot of the harshness and moisture. Once your chunks are burned down to hot coals you can use tongs or a small shovel to place them in your fire pan.
 
Save the mesquite for grilling steaks, chicken doesn't need much smoke. I use fruit woods,possibly alder not anything much stronger than that.
Jim
 
Having experienced almost the exact situation you've described (only with turkey), I'm more than happy to pass along one of my over-smoking shortcomings! What you in effect did was similar but antithetically paramount to my adding shock and chlorine simultaneously to my pool and wondering why my swim suit suddenly disappeared from my body! Unlike your wise request for advice (and in my pre-VWBB days), I would attempt to explain away my black, bitter, mesquite scented turkey as a normal occurrence when smoking foods! After following the advice given by the guys/gals that have responded to you (among the other experts at this site), I now proudly serve a most delicious tasting and looking smoked product. For chickens, I regularly follow the Minion Method using vanilla Kingsford with fruit woods, settle down with a good beer or two for a longer, slower smoke while following the chicken-on-a-throne directions published here by Chris. As to the crispness of the skin and since this characteristic is usually one of personal preference, all I can add is that in all the many times I've served this dish I have never once received a complaint concerning the skin texture. Possibly this is because using this particular recipe in conjunction with the WSM produces such a dynamite product no one notices! I have read however, that basting with butter during the last stages of the cook would produce a more crisp skin. Hope this helps; but anyway, don't get discouraged and continue to experiment. ? ?.John
 
John,

I was thrown for a loop by "antithetically paramount", but I really got confused when you said you were using vanilla-flavored Kingsford!
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Thanks for the great post,
Chris
 
Great post, John. Where can I get the vanilla flavored Kingsford?
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Have a good trip down this way.

Doug
 
I use 3/4 peach and 1/4 mesquite..
it kicks booty....
Mesquite is very overpowering....
fruit it up!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Doug Wilbur:
Great post, John. Where can I get the vanilla flavored Kingsford?
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Have a good trip down this way.

Doug</font> <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Vanilla Kingsford:

20Lb bag of Kingsford charcoal
1 pint of vanilla extract

Mix well.
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------------------
Couch Potato
 
OK, you guys asked for this!!!

Vanilla:
1. (Default flavour of ice cream in the US) Ordinary flavour, standard. When used of food, very often does not mean that the food is flavoured with vanilla extract! For example, "vanilla wonton soup" means ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 Unix can't run on a vanilla PDP 11/34." Also used to orthogonalise chip nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from canonical in that the latter means "default", whereas vanilla simply means "ordinary". For example, when hackers go to a chinese restaurant, hot-and-sour wonton soup is the canonical wonton soup to get (because that is what most of them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla wonton soup.


....vanilla John!
 
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