chicken

September 10, 2017 Butcher's Guide

Chicken Pops On An Electric Smoker

Plum Chicken Pops is my favorite recipe from my new book The Complete Electric Smoker Cook Book. Chicken Pops are one of those things that are a bit of a trick to make therefore they’ll take a bit more time. As a result they are always more appreciated. Check out the video to see the How To pluck the pops HERE.

Chicken drumsticks have always been a BBQ favorite. We love them as a kid because they are tasty, hand held, portable, and fun. As an adult I can also appreciate the fact that dark cuts of chicken are easier to cook without drying out. Because dark meat is so affordable – heck inexpensive – my wallet is happy too.

Furthermore, the addition of this sweet and sticky plum sauce takes the drum stick to the next level of flavor. Plus, making the handle all fancy (a technique known as “Frenching”) keeps your family’s fingers from getting too sticky. The boys (young and old) will just like it because it looks cave man cool.

Plum Chicken Pops

12 chicken drumsticks
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper

For the plum sauce:

¾ of a 16 oz jar of plum jam
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp minced onion
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp ground ginger
Salt & pepper to taste (less than i did in the video – whoops)

First of all make the plum sauce. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and remove from heat after reaching a boil. Set aside.

For the unique looking legs that I call pops you need cut the skin down to the bone just over the bottom end leg joint. Stretch skin as much as possible on drumsticks and using a needle nose pliers, remove the thin, white tendons from each leg. You’ll need to grip (I suggest using a paper towel to grasp the slick skin) the meaty end and then

pull and “pluck” the long tendons This can sometimes be tricky (and slippery) to do. Don’t panic if you lose a bit of meat clinging to the shoelace -like tendons. Grip the meaty end to help keep more meat in the process.

Sprinkle each with salt and pepper and head to the smoker.

I used cherry wood and smoked on a Char-broil Electric Smoker for 90 minutes at a steady 250 degrees F. Look for the skin and meat to retract to create a nice looking ball at the end of your “chicken pop.”

Finally, I like to dredge the pops in the sticky sauce. However it’s really up to you.

October 11, 2016 Featured

Authentic Jerk Chicken Rub

Authentic Jamaican Jerk chicken – how can you make it easy?

I visited at one of the south’s most authentic jerk festivals to try to get some tricks on spices that will unlock authentic Jamaican Jerk flavor. I learned some basics:

Most often you’ll get leg quarters… With the skin scored… Jerk spice rub is typically a fiery blend of allspice, Scotch bonnet peppers and sometimes scallion, thyme, ginger, even rum. The folks i talked to in the video were big into escovitch (pickled vegetables).

The habanero is the standard scotch bonnet substitute- they are different, but the same species. When ripe, the Scotch bonnet looks sort of like a little squashed reddish orange paper lantern.

flickr-Jason Smith

After some research (tasty research) I adapted this rub and here’s how to make it at home…

Good news is the leg quarters are really affordable.. Start with that. I used half Chickens here but the breast is less forgiving than the dark meat – that’s why competition BBQ teams use thighs exclusively… I also used the remaining sauce in the small blender after coating chicken and added 4 tablespoons of cane syrup and 4 tablespoons of texas pete plus another habanero and blended to create a VERY hot but wonderful hot sauce. Great flavor.

JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN
4 chicken leg quarters

¼ cup canola oil

2 Tbsp whole Allspice Berries (pimento berries)

2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp salt

8 cloves

6 sliced habanero peppers

¼ cup cane syrup

1 green onion, chopped
Score chicken and heat smoker to 275°F. Brush the chicken with canola oil. Combine the remaining ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth and sticky. Use apple or cherry wood chips for a sweet smoked flavor and throw in a few of the whole allspice berries as well. Brush mixture on chicken and under skin. Smoke approximately 45 minutes – 1 hour. Remove chicken from the smoker when the temperature is 160°F and let it stand about 10 minutes so it will be at the targeted temperature of 165°F by the time you are ready to eat. Baste with additional jerk seasoning before serving.

March 23, 2016 Featured

BBQ Chicken Done Crispy – Barbecue Tricks

Crispy skin on BBQ chicken can be a tricky thing. The slow roasted fat-rendering is just not something our fast paced world takes care to do. Plus if you’re attempting to slowly smoke poultry a lot of times you can end up with a rubbery skin. Some competition guys will remove, chill and shave the skins for chicken thighs… that’s a lot of work. Here’s a different method. I think it retains more fatty flavor too.

Salt The Chicken Under the Skin

It’s a trick to control the barbecue chicken. It’s easy but takes a bit of time. Four hours prep time to be exact.

The secret is in salting the pieces (you can spice the salt a bit see recipe below).

I call it a dry brine. Rub your spice blend into the meat UNDER the skin and lightly on the skin surface on all sides. Thenplace the pieces on a pan uncovered in the refrigerator to dry fro four hours. You can experiment with the time if you want but it has worked repeatedly for me with different sized pieces.

After four hours remove and if ther is any moisture on the pieces of chicken blot with towel (I did not see any when I did the video).

I used a water pan smoker (Brinkmann Gourmet Charcoal) and cooked low (about 270 degrees) for about an hour with pecan wood smoke (wood chips). The result was a golden brown crispy skin that is tought to find without a rotisserie.

Crispy Skin BBQ Chicken

Internal temp was over 160 so after a quick slather of a sweet sauce I lowered the grate (use the bottom of the smoker without the middle piece or fire up your grill to HIGH) and seared the pieces over a direct high heat. Pay attention here this process is quick and flame ups happen quickly.

Be prepared to remove from the grill at any point.

The result was a crispy – bite through – succulent batch of bbq chicken. See the result in the video and “thumb it up” and subscribe if you like.

Crispy BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole cut-up chicken

Pecan wood chips for grilling

Dry Brine Ingredients:

2 tsp salt

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground black pepper

Lip-smacking Homemade BBQ Sauce Ingredients:

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1 medium onion, minced

1 Chipotle pepper, minced

1 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 cup ketchup

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

5 Tbsp dark molasses

3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

2 tsp hot sauce

Mix 2 tsp salt and 2 tsp garlic powder together and spread on outside of each piece of chicken as well as underneath the skin. Place in the refrigerator for about 4 hours. This brining technique will produce a crispier skin while preserving moisture in the chicken during grilling. Put the chicken on indirect heat in a charcoal smoker and cook low and slow for about one hour, adding wood chips as necessary for flavor. I use pecan wood. While that is cooking, make the sauce. Heat oil in a deep sauce pan and add garlic and onions until they soften. Add Chipotle pepper and heat for 20 seconds before stirring in the remaining ingredients. Cook on low heat for 20 minutes until thickened. When cool, strain out onion and garlic “chunks” if desired. After smoking for about an hour, move chicken to direct heat, cover generously on both sides with barbecue sauce. Cook for about 10-15 minutes turning constantly to char, basting with more sauce. Be careful as the sugar will burn, so move pieces as flare-ups occur. Serve with additional heated barbecue sauce on the side.

November 23, 2014 Gadgets

Rotisserie Chicken and Rotisserie Turkey

CLICK FOR VIDEO There’s something about a rotisserie chicken.

They’re everywhere these days in supermarkets – slow roasting by the dozen on display in industrial cookers the size of your guest bedroom. But the truth is if you have a rotisserie kit (it may have come with that fancy new grill and is now in a box in the attic somewhere) it’s actually pretty easy.

Every attempt we made with our gas powered Sam’s Club spit and electric motor set up ended with incredibly succulent and golden brown bird.

There’s only about four ingredients.

Here’s an updated video overview using turkey: http://youtu.be/xqB5mLKevxI First start with a clean bird – Chicken and small Turkey seem to work equally as well. Rub lightly (watch for too much salt) with BBQ Tricks house seasoning UNDER the skin and over the entire outer surface of the skin. Rub seasoning generously inside the cavity of the bird (remove any “spare parts.” Let the bird rest (upright if possible) uncovered in the refrigerator for about four hours to allow the seasoning to take and also to dry the skin a bit (this helps to crisp the skin later). My hunch is you could bypass all the above and still have an incredible meal but the little things do make a difference. Remove the bird and let it come to room temperature about an hour before you plan to cook. two or three hours before you plan to serve. Before you put the chicken or turkey on the spit mark the location of the grill’s burner with two marks (with a Sharpie Permanent Marker) so you’ll always know exactly where to slide the meat in the future. The most important thing to accomplish is to balance and secure the bird firmly on the rotisserie prongs so that the entire mechanism rotates smoothly on the spit. Use trussing to help if needed. Test it by rolling the spit ends on a flat surface or even on your hands. After you have it on a hot grill it’s very difficult to adjust. Also use pliers to secure thumb screws. You don’t want an end to slide.

Finally make sure the spit is secure in the motor mechanism. Confirm there is no way for it to slide out (does it sound like it happened to me?)! After you start the spin and cook come back and sight check everything after five minutes. Let it Cook til golden brown checking infrequently for one to two hours. Our 4.72 lbs chicken took just over two hours.

When golden check the temperature with a good thermometer and remove to a cutting board to rest. BBQ Tricks House Seasoning 2 Tablespoons Kosher Salt 1/2 Tablespoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper (grinding is a little bit more work but worth it) 1/2 Tablespoon Garlic Powder add Paprika for color

July 1, 2013 Competitions

Award Winning Chicken for BBQ

If you’re a first timer trying your hand in a big time BBQ competition you’re in luck. Our weekly podcast at http://GrateTV.com has put together a few quick videos to help you get started smart. Save yourself some time and money and watch how to present competition chicken here.

The Kansas City Barbecue Society is the world’s biggest sanctioning organizations and a few skillful pit masters attempt to make a living traveling from contest to contest (some call it a circuit) trying to win the most prize money. Some of the contest pay thousands. But it’s not a very cheap barrier to enter. Contest fees, travel, food costs, and yeah beer, all add up. Especially if you don’t walk to get a trophy.

So here’s a few ways to jump ahead of the pack in chicken. Our latest video walks you through the “presenting” or appearance of Chicken for BBQ. Dig deeper for a really nice Chicken skin prep primer.

And here’s our YOUTUBE playlist for all things chicken.

April 12, 2013 Competitions

Chicken For BBQ – GrateTV

Competition BBQ season has fired up and GrateTV is sharing the best tips and tricks on chicken for BBQ.

This week it’s a sample look at the Carolina Pit Master’s Barbecue Cooking School class on competition chicken with Seth Watari.

Seth dissects (literally) the chicken thigh and shows a trick for perfecting bite through chicken for BBQ and presenting a KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) competition Chicken box.

July 6, 2012 Featured

Clay Pot Sculpted Chicken

Ever sculpt your dinner?

Here’s a dramatic way to present BBQ chicken that bakes in all the flavor and adds a fun exclamation point to the start of the meal. Imagine presenting a guest with a clay sculpture of the chicken he or she is about to eat. They bust it open and have a succulent chicken ready to eat. Super fun. Jack Waiboer and GrateTV took a look at this technique done up with a flourish at the 2012 Bovinova in Greer, SC. Also inspired by a Saveur article we dug up here.

GrateTV is our weekly BBQ and Grill show hosted by Jack Waiboer from http://carolinapitmasters.com and Barbecue Tricks founder Bill West.

February 19, 2012 Cook

BBQ Chicken Can Be Deadly

The Dangers of Eating Undercooked Chicken

By Lynne Evans

You hear a lot of scary stories about people contracting illnesses which have been linked to undercooked chicken and unfortunately the results of eating n undercooked one can be severe and even fatal.

The problem is often that if you cook a chicken after defrosting, it may require a longer cooking time. Cooking in a microwave can be tricky as often I have found, the chicken is still raw close to the bone. You should avoid eating chicken meat which looks bloody. However smoked chicken may remain pink even hen thoroughly cooked, so checking only the color is not recommended.

Chicken can often contain the bacteria Staphylococcus aurea, and this can cause food poisoning. The problem with this strain of bacteria is that it has become resistant to certain antibiotics including penicillin.

Salmonella food poisoning outbreaks are also associated with chicken, and the meat can be infected by human handlers. This can cause a variety of symptoms and cause osteomylitis, where bones are infected, pericarditis which occurs when the bacteria attack the sac surrounding the heart, meningitis when the brain or spinal cord are infected, and hepatitis which is a liver disease, and pneumonia, a lung problem. Salmonella typhi bacteria can be the cause of typhoid fever too. However the symptoms of salmonella poisoning are usually milder with vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea, stomach cramps and these usually only last for one or two days.

Another bacterium which can be present in undercooked chicken is campylobacter which can lad to Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is a temporary paralysis which begins in the feet (you experience a tingling sensation) and moves upwards. This can cause complete paralysis, although this is usually temporary but may result in some weakness which will remain.

Chicken nuggets have recently caused outbreaks of food poisoning, perhaps because people eat them raw or do not realize that they are undercooked because they are coated in breadcrumbs and bite-sized – by the time you realize they are not properly cooked, it is probably too late.

The bacteria mentioned here are killed by cooking chicken at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius, Gas mark 5. For a fan oven a whole chicken should be roasted at this temperature, while for a conventional oven the temperatures should be 190 degrees Celsius or 375 degrees Fahrenheit. The formula for cooking a chicken is generally recognized to be 20 minutes per pound plus and extra 20 minutes. (454 grams equals one pound weight.)

If you buy chicken products, then read the cooking instructions carefully and follow them to the letter to avoid any illnesses related to undercooked chicken. It’ so easy to get it right that you shouldn’t be alarmed by the food poisoning stories you hear. Chicken is safe to eat as long as you cook it thoroughly.

http://www.herbs-treatandtaste.blogspot.com If you found this article interesting you might like this website, as it contains information about the food we eat and the plants we can use to stay healthy. There are also easy to follow delicious recipes that are usually a fusion of western and eastern cuisines. Why not click on the link and see what it is all about for yourself?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynne_Evans
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Dangers-of-Eating-Undercooked-Chicken&id=6868164

January 7, 2012 Cook

Beer In The Rear Turkey 25.4

Beer In The Rear Turkey

Turkeyon a grill or smoker can be tricky. It’s easy to get rubbery skin (and that can actually make some people mad). There’s a lot of expectation on a Thanksgiving dinner especially with skin lovers.

Beer in the Rear Turkey is almost fool proof. It’s quick and give you a crisp golden skin with a hint of smoke.

The first time I heard about the beer can trick was around 1999 when my morning radio hosts became enamored with a recipe they found called Beer Butt Chicken. They thought it was so great (probably just liked that the word Butt was in a recipe) they wanted to bring a grill to the radio station and demo it in the parking lot. I’ve grown to like it too. So it’s fun to be able to super size the recipe.

This time the poor thing gets violated with not just a regular beer can but you use the big “Foster’s Lager” sized can of beer. You can find it in most grocery stores. Reserve half and enjoy as you prep. You’ve earned it. You’re going to want to punch some holes in the top of the can and put some spice rub in the can. And then you get to the bird…where you clean off the bird really well and make sure you get all the different things out of the inside of the cavity of the bird. They hide it in different areas… the neck, the gizzards…

Caution: It's harder to REMOVE the can...

With the bbq spice rub inside the can… the steam and the beer flavoring will actually steam through the turkey and infuse it with a really super flavor keeping the bird moist from the inside out. You’re not going to get much from the outside-in because the skin of a turkey is kind of like a wet suit. Rub the spice under the skin (I call this getting to second base with the Turkey). The skin is really pretty resilient and thick so you’re not going to damage anything.

Then you just insert the can upright inside the bird. Carefully lower the turkey on top of the can making kind of a tripod of sorts. If you need a little extra room on the grill you may want to remove the bottom grill grate and put the tripod on a small roasting pan actually on the floor of the grill directly on the burners of the gas grill. You won’t actually turn the burners on under the bird. Set up for indirect grilling heat. Temperature is going to be 325 to 375 (if you have a temperature gage on your gas grill – use it this time). You can usually get this temp/indirect by having one or two gas burners on and the other two off.

To get a lick of smoke use some wood chips in a smoker box on he lit burner or using a tin foil pouch. Making a smoker pouch really easy. Then and then just let it cook.

After about an hour – open it up turn the bird around let it cook for another hour or until it gets golden brown on both sides. Use a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh and cook until you hit at least 160 degrees.

You’ll want to use gloves and be super careful removing that can. The liquid is dangerously hot and the can is greasy! Let rest before carving.

Beer In The RearTurkey

In the video demo we used an 11.75 lbs turkeyand cooked for two and a half hours (150 minutes). Approximately 345 degrees Indirect heat.

“Discard” half of the beer. Add 2 tablespoons Rub into remaining liquid in can. Using a “churchkey” can opener add additional holes to top of can. Insert upright under and inside turkey using legs as tripod support. Grill over indirect heat 2 to 3 hours until temperature measures 160 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh. Let rest before carving serving.

Ingredients:

1 wholeTurkey(10 to 18 lbs.)

6 tablespoons of BBQ Rub or Greek Seasoning

1 can Fosters Lager (or 25.4 oz other)

January 1, 2012 Gluten-Free

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Plum Chicken Pops

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