Have You Ever Cooked Barbeque Chicken that was Underdone, Dry, or Charred?
You don’t want your chicken to look like the picture on the left below. I’m sure you’ve been to events where the barbeque chicken could be described by the headline above.
Well this page provides the secrets of great smoked chicken for the new cook. Chicken is one of those things that everyone likes, but it’s also one of those outdoor foods that gets ruined frequently.
It really does not have to be that way. You can produce great barbeque chicken by focusing on proper preparation, cooking time and temperature, and seasoning.
The biggest mistake that new cooks make with chicken is overcooking. The meat becomes dry and chewy and many cooks like to cover up the mistakes with barbeque sauce.
Many people will try to cook the chicken slathered in sauce over a hot flame resulting the charred remains of what used to be a piece of chicken.
This site also has a great “how to” recipe for Beer Can Chicken, just click on this link to go to the page.
The key secret to good chicken is that the cook must use either a marinade or brine solution prior to cooking. A marinade will enhance the flavor and keep the meat from drying out.
Italian salad dressing makes a good chicken marinade. Marinate for at least eight hours.
Brine is a salt and sugar solution(along with other spices) used to flavor and increase the moisture level in meat. Brining uses the process of osmosis and diffusion of concentrated solutions from higher to lower concentrations to move water molecules into the cells of the chicken.
The chicken’s cells actually increase their volume of water and swell. A significant amount of water is retained during the cooking process resulting in making the chicken moist. Although marinades are good, brining, in my opinion, is a better option for chicken than marinade.
The performance of brining solutions is so good that you wonder why the technique is not more widely known.
The Steps for Successful “Smoked” Barbeque Chicken:
- Make sure the chicken is clean by rinsing in water.
- Trim excess skin and fat.
- Prep the surface of the chicken with olive oil, mustard, or mayonaise.
- Sprinkle with your favorite chicken rub.
- Put the chicken in your smoker at about 250 to 275 degrees and cook no more than 1.5 hours.
- Wrap the chicken in foil and cook another 45 minutes.
- Take chicken out of the foil wrap and then sauce with your favorite barbeque sauce
- Place the chicken (unwrapped) back in the smoker for another 5-10 minutes to set the glaze of the sauce
- Take out of the smoker and let rest for 15 minutes.
- You are ready to serve!