Recent Chicken Experiments

BluesnBBQ

I did a few chickens this week, in slightly different ways. This experimentation came from my idea of roasting a chicken in the Egg. Each time I used a smallish (3-3.5 lb) whole chicken. The chickens were cooked on a sitter, which rested in a drip pan on top of a pizza stone. Here's the resuls.[p]Chicken #1 - Very basic. I rubbed it with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Cooked it at high heat (450-500) for about an hour. The skin was slightly burnt in a couple of places, but the meat was moist. The high temp did not dry it out. I used a couple of pecan chunks, but didn't notice any smoke taste. The taste was similar to a rotissere chicken, and my guests proclaimed me a "gourmet." [p]Chicken #2 - I made a paste from McCormick's Jamaican Jerk Rub, soy sauce, vegetable oil, and cider vinegar. I rubbed most of it under the skin, and rubbed the rest over the skin. I let it sit in the fridge (on the sitter) for about 30 minutes and cooked it the way I did #1. It was good, but I probably should have let it marinade longer. The major accomplishment with this one is I finally got the hang of separating the skin from the meat (only cut the skin in one place!). Next time I do this, I'm going to make a garlic/ginger/olive oil paste and let it sit much longer.[p]Chicken #3 - I brined this one Wednesday night. It wasn't completely thawed when I put it in the brine. I kind of killed two birds with one stone (no pun intended) by letting it thaw in the brine. I took it out and rinsed it Thursday morning. Then I put it in the sitter, and left it in the fridge (uncovered) all day. When I got home from work, I took it out, and rubbed the skin with olive oil and lemon pepper (just on a whim, I thought lemon pepper would go well with chicken. I was right). This one I started slow and low. I kept the temp around 200 for about 30 minutes. I used one soaked hickory chink. After the first half hour, I removed the top and let the temp rise. It got to about 400 for the last 10 minutes or so, but mostly cooked at around 350. I cooked it this way for about a half hour and shut both dampers. I let it dwell for 15 minutes. It came out very juicy and smokey. It probably could have cooked another 15 minutes, and a little hotter - I would have liked crispier skin. But I was very pleased with the results - from now on when I brine, I'm going to let my birds sit for a few hours when their baths are over.[p]The fast cook method is very easy to do chicken - it's a great way to quickly cook a meal. Whole chickens are generally very cheap, so it's also economical. I think next time I'll brine one and cook it hot and fast.[p]I found that I didn't need a very deep drip pan - you get a lot of grease when you cook at high temps, but a lot of it evaporates. For last night's chicken I used an aluminum foil pizza pan on top of the foil covered pizza stone. That worked fine. I wouldn't recommend doing this directly - you might end up with a grease fire! But with a pizza stone, you get a quickly cooked bird that won't burn.[p]Try roasting a chicken some time - I think you'll like it.

Nature Boy

BluesnBBQ,
Nice report. Thanks.
Sure are a whole bunch of things pointing towards brining.
Hard to not brine once you have tried it.[p]Thanks again for the informative report.
NB