23 July 2009

Smoky Grilled Chicken


Back in D.C. from a lovely long vacation and thought I would post on this smoky grilled chicken I made a few weeks ago. It's from a recipe my co-worker S- and I saw on the Food Network (don't worry, it was after hours) and we both thought it looked amazing. First, a spice rub and then a long, slow cook on a grill with wood chips to give the chicken great flavor and color. It was fantastic, easily the best grilled chicken I have ever made, and quite simple too. The only problem was that the chicken took about 2 hours to cook so we had dinner at around 10pm... which meant there was a little too much time for mojitos beforehand.

I followed the Neely's recipe closely, so I will leave you with the link and few notes:

1) We used a 'sweet' smoking mix S- picked up from World Market that included applewood but had other things too
2) We have a kettle style charcoal grill so followed Alton Brown's suggestion of making a foil pouch for the (pre-soaked) wood chips and snipping little holes it and it worked well
3) The chicken might take a long time to cook through- have some tasty drinks on hand and friends to keep you company while you wait

4 comments:

kat said...

There is nothing like the taste of meat that has been smoked low & slow

Katerina said...

I still haven't tried smoking chicken yet. I managed to pick up a cheap smoker at a garage sale and have been trying to figure out what to do next. This looks delicious!

Goldie said...

Is it at all possible to create a smoked chicken taste with a gas grill?

Jen said...

Hi Goldie- Yes, I think you could do this recipe quite easily in a gas grill. What you want to do is cook the chicken over indirect heat and add smoke to the mix. You can do this by turning on half of your grill and letting it preheat for a while. Then prepare a smoker packet with wood chips (soaked in water and well drained) by folding over tin foil to make a double layer. Put some wood chips- a cup or so should do- in the center of the packet, then fold it over and crimp the edges. Then use kitchen sizzors to snip a bunch of holes in the packet. Then you need to get the foil packet onto the direct heat of the grill. You might have to play with this a bit, depending on how your grill is configured and how open the flames are. You want the packet to start smoking (it takes a few minutes) and once it does, put the chicken on the indirect heat side and cook till your thermometer says its done.