Let's Talk BBQ
Recipes => Recipes => Poultry => Topic started by: SmokinKat on January 17, 2014, 05:06:18 PM
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We've had a couple of pretty stressful weeks at home, so I haven't had much time/energy for cooking. Yesterday I decided I was tired of PBJs and take out pizza, and scrounged around in a chest freezer my best friend gave me when her mom passed away last April. (She hadn't wanted to mess with it, and we have enjoyed having the extra space, and also finding the buried treasures in there.)
This was my first try doing two whole chickens, so did just a basic mix of some butter and rub to inject them with and put on the skin. The one on the right I did with the MAK Bird Rub, and the one on the left was Tony Chachere's. In retrospect, the Tony's turned out a bit salty, so I would definitely cut down on the rub next time (actually will probably just use something else entirely, but I was going for quick and easy with what I had on hand.)
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/IMAG2826_zpse6f016ad.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/IMAG2826_zpse6f016ad.jpg.html)
Threw them on at 375 and let them go till the IT was 165 in the breast and let them sit for a bit while I finished up the side dishes. The skin turned out a little less crispy than I like, but the meat was very juicy and tender. I think I'll try patting them dry and using olive oil as the base the next time around to see how they turn out differently, but was a pretty great meal overall! Was a MUCH welcomed break from grab-n-go junk food. James had grand intentions of eating a whole chicken by himself, so this was his plate. (Despite his initial excitement, he was only able to knock out a half breast and a leg.)
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/IMAG2829_zps0a6aed9b.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/IMAG2829_zps0a6aed9b.jpg.html)
I made some quick boxed rice, along with some Brussel sprouts with caramelized onions and browned butter.
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/IMAG2827_zpscf77b5f0.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/IMAG2827_zpscf77b5f0.jpg.html)
Not too shabby for a pretty half-hearted attempt!! :) James doesn't usually like chicken skin, so my next challenge is getting it super perfectly brown and crispy and making him fall in love with it!
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Pretty good looking cook from here ;D
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Mak makes great chicken. Looks excellent! Hold the green balls of death for me ;D
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Beautiful looking bird.
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Mak makes great chicken. Looks excellent! Hold the green balls of death for me ;D
I keep forgetting until after dinner has settled that James, too, transforms these from harmless looking vegetables into green-vapor balls of death.
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I would like my plate to look the same expect breast meat and more rice and veges. milk on side plz. looks excellent to me kat. nice cook. 8)
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Good looking chicken cook.
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Awesome looking chicken and sides Kat! I'll take Pappy's sprouts! ;)
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Great looking chicken. I'll skip on the sprouts. You can give them to someone else ;)
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If this is a "half-hearted" attempt, I don't think I can handle a full throttled attempt :P :P
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I'll take a couple sprouts as well!
Try the next birds at 425*. Hot and fast.
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Great looking chicken Kat!
To get crispier skin finish the chicken at a higher temp and let them sit in the fridge to air dry for a few hours after applying the rub.
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That's a great looking plate, I love to do sprouts that way, sometimes I'll throw a splash of balsamic on them at the very end of the sauté for a change of pace.
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Chicken looks good Kat!!! The one on the plate looks big, no wonder James could not eat it all! I love sprouts too. I agree with muebe on the air dry in the fridge for several hours. Don
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good looking bird you got there ,nice colour too.
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Great looking chicken Kat!
To get crispier skin finish the chicken at a higher temp and let them sit in the fridge to air dry for a few hours after applying the rub.
Thank you for the tips, guys!! Will give that a shot next time with drying them out a bit, and crank the temp up to 425 instead.
James is already eyeballing our hens-- I better get the freezer loaded up before my egg laying population starts disappearing! :)
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Looks really good Kat.. try rubbing some mayo on the skin with the rub, I find it works well getting the skin crispy.
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The chicken looks great, nice color on the skin.
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Very nice cook.
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Nice Yardbirds! :P :P
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Holy wowzers, folks, I finally got a chance to do a second whole chicken on the pellet grill, and followed some of your suggestions-- drying it out in the fridge for awhile, and upping the heat to 425 (no mayo, sorry Scally... James was watching, and he has a weird relationship with mayo.)
Dried the bird off really good with paper towels and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour (resting on some more dry paper towels), then put a light coating of olive oil and sprinkled rub all over, and popped it back in the fridge for another half hour or so. Threw it on the grill at 425, and before we knew it, 165 IT, and it was dinner time!
We cooked up a little asparagus in butter, then added a few glugs of balsamic vinegar and let that reduce down till the asparagus was just tender. (I can't remember which of you fine folks suggested that for veggies, but that was a HIT with James, thank you!)
We tucked in, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven! I accidentally got the skin just a teensy bit too dark in a couple places (I couldn't locate my vertical roaster, and didn't turn the bird at all, which probably would have helped), but OH MY LORD was that skin phenomenal!!! Heck, the whole bird was just beyond delicious!
I typically don't care at all for breast meat because it's just too dry, but that crunchy crispy skin must have held in some extra magic, because daaaayyymn that was juicy breast meat.
Not the prettiest of pictures, but I had a hard enough time holding James (and myself) off long enough to snap a quick pic!
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/Chicken_zpse757e381.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/Chicken_zpse757e381.jpg.html)
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/chicken2_zps32971d4f.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/chicken2_zps32971d4f.jpg.html)
THANK YOU EVERYONE for your advice and tips-- that was by far the best chicken I have ever made! Which is really, really timely, because I have 50 one-day-old meat chickens arriving on Saturday, and James had begun to second guess his usually unwavering faith in my sanity!! This one was just a plain old store bought in the bag type, so we cannot WAIT to try with one of our home grown ones.
Ya'll have elevated mere chicken to a new status at my house!