Let's Talk BBQ
FORUM SPONSORS => Pit Barrel Cooker Co. => Topic started by: DonR9 on February 08, 2015, 10:10:28 PM
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I'm thinking this is a recipe that can be adapted to the PBC. Just did it in the oven and it was 10.5 stars out of a possible 10
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017152-feta-brined-roast-chicken. If I start the fire. put in the grate but not the rods, I have a 10" cast iron skillet I can heat up to the smoking point of the oil I put in the skillet. Then, put the feta-brined chicken into the heated skillet, put the skillet on the grate, cover the barrel and cook. When I cooked it in the oven, I got a lot of splatter that had to be cleaned. That shouldn't be a problem in the PBC. Also, using the skillet instead of just putting the chicken on the grate gives me all the rendered juices, into which more feta cheese is mixed for the final sauce.
I'm telling you – this recipe was killer. I'll try it in the PBC shortly and post the results.
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Sounds delish! Bookmarked and thanks for posting.
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My wife subscribes to the New York Times and got this recipe from them. She made it several weeks ago, and we all would have to give it 10+ stars also. You would question using Feta, but it works.
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My wife subscribes to the New York Times and got this recipe from them. She made it several weeks ago, and we all would have to give it 10+ stars also. You would question using Feta, but it works.
Feta brine who would of thought. How about posting the recipe?
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Sounds great, just wondering about how to keep the PBC at 450F for an hour.
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click on the link in DonR's first post. Recipe there--got it and have printed it. Can't wait to try it.
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Missed it, thanks
Can one really taste the feta in the chicken from the brine??
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Don That DOES sound like a great recipe.....it may require some tuning for the differences in PBC vs oven - but, as long as you are monitoring the Internal Temperature of the chicken with a leave-in-place digital remote thermometer....I will bet it would be great. Love to see some pictures from that one!
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Missed it, thanks
Can one really taste the feta in the chicken from the brine??
Let me rephrase this please.
Can one taste the feta in the chicken from the brine or does the feta just add to the complexity of the flavors??
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That looks, and sounds, so good!! I have already added it to my recipe program. I will be trying this one!
Art
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To the question, "Can one taste the feta in the chicken from the brine or does the feta just add to the complexity of the flavors??", you can taste the feta, but it isn't overpowering. In the chicken meat, it simply adds to the complexity. In the sauce (feta is added to the juices in the pan), the taste is slightly more assertive. But, the sauce goes over the arugula, the slight bitterness of which seems to tone down the feta. All I can suggest is that you try it, maybe in the oven first to see if you like it. Be aware that you'll get quite a bit of splatter, so oven cleaning is a required aftermath. I'm brining a chicken right now for cooking this evening. I'll update with results of trying ii in the PBC
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Thank you for your answer.
So for something new, thanks to DonR9, I will put Feta in the chicken brine.
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Cooked the feta-brined chicken in the PBC last night. Came out quite nicely, although, truth be told, I think I favor the oven cooked version slightly better. Here's how I did it: followed the recipe linked in my original post – brined the chicken overnight. Started the PBC fire by pouring a chimney's worth of well lit coals on top of the rest of the coals in the bottom grate, put the lid on slightly ajar with no rods and let the fire "bloom" for another 20 minutes, at which point the barrel was at slightly over 400 degrees (as near as I could tell). Put a 10" cast iron skillet with 1/4 cup of olive oil in it on the grate, lid back on slightly ajar for about another 10 minutes. While that was going on, I'd rubbed the chicken with the spice mixture from the recipe. Then put the chicken into the now hot cast iron pan, covered it again (with the lid very slightly ajar) and waited for an internal temperature of 165. Removed the chicken (in a now scalding iron pan), placed it on a platter and added feta to the juices in the pan. This time, I added some wine, reduced it a bit and then served the chicken over arugula and topped with the sauce. My wife loved it, but we agreed there was a slight smokiness not present in the oven version and we weren't sure the smokiness was an improvement
Bottom line, it came out quite nicely. And, importantly, we didn't have a splatter-up oven to clean. So, the oven version is way easier (no fire to start and barrel to nurse to temperature), but clean up is a pain (for some reason, our self cleaning oven doesn't self clean all that well). I guess you could say we are intensely ambivalent about which is better: the oven or the PBC version.