2022-04-10
I started on this one by brining the chicken in 1/2 cup kosher salt in water with a touch of pickle juice. I did this one at 225, but it got a little hot towards the start. I built a nice big fire, but ended up accidentally putting it out trying to temp it down. In the future, I need to close the cover sooner and cut the oxygen to it before it gets too hot. I cooked the chicken around ~225° until it reached 145°, and then I opened it up in an attempt to get the skin crispy. I think it may have worked, but then I applied the BBQ sauce and that lost any crisp I achieved. I put three pieces of hickory in with the fire today and I think that was too much. For the next one I do, I am going to try a dry rub and not apply a BBQ sauce to see how the skin does this.
2022-04-03 Did another Spatchcock Chicken today this time with some new techniques thanks to Dave. I brined the chicken is salt water and some pickle juice for a few hours prior to cooking. (Next time I do it I need to try to dehydrate the skin by drying it off and putting it back into the fridge for a few hours). I brushed it with olive oil on both sides (perhaps I should only do that on the bottom side) and I coated it in a new rub I found here: https://fitfoodiefinds.com/smoked-chickljken-dry-rub-recipe/. I did my typical cook at 220 until 145 degrees and then cranked up the temperature to 275ish to crisp the skin. The skin still didn’t turn out quite crispy enough but its getting better. I then finished it with the South Carolina BBQ sauce and let that cook on it for 5 minutes or so. The flavor was great and having the BBQ sauce on the outside gave great flavor. This was the first time I’ve tried serving the chicken in whole pieces. I need to rewatch How to Brine and Spatchcock a Chicken to review the proper way to cut a chicken.
Prior to Sauce
Post-Sauce
Served for Dinner with Dad and Lois
2022-03-27
This was my second attempt at a Spatchcock Chicken. This time around, we went with a 50/50 mix of salt and pepper. I smoked the Chicken at 250 degree until 145 degrees and then attempted to increase the heat to 275, but unfortunately we had run out of wood and I couldn’t get the temperature to rise. I think I’ve been erring on the side of too little fuel, but there is very little downside to more fuel. I also used significantly too much seasoning this time around, and it was very salty. The amount the first time was right, I just didn’t care for the rub much. The meat itself was wonderfully tender, but the skin turned too salty and wasn’t crispy enough.
2022-03-20
This was my first time using the Char-Griller Akorn. I set an initial fire in the Akorn to get it to 400 degrees to season the grill grate. This worked well, and I had no issues getting the grill to high temperature, even getting it past 500 degrees. I had a minor challenge where I put the fire out while trying to reduce the temperature significantly to get back to a smoking temperature after running it at high heat. After relighting the fire I cooked the chicken between 225 and 275 for an hour and half until the chicken got to an internal temperature of 145 degrees. At the point, I raised the heat to 325 to crisp up the skin and make it easier to get the chicken to temperature. For this chicken we used a KC BBQ rub along with mayonnaise and olive oil on the underside. Initially I didn’t put enough seasoning on the chicken, but we later added a bit more. The fire was likely 8 to 2 lump to hickory. The chicken was cooked very nicely, but I found the rub to be too sweet for chicken (its probably better suited for pork). I may try something simpler like just salt and pepper next time to see how that compares. For this cook, we were lacking the smoking stone, but were able to substitute in a baking sheet instead for today. The smoking stone will be here tomorrow along with a thermometer that will talk to my phone so that I can monitor the fire from afar.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JJx4eZNmz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0de3Q9hQSTA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y7gM1deyvw&t=1s