Coming in hot of the success of my Ribs yesterday I decided to really give this Auber a run for the money. I got 2 x 3 1/2 LB chickens, made up a brine and submersed the chickens into the fragrant brine for an hour per lb.
Old Bay Brine8 cups water
1/2 cub kosher salt
1/4 cub Old Bay
1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
I then pulled the chickens and dried them off with paper towels and let them sit for about 15 minutes and tried them again as best as I could. Ideally you want to let them sit over night to achieve a drier texture and in the end yield a crispy skin. While the chickens were drying I got the smoker ready. I did not clean off the drippings from yesterdays rib cook which may have been a mistake. More on that later. After getting the Auber all hooked up and ready with the program below, I sprinkled a light coating Plow Boys Yard Bird Rub on the chickens all around. I also put in 2.2 oz of Pecan wood split into 2 chunks.
225 degrees until it reaches IT 130
300 degrees until it reaches IT 170
130 degrees to hold for 4 hours
The chickens cooked fast. they were done in just under 2 hours.
They turned out good. When I pulled them, I put an aluminum foil tent over them which may have effected the skin. The skin looked crispy when I pulled it, but I let it rest about 15 minutes under the foil and I think it make the skin a little rubbery. The chicken was really moist and tested great. It was very smokey. Next time I will not use that much wood for such small chickens. The amount of wood may not have been the error of my ways, but maybe it was the fact that I did not clean out my smoker from the rib cook. There were rib drippings on the smoke house and when the smoker kicked up to 300 ( it only reached 290 before the chicken finished) it really started smoking that grease on the smoke house. When I opened the smoker door, I was blown away by smoke and not the sweet delicious smoke you would want.
The Brine was good. It kept the birds very moist. They were just a touch salty which could have been the old bay AND the salt. You may want to dial the salt or the Old Bay back a bit.
The Plowboys Yardbird rub is pretty good but its also pretty salty. We used it on ribs last time and it was salty but we thought it was for another reason. Its good, just use it sparingly.
In the end, the chickens still tasted good but had an extra bit of smoke on them that I could have done without.
We ate one and I pulled the other one (into the food saver bags) and will make pulled chicken sandwiches when them next week.
What is the lesson for today? Clean your smoke house cover. Oh, and mini smoked chickens are Spectacularrrrr!!!
