Never Waste Smoked Chicken Again With This Hack
Cold Smoke First, Then Cook It Hot
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Introduction
Smoky Chicken Without the Rubbery Skin
What's up BBQ fans! If you've smoked chicken before, there's a good chance you ended up with great smoke flavor and chewy, rubbery skin that you ripped off and threw out. Today I'm sharing a simple hack that fixes that, and anyone can do it on a pellet grill. I'm cooking on the Yoder YS640s.
The Problem
Chicken needs a low temperature to take on smoke, but it needs high heat to crisp the skin. You can't do both at once. So we split it into two stages: a cold smoke with no heat, then a hot and fast cook.
Stage 1: The Cold Smoke
For smoke without heat, I use a smoke tube filled with Bear Mountain Hickory pellets. I love hickory on chicken, and Bear Mountain is my go-to. I've tried nine or ten other brands. With a pellet grill, low-quality pellets won't get you the results.
Half a tube gives you about two hours of smoke.
Light it with a torch or a crème brûlée lighter, let it flame for a minute or two, then blow it out and let it smolder.
Turn the grill on, but don't hit start. On the Yoder, the fans run without the fire. That air movement stokes the smoldering pellets for cleaner smoke. Without airflow, you get dirty smoke.
The Prep
I used an air-chilled organic chicken, but any chicken works.
Halve it. With kitchen shears, cut along one side of the backbone, through the wishbone and down the center of the breastbone. With a knife, stand the bird on its edge and cut down at a 45-degree angle. The bones are soft, so it goes through easily.
Trim the wing tips if you like. There's not much value in them.
Season top and bottom. I used Meat Church Blanco, one of my go-to all-purpose rubs, with salt, pepper, onion and garlic. Pick it up at All Things BBQ (use code: RUMANDCOOK11 to save 11%).
Pro tip: glove the hand that touches the meat and leave your knife hand bare for better control.
The halves go on the top rack in the middle, not directly over the tube. Smoke rises, runs across the top and goes out the chimney, so that's where you'll get the most of it.
What Two Hours of Cold Smoke Does
I planned on an hour and a half and ended up at two hours. Four things happened:
Smoke flavor, with no cooking yet.
The seasoning penetrated deeper into the meat.
The skin dried out. All that moving air pulled off a significant amount of moisture, and dry skin is what crisps.
It was finally afternoon, so I could switch from water to a rum and Coke.
Stage 2: Hot and Fast
Set the Yoder to 450°F and hit start.
Take the chicken inside while it heats up. You don't want it cooking slowly during the climb. It went on at about 420°F, still rising, after about 15 minutes on a 90°F day.
I pulled the top rack and set the halves legs and thighs over the firebox, on the right side, which runs a little hotter in my searing tests. Breast meat cooks slower than dark meat, so positioning helps even things out.
I expected about 45 minutes. At 35 minutes, it hit 160°F. I'd have liked to pull it around 150°F, but it cooked faster than expected. I rested it about 10 to 13 minutes.
Taste Test
That skin is about as crispy as it gets, almost like it was deep fried, with great color and smoke you can smell. You can hear the crunch when you cut through it, and the juices ran all over the board. Chicken loves a hot and fast cook. Think rotisserie or fried chicken.
Final Thoughts
If you've got the time, this is my new favorite way to do chicken. Cold smoke it with a smoke tube and the fans running for about two hours, let the grill come up to 450°F with the chicken off, then cook hot and fast until it's done. Next time, I'll check it a little earlier so I can pull it closer to 150°F.
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Thanks For Watching
Whether you're a seasoned pitmaster or a novice, these tips will enhance your cooking skills and leave your family and friends raving about your delicious, smoky creations. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more step-by-step videos, and let's together become the barbecue heroes we were meant to be!
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