Since I haven’t talked about food in awhile, I thought I’d tell you about the Chicken That Rocked.
On Sunday we smoked a 3lb chicken (we used the poultry perfect rub from the splendid cookbook, Smoke & Spice). That chicken was everything you’d expect from a smoked chicken…juicy, tasty and good to the last bite.
Sunday, we ate the chicken just as it came off the smoker. It was, obviously, holding onto the smoky flavor. We served baked potatoes that we cooked on the grill. The skins weren’t very crunchy but the insides were almost like mashed potatoes. Delicious.
Tuesday night we had some more chicken and it didn’t seem as smoky. Or maybe that was because I couldn’t breathe much less taste. We served it plain–just slices of meat warmed in the microwave.
Last night I made a package of Vigo Black Beans and Rice. I added some chopped chicken about 15 minutes into the cooking process. I also added 2 generous tablespoons of Arriba’s chipotle pepper salsa. When I lifted the lid to begin the process of burrito wrapping, the smokiness of the chicken was powerful. I couldn’t believe it. The burritos were lovely. Yeah, we eat lots of burritos.
Today for lunch we had a repeat of dinner last night and that chicken was still really great.
As an aside, we almost always smoke with hickory–since we have lots of that thanks to that hurricane that ripped through last September.