Well, Friday morning whilst we were still in a deep freeze, I bumped into my neighbor & he asked if I was plannin on grillin Sunday cuz it was goin up to 50. Gettin all excited without thinkin I dug a chicken out of the freezer & 
proceeded to thaw it out. I liberally dry brined the bird Saturday evening even though it still was a bit cold. By Sunday morn that chicky was just fine & I got a little more salt under the skin & spatchcocked the cackle bird. About one o’clock I am overusing the YouTube & stumble upon “Roasting the Perfect Chicken by Ol’ Chef Jean-Pierre. I watched it & thought I’d give it a try, cept not usin an oven but my SnS Kettle. I proceeded to carmelize 1 med white onion & 2 smaller yeller cuz that’s what I had. Put them in a dish along with some cubed taters, sliced carrots, a little cabbage, a half of a bulb of garlic & some chicken broth. That served as my base for yard hen. I added some EVOO, then pepper, sprinkled a little sage & thyme & the piece de resister, yup, I sprinkled with some New Mexico Chili Powder, mm mm good!
Now the cheffy said to git the oven to 450f, well I figgered o full chimly of Kingsford would do & it did, sorta. I got everthing sitiated as I thought & set up my Smoke & had a probe into the bird & sent a probe into a port on my kettle, not knowing I shoved that baby a little to far. After about 20 minutes the kettle probe is readin 210 & my bird is a hummin along, hmmm. Another 10-15 min the bird is gettin itself to 128 & my kettle is still readin 210. My first thought is I’m goin to have to finish this off in the oven. Do a last minute check & see I had pushed the kettle probe into the bottom of the dish. Once I pulled that little bugger away it zoomed up to 445f. So it took about 55 min. I pulled into the house & let it sit fer about 10 minutes. Job done.
Pulled the chicky off the dish & put it onto a cutting board & snuck a piece before carvin it up. I jumped back & let out a whoop! Now I’ve cooked a fair amount of chicken in my day & others including my late dear wife loved my chicken. Maybe it’s been to long since I last cooked one, about a year & a half +, but this thing was amazing. Of course it was juicy, sittin on a rack of vegetables bathing in broth it had to be, but the skin was so crisp & tasty, this chicken was great! AND I was so pleased with the decision to lightly coat it with the NMC powder. The neat thing is that cookin it the way leaves you with a whole dinner. Cept fer me, it leaves dinner & left overs for 4-5 more meals. Such is life. Try this, think ya just might like it.
Now the cheffy said to git the oven to 450f, well I figgered o full chimly of Kingsford would do & it did, sorta. I got everthing sitiated as I thought & set up my Smoke & had a probe into the bird & sent a probe into a port on my kettle, not knowing I shoved that baby a little to far. After about 20 minutes the kettle probe is readin 210 & my bird is a hummin along, hmmm. Another 10-15 min the bird is gettin itself to 128 & my kettle is still readin 210. My first thought is I’m goin to have to finish this off in the oven. Do a last minute check & see I had pushed the kettle probe into the bottom of the dish. Once I pulled that little bugger away it zoomed up to 445f. So it took about 55 min. I pulled into the house & let it sit fer about 10 minutes. Job done.
Pulled the chicky off the dish & put it onto a cutting board & snuck a piece before carvin it up. I jumped back & let out a whoop! Now I’ve cooked a fair amount of chicken in my day & others including my late dear wife loved my chicken. Maybe it’s been to long since I last cooked one, about a year & a half +, but this thing was amazing. Of course it was juicy, sittin on a rack of vegetables bathing in broth it had to be, but the skin was so crisp & tasty, this chicken was great! AND I was so pleased with the decision to lightly coat it with the NMC powder. The neat thing is that cookin it the way leaves you with a whole dinner. Cept fer me, it leaves dinner & left overs for 4-5 more meals. Such is life. Try this, think ya just might like it.
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