I did my first smoke yesterday on my PBC, chicken thighs. I brined them overnight in a standard brine recipe using buttermilk instead of water. I took them from the brine, rinsed them very well then dried them, and seasoned them with the PBC all purpose rub. Put them in the cooker to 165f & pulled them out. The meat was VERY salty & the skin was rubbery, no bite-thru at all, but at least the meat was very juicy. The chicken was almost inedible due to the heavy salt flavor. Any ideas what I did wrong? Maybe the rub was too salty for brined meat, maybe something else. Your input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Al
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The PBC rubs are pretty salty already (Noah is a self confessed salt lover) ... which might be one source of the salt problem. Also, if your chicken was already pre-injected with a brine (like a Butterball), you might have fallen into "double salt jeopardy".
The temp at which the PBC is designed to operate (280 - 310(ish) degrees F) is too low for properly crisping poultry skin. You'll need to fiddle a bit to get the temps up into the 330 - 350 degree range. This can be done by removing one of the rebars and/or cracking the lid a bit. There's a PBC sub-forum with tons of useful info that can help: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...-barrel-cooker
Don't worry about posting in the "wrong" area. David Parrish is pretty good about (re)organizing things on the site as needed.
Edit: That dang Jerod is fast ... he snuck in and posted while I was typing (must use multiple fingers next time).
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Al S. even though it contains a lot of salt, I love PBC's AP rub with chicken and use it as a dry brine. I never add more salt. I smoke chickens once every two weeks, on average, and they're always done in an hour or so and the skin is crispy.
Chicken prep:
Slice the chicken in half the way Noah shows on his chicken video.
Separate the skin from the muscle underneath on the breast, thigh, and leg.
Sprinkle AP rub all over that exposed muscle and rub/pat to get it to stick.
Smooth the skin back into place and sprinkle the skin with a mixture of one Tablespoon of rub and a teaspoon of baking powder.The baking powder helps to dry the skin.
Set the chicken, uncovered, positioned with the maximum amount of skin exposed, in the refrigerator for 24 hours. This helps to dry the skin.
When it comes time to smoke the chicken, sprinkle it lightly with sweet paprika. This helps give it a pretty color
Hook and hang the chicken in the PBC once it has gone through the 15-10-10 lighting procedure outlined in the first post of this topic. I let the PBC temp get over 400 before hanging the chicken. The PBC temp drops quickly when this cold meat mass is introduced, then climbs back up.
Smoking:
Keep the PBC temperature up between 325 and 360. Usually I keep it around 350 or so. I do this by judiciously cracking the lid for short periods of time and by pulling a rebar if I'm only doing one chicken.
Check the chicken temp and pull it when the breast reads 160. The carryover cooking will bring it to the safe 165. At this temperature, the legs and thighs are done as well.
Let the chicken rest for a little bit before slicing. Otherwise, because the meat is so juicy and tender, the bone sometimes pulls right out of the leg when you try to eat it!
I like slicing the chicken in half in the prep phase because I can get 3 chickens in the PBC that way, or 2 chickens and 2 hanging sausage holders filled with sausages. (Those sausages add a flavor bomb to the chicken, at least to my taste buds.)
The chicken easier to carve if I remove the breast bone after slicing the bird in two in the prep stage. Then during carving, breast section easily pulls away from the rib cage so I can slice it crosswise.
I don't use any oil on or under the skin for two reasons: first, Meathead now says that it doesn't do much, flavorwise, for oil-soluble spices, and second, for me at least, it prevents the chicken skin from crisping. I get crisper skin without it. Lots of folks use oil, though, so try for yourself and see what works best.
I didn't start smoking chickens on the PBC with this method, but it serves me well now. It has evolved after doing a lot of chicken cooks on the PBC and following the recommendations and findings of a lot of good folks here on The Pit as well.
HTH,
Kathryn
Last edited by fzxdoc; February 3, 2016, 01:02 PM.
fzxdoc, thanks for the wonderful reply & taking the time with such a lengthy one! Some very good info there, I'm sure the next chicken cook will be better now.
Thanks,
Al
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