Using your Friends as Guinea Pigs (PRICELESS)

[standles]

Well I finally decided to display my smoker skills to an audience outside the family this weekend.   I invited 8 of my friends over and told them to come prepared to eat.

Forgot to take pictures this time around but left a note in the smoker for next time.

The menu was

Appetizer     ATOMIC BUFFALO TURDS

Entree was  SMOKED CHICKEN HALVES  (Iceman's sauce on the side)

Sides were: Grilled Corn on the Cob
                 Baked beans with sweet onions and bacon
                 German potato salad

Dessert:     Home made Peach Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream


The sister recipe site was a god send as that is where I got most of the recipies.  Thanks to all that have contributed to that site to make it a great resource.

Ok now for the details....

Friday night I cleaned and split 4 chickens.   I then made a simply poultry brine and plopped then in a 5 gallon bucket in the fridge overnight.   This was my first time to brine anything and Oh My Sweet Lord I will never eat chicken again that hasn't been brined.   Succulent and juicy were understatements.   Heck I didn't even try to get fancy I just used a simply salt,sugar,peppercorn brine.
The proof it worked was there were pockets of brine under the thin membrane (not skin) I poked before throwing on the smoker.


Saturday Morning was preparing the Baked Bean and peach cobbler for the oven.   Not a big deal at all.    The Atomic Buffalo Turds were a little more involved but doable.  All went well with the halving and seeding of the jalapeños.   I dumped the refuse into the garbage and the smaller stuff went down the food disposal of the sink.  STOP STOP STOP....

      For future reference DO NOT run jalapeño scraps through your sinks disposal.  It will nicely grind them up and dispose of them but the volitile oil (even with water running) will get airborne and wreak havoc in the kitchen.  Coughing and tightness of throat.  Itchy eyes (DO NOT SCRATCH)  Red eyeballs.  LOL  we had a good time.    Had to put the stoppers in the sinks and put a water cap on them to get rid of the fumes.

So.....  Finish building the Turds and everything back in the fridge.


Eating was at 6pm so preheated the smoker to 280 degrees.  I found that opening the vents on the drip v tray aided in heating and recovery of  the heat after opening doors.   Chicken and Turds go on at 2pm.  Turds over the chicken so the drippings would flavor as well.    Alternated hickory and apple for 4 hours of smoke.   

At 5pm the turds  come off and  and are gone faster than I can spit.  Out of 2 rakcs full I got 3.... :'(

At 6pm the chicken is transferred to the gril to finsih off and get a nice crisp.

After 30 mins on the grill the IT is 170 and ready to go.


All I can say was it got real quite around my house after folks got thier plates fixed.  No complaints and even got a complement from one of the guys that "I would make someone a good wife one day".  Of course this was within earshot of his wife who then commented.... "If you could cook like this I might consider being better in bed "

Mental note....   Must remember what type wine that was I got for the women folks to drink this time around.


Later and may all your smoking be good.

Steven

       

[Gizmo]

Nice Standles,
Now it is off to get a kevlar vest just in case the other husbands get cut off until they can match your skill?

[Habanero Smoker]

Nice to read about your success.

[Wildcat]

Nicely done.  ;)  I suspect it was not the wine that brought on that comment.  ::)  ;D

[iceman]

I've often heard about a trance that folks go into because of the smoke infused food that comes out of the Bradley. Hmmm, now to figure out how to bottle it so I can slip it into the boss ladies supper. :D ;D
Glad your meal turned out great standles :)

[standles]

Thanks for the pats on the back folks. 

OBTW Iceman...  I forgot to say how big a hit your sauce was.  It was such a hit I was tempmted to claim it was my own  :o

But instead I told them how to get thier own from you.

Steven