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Cooking Chicken Outdoors: How to Smoke a Chicken
By
Nessa |
July 13th, 2009 |
Category:
Kitchen Tips, Recipes |
3 comments
Nessa is a full time wife and mama of two. She shares her love of family, cooking, and the frugal life on her blog Ramblings of a Texas Housewife . Catch up with her on Twitter @Nessa_TX .
During the summer months we do a lot of cooking outside. One of my favorite foods is chicken. I love it done BBQ style, grilled, or smoked. chicken is a great budget meat and very versatile.
I love it grilled with simple seasonings, slathered in BBQ sauce, or seasoned and tossed on the grill. I want to share with you some tricks I’ve learned for cooking a tasty bird.
Chicken Marinade Tips
For grilling, I usually throw the chicken in a gallon size zipper bag with my marinade of choice the night before cooking. You can buy jumbo packs of chicken then divide into meal size servings and put in large freezer bags with your favorite marinades. Toss these in the freezer, then when you want to cook them up, place in the fridge to thaw and it will marinate while it defrosts.
If we don’t use a marinade then we normally just season with salt, pepper, and garlic. It is simple and quite tasty.
BBQ Style Chicken
When it comes to BBQ style, it is very simple. We usually just grill it and baste often with BBQ sauce, either homemade or store bought. This is a simple, frugal meal that tastes delicious! Be sure to have plenty of napkins handy, as this one will get you a bit messy.
Recipe: How to Cook Smoked Chicken Outside
When smoking a chicken, I use a variety of spice blends. The only thing that never changes is my use of butter and onions. You can easily make a seasoning blend to suit your family’s tastes, just be creative and use spices you enjoy.
For this chicken I used sea salt, coarse black pepper, dill, and garlic.
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1. Soften a stick of butter then mix desired seasonings into it.2. Using your hands, loosen the skin all around the chicken, then shove your seasoned butter mix under the skin. |
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Do this to both sides of the chicken, the legs, and all over. This will season the meat rather than just the skin.
3. Then spread any left over butter and seasoning all over the outside of the bird. |
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4. In the cavity I place a stick of butter and half an onion, cut into quarters.
5. Then place on the smoker. This method is also great for grilling poultry. |
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6. As far as cooking times and temperatures go, it depends upon your cooking method. When smoking, I keep the temperature at about 250 degrees and it takes quite awhile. |
My favorite piece of cooking equipment when it comes to outside cooking is a meat thermometer. Just cook until the thermometer reads done for chicken. You can’t go wrong this way!
Did you like this In the Kitchen with Nessa article? Read about how to make Grilled Tuna Steaks.
Find more cooking articles at Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.
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I LOVE chicken cooked on the grill! Thanks for these “how to” tips! I am glad you joined us for TMTT this week.
thanks for sharing I love the ideas and tips you shared
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