2 almost 4 pound chickens 


July 13th, 2003 


I smoked two chickens at the same time, each weighing in at about 3.90 Lbs each. 

I brined both chickens in separate conatainers, as I did not have one container big enough for them both. The brine I used(I made it up on the spot) for both is as follows: 


1 cup of gourmet/kosher salt in 1 gallon of water. 


1 tablespoon each of the following: 

black pepper 

lemon peel 

Italian seasoning 

Sage 


After brining and before I placed the chickens on the grill, I rubbed both birds down all over with Olive Oil. 


I let the chickens brine for not quite 3 and a half hours. I had originally planned on leaving them in a bit longer, but I was ready to smoke some chicken. :) 

I fired up the Egg, and got it to a dome temperature of 250 degrees. The Egg was very cooperative and steady, temperature wise on this day. I put lots of dry, hickory wood chips in the coals, as I was going for a super smokey flavor. 

I put the chickens on a rack, like the kind for smoking/cooking/roasting a big ol' turkey or ham. I left a little more than an inch of space between the two birds so the smoke could go around them both, unrestricted. I did not use a drip pan. I placed the rack directly onto the grill. 

I left them on the Egg for 2 hours. The dome temperature remained at 245-255 throughout the cooking time. At 2 hours, I opened up the lid, pulled the rack completely out(the hickory smoke was a bit overpowering and I could not see much anyway - heh heh) with the chickens on it and stabbed them with a meat thermometer. 180 degrees + all over. Brined chickens are safely done at 160-165 degrees, but if you cook them just a tad more, the skin gets crispy and yummy. :) 

After pulling the birds off the grill, I took them inside and wrapped them both in tinfoil, and them sat them inside a cooler. I let one bird 'rest' for a half hour, and then we attacked it and disposed of it. It was very yummy, juicy, tender and I liked the taste of this brine and the hickory smoke flavor. The second bird, I attacked about 45mins after putting the birds into the cooler. I pulled off half of the chicken and placed it on a plate, then I re-wrapped the half chicken that was left and placed it back in the cooler. I did this, because my father was not there, as he was working. It was another full 60-90 minutes after this when he got his half of the bird, and he said that it was still warm enough and delicious.

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This article was written by Woogeroo, Copyright 2003.

This article was found on and taken from:

Woogeroo's Smoking Page. http://woogeroo.home.mindspring.com/wsp/

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