Smok'n Spice Mediterranean Chicken

Bentley an admistrator over at pelletheads.com, my favorite forum, received a package of a new product called Smok'n Spice from Chris at http://www.cookinpellets.com/ to try out. Since he cannot except free merchandize he ask if I would try it & test out. He knows I do a lot of different cooks & posting on the site. I was glad to try this since I was about to buy their RSI, Reusable Smoke Infusier. I received the package from Bentley Thursday & did my first cook yesterday using the product. Thanks Bentley and Chris! If you have a pellet smoker, any brand, be sure & stop in at http://pelletheads.com/ . Join us for great cooking, sharing recipes, and some fun.

Wednesday I got my Smok’n Spice stuff in the mail & was anxious to try some out. Friday I did two chickens & used the RSI full of the Mediterranean Blend pellets. Chicken probably was not the best choice, since it is always hard to get any flavors through the skin. I already had the chickens and planned on doing Friday.

Thursday evening I spatchcocked the chickens & brined overnight. Friday morning I grilled some potatoes for Smokin Potato salad, a Guy Fieri recipe. I would also have some sugar snap peas & sliced red pepper with the chickens. I got the potato salad made and rinsed the chickens & drip dried in the fridge a few hours before cook time.

I rubbed some garlic butter under the breast skin & over the chickens. I have a small sharp pickle fork I pierced the skin all over the chicken to help get some flavor past the skin. I got the RSI unit lit & chickens on at 3:30. to cold smoke about an hour & a half. I placed the chickens on the top shelf, I figured they may get better smoke coverage. I expected to see some smoke coming from the chimney of my Traeger but didn’t see any. I had to sneak a few peaks but the RSI was smoking good & chamber was full of smoke. After about 20 minutes I could see little whiffs of smoke that was coming out of the hole for the RTD wires on the left side. After ½ hour I took some pics then again at the one hour mark. At that time I was getting some pretty smoke from the chimney.

After an hour & 15 minutes I placed the chickens on the bottom shelf & turned the smoker to 300 deg. I inserted temp probes in each chicken after ½ hour at 300 deg. My grandson had baseball practice at 5:30 & I planned on getting the chicken done at 6:30.

The chickens came up evenly to 180 deg. IT at 6:30 so I turned it down to smoke mode to hold until the kids got home. When I took the chicken off I was still getting some smoke from the RSI. We actually ate about 7:00. The chicken was good, I had a leg, a thigh, & some of the breast meat. I thought it was good & had a flavor from the Med. Blend. I couldn’t distinguish the exact herb flavor; maybe Chris could jump in here & tell us what herbs are in the blend. My wife, son and daughter-in-law all thought like me; there was a flavor and was good. My daughter-in-law just ate breast meat, no skin, & said she could taste it.

I would say Chris has a pretty good product in the Smok’n Spice, I have some of each so look forward to trying them. Next week I plan on doing my Greek style BBR with the oregano pellets. The recipe is just oregano, lemon juice & zest, salt pepper and garlic. The oregano pellets should work well with it. I am not a great sage lover but have had sage sausage I like so may try the sage on some of my butchers sausage.

Link to cooking pellets & Smok'n Spice

Smok'n Spice

After 1/2 hour.

After 1 hour

Smoke from chimney at 1 hour

After moving chicken to bottom rack & firing up the Traeger

Chickens done & you can still see smoke from the RSI

My Plate

Smokin Don