Pellet Smoker Cooking: Slow Cooked Roaster Chicken & Veggies

We just had a fine meal and now winding down the day. My wife is in watching the Emmy’s, she loves those award shows. I am relaxing, writing this for my blog. I bought a nice 6 lb. roaster chicken at Meijers Grocery the other day. Their chicken is all natural, clean & nice looking out of the package. Wanting to try something just a little different with chicken on the smoker I decided to do it slow cook style. I had fingerling potatoes left to use & for other veggies would use, onions, celery, carrots, and cauliflower. I planned to Sear it for a period first, then add to a foil roaster pan along with the veggies, and chicken broth, cover with foil & slow cook until done. I knew I would not get much smoke flavor but it would be fun to try on the smoker, besides I had outside work to do & could keep an eye on it. I was making a covered box to hide two unsightly gas bottles I keep on hand, & was using up some of the scrap wood from building my deck. I rinsed the chicken, cut excess fat off, rubbed with butter, salt & pepper. I placed it in a V – rack to sear at 375 deg for ½ hour. I had it on at 1:30. 400 deg might have worked better & maybe a little longer, but I was getting pressed for time to get this done at 6:00. While the chicken was searing I cut up my veggies, celery, onions & carrots, placed in the bottom of the foil roaster for a bed to place the chicken on. At 2:00 I placed the chicken on the veggies, arranged the potatoes & cauliflower around it, added some garlic granules & back on the smoker at 225 deg. That would be about 250 deg grill temp on my smoker. At 2:30 I added a couple of bay leaves & about ½ quart of Swanson’s chicken broth, covered with foil to slow cook. I had inserted a temp probe. Then I got busy staining my box I had finished up, it will match my deck. About 4:30 I was finishing up the stain & the chicken was doing good. It started to cloud up & looked like rain so I got two saw horses out, covered the box with plastic & bricks to hold it down for the rain coming later tonight. At 5:00 the chicken was at 180 deg IT breast, so knew it was done. I put away my paint. At 5:30 I took the chicken inside, placed it on a tray to cool some, added the veggies & broth to a Dutch oven, covered & in a 200 deg oven. I let the chicken cool about 15 min, I decided to just use half of the 6 lb chicken & save the other half. I removed the skin, pulled the meat & added to the Dutch oven & back in the oven. I needed to relax a little before we ate & the wife said she could wait. At 6:45 I served it with some good bread & butter. It was pretty darn good. I would like to try it again, sear at 400 deg then on smoke for an hour to see if I could get some smoke flavor in the chicken. I think a roaster chicken could take the smoke better than a fryer, since it is fatter & juicer. This one was plenty moist when I pulled it, the dog & I had a couple samples!

Roaster Chicken