Pellet Smoker Cooking: Chicken and a salad with Garden Tomatoes

Aug 24 2014

We are just now getting what I call August weather, in the 80’s. The last two days have been humid; I mowed 2/3 of the yard yesterday and finished the back this afternoon.

While I was up my usual middle of the night I put a spatchcocked chicken in brine; ½ gallon of water, 1/3 cup of salt, a scant 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 5 smashed garlic cloves. It had been in the brine 9 hours when I rinsed, dried and in the fridge 2 hours to air dry some. I then seasoned with two pats of butter and dried garlic flakes; a pat under each breast skin. I then rubbed with a TBS. of Hellmann’s mayonnaise, some Penzey’s Galena St. and McCormick’s Montreal Chicken seasoning. It went back in the fridge about an hour before putting on my Traeger.

I had some yellow, red and Roma tomatoes from my garden for a salad. I used about a large bag of baby spinach and baby kale mix and cut up two yellow, two red and 3 Roma tomatoes. I had some fresh basil I sliced thin and a coarse chop and 4 or 5 thin slices of Vidalia onion cut in quarters to add. The dressing was ¼ cup red wine vinegar, ¼ cup olive oil and 1/8 cup Champagne dressing. I added a good pinch of grey sea salt and some fresh ground black pepper. It sat out until supper time, about 1 ½ hours. I had some parmesan and Romano shredded cheese and some bought garlic herb fried onions for toppings.

If I would have stopped there; chicken and a salad would have been a healthy meal. I had some crusty garlic bread that was still good and needed used and I had found some frozen crispy BBQ French fries that sounded good too! I did the fries in a wire basket on my Weber gas grill at 400 deg. about 20 minutes. I toasted the bread sprayed with a little olive oil and had some of my gorgonzola garlic chive butter to have on it.

The chicken went in my Traeger at 200 deg. grill level for 30 minutes and then went to 300-320 deg. grill level for 45 minutes. I went to 350 deg. grill level the last 15 minutes to get a breast IT of 170 deg. I used to go to 160 deg. in the breast but found I still had a little pink in the wish bone wing area. I place the chicken with the leg & thighs to the right; the hotter side and when I have a breast IT of 170 deg. the thighs and legs are at 180 to 185 deg.

I have done enough spatchcocked chicken on my Traeger I can usually get it done in 1 ½ hours and get it to 170 deg. breast IT on time to go with any sides I am cooking.

This was a good supper; my wife and I both thought one of my better chickens. I had a leg thigh and a little of the breast meat; my wife had the rest of the breast and wing. We liked the seasoning and the skin that was on top was bite through crispy. The salad was delicious so I need to write up the recipe and save.

After I gave Sandman a bottle of the Christian Moerlein OTR’s to try I thought I had finished it but found I had a bottle left to enjoy with supper.

For the chicken