Pellet Smoker Cooking: Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Dressing

Dec 04 2014

Yesterday was sunny and 40 deg. F so it was nice to get back to doing some cooking on my smoker. I had a nice organic chicken that I got on sale due to sell by date. At 5 ¾ lbs. it was a little larger than I usually cook. I spatchcocked it and brined overnight; two quarts of water, 1/3 cup kosher salt and brown sugar.

I rinsed and dried it and in the fridge about 3 hours to air dry some, I think it helps for a crispy skin. An hour before cooking I smeared it with some good Hellmann’s mayo and seasoned with Penzey’s 4S salt and pepper. The 4S salt is a seasoning salt. I only use a good tablespoon of mayo on the chicken for a light coat. I just wanted basic seasoning since I will be using the leftovers to make chicken and noodles Saturday.

If you are like me you have a “to do list” a mile long. Then with my always searching cooking sites and blogs for new recipes to try it has been a while since I tried a recipe from fellow LTBBQ members. I got to try two, a recipe for make ahead gravy posted by LTBBQ members CDN Smoker and Hub’s Super Dressing. I made up the gravy Tuesday and knew it was good!

I did the chicken at 200 deg. grill level for a half hour and then eased up to a final temp of 325 to 350 grill level. It took 2 hours and 10 minutes to get to 170 deg. breast IT. I had my mashed potatoes made up using some small yellow potatoes, butter and sour cream. I had the gravy warming up and had added a ½ teaspoon of Kitchen Bouquet.

Making up the dressing was easy using Hub’s directions. Our son was playing basketball so the DIL and grandson came to eat with us and took him some leftovers. The chicken was just right, tender and juicy and most of the skin was crispy enough to eat. The vegetarian DIL ate some breast meat and said it was good. The gravy was great.

My plate was a leg, a wing and some breast meat, mashed potatoes and dressing with plenty of gravy over them. The dressing was pretty darned good but I prefer my more northern style with just bread. Our DIL loved it she had two big helpings! Wanting to use up leftovers my bread was half marbled rye bread and don’t think it helped it. I will try it again using all white bread and maybe omitting the cumin and use some other herb.

Click here for Hub's dressing recipe

The Chicken