Pellet Smoker Cooking: Memorial Day week-end pulled Beef and Chicken

May 23 2015

Memorial Day is the holiday in the US we honor all those who died in the service of their country. A lot of people also honor loved ones who have passed. When I grew up in the 50’s we had to go to the cemetery, till up the graves and plant flowers before the week-end. Then every week all summer we had to go water the plants. It is also the first holiday of the summer and now it is time for all those who are into camping to get their gear all ready for the camp ground. For me it is time to do some good BBQ and outdoor cooking.

I have most of my cooking done for the week-end. Our daughter from the Chicago area is supposed to be here today. The son and wife and grandson went to her parents for today. Yesterday I smoked a chicken and a two pound beef arm roast and pulled the meat of both. I am just going to let everyone help themselves and make whatever they want. I have buns for sandwiches, corn and flour tortillas and fixings for tacos or wraps.

I brined the chicken overnight, about 9 hours the rinsed and dried and in the fridge for about 4 hours to air dry. I got the beef roast seasoned with a little Worcestershire sauce, Tee’s Savor top secret seasoning and some dried garlic flakes.

I had my Traeger heated to 225 deg. and put the roast on the grill. It took an hour and half to get to 140 deg. IT. It then went in a roaster pan, added some onions, one can of beer, (all but two swallows), and beef broth to come up half way on the roast. I covered it with foil and back on the grill at 250 deg. It took about 3 hours and forty minutes to get it to 203 deg. IT when I took it inside to cool some. I removed what fat there was and pulled it and strained off the fat from the broth. I added some back to the meat and saved the rest. A chuck roast would have been better; the arm roast was a little tough pulling but should make good sandwiches.

After I had the beef done I prepped the chicken; a pat of butter under each breast skin. I rubbed it with a little mayonnaise, about a teaspoon for the bottom and one for the top. I seasoned it generously with Penzey’s Galena St. rub. It went on the grill for 40 minutes at 225 deg. I then inserted a temp probe and went to 325 deg. and went to 350 deg. the last 20 minutes. I took it to 180 deg. breast IT and took a total of just over two hours. Some may think 180 deg. is a little high but if you have brined the bird it will be moist and pull apart easily for shredding.

The temps I gave were grill level and my Savannah V3 controller did a nice job of holding pretty steady. I did something a little different this time. I usually nuke the skin for a treat or discard when pulling a chicken. This time I nuked it for a minute, turned and another minute to get it crisp and then chopped and added to the chicken meat.

Beef arm roast