Thanksgiving Turkey

It's that time of the year again!  Turkey time!  Thanksgiving comes around every year and stimulates everyone's interest in smoking turkey.  Here is my cook for 2011.

I cooked 3 turkeys varying from 12.5-14lbs.  I cooked these on my new pit a FEC100.  They were first brined for about 48 hours using Smokin's Holiday Brine. Then were rubbed with butter and Cookshack Spicy Chicken Rub. One was rubbed with ButcherBBQ Honey Rub.  They were then cooked in the FEC100 for about 4 hours, until the temp in the breast was about 165 and the thighs were about 180. 

Turned out great!

 A fantastic source for information and recipes is the Cookshack Turkey Forum.  Here you will find yearly reports and recipes from some great cooks. 

The FEC100 getting fired up for the cook

Birds in the smoker

Wrapped in cheesecloth drenched in butter

Bird #1 - This one is headed to my sisters house

 Birds 2 and 3... these are 1)Thanksgiving dinner and 2)Leftovers

The pick for carving

Ready to eat!

Jenna loving a "leftover" turkey leg

Chicken Breasts and Spaghetti Squash

Better late than never... I started this blog post about 3 weeks ago and never finished it!

There were some chicken breasts in the fridge... so I cooked them.  I hope my wife wasn't planning on using them for an upcoming meal...  They were first brined for about 4 hours in a new product called "Grill" from Butcher BBQ.  Then rubbed and tossed on the indirect portion of the PG1000 at about 300 degrees.  I cooked them indirect until they reached about 150 degrees internal temp then I tossed them over on the direct grate to take them up to about 165 degrees.  turned out really moist and flavorful.  Needless to say,  I will be brining breasts in the future.

I had honestly never heard of spaghetti squash... Thanks to Suzanne for both informing me on the beauty of the spaghetti squash, and donating one for me to grill. I halved the squash and cleaned out the seeds.  Seasoned with a little salt and pepper and cooked indirect with the chicken at 300 degrees.  When the chicken was moved direct I moved the squash over as well.  I ended up cooking the squash about 20 minutes longer than the chicken until it was soft.   The "noodles" of the squash were excellent.  It had a vegetable/pasta type taste with a little more "crunch" than pasta.  It was quite tasty, and at 40 calories per cup you can't beat it! (Well 40 calories per cup BEFORE I added a bunch of butter!)

Breasts in the brine

Spaghetti Squash

Squash halved cleaned and ready to cook

Chicken and squash on the PG1000

Finished chicken

Squash coming off the grill, prior to scraping it into "noodles"

Spaghetti Squash "Noodles"

Dinner

Wife Says NO BARBECUE THIS WEEKEND!

So... after months of cooking and barbecue just about every weekend my wife's only request was "No barbeque-ey food this weekend."  The challenge was on.  Yes she still wanted, and expected, me to cook, just nothing with barbecue flavor. 

I decided to cook steaks one night with some grilled mushrooms... but that was too easy.  So I decided to come up with some kind of chicken dish.  I took this post by TN Q on the Cookshack Forum and tweaked it a little.  I cooked two chickens which had been cut into parts.  Each chicken was brined for about 5 hours, then the wet rub in the forum post was applied, and the skin was tacked in place with some toothpicks.  The chicken was then smoked on the PG1000 at 250 degrees.  The thighs, legs and wings were pulled at 170 degrees internal temp.  The breasts were quite thick and so after pulling the dark meat I increased the grill temp and finished them to an internal temp of 165 directly on the grill.  

This chicken turned out great.  It was very moist and flavorful.  The skin turned out quite edible though not crispy except on the breasts that were finished at a higher heat.  

Bottom line - The wife was pleased with a "no barbecue-ey" taste and she didn't have to cook!

One of the chickens getting ready to be brined

The brine mix

Chicken in the brine.  I put it in the pan as the bag was full... and I'm not into cleaning up messes in the fridge when the bags leak.

Chicken on the indirect side of the PG1000 at 250 degrees. 

The finished product!

We will be having this again!