How to Cook Great Smoked Barbecue Chicken

Have you ever gone to a barbecue event and your mouth was ready for smoked barbecue chicken and the chicken was dry, underdone, or just plain burnt? Chicken does not have to be that difficult. Barbecue chicken can be succulent, sweet and full of smoked barbecue flavor. There is a secret to good chicken and it is based on a very common ingredient. Most people just don't know about it. The secret ingredient is salt. The salt combined with water makes a brine. So the secret is out, to have great barbecue chicken need to use a brine.

Another word commonly used for brine is a marinade. Before we come to use you must distinguish between a marinade and a brine. We generally consider a brine a solution of salt, water, and sugar. A marinade can be any other type of liquid. Four barbecue chicken a brine is best.

A marinade will enhance the flavor of the meat and keep it from drying out. A great marinade is Italian salad dressing. It makes a super chicken marinade. When you do use salad dressing for marinade just make sure that you marinate it for at least eight hours.

A brine is simply a solution of salt, water, and flavoring ingredients. Those ingredients can be almost anything. It's just up to the cook's imagination. One of the best brines for chicken is a solution of salt, water, and sugar. The brine solution actually helps to increase the moisture level in the meat. Brining involves a process of osmosis and diffusion of a concentrated solution. The solution has a natural tendency to go from a higher concentration to a lower concentration moving the water molecules into the cells of the chicken flesh.

What happens is that the volume of water in the cells actually increases. During the cooking process much of the water is retained in the cells, this makes the meat juicy (moisture retention). If you have included spices in the brine solution then this will add flavor to the meat.

In fact, a brine works so well for barbecue chicken you have to really wonder why the tech eight is not more widely known.

These are the steps or great barbecued chicken:

Make sure the chicken is clean. Wash thoroughly under running water. Wash all of the chicken parts especially legs and thighs.
Rub the chicken pieces down with mayonnaise, mustard or olive oil. Sprinkle on your favorite dry chicken rub.
Prep your smoker to about 250 to 275°.
Make sure that you add water soaked wood chips just before putting the chicken on.
Cook the chicken in the smoker for not more than 1 1/2 hours.
Check the chicken's temperature with a meat thermometer. You want an internal temperature of about 160 degrees. When checking avoid touching bone.
When the chicken approaches 150 degrees take the chicken out of the smoker and wrap in foil. Return the chicken to the smoker for about 40 minutes. Keep checking the temperature. This time can vary depending on the internal chicken temperature.
Remove the chicken from the smoker and sauce with your favorite barbecue sauce. Wrap the chicken up again and place back on the smoker for an additional 5 to 8 minutes.
Take the chicken out of the smoker and let it rest for 15 minutes.
You are now ready to serve.

See Also : Good bbq sauce At Amazon.com