Cheers brother

Its nice when you can make a cheap chicken taste so good so easily -- isn't it? I find its a flavor that I don't tire of and never feel bad about eating regularly. Kudos to getting the kids on board with it too --- I can't believe what some of my neighbors have had to do to get THEIR kids to eat.....($$$) -- its a total win-win when they like the cheap meats! I hope you're getting enuff leftovers to see how well the flavors deepen after a couple of days.... Its a good time to start saving necks and backbone along with the ribcages to make broth from - its easy enuff to toss them in a bag in the freezer until you have 4-5-6 of them to make a killer batch of broth.

As far as prep --- I would question the (wet) brine myself - too much work for me - I dry brine mine with the rub over night in the fridge and enough salt gets thru to be tasty enough for me - especially if its spatched. Its easy enough to do and dries out the skin to help with crisping.

I've been trying to push my birds more to the 170-175 range in the breast now too.... I think it makes it a bit more tender and renders more fat from the skin. Don't fall for the 160 or lower for the breast --- thats for boneless/skinless and any higher would definitely dry it out, but with the whole bird you've got the skin and ribcage to protect it along with the skin fat to keep it moist. I've been finding if I pull my birds below 160 the breasts are almost 'too juicy' and almost 'under cooked' if you can believe that....

I can't comment on cook temps/protocols since I'm not a pellet cooker - coals and chunks on the kettle or WSM for me - do what ever it takes to get the flavor and the texture YOU want. But I will say --- once you get your prep/rub/cook temps dialed in --- THATS when you need to start exploring the different smoke flavors!!! You will be surprised and how much difference it can make to a discerning palate - chicken is an excellent sponge for smoke. I've also found that I like to rest the bird for a good 30-45 minutes myself..... its easy to miss the great smoke flavor if it (especially the bones) is still too hot - luke warm so the fat is still liquid is where I like it now.

I picked up some birds yesterday for me and the neighbor for sometime this weekend.... haven't decided on whether to use the kettle or the WSM yet - I think I'll let him decide. I want to try the WSM without the heat deflector for some higher/direct heat - along with some fat/juices dripping into the coals..... something I have not tried yet --- I've been leary of the 'burnt fat flavor/smoke', but still need to try it -- aka 'drum smoking'. But the kettle is easier and uses less coals and gets 90%+ the flavor of the WSM... I did a bird a week+ ago with mostly apple wood that turned out GREAT --- I just haven't give apple the respect it needed..... I had gotten the apple AFTER I had picked up all the plum and fell in love with it. I was never really impressed with the bagged apple chunks, but this REAL apple limb wood I'm finding is pretty awesome! I just need to stop adding cherry and plum to it...... I have a hard time resisting....

How did your Cheese turn out after the rest? I opened a Vacuum packed Sharp cheddar yesterday after 3 weeks and it was really good! It sure calmed down the smoke smell after the rest, but the flavor was still great.

I had to go try a slice of it just to see...... I cracked open the Monterrey Jack sometime last week --- it is definitely SMOKEY!!! The jack is just such a mild cheese that all you really taste IS the smoke.... Good? I'd say its close to crossing the line into 'ick' territory, but still edible - you just don't eat alot of it in a sitting. I did (small) cube some up to mix into some scrambled eggs a couple of days ago with some smoked chicken and green peppers and it mixed well. I'm hoping that the sharp and Xsharp will soften up more with more time.
Not the 'best' by any means, but then again I don't have any frame of reference to judge it by. I'm looking forward to see what I can do on batch #2.

All right, this was the best thing that I've smoked in a while.

I started with boneless short ribs from Costco Business Center:



(I had opened the package before I took the pic, hence the air inside.)

There were two pieces of meat in there, so each was about 1.5 pounds. Pretty nice:



Doctor 'em up with homemade Rub #2:



Then it was on to the SNS kettle, with some Jack Daniels wood chips on top of the briquettes. I kept the kettle between 225 and 275, and smoked the beef until it was 160 degrees internal, and it looked like this:



Then I wrapped them in foil, and added a couple of chunks of beef tallow. Back on the grill until they were 205 internal, then I pulled them off and rested in the foil for about 45 minutes, and then they looked like this:





And all of that liquid in the foil? Well, it's mostly meat juice, seasoned with some rub that came off, plus that tallow that I added. And it was f'ing DELICIOUS! So I decide to eat out of bowl, so I could put half of the liquid in there:



The beef was nice and tender, similar to brisket. I dipped each piece in the liquid before eating it . . . and when the beef was gone, I tilted the bowl and drank the rest of the liquid.

GOOD SHIT. I'll do this again.

last time I picked up one of those holy crap it was bloody as heck, but yes awesome piece of meat

Nicely Done!

That looks great

Damn....Wish I had come over later to try the short ribs. They look awesome!

Happy Easter!
Doing some Costco hams on my Kamado Joe today.
275F, apple and pecan wood, jealous devil lump charcoal.
Water pan on top of pizza stone to keep things moist.
Just started them and got the Bluetooth meat probes in.
Will start glazing in a bit…

Oooooh nice . . . that looks like a darned good Easter meal to me.

Coming along nicely.
Orage vodka, dark rum, brown sugar, cinnamon, peach and apricot jam glaze…

NICE glaze, were these presliced?

Yep.
Finished it with turbinado sugar to give it a slight crunch.

Nicely done!

Those are beautiful!