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Give me your whole chicken recipes

Lil'John

Former #278
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
488
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1,047
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Walking to the Rubicon
I was given two whole chickens and don't have a clue what to do with them aside from the trash:homer:

I normally do stripped down chicken breasts. No clue here.
 
Large pot, add chicken,carrots, onions, potatoes,celery, anything else that strikes your fancy. Boil for awhile. Might want some salt,pepper to taste. Turn it down after potatoes start to soften. After taters get soft, break the chicken down leaving the bones in soup. Eat.
 
Coat in granulated garlic and sprinkle with salt. Put in a dutch oven with a little water, put in the oven @ 250* for 3 hours or so. When you take the top off and it's collapsing under its own weight it is done.
 
Got rotisserie?
​​​stick a needle full of melted butter in it with yer fave herbs n garlic, and squeeze it into everywhere, or just rub it under the skin, DON'T stuff it, just toss a 1/4d onion inside with a couple pieces of bacon cut into 2" chunks, (if possible toss in a 6 pack of whole radishes, eat whole by yourself don't share or tell).
Spin that fukr in the bbq over a griilestone at 350-400 until its done, 6lbs about 1.5 hr then crank it up until its as golden as you can get it before dark brown.
 
Lately I've been smoking them over a light wood like cherry or apple at 250-275. I typically spatchcock it and rub with salt and pepper plus whatever else I find in the cupboard that looks good at the time. I tried injecting butter and flavoring but find that in the smoker it really isn't necessary, the low heat and smoke tend to keep the bird plenty moist. Usually get a good dinner for the wife and I and then enough leftovers to make some sandwiches for lunch for the next week.

A couple weeks ago I had an interesting idea and put some of the leftover chicken on two slices of bread and added some stub's sweet heat. I then threw the whole sandwich on my George Forman for 5 minutes. That came out really good, crispy bread and hot smoked chicken.
 
Brine ~1 hour per pound
Reverse spatchcock (breasts apart)
Smear with vegetable oil and seasonings if you like (I'm usually lazy here and just rinse the brine off, smear some olive or veggie oil)
Smoke meat-up, I usually use apple wood chips, typically 3ish hours around 225-250 until internal temp gets to 165
 
Sadly, I'm a cheap m-fer and don't have fancy grilling and rotisseries:homer: But I'll make note of those ideas.

I have heard of the brine technique for turkey... what kind of proportions?

Spatchcock sounds like a time saver.

Last turkey I did was a simple stuff an onion and about 2-3 tablespoons of garlic then oiled it. Edible just not flavorful.
 
Spatchcock is a huge time saver. Whole chicken in the smoker will take nearly twice as long as spatchcocked/split.

As for brine, I've usually seen recipes calling for 1-2 pounds of salt to enough water to cover the bird. That seems a lot to me, I usually go a bit lighter, a cup of salt for a chicken, 2-4 cups for a turkey. Leave the bird in the brine at least an hour per pound, I try to do overnight to 24 hours if I can. I usually put the brine bucket bird in the beer fridge in the garage, that way I don't have to worry about it getting knocked over or drunk by a pet.
 
Simple chicken brine.

1 gallon hot water
3/4 cup kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil

Add it all together and stir the shit out of it. Its needs to be completely dissolved.

Cool to room temp.

Add to bag with chicken and refrigerate overnight.
 
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