smokestack2017
09-05-2017, 12:39 PM
Experimented with a couple cornish hens this past weekend. Brined overnight in a simple kosher salt, sugar, water brine and then left them in the fridge 6 hours uncovered to dry out the skin some.
Applied a base coat of mayo to help the rubs stick and then rubbed one with a basic bbq rub, and the other with black pepper, paprika, thyme and oregano and stuffed with apple and crumbled bacon and threw them on the smoker.
I couldn't get my little smoker past 220 even with the vent open all the way. Normally, I just do a rack of ribs and it holds 230-240 steadily for 3 hours with the intake open just a quarter of the way. They hit IT 150 in ~2hours, and everyone was getting hungry so I threw them in the hot oven for 10 minutes to get it up to 165 and crisp up the skin a bit more, with a little BBQ sauce coated on the bbq rubbed hen. While they were both great and extremely juicy, everyone seemed to love the oregano rubbed one more. Even the smoke flavor was more prominent on that one. Maybe the BBQ sauce hid the smoked flavor
Applied a base coat of mayo to help the rubs stick and then rubbed one with a basic bbq rub, and the other with black pepper, paprika, thyme and oregano and stuffed with apple and crumbled bacon and threw them on the smoker.
I couldn't get my little smoker past 220 even with the vent open all the way. Normally, I just do a rack of ribs and it holds 230-240 steadily for 3 hours with the intake open just a quarter of the way. They hit IT 150 in ~2hours, and everyone was getting hungry so I threw them in the hot oven for 10 minutes to get it up to 165 and crisp up the skin a bit more, with a little BBQ sauce coated on the bbq rubbed hen. While they were both great and extremely juicy, everyone seemed to love the oregano rubbed one more. Even the smoke flavor was more prominent on that one. Maybe the BBQ sauce hid the smoked flavor