Chicken 2 ways and babyback ribs....in progress

[sudsandswine]

I picked up a couple yard birds while at Costco the other day and finally got around to seasoning them last night. While kosher salt + pepper dry brine is my go-to for seasoning chicken, my favorite way is a dijon mustard/kosher salt/black pepper/herbs de province slather - I guess this is kind of a "French" style...I really like the flavor and color that it gives chicken. For some reason I don't do it that often, but figured I'd do one of the 2 birds that style. Time permitting, after work I will fire up the Shirley and plan to cook the chickens either hung in the warmer, or hung in the main chamber. I think it'll be interesting to try how a wood fire flavors some chicken that isn't seasoned with "traditional barbecue seasoning".

I had planned to cook a Boston butt at some point this week to take to the lake this weekend, but I was testing out a new pork trim style THIS ONE and ended up hacking the butt up too much and I decided to just cube it and vacuum seal to use for carnitas or something later. I still wanted some pork to go along with the brisket I'm taking so I dug through the deep freeze and found a couple slabs of baby back ribs, one of which the vacuum seal had been lost, so I decided to use them before they got freezer burn.

If I don't have time to fire up the Shirley, I'll do everything on my Primo Oval XL. Now, off to work, so I can finish work and start 'quein. :thumb:

 

[Silver Creek BBQ]

I look forward to the results of that chicken.

 

[BKING!]

Looking good!

 

[Kanco Connection]

Gonna be good stuff.

 

[ShadowDriver]

I look forward to the results of that chicken.

Exactly.

I've never thought about combining those on chicken before, but it sounds right tasty.

op2:

 

[Smoking Piney]

Suds, no doubt in my mind that this cook will be less than great.

opcorn:opcorn:

 

[sudsandswine]

While the ribs and chicken were cooking, it became apparent that my spousal unit had not anticipated what to have for dinner. Luckily I had thawed a couple filets out a couple days ago so I fired up the Primo XL and threw them on the grill. Meanwhile, she cooked some southern style green beans and prepared the salad. Dinner turned out pretty tasty for an afterthought.

I have a bunch of random steaks and other meat in the various freezers we need to burn through before we move later this year, so I'm trying to go through them now. It's rough :thumb: but somebody's gotta do it. I think I've had steak 4 or 5 days in a row now....takes the edge off slightly from not being able to drink any tasty...delicious....wonderful beer due to trying to shed a few pounds.

 

[BKING!]

They’re looking great!

 

[sudsandswine]

Ribs are off, just to the point of breaking in the middle when picked up by the end. I really wanted to sauce these - I prefer baby backs sweet and saucy like pork candy. But since I'm vacuum sealing and reheating later, I just went with a dry rub (mix of Killer Hogs The Rub and EAT Barbecue Zero to Hero). IMO, vacuum sealing sauced ribs then reheating really changes the flavor of them, and not in a way I like. So dry rub it is.

As I was cleaning out the deep freeze, I also found two 2lb bags of pulled pork I made on my Shirley on Halloween. We should be eating good at the bachelor party this weekend...brisket, pulled pork, and baby backs. :thumb:

Chicken should be done shortly, letting it get some radiant heat from the reverse flow heat on the bottom shelf of the Shirley. I didn't end up hanging these, shortly after I halved them I realized the thigh/leg section kinda dangled free and it surely would've fallen off during cooking so I laid em on the rack.

 

[sudsandswine]

Oh yeah, and this was the first cook on my Shirley after running 220lbs of meat through her. While I knew there'd be some cleanup on the reverse flow plate, I figured most of it made it out the drain....I was wrong.

Got the reverse flow plate all scraped off and power washed the meat chunks still stuck to the grates, she's ready for spring....if only the spring weather would show up.

 

[Smoking Piney]

Bones are looking good!

 

[electron_si]

Nice job

 

[sudsandswine]

Covered the slabs in some foil and let them rest on the stove for about half an hour, it really brought the red color back out. All vacuum sealed up and no place to go.

Chicken is getting the foil treatment now...

 

[sudsandswine]

Chicken is done...a little extra done, I think I left it on a bit long and the breasts are just slightly on the dry side and the skin kinda shriveled. Still tastes good though. And while I still like the dijon/herbs de provence slather the best on chicken, I think it's more suited to roasting on the Weber kettle rotisserie than on an offset cooker, it gets a better golden/amber color that way. And I'm not entirely sure that's the flavor I want steaming off inside the cooker. It's good to try new things sometimes :thumb:

 

[ShadowDriver]

Good lookin' grub, brother.

I need to try your wet rub on some bird soon.

 

[Kade]

Looks mighty fine. How did you hang the birds?

 

[sudsandswine]

I didn't end up hanging them, I had concerns about the thigh section coming off once it got tender. I'll have to halve them differently next time.