While perusing cooking magazines in search of a new spark for Thanksgiving, I stumbled upon a recipe in Cooking Light for a Bourbon soaked, then smoked chicken…….
Eighteen hours before cook time, the chicken was put into a bourbon, salt, and fruit filled brine….
Had everything gone according to plan, Hubby would have smoked our drunk chicken the following afternoon. Does life ever go according to plan? Hubby sliced his finger, which wasn’t that bad until the young doctor caused severe pain trying to stop the bleeding. I only share this detail to explain why we ended up with a roasted chicken……
It actually made for a better photo with the veggies. I stuffed the chicken with some of the lemons and onions that were in the marinade, drizzled some olive oil and spices over the veggies and we were good to go…
or so I thought… I left our dinner to roast away and went to the kennel for three puppy appointments. On my return I found that Hubby, in an attempt to be helpful, had cut up the chicken – before a photo!!!! I really thought I’d trained him better by now – LOL…..
The bird was juicy and the flavor delish, dare I “plan” to use this recipe for the Thanksgiving turkey? I’ll report back….
- 9 Tablespoons bourbon, dived
- ¼ Cup dark brown sugar
- 3 Tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 quarts ice water
- 1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
- 1 Tablespoon coriander seeds
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 small onion, quartered
- 1 small Fuji apple cored and quartered
- 1 lemon, quartered
- 1 4lb chicken
- Combine 2 quarts of water , ½ Cup bourbon,, sugar, and salt in a large Dutch oven.
- Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar and salt dissolve.
- Add ice water and remaining ingredients (not the chicken)
- Cool to room temperature.
- Add chicken and refrigerate for 18 hours.
The recipe from Cooking Light then calls for you to reserve some of the fruit and onion to stuff in the chicken cavity and brush the chicken with a combination of the remaining bourbon and 1 Tablespoon of melted butter. Then smoke according to your smoker’s directions using apple-wood chips. We have an Orion smoker which cooks like a convection oven – an entire turkey is done in 2 hours.
I’m linking to Foodie Friday – have a grest weekend!